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By Okechukwu Keshi Ukegbu
God willing, before the rains resume in torrent, rural roads in Obingwa
Local Government Area must have assumed a facelift. This is courtesy of a
grader procured by the administration of Hon. Amaechi Sunday Hanson which
was presented to the people of Obingwa recently amid jubilations during
the stewardship account of the administration at Osusu Amaukwa.
This gesture indeed touches the heart of the populace of Obingwa because
of the state of the rural roads.It also touches at the core mandate of
the local government administration as the third tier of government,
which is the nearest to the people.The mandate bestows the local
government system with the responsibility of serving as the medium to
articulate and promote local interest; act as the instrument for
political education; and promotion of rural development. Others are to
mobilise and harness local resources; and to serve as link between the
rural dwellers and other tiers of the government.
Besides, the obligatory roles of the local government system, which is
captured Schedule IV of the Constitution,include maintenance of rural
roads, streets, and drainages; construction and maintenance of motor
parks, public conveniences and cemeteries; provision of health facilities
such as clinics, dispensaries and maternities.These are functions which
the local government is bound to render to the people because of its
knowledge of the local problems.
>According to the score card presented by the Executive Chairman at the
event, the betterment of the rural polpulace has constituted the major
thrust of his policies and progrmmes as he hired the services of the
grader to grade the rural rural roads in the area during the 2017 dry
season window. But this time he decided to do it differently by procuring
the equipment which more is permanent than the previous arrangement.This
has strong economic implications because the local government would no
longer invest more resources hiring the services of graders rather what
they should expend funds on now is to provide the diesel.One may not also
rule out that the equipment would outlast the tenure of Abacha and save
the local government the pains of hiring graders in future. The fears
here is that Nigerian governments ,at which ever level ,do not keep a
robust maintenance culture.
Indeed, Abacha’s gesture is a big relief to the state government which
has been encumbered by huge responsibilities to due the inability of the
local government councils to live up to their constitutional
responsiblities . No wonder Gov. Okezie Ikpeazu charged the local
government administrations to live up to their responsibilities during
one of his recent media tours.
>Abacha has also touched the lives of Obingwa people in diverse areas such
as registration of 30 indigent students for WAEC examinations coming up
in May/June this year; sponsorship of indigent citizens for free surgery;
and a free medical outreach for the children and elderly.The
administration has distributed over 600 fertiliser to farmers.This
gesture will boost agricultural productivity and scale up the yields.
The empowerment in Obingwa has changed as the emphasis now is on
“teaching people to fish and not giving them fish (handout)”. More than
10 persons have been sponsored on various trades, and scores of
motorcycles, hair dryers, sewing machines, clippers , generating sets,
among other items have been distributed.
>Abacha, keep it up you are on the right track. These gestures are strong
testimonies that Abacha-rity should always begin at home.