Like Anambra Governor, Chief Obiano , Like The Wife Chief Mrs Obiano In Caring For Challenged People---Says Orumba North Chairperson , Lady Chioma Enekwa

Chairperson Orumba North Local government area, Anambra state, Lady Chioma Enekwa is happy with the ongoing empowering of youths in Agriculture across the state and the rebuilding of over 1,300 classroom blocks by the Obiano led administration.

 

Although abroad presently, Lady Enekwa who spoke to Odogwuemekaodogwu.blogspot.com during the just concluded tour of local government areas by the wife of the Governor, Chief Mrs Eberechukwu Obiano,  (Osodieme). She said soonest Anambra schools especially primary and secondary would be remodeled to suit the Obiano administration’s policy while thousands of jobs would be at the grab of graduates and unskilled workers alike.  

Obiano’s visit and your impression

Obiano’s wife was here on thank you visit and she has gone to the 21 local government areas. And we were impressed with her caring disposition to our rural folks. We appreciate her visit   and her gifts of hundreds of bags of enhanced treated seedlings of rice, beans and maize for planting as well as fertilizers for our farmers to farm better.

Orumba North is a Local Government Area in Anambra State, East-central Nigeria and made up of 16 major towns including Awgbu, Omogho, Ndiokpalaeze , Ndiokolo, Amaetiti and Ndiokpalaeke.

Others are Oko, Nanka , Ndiukwuenu, Ajalli where the council headquarters is , then Ufuma , Amaokpala and Ndiowu as well as Okpeze.

She came with drugs for High blood pressure and drugs for de-worming as well as   eggs , chickens, milk to mention but a few. And her message is simple that of hope and a thank you visit. Our state under Obiano would perform better as the former Governor, Mr Peter Obi and wife Margaret laid a foundation upon which our incumbent Governor, Chief Obiano and wife Eberechukwu stepped on to do better. He is carrying the baton gracefully and I can say so far so good.

The Anambra First lady has been intervening in the lives of the less privileged, the orphans , the physically challenged and vulnerable children as well as the widows.

Projects you initiated

I am interested in assisting the Red Cross in Orumba North or other partnering organizations to establish a motherless babies home and a compassionate home for abandoned and neglected children in the local government if it is approved because I am not sure there is any for now. I am equally hopeful to support the Governor’s wife by instituting a Micro Credit scheme for the rural women to aid them in their businesses. If not for numerous challenging engagements with little resources to tackle them, we would have gone far. We have done one or two little things here and there but could not baptize it as a pet project.

We would do our best but let me not make promises I can’t keep before our tenure runs off but my people are happy with the little I am doing. But for me , the Governor has no encumbrances again to work having secured proper victory at the Tribunal , the Appeal Court and even the Supreme court, so Anambra people would soon see the difference.

Let me thank my deputy for standing in now that I have travelled for a good reason hoping to be back soonest to continue from where she engaged our rural women as already planned.

Her visit again is a way of reminding us to work for the candidates of APGA in the forthcoming election because we would not claim to be Chairperson of local government areas and our husbands are chairmen or vice verse under a political movement APGA and our candidates could not win elections easily.

So her message was clear and she said election is coming and I know God will help our party members contesting elections under APGA to excel. She said she was sure God said APGA will not die and that we would celebrate our victory . APGA is a rallying point for Ndigbo and not a political party. That was her words because she said we would be using the platform for negotiation as Ndigbo.

You heard Her Excellency talking about collating names of unemployed graduates through the office of the ministry of women Affairs and Social Development for possible assistance. She said the graduates should write their names  with their disciplines for assistance and that her office succeeded in assisting some Engineering students to gain employment in the Federal Ministry after training in Poland and Japan.

As a stakeholder in APGA, do you think that APGA is still a political party or has it failed? 

APGA is not a political party and you heard the Governor’s wife said that much. It is a mass movement that is beyond political party. It is beyond the concept of political party. APGA is where group of people come together and discover that, that is where their destiny lies. 

          APGA I can tell you categorically is an Igbo platform where our voice can be heard as in this country as a nation. Even those in other political parties still support APGA. They have interest in whatever we are doing in APGA but anyone who feels otherwise can actualize his ambition elsewhere. 

