Obiano’s Fishery Policy And Mechanized Agriculture By Investors Will Eradicate Unemployment in Anambra , Says Lady Ogechukwu Okeke, Chairperson Of Dunukofia Local Government Area

Wife of Dunukofia local government area , Lady Ogechukwu Okeke and husband

Chairman of Dunkofia local government area , Hon Sir Chukwudi Okeke

Elected and Appointed officers from Aguata , Member House of Assembly Aguata  2 , Hon Ikem Uzoezie  2^nd right , Commissioner for Environment  Evarist Uba middle , Aguata 1 House of Assembly member Dr Ike Umenwa left and another official and the visit of Her Excellency , Chief (Mrs) Ebelechukwu Obiano. 

Chairperson Dunukofia Local government area, Anambra state, Lady Ogechukwu Okeke says the N500 Million raised by Governor Willie Obiano‘s government at a security fund raising in Lagos by Anambra people shows tremendous support and confidence by his people.

Lady Okeke who spoke to Odogwu Media during the just concluded tour of local government areas by the wife of the Governor, Chief Mrs Eberechukwu Obiano,  (Osudieme) commended Obiano’s wife for promising to erect Elderly homes in three senatorial zones of the state.

She said her husband Hon Sir Chukwudi Okeke and his deputy’s wife Lady Florence Anigbogu (LSM) have assisted her in galvanizing the rural women , youths and children having been in the US for a while before venturing into Nigerian politics.  

First Lady Anambra state, Her Excellency Chief Mrs Ebelechukwu Obiano addressing Aguata women while Commissioner Women Affairs and Social Development , Dr Nkechi Chikwelu (first right) first lady Aguata  Mrs Umeoji  (yellow ),Provost Nwafor Orizu College of  Education, Nsugbe Dr Mrs Ego Cordelia Uzoezie (third), behind her is the bags of seedlings and fertilizer to be shared

APGA woman leader extreme left , Lady Chinyere Ibenta , Hon Vero Okoye Deputy state Woman leader , and Lady Felicia Ezeokoye Orumba North woman leader at the Aguata visit by Obiano’s wife

  

Her Excellency visited you and I would want to know the memorable key events of Her Excellency’s visit?

I commend the Anambra first lady Chief Mrs Willie Obiano (Osodieme) for embarking on the meet the people tour of council areas which she tagged ‘Thank You visit’ as it has endeared her to all the women in rural areas especially the less privileged, physically challenged , old age people and youths.

We have agreed to be supportive of the Obiano administration’s community policing by every woman giving her ward(s) a good parental advice and directing them to things that will make them responsible members of the society rather than deviants. Our children henceforth would be academically and socially successful in anything they do rather than wasting in alcohol and hemps as obtainable in some quarters. There would be total war on student’s cultism and hooliganism collectively as advocated by the Governor’s wife.

The visit is compassionate and she an apostle of hope based on her pet project initiative targeted at indigent children and handicapped people. I pray God to continue to strengthen her and her husband to shepherd the ship of Anambra aright.

We have been re-assured on security, road construction, agriculture and health care by the Governor’s wife as we pray for her husband and the deputy Governor Dr Nkem Okeke and wife to have as hitch free administration especially now that all the cases in court have been dealt with including the Supreme Court.

I want to thank Obiano for the appointment of Dr Victoria Nkechi Chikwelu as Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Development. I am appealing too for more appointments for our people and I am happy with the recent pledge support from almost all his contenders in the Governorship election especially Dr Chris Ngige, senator representing our zone.

I was elated when she visited two Primary Health Centers in the local government , one at Ifitedunu and the other at Ukpo with gifts as well as her ante natal teachings to hundreds of women at the venue.

Let me use this opportunity to inform our first lady that our children are jobless and I am appealing that they should be included in the mechanized agricultural program of the state as well as provide us with more nurses in our health centers as well as empower cooperatives in our council area but I know a policy to remove all the skilled and unskilled youths milling around and often constituting nuisance off the street is on.  I appeal to our youths to take advantage of the opportunity when it comes eventually.

I am saying that anything done to make women self reliant should be encouraged and supported. We are giving Obiano and wife maximum support and you heard our illustrious son , Prince Engr Arthur Eze saying that too and he has supported our government and that of state with his whole heart  both in cash and in kind as witnessed during a visit by the Governor after the security summit.

Her Excellency has mandated us to look for land equaling two football fields for fishery project and enough land for the mechanized agriculture targeted at job creation for youths to fight crime and idleness. And I am sure that with that we will say goodbye to unemployment.

                     Governor Anambra state Chief Wilie Obiano and wife Ebelechukwu (Osodieme)

                                        Her Excellency Mrs Obiano de-worming children

How has it being and what are your goals and objectives in joining politics?

It is not easy. It has been tough and tasking but then interesting to serve your people. I am home to contribute positively on service for humanity and to assist impact on development and growth of our rural communities. It is a platform to serve, make advocacy visits on behalf of the people and speak for my people and not an enrichment platform.  I am in politics to correct the impression that it is always to fill the pockets and not service.

And that is why I encouraged my husband to contest because I am not an elected official and primarily, the work of the first lady is to support the husband in ensuring good governance .But I will not only support my husband, I will compliment his efforts in my own little ways by championing a course I know that is bothering my people especially women and youths.

I want to focus mainly on girl child education, maternal and child healthcare and women empowerment, then youths empowerment too because they are the future leaders.

Will you lead with transparency?

Yes I am already doing that and will continue hence I am known for delegating authority.  But the first measure I took towards ensuring transparency in the discharge of my duties was setting up of committee of men and mostly women of moral values on any project or issues we want to tackle. Beyond that, there is an existing framework that ensures accountability thus making it almost impossible for any member of the committee members to misbehave. My husband and I and luckily his team vowed to be transparent in anything we are doing here in Dunukofia council area to avoid suspicion and thank God my husband is open and fair. We are striving as much as we can to ignore gossip especially the dangerous ones as a means of promoting transparency and we carry out our activities with necessary approvals from state and Inputs from relevant quarters. 

 All the materials donated by the Governor’s wife would get to the rightful candidates, the less privileged, the Orphans and Vulnerable children (OVC) as well as the widows.

What are the impacts of the visit of Her Excellency to Dunukofia local government area?

 Cross section of traditional rulers in Aguata during HE Excellency’s visit from right Igwe Arch J.O  Okpalaezecha , Nnam Oshimili of Akpo , Igwe Bob Orji of Ezinifite and  Igwe Ikenga Arupueaku  Onwuneme , Igwe Eberendu of Aguluezechukwu as well as representative of Igwe of Ekwulobia 

Yes, the visit will remain fresh in our mind for a long time. Honestly, the visit ignited the fire that seemed to be lacking in my pet project thus making it now to be unquenchable. You will soon be invited to the event but let me not tell you what until the day of inauguration.

Let me tell you that aside that the APGA Women Leader, Mrs. Chinwe Ibenta mobilized women in solidarity in all council areas, the Anambra Sector Commander of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Mr. Sunday Ajayi (represented by Mrs. Nkem Ibezim) and Mrs. Chinwe Thomson of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) as well as people from the Ministry of Health who represented the Commissioner for Health educated our women on safety , health and drugs abuse issues.

And that visit will see three senatorial zones in the state having homes for the elderly by the wife of the Anambra State Governor, Chief  Mrs Ebelechukwu Obiano through her Caring Family Enhancement Initiatives (CAFÉ) pet project. Without the visit how would she know about the needs of the elderly. She promised to build homes in three senatorial zones of the state for the elderly to help provide them with better care.


Obiano’s wife has assured that she would empower with skill acquisition, education, health care, farming, small-scale businesses, etc, will be made available for betterment of the women and Dunkofia will benefit largely from that. She wants to assist in poverty reduction in the state. She has said that any child can be anything destined for him by God whether physically challenged or not. That is why she is identifying with the psychically challenged children, Orphans and Vulnerable children and has charged us to do same also especially with their education.

She has promise to train and educate children out of school because of any impediment, and you were there when she gave out over 1,000 bags of rice seedlings, beans seedlings , maize seedlings, fertilizer, exercise books, and N10,000 each to over 2,000 selected widows, indigent women, physically challenged people and school children in the areas she visited so far.

Osodieme, Governor Obiano’s wife needed our support and the rural women’s cooperation to make her programmes succeed. She gave out for more empowerment of the women in their council areas through the distribution of food processing and agricultural machines.

What I can say is that Obiano's fishery policy as formulated by his Special Assistant on Fisheries, Mr Emeka Iloghalu , founder of Teermatins with his team and mechanized Agriculture with investors will eradicate unemployment in Anambra state and make the state self sufficient in fish and other agricultural products.

Support to security in the state?

