Hon. Ken Agbim (PDP, Ahiazu Mbaise Constituency) is one of the six Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) lawmakers in the Imo State House of Assembly. In this interview, the former media and entertainment executive, spoke on his plans for his people, collaboration with other legislators to assist the state government to increase its internally generated revenue and why it is too early to judge the All Progressives Congress, APC government in the state.

By Ikenna Asomba

 On fears that belonging to a minority party will hinder his legislative accomplishments

This question has come up severally and my answer has been that as soon as we were elected and became members of the House of Assembly, everything about party politics comes to an end. All of us in the House are representing various local governments and we are equally elected. We all represent the interests of our people. I am

representing my people of Ahiazu Mbaise and was elected on PDP platform. I think I represent the conscience of the government because I have the right to speak my mind whether what I think is right or wrong.

Of course, I know that being in the opposition means that I have to face challenges to be able to get my voice heard. That is the most interesting part. I want to say that my people will not lack anything that rightfully belongs to them. I will not allow what should come to my people to be taken to another local government because I am not a member of the ruling government.

Your party was formally in control of Imo state, but with the way things are now, can PDP rise again in the state?

We are six PDP members in a House of 27 members. I still believe that Imo is a PDP state up till today. You know, there were some issues during the election; after PDP lost the presidency some members quickly shifted ground probably because they thought they stood a better chance of benefiting from the new government. There were many

PDP members who didn’t work as expected to see the victory of their party’s candidates because they did not want to be seen to be opposing the new government at the centre, especially big time contractors and financiers.

I want to put it on record that we won three senatorial seats in Imo State. We won eight out of 10 Federal House of Representatives positions. So, Imo remains a PDP state.

Some people believe that going by the number of roads constructed under the Okorocha administration and other visible achievements, the APC government has been a blessing to the state. What’s the true position of things in Imo?

We cannot really at the moment judge APC government in Imo. The APC administration as I told you is just about two months old in Imo State; before now it was APGA.

Also, roads have been constructed but sometimes it depends on the quality and also what people are looking for from a government. Are people looking for road or food to eat, employment, etc? If a government constructed a big market and there’s nobody to sell and buy in that market, it does not benefit the people.

I am not saying that construction of roads is not good, but you have to find out what the people really want. What is the pressing need? So, beyond constructions, there must be employment opportunities for people to engage themselves and be able to get something for themselves at the end of every month. It is not just enough to have block work everywhere for people to know that you are working. The question is, how does such block work positively impact directly on people’s well-being?

The Imo State House of Assembly recently raised a joint committee to look at how to assist the state government increase its IGR). How far have you gone?

As a member of the House, we are all committed to ensuring that government can increase the IGR of the state. We are aware that such a step could bring some burdens on the people.

But we are looking at it to ensure that there are palliative measures and that the steps taken are not draconian to avoid the good intention proving

counter-productive. What we are trying to do is to ensure that levies, taxes and other payments that should be made to government coffers are done.

That is to ensure that all collections on behalf of government are remitted appropriately without allowing touts to have their way. This will check leakages and make more funds available to government to provide needed services to Imolites.