You won’t be held hostage, new Nsukka council boss assures his people
From KASSIDY UCHENDU, Nsukka
Wednesday, December 16, 2009

At the last December 5, local government election held in Enugu State, the people of  Nsukka Local Government Area had no difficulty in electing a new chairman as theirs was just to cast a no or yes vote for Mr Tony Okechi Ugwu, a lawyer, and chieftain of the PDP who stood for the election unopposed.

Indeed, the exercise marked a new dawn in the council area as its incumbent chairman, Mr Dan Ugwuja, was shown the way out and the youthful and ebullient legal practitioner, Ugwu who is currently the administrator of Nsukka Central Council Development Centre, brought in to give the council the needed modern administration it required.
This son of two-term ex-Minister of Health, late Daniel Ugwu while under his father’s tutelage had nursed the ambition to be at the helm of affairs of the Nsukka Local Government.

When Daily Sun asked him why he needed the position prior to the council polls, he said: “My aspiration to become the Chairman of Nsukka L.G.A is anchored on Frantz Fanon’s epigram which states that every generation must out of its mission, destroy it or fulfill it.

“In our agenda for the New Nsukka L.G.A that we dream, we will be able to fulfill our mission and vision predicated on our quest on the twin pillars of trust and truth.
“Nsukka L.G.A needs urgent total liberation from suppression, insecurity, hunger, disease, ignorance, intimidation, bad governance, deceit and other forms of socio-political malaise associated with underdevelopment.”

He said then that when he becomes the chairman of the council, he would vigorously address the hydra-headed cankerworm that had held his people hostage perpetually.

Nsukka council largest in state
Nsukka LGA is no doubt the largest Local Government Area in land mass and population throughout the country. The LGA needs to be liberated from socio-political malaise engendered by suppression, insecurity, hunger, disease, intimidation, ignorance, bad governance and deceit on the part of the leadership. Our agenda is in tandem with the manifesto of our great part, the PDP as is encapsulated in the 7-point agenda of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and simplified under Governor Chime’s 4-point Agenda.

The Nsukka new dream
There is no doubt that there is a global economic melt-down which is biting hard on the economy of nations, Nigeria not an exception. This notwithstanding, our government shall properly explore, husband and harness the council’s internally generated revenue and the much that may accrue from the monthly allocation from the Federal Account to tackle the cost implication of the New Nsukka project. Our target shall be the promotion of private sector growth and development, creation of economic environment that will foster increased participation of the populace and empowerment of the grassroots. We shall address aggressively infrastructural development in the areas of road networks, electricity, water and transport as well as articulate scientifically coordinated solid development strategy for education, healthcare, agriculture, commerce and industry. In doing this we shall comply religiously with the manifesto of our great party, the Peoples Democratic Party.

The trust and truth philosophy
All our actions shall be guided by our vision and mission statement which is to re-engineer and recreate a new Nsukka Local Government Area which shall be the reference point of all development. Our aspiration is the entrenchment of a predictable environment in which resources are used efficiently predicated on an expenditure framework that ensures a sustainable public finance that can lead to the emergence of an egalitarian society.

Our strategy and prayer
We have critically evaluated the National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS) and the Enugu State Economic and Development Strategy Document (SEEDS) as approved by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund with a view to devising a suitable Local Economic and Development Strategy,(LEEDS) document for Nsukka Local Government Area.

In so doing, we have taken cognizance of our comparative advantages and our disadvantages. We shall also adopt a budgetary strategy and policy that strengthens the planning process, project and programme evaluation with early involvement of stakeholders at party and traditional levels.