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In the field of play, good teams are known for their beautiful coordination and scoring ability. This is playing out in Enugu State between Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, governor and Ike Ekweremadu, deputy Senate president, who have decided to form a strong team for peace and development in the state, particularly in the rural areas.
The relationship has turned out to be a huge blessing to the people of Enugu West senatorial zone in the area of development, considering the interest shown by the governor in the infrastructure development of the zone.
At the inauguration of Enugu West People’s Forum, Ugwuanyi pledged N1billion to assist the zone in the provision of some basic developmental projects. Some of the projects earmarked by the forum include rural roads, water boreholes, rural electricity, youth and women empowerment programmes.
The forum was born out of a desire to unite and aggregate the interests of all the sections which constitute Enugu West Senatorial Zone, namely Awgu, Aninri, Oji-River, Udi and Ezeagu Local Government Areas to foster development that will attract investors to these areas.
Also at the forum, Ekweremadu provided a water drilling rig with a capacity of drilling 600 meters; it was ‘tagged Enugu west water for all programmes’.
The equipment, which costs millions of Naira, was procured for the provision of portable water in all communities in the zone; as portable water has become a persistent challenge in all the five local government areas.
The duo had earlier promised to take development to the rural areas to create more cities to decongest Enugu metropolis and also attract investors.
The governor kick-started the programme within his first two years in office by “changing the face of Nsukka town” with various infrastructure developments, ranging from dualisation of existing roads to creating new ones, provision of portable water, street lights which restored night life in the area.
Despite the fact that Enugu West had produced some military governors and even the immediate past governor of the state, the zone is still lagging behind when compared with the other two senatorial zones.
All the LGAs that made up the zone have little or no government presence and that is why most of their financial transactions are still done in Enugu city. A place like Awgu, one of the oldest local councils cannot boast of a commercial bank; a situation that places the civil servants and local government workers at a serious risk of transacting business.
Ugwuanyi has completed more than 37 projects in various rural communities in the 17 local government areas of the state within two years in office. A greater part of the projects are road construction which to a large extent demonstrated his love for rural development.
One major product the governor seriously improved on was the Visit Every Communities (VEC) programme, where communities are allowed to choose priority projects they would like the government to do for them. The governor, despite the poor economic situation of Nigeria, approved N10 million projects in each community in the state and had released N5 million to each to kick-start the projects.
He has equally started a face lift at Aki na Ukwa junction in Awgu Local Government Area, the gateway to South-South as a step to improve the basic structures in the council area to attract investors.
Regis Anukwuoji, Enugu
