BusinessDay 04 Feb 2018
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18 BD SUNDAY<br />
C002D5556 Sunday <strong>04</strong> <strong>Feb</strong>ruary <strong>2018</strong><br />
Politics<br />
Ugwuanyi, Ekweremadu collaborate for rural development in Enugu communities<br />
Regis Anukwuoji, Enugu<br />
In the field of play, good<br />
teams are known for their<br />
beautiful coordination<br />
and scoring ability. This is<br />
playing out in Enugu State<br />
between Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi,<br />
governor and Ