Abdullahi Ibrahim Halims: A new type of representation By Inuwa Wada

Today not many politicians carry the burden of their people’s quest for better representation than Hon Abdullahi Ibrahim Halims.
This astute politician who has worked tirelessly to place his people on the path of development has expressed his interest to represent Ankpa/Omala/Olamaboro federal conituency in the House of Representatives.
It’s is generally accepted that one of the factors militating against the development of most of our federal constituencies in Nigeria is lack of capable voices representing the people of that constituencies and the representative’s failure to grasp the essence of his assignments.
Make no mistake about it, Halims knows the meanings and essence of his vying to be his people’s voice, he has painstakingly prepared himself both mentally and intellectually to face the assignment.
He has always known that for his people to get the federal attention they deserved, virile, capable and informed personalities to do the job is one of the major ingredients to make these yearnings a reality.
Nobody in this federal constituency can doubt that Halims does not have all of these attributes and more.
To illustrate this point about his virility it is to his credit that he defeated the son of a former Governor and leader of the party, when he contested for the seat of the House of Representatives in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) primaries for the 2015 general elections only for him to be defeated at the general elections by the Buhari tsunami which swept across the Kogi political landscape of that time by the APC.
Hon. Halims is not coming to contest to represent his people without a cause of actions.
He has painstakingly prepared a plan to enhance the development of his people.
He has articulated a new political philosophy which epitomises the credo called A NEW TYPE of politics that involves sacrifices for the sake of his people.
He sees politics as a means to an end which is his people’s growth and development.
He believes that for us as a people to grow and develop politically and economically we need a systematic departure from our old ways of playing politics and a systematic approach to a new way and that new way should be character and morally based.
He believes this new way involves the fight for political freedom from vested interest called political godfathers who have for long foisted stooges on us in the name of leaders for personal benefits.
The actions of these vested interests which we have allowed by our docility has for long stunted our growth and development as a people.
Power, he says, must evolve from the people for it to be meaningful and growth oriented.
Halims has always insisted that for him politics is a vehicle for development, so for him to serve the people he has to be free from the toga of godfatherism.
The people, he believes, are his leaders and he their servant.
No wonder it’s generally accepted that Halims is the most approachable and charitable politician from this constituency, a factor that will make him serve us better.
He believes we need a leader and representative that reflects the new type of politics covenant with the people and that is why he christened it his NEW POLITICAL COVENANT.
It practical means change in the ways we do things in our party and our constituency and our state in general.
Our people have lost faith in the ability of its representatives in all leadership capacities to deliver on their promises.
He believes, to do this, we must forge a new social contract to the challenges of the future.
This envisages a new mantra of real change from the old idea, to the idea that all our people have a right and solemn responsibility to rise as far as their God given talent can take them and we must give back something to the society.
Halims believes in this responsibility and he is ready to give untainted service to the people in return.
Halims believes in the economic front that we must do away with those things that have hampered our economic goals growth and development.
Politicians, he believes, can never be said to have done their jobs successful if it has not reflected on economic prosperity of the people.
We must have a new beginning, good schools and good jobs that translate to the economic well being of our people.
Yes, hard times abound due to the waste of our resources by previous administrations and today we are faced with the economic reality of slumping oil and commodity prices in the international market.
We must now find a way of basically investing on the education and human development of our people.
He believes what would not work in our highly integrated world and our highly competitive economy is either we fund our people’s developmental needs or we are pushed back by the needs of the present.
He believes there is no status quo in this present world.
He believes we must also invest on our people’s welfare to enhance their well being and development.
Wada writes from Ankpa, Kogi state