The Mayor of Ikwuano local government area of Abia State, Mr. Osinachi Nwaka has assured that his administration will restore the confidence of the people of Ikwuano LGA who have suffered misgovernance and neglect over the years.
The Mayor gave the assurance on Tuesday while receiving members of the Abia State chapter of the Online Media Practitioners Association of Nigeria (OMPAN) who paid him courtesy visit in his office.
The Mayor while lamenting the level of abandonment said that due to the underdevelopment in the LGA, some people always shy away from publicly affirming where they hail from as most simply say they are from Umuahia.
“You know why, they see more life in Umuahia, they depend on Umuahia to survive. For you to do any household transactions, you must get to Umuahia. We depend on this 7-days market in Ikwuano and it has stayed for over 100 years.
“We have come to change that narrative, to put those things that they see in Umuahia in Ikwuano.” Mayor Nwaka said.
On reviving the local government area headquarters secretariat, Nwaka who said that he a secretariat likened to a zoo, also disclosed that he met a failed security system, adding that he has been able to secure the services of a couple of security agencies in the state to secure the office equipment procured for running the offices in the LGA headquarters.
The local government boss who also revealed that official documents of the council were being typed outside the LGA headquarters before his coming on board said “There’s no single computer in this office when I came in, the closest we could go to is Micheal Okpara University, so how were mayors or TC’s running their shows from here?
“No single computer, no printer, no photocopier here! I was like how were these guys surviving, so we have to buy some sets of computers, laptops, photocopy machines, so I can stay here and do my work.”
Nwaka hinted that 30KVA generation was bought to power the entire local government headquarters secretariat and a transformer was also bought to power the secretariat and nearby communities.
“Other renovation work done is the painting of the buildings and cutting of weeds that were overtaking the entire secretariat facilities.”
He also revealed that water supply was restored to the facility and a total of six borehole projects have been completed so far under his watch as the Mayor of Ikwuano local government area.
On empowerment and welfare packages, Mayor Osinachi revealed that every last Friday of every month, 250,000 naira are being given to people living with disabilities as empowerment and his administration is currently handling the welfare of 120 widows with the sharing of food items and others that will complement their shelter.
On infrastructural development, Nwaka said his administration has embarked on intensive road grading which has reached over 25 graded roads under his watch.
He also revealed that plans are on the way to take care of youths and men in the community beginning with the revitalization of sports facilities in the LGA headquarters which he said was a test run during the Children’s Day celebration which has been stopped for over 14 years.
“We want to turn here to an event center and a sports center where young men and women can come and exercise over the weekend and during the week.
“We test run it during Children’s Day, I actually learnt that it was over 14 years that Children have not done such,” said Mayor Nwaka.
Mayor Osinachi also revealed plans to set up a computer training center in the LGA to train many youths in ICTs as well as revamping the health sector and educational sector in the local government.
He also revealed plans of setting up a mega mall and event centers that will help to revolve and boost the economic activities of Ikwuano LGA.
All achieved so far under his watch was with the support of Governor Alex Otti, while urging Abians and well-meaning citizens to continue to support the administration of the governor because Governor Otti is in a hurry to fix Abia.
“The greatest fear of the opposition party is that Governor Alex Otti is doing what others should have done within four years in one year.”
Chief Promise Uzoma Okoro in his speech thanked Mayor Osinachi for receiving OMPAN team and assured that OMPAN is out to checkmate the activities of the government as watchdogs of the society and for the betterment of Abians and not a stooge of the government.
“We bring ourselves to people who are doing well… I’m not leading hungry people. We identify and promote people who are holding positions of trust.” Chief Promise Uzoma Okoro said.
Chief Promise assured that partnership with OMPAN is a wise choice that will rub off positively on both the council and OMPAN members.
He thanked the Mayor for having the burning desire to change the narrative in Ikwuano LGA.
Chief Promise hinted that OMPAN is going to inspect all the projects carried out by the appointed Mayors in the 17 local government areas of Abia State just as it has done with the inspection of the governor’s project in Aba and Umuahia.
