Hon Nkeiruka Chidubem Onyejeocha, the Abia State Amazon representing Isiukwuato/Umunneochi in the House of Representatives is a legislator of conscience. She appears to be the perfect example of how an acorn grows into a big oak that protects those below from the elements above. Hon Onyejeocha, an APC lawmaker, is currently rounding up an unprecedented fourth term in the National Assembly. She is an amazon who must be leaving with head held high, given the number of landmark legislations that she shepherded into law.
This salute is therefore an appreciation of a commitment to the challenges of the disadvantaged. Her focus on people heavily pressed down by the weight of our criminal justice system is both noble and legendary. I consider her legislative output quite significant, impactful, and commendable. They shone like a million stars in a country where legislators engage more in mercantilist pursuits than the actual business of lawmaking. Nothing in her political trajectory indicated that she would author landmark legislations, significant because they quelled national outcries over oppression of the disadvantaged and vulnerable.
But she did it.
A woman of the people
I have never met this Amazon of a woman in person, nor do I know her constituency that well. Therefore, this assessment of who she is, what she has done, and how she must be feeling at the point of leaving the National Assembly are perfunctory and highly subjective. In other words, one has no idea if and how she impacted her Isikwuato and Umunneochi federal constituents that she represented for 16 years in the lower chamber. We can only speculate that a female legislator winning elections four times can be a measure of the acceptance and love she commands in the constituency.
Our assessment of her performance is based on what the public witnessed and what is available in the public space about her legislative records. They include the debates she contributed to, the motions she raised or co-sponsored, and the Bills she sponsored or co-sponsored. Her signature bills successfully scaled the readings in both Houses and signed into law by the President. Taken together, these core legislative actions demonstrate total commitment to improving the lot of ordinary citizens and safeguarding their rights. They also demonstrate activist legislation that is sadly lacking in many legislatures across the land. They put her in a special class by herself.
Commitment to the underprivileged
Onyejeocha began by focusing on finding the best ways to protect the vulnerable in their encounters with Nigeria’s criminal justice system. She responded to aspects of crime fighting that intermittently raised the hackles of Nigerians. A typical example was the unfortunate rejection of victims of gunshot violence by hospitals across the nation. The victims, including those in critical conditions, must visit a police station to obtain clearance before approaching hospitals. Whether armed robbers or their victims, healthcare facilities attended only to those that showed up with formal police reports. What provoked national outrage over hospital inattention to gunshot victims was the presumption that only armed robbers and criminals show up in hospitals with their bullet wounds. Countless number of the innocents – victims of crime – ended up dying needless deaths while waiting for the police to issue clean bill of good behaviour to them.
Onyejeocha’s solution is the Compulsory Treatment and Care for Victims of Gunshot Act 2017 that she sponsored. It contains two significant provisions. First, the law empowers hospitals to accept and treat people with gunshot wounds without police clearance. Second, it criminalized failure by police and hospitals to attend to such persons whenever they show up. Refusal or negligence in attending to victims of gunshot wounds now attract a fine of N500,000, a five-year prison term, or both fine and imprisonment.
A second bill that she sponsored focused on solving horrific stories of torture, incuding of people who have had encounters with law enforcement agents in their stations and holding cells. Stories of physical violence, intimidation, mental abuse, and other forms of torture often appear in the popular press. In particular, the bill aimed to protect suspects, detainees and prisoners in the custody of public agencies from physical harm, violence, intimidation and torture. Specifically, it forbids public officials from inflicting torture on detainees or suspects either to punish and intimidate, or to extract information from them. Passed by both houses of parliament, President Muhammadu Buhari had no difficulty signing the two preceding bills into law on the same date, 20 December 2017.
After this, Onyejeocha immediately turned her attention to another set of vulnerable citizens that the public service system continues to treat unfairly – the over nine million retirees in government and public sector. Although this particular legislation focused on the challenges of people above 60, her primary target were seniors undergoing horrific experiences in a bid to secure their terminal entitlements after serving their country. Again, President Buhari found no difficulty in assenting to the National Senior Citizens Centre Act which he did on 26 January 2018.Taken together, these laws demonstrate an uncommon empathy with the underprivileged.
A gender Warrior
What makes her an Amazon in my book is not only the landmark bills that became law but also the battles she also fought to retain her seat in the National Assembly. She operates in a zone not particularly noted for being gender-friendly. Being a female politician is a challenge on its own, added to the hurdle to secure party nomination and win re-lection. These are familiar battle that the likes of Senators Chris Anyanwu, Abiodun Olujimi, Uche Ekwunife, and many other brave female politicians waged and won in a male dominated field.
Onyejeocha was first elected in 2007 on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). The party allowed her to serve for two more terms before deftly shunting her aside in the 2018 primaries. Undaunted, she promptly switched to a party that had little prospects of success in the Southeast of the time – the All Progressives Congress (APC). But surprise! She won that election too, indicating a superb understanding of the grassroots game and her people support.
This departing ranking member of the House probably honed her grassroots game in her political progression from being a local government chairperson to a commissioner and member of cabinet of Abia State. She has been a federal legislator for 16 years, a record for her gender. Nigeria and Abia State will still need her broad executive and legislative experience and she has age on her side. It is safe to guess that her star is yet to dim and that, continuing with her people commitment and her drive will ultimately lead her to a stab at Abia Government House, or the upper chamber in Abuja to continue with her excellent service to the people.
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