Let me first of all commend the chairman my husband and his Deputy Chief Anigbogu with their team for the wonderful work they have done in ensuring that properties and lives of  Dunukofia citizens are secured. The state has contributed significantly in the area of providing the neighbourhood watch security men with sophisticated electronic equipments and gadgets for effective communication.

Our crime-bursting Governor of Anambra State, Chief Willie Obiano with the support of his wife Chief Mrs Ebelechukwu Obiano (Osodieme) has done much in that regards. You can see how Anambra people rallied round to donate a whopping N500 Million naira in just a night outing for him to support security of lives and property of our people, Dunukofia is inclusive. And remember the Governor went to Abuja for security fund raising and got over N100 Million in a swoop like that.

And with his head on confrontation of insecurity Anambra is ranked one of the best secured state

Obiano is the answer to the insecurity in the state because the former Governor did his best in laying the foundation of continuity government but Obiano was all out to fight the criminals and the kidnappers who have ravaged the state scaring away investors and tourists but now businesses are coming back and investors have lined up both in agriculture and brewery and other areas hence the newly established Anambra State Investment Promotion and Protection Agency (ANSIPPA) revealed that the state had received about 120 enquiries from investors across the world in the past four months of his administration.

Is that not great feat for a Governor and wife who have not been in the office for over 6 months? I am aware that last May Obiano commissioned the Coched Farms Project at Anaku in Ayamelum Local Govern­ment Area which has the ca­pacity to produce 120,000 metric tons of rice and create over 1,000 jobs.

His administration has attracted over $220 million investments including investments from Joseph Agro Limited that is investing $150 million in Agriculture and Car­dinal Developers and Trust Ltd that is investing $70 million in the area of hospitality and tour­ism. Joseph Agro Ltd has a ca­pacity to produce 120,000 met­ric tons of rice. And Cardi­nal Developers and Trust Ltd. will create 400 direct jobs and 2,000 indirect jobs

The company, in addition to Coched Farms Ltd, will almost completely erase Anambra’s rice supply defi­cit by 99 per cent. It will also create 10,000 direct jobs and about 25,000 indirect jobs for our people. What are we saying? Anambra State Government signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with an indigenous organization, Ekcel Farms Limited, for the production of tomato and cassava in large scale. The company is owned by an oil magnate, Sir Emeka Okwuosa, who is the Chairman of Oil Serve Group. Okwuosa said he was coming home to farm “in an industrial manner” not to make money but to set up factories to produce tomato and cassava with a view to creating jobs.

He was quoted as saying ‘’We look forward to producing 250 tons of tomato and 400 tons of cassava when we start. For that to happen, we are hoping to employ 3,500 persons directly and 1,800 persons indirectly’’.

“The intention is not just to cultivate cassava but to encourage farmers to go into cooperatives and produce cassava so that we can buy from them’’.

Your projects, how many of them?

Before I tell you about my projects , let me tell you that we are appealing  and wife to remember us in Dunukofia with a vital road project –Ifitedunu –Awkuzu –Ukpo road which terminated at the local government area. It is a vital road and we needed it to decongest traffic at Oye-. And Dunukofia is erosion prone we are appealing to all that are concerned to come to our aide because we have many threatening erosion sites begging for attention. 

I have projects targeted at women , children and youths but at the moment  I have three ongoing projects but as time goes on, more will likely come up.

A lot of projects ranging from road construction, agriculture, youth empowerment are all ongoing. Without bias I will say that everything is going perfectly well.

These projects are at different levels at the moment, some are nearing completion while others are at 50% level. However, the present government is working tirelessly to ensure the completion of these projects at the appropriate time.

 Are there political differences and ideologies from that of previous government?

Government as we all know is a continual process, when you inherit a govt, you inherit assets and liabilities and then take in assets, then manage or dispose liabilities. I want to assure you that our government has done a comprehensive study on the previous government and definitely, we will turn their weaknesses into strengths because we are the same APGA government.

Whatever programmes introduced by the present administration is his way of continuing the projects and programmes of the previous administration and nothing else.  

How do you want to be remembered?

Upon accomplishing my goals and objectives for our good people of Dunukofia, I will like to be remembered for the unquantifiable good things I did. All I pray is that God should give me the grace to write my name on the sands of time because apart from people oriented projects there is no need of being in leadership and governance.

The scenario at a national award is like appreciating one for a race done unanticipated and that is how governance is. If you do well your people will ever be grateful to you but if you do wrong, forget it as you have lost your crown. I pray I and my husband as well as the other political office holders succeed.