VIDEO: Nigerians Knock APC Senator for Calling Abuja Villagers’ Homes ‘Eyesore
Nigerians have berated Onyekachi Nwebonyi, representing Ebonyi North Senatorial District, for asking fellow senators to approve the removal of rural and suburban dwellers from the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport vicinity because their homes were an “eyesore”.
Nwebonyi said this while contributing to the FCT budget discourse on May 15. Footage from the plenary went viral on Wednesday.
When Senate President Godwill Akpabio asked Nwebonyi what his preference for those areas was, the lawmaker said he preferred Chinese-styled buildings there.
Nwebonyi’s comment and anti-poor disposition has been met with anger and protest by Nigerians on social media. Some described the senator as a “former poor man”.
“Another area I would like to use this medium to draw the attention of the FCT minister [Nyesom Wike] is the people living within the Abuja airport,” the Ebonyi lawmaker said during the plenary.
“Mr President, I want the FCT minister to extend his infrastructural development of this city to the surroundings of the Abuja Airport.
“Mr President and distinguished colleagues, if you are descending into the Abuja airport, the inhabitants, the type of infrastructure within the environs, Your Excellency, do not represent the good image of this country.
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“And I think that the FCT minister should capture in their next budget, if not this incorporated into this [current budget], to either relocate the inhabitants of within the airport or renew the area because that is the middle of the country as you are descending into the Abuja airport.”
Some of the communities around the airport include Lugbe, Mpape, Pyakassa, Dei-Dei, Chika, Karimu, Idu, Gwagwa and Kuchigworo, and they are officially called satellite towns.
Rather than call for an upgrade and provision of more life-saving amenities in those areas, Nwebonyi emphasised his distaste for the population and vaguely said the areas could be renewed.
“If you take into account to view the environs of the airport, while descending into Abuja, you will agree with me that it is an eyesore, it doesn’t give a good image of the country and I think something has to be done about it,” Nwebonyi argued.
Akpabio opposed the suggestion, saying the area belonged to some people and that the buildings were what the residents could afford. Subsequently, a majority vote rejected the idea.
Nwebonyi studied law and was called to the Nigerian Bar in 2007.
A video clip of his presentation went viral on X on Wednesday. In reaction, Netizens described him as a former poor man who hated poor Nigerians.
“No one has more disdain for poor people than former poor people who just stumbled on money. If you know Onyekachi before Dave Umahi [Works Minister] picked him up, you’ll understand this tweet,” Supper C_c (@kingchyk on X), said in a quote.
Emmydeking (@ijoma_85) claimed the lawmaker used to be his neighbour living in an apartment in Ebonyi State. “He was my neighbour. He was living in one useless face-me-I-face-you compound on Ibibio Street Abakaliki. I’m surprised he’s saying all of these. We used to watch them carrying buckets to bath from upstairs. But today he’s a rich man and now hates his former colleagues in poverty,” the user said.
EmiKing-1st (@EmiKing1) posed a question, “Calling someone’s house an eyesore, very classless somebody. How about bringing up economic policies that will enable them to improve their standard of living and build the type of houses that won’t be sore to your eyes?”
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For Ikenna Okeh, the proposition was a blunder serious enough to end the lawmaker’s political career.
“If you eradicate poverty, the villagers whose existence appears to be an eyesore to you, Senator Nwebonyi, would be able to afford such good living that will contribute to the image of the country. It’d happen as a matter of course,” Okeh said.
“But you’ve committed a blunder, enough to put an end to your political career. The people from those Abuja communities should be signing petitions against you and to your constituents, to have you recalled back to whatever career you had prior to politics. As a lawmaker, you’ve become a danger to their very existence.”
