By Chief (Dr.) Richard Tiki Iyede
Hon (Rev) Francis Ejiroghene Waive is a devoted Christian, APC Stalwart, dynamic and vigorous Urhobo advocate and extraordinary politician who currently serves as a member of the House of Representatives under the aegis of the APC political party, representing the good people of Ughelli North/South/Udu federal constituency Delta State. Correspondingly, his three years of stewardship vis-à-vis Report Card reeled out majestically a few months ago were exhilarating and encouraging to the people of his constituency cum my constituency.
Prior to Hon. Francis Waive’s election in 2019, his predecessors displayed exaggerated and doctored statistics and TV footage of their administrations’ successes in infrastructural development and provision of social amenities. His three years Report Card in the Green Chamber has shown that some politicians are evil, disingenuously exploiting the resources of the masses to their benefit. Rev Waive’s policies highlighted in the three years Report Card were more generous and directed at providing for the needs of the people and raising their standard of living, including improving the dilapidated infrastructures and creating new ones. His humanistic approach towards people and infrastructural development cut across the entire federal constituency – Ughelli North/South/Udu Local Government Areas.
Hon. Francis Waive is a blessing to the Urhobo nation. He is endowed with a plethora of unsurpassed qualities, which the following list is by no means exhaustive of his exceptional traits: thoroughly organised, courageous, positive influencer, modest, compassionate, unrestrainedly generous, unwavering self-believer, effective communicator, strong work ethics, and team-oriented culture. Paradoxically, x-raying those vying for the Reps position in Ughelli North/South and Udu federal constituency, Rev. Francis’ ideological concepts about politics are incomparable to his vital rivals. His ideological concepts about politics are quite different to his key opponents and are synonymous with the Western world’s political ideologies.
Permit me to recap his inspiring and unrivalled characteristics grounded on his three years of stewardship as contained in the Report Card. You can assess the full page of his excellent and equal to none three years Report Card in the following link:
THIRD YEAR STEWARDSHIP: Hon (Rev)Waive Declares Report Card | Urhobo Today
LAW-MAKING – Rev. Francis sponsored thirty-six bills and multiple motions on the floor of the House of Representatives to date. Some of the laudable bills attracted national attention. He has consistently been sponsoring unabated bills and supporting motions of Nigerians’ interests, mostly his constituency. See the Report Card link above for more clarity.
OVERSIGHT FUNCTIONS– Hon. Francis continues to participate in various Standing and Ad-hoc Committees of the House of Representatives, traversing the nation on oversight duties. His deep involvement in the House has significantly helped his constituency, especially in the
House Committee on Power, where he serves as Deputy Chairman. Hon. Francis utilised the clout of the office to benefit the people of his constituency, as outlined in the Report Card.
RECONNECTING COMMUNITIES TO NATIONAL GRID– Numerous communities in Ughelli North/South/Udu have persistently faced electricity challenges for a number of years. However, poised with the desire to eradicate bottlenecks of electricity problems, Rev. Waive, through his efforts, the affected communities have been reconnected to the national grid.
SUPPLY AND INSTALLATION OF TRANSFORMERS– Hon. Waive enhanced the supply and installation of Transformers. Each of the three Local Government Areas he represents received four each.
SOLAR STREET LIGHTS- Hon. Waive facilitated the supply and installation of Solar Street Lights at various locations in Ughelli North/South/Udu federal constituency.
ROAD CONSTRUCTION- Rev. Waive promoted the construction of Barrister Ejiro Etaghene Street in Otokutu town. A novel achievement of a legislator.
SOLAR MINI-GRID – Hon. Waive boosted the construction of Solar Mini-grids in several towns, especially the Primary Health Care Centre in Ughelli South LGA under his constituency. With these tremendous initiatives, incidents of maternal and infant mortality rates have reduced drastically.
BLOCKS OF CLASSROOMS- Rev. Waive, someone who believes in qualitative education enabled the construction and furnishing of blocks of new classrooms across his constituency – Ughelli North/South/Udu. My great Aladja Community benefitted massively from this scheme. Hon. Waive’s philosophy in education tallied with Nelson Mandela’s supposition, “Education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world.”
COVID PALLIATIVES/DELIVERY OF RELIEF MATERIALS/LOANS & GRANTS/EMPOWERMENT/EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES/PILGRIMAGE:
As the impact of the lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic, which ravaged the whole world financially, Hon. Waive doled out innumerable palliatives of materials and cash donations to his constituency to ease their livelihood. Similarly, he donated and delivered varied relief materials worth millions of naira to flood-affected communities in his constituency. As part of his empowerment programmes to reduce abject poverty, Hon. Waive paid a lot of school fees, house rent, hospital bills and marriage or burial support irrespective of physically attending numerous ceremonies. His largesse, worth millions of naira, also extended to several churches, law enforcement outfits and corporate organisations within his constituency (Ughelli North/South/Udu.)
As someone dedicated to alleviating poverty, Hon. Waive distributed cash disbursement, loans and grants through the engagement of consultants to hundreds of people in Ughelli North/South/Udu LGAs. In the same vein, he has significantly empowered hundreds of people
in his constituency via purchases of various empowerment items. The beneficiaries of these empowerment programmes are pleased with the financial upliftment. It is my candid view that the right way to empower people is to teach them how to fish. In addition, Rev. Waive has facilitated and reserved multiple employment opportunities for young graduate Engineers and other placements in Govt parastatals and security agencies. As a devoted cleric, Hon. Waive secured a compendium of slots of our respected Clergymen for pilgrimage to the Holy Land.
The above-presented achievements are worthy of emulation. Candidly without prejudice, none of the opponents can achieve a quarter of these great feats within three years. Therefore, It is our duty and privilege to vote for the best nominee that believes in human development, infrastructural improvement, a rule of law and institutions. It is high time we galvanise ourselves to mitigate putting a round peg in a square hole. Another four years of Hon. (Rev.) Francis Ejiroghene Waive is another four years of monumental infrastructural development and improvement, including substantial empowerment of our people in most areas of human endeavours – Ughelli North/ South/Udu federal constituency.
We must vote against those pretentious, crooked, selfish, and money-stealing grand panjandrums. Rev. Francis’ liberal policies and developmental strides instituted over the last three years have engendered general prosperity that improved several poor people at the bottom of the economic pyramid and successfully paved a brighter trajectory for economic liberation of the very poor. We do not want a sleeping and languorous representative anymore, as the world has transcended beyond this point. What we need in contemporary times is a vocal and active representative who thinks about the people first as against those indulged in self aggrandisements. “That is what democracy is about; the needs of the people first.”
“A luta continua; vitória é certa.”
Chief (Dr.) Richard Tiki Iyede