Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe is not a stranger to the followers of Nigerian politics. He came into the political limelight following his election in 1999 as the deputy governor of Abia State. He later left office in controversial circumstances over his principled standoff with the then governor of the state Chief Orji Uzor Kalu. The ranking Senator representing Abia South Senatorial district has become the voice for most people in the South East who are unhappy with the Nigerian State for various reasons.
Recently the soft-spoken Chairman of the powerful Senate Committee on Power Senator sat down with Alabingo.com in Lagos and shared his thoughts on a wide range of issues as they affect the Igbos; Biafra, The controversial federal rail project, Igbo Marginalisation, Power Challenges etc. Enjoy!
The exclusion of the Southeast in the proposed rail project has generated debate. And when you raised the issue on the floor of the Senate one of your colleagues was said to have retorted that the Igbo should wait till 2018. How do all these come across to you?
Well, let me say that I didn’t hear any of my colleagues make that statement, I cannot really respond to a statement I didn’t hear. Let me also say that I didn’t say that the Igbo were excluded. I said that the eastern railway corridor – because the Nigeria Railway is made up of two corridors. There’s the western corridor which starts from Kano and terminates in Lagos. There’s eastern corridor which starts from Port Harcourt and terminates in Maiduguri. So if you want to do a revolution in the railways there is no way you can do one part and leave the other part. In actual fact, in the letter written by Mr. President to the Senate asking an acceleration of the debate on the request for the loan, the President specifically said that there is an ongoing negotiation for the concessioning of the eastern corridor.
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In other words, you’re taking a loan to do the western corridor – that is Kano-Kaduna-all the way to Lagos, Lagos-Ibadan to Port Harcourt to Calabar – that is the coastal one. And so, if you’re taking a