         

Whatever we are going through now in APGA is what every other person goes through even in your family there are tendency that there will be faction.

Parents and children don’t often agree even children themselves sometimes, don’t agree. The tendency for them to agree or disagree is based on interest. What is going on in APGA is not a problem. In all the parties in Nigeria today, there are so many factions or near crises situation but we are managing ours right to avoid implosion.  

Confidence

          The first thing I and my husband achieved as the elected chairman is to secure the support of the people of Orumba North Local Government. Majority of them have confidence in our administration because I lowered myself to relate with the common people and I also attain social functions in my local government.

         

What of the sand excavation rampant in Orumba North? 

The Government of Chief Willie Obiano banned sand excavation in communities of Orumba North.  In fact, during his last visit he promised to stop further expansion of erosion at Nanka erosion site as his government has put every machinery in place to make it tourist attraction site.

The Governor said  his government will build table bridges across the erosion boarders and he was unhappy with the continued excavation of sand from the erosion site. He banned further excavation of sand on any of the erosion sites forthwith.

He described the sight as ‘’beautiful’’ and said his administration would turn it into something meaningful even as he said it is a disaster because of threat to the lives and property of the two affected communities of Oko and Nanka.

He seriously warned that his government would not take it lightly with anybody seen excavating sand in the area as the person would be made to face the full wrath of the law. He encouraged residents of the area to make available useful information that would assist government trap those excavating sand from the erosion sites.

And to be sincere my husband , the Chairman of Orumba North local government area Chief Okey Enekwe after assuring the Governor , Chief Obiano that he would

We are committed in restoring peace in our communities and restoring the dignity of our traditional rulers and Presidents General as well as ensuring peace and unity with love exists between communities and markets as well as age grades in compliance with Obiano’s policies.  

I am happy with the ongoing directive by the Governor for renovation and rebuilding of about 1,300 pri­mary school classroom blocks in the next one year. Our local government would benefit and of the number 520 of the school facilities sched­uled for completion before the end of this year as part of the first phase of projects to upgrade school infrastructure across the state.

These cant come without welfare of pupils, students and teachers hence he reassured teachers that their salary will be increased immediately the state’s internally-generated revenue improves.

His administration has started building pe­rimeter fence in 21 girls board­ing schools and would extend the project to all the boarding schools in the state as part of measures to further strengthen security in schools and ensure effective control of students and inculcation of discipline.

Let me tell you that all these and more are part of the success story for three years running, students from Anambra State had emerged tops in all external examina­tions.

And I was most delighted when Obiano announced free educa­tion for physically challenged persons from primary to post-primary levels at Basden Memorial School, Isulo, Orumba South Local Government Area, and he said that free education policy was with immediate effect.

He even announced the construction of two more schools for physically chal­lenged persons would be built in Anambra Central and North senatorial districts to bring the total number to three to accommodate more pupils and students with special needs. His wife the first lady had announced construction of Elderly homes in three senatorial zones of the state.  So like Governor, Chief Obiano in charity and assistance to the challenged people like the First Lady Chief Mrs Eberechwukwu Obiano (Osodieme).

Obiano’s government

I commend our crime-bursting Governor and wife Osodieme for tackling kidnapping and violent crime headlong as well as his foresight in investing billions of dollars in Agriculture and security. The benefits cannot be over emphasized but many may not understand the import now.  The newly established Anambra State Investment Promotion and Protection Agency (ANSIPPA) with over 120 expression of interest is a plus. At the end of the day over 10,000 graduates would be engaged with thousands of others unskilled fully engaged not to talk of the spill over effects.

Then more roads would be constructed like our Ndiokpalaeke road which appears to be one of the worst roads and pupils would have more assess to education and basic amenities as specified under the MDG’s conditional grants to some local government areas.

 Obiano’s policies are targeted at opening up the rural areas via agriculture and with what I am seeing so far, God on his side Anambra would be the destination point for fingerlings and if care is not taken fish production and rice among others. The government is training graduates and non graduates at Anambra state college of Agriculture ,Mgbakwu.