Hon Etombi, true representative of the people

One year into her mandate, Hon. Etombi Ikome Gladys is standing out to be the true representative of her people. Immediately she took office as Fako East Member of Parliament, she has gone into serious work, conscious of the trust and confidence bestowed on her by her electorates.

Her commitment and zeal to serve the common good of the members of her constituency (Limbe, Tiko and Muyuka), has made the Hon MP to record a number of achievements in the health, agricultural, educational, social and other sectors, which has brought smiles on some faces and has given them relief of not regretting their decision to vote her as their representative.

After 12 months in office as MP of Fako East in this 9th legislature, Hon Etombi has rendered an account of her stewardship, in an Awareness Talk with the media and other stakeholders, a unique gesture which has been appreciated by many, since it is the first of its kind.

“I want to inform the people who elected me into office, of my action, because I discovered that many people do not understand what we have to do, and also introduce the booklet that we made to enlighten the people more on what parliament is all about” she said.

Amongst other things recorded at the end of this first year into her mandate, Hon Etombi has, opened a functional office which runs daily and is open to the public, sponsored free treatment of women with Vaginal fistula, organised capacity building workshop for farmers, distributed farm tools and inputs, assistance to handicaps, support to victims of fire disaster, support surgery for the treatment of some men with prostate cancer, support to many associations, groups and other activities, encouraged excellence and integrity in schools etc.

The Hon MP has also come out with a booklet: Your Parliamentarian, which not only tells of her one year story, but also enlightens members of her constituency on what Parliament is all about.

At the level of parliament, the Fako East MP who is a member of the Resolutions and Disputes Committee of the National Assembly, has been participating in the voting of bills that have touched on nearly every domain of public.

Also, Hon Etombi explains that “I am establishing and building lobbying networks for the many areas of development that my constituency needs. Limbe, Tiko and Muyuka is a very vast and complex constituency with huge needs, be it for intra-urban and farm-to-market roads, potable water, electricity, health units and better urbanisation”.

However, all has not been rosy for the MP as she notes that even deliberations at the National Assembly is far from easy as public opinion holds “Sometimes we spend a whole day deliberating before voting bills”.

At the level of her constituency, she says the biggest challenge has been to satisfy the people, because “the challenges faced by people are enormous and diverse and the means at our disposal cannot cater for all these needs, but we try to use the little means to see how we can help and bring meaningful development”.

Quizzed on the way forward for the remaining four years of her mandate, the Hon MP says “We will continue to open our doors for suggestions to our vision which focuses on education, health and development to our community”.

The awareness talk was attended by the media, municipal authorities, councillors, members of other political parties and a host of other stakeholders, who all appreciated Hon Etombi for her efforts so far, but urged her to continue to do more in the next four years of her mandate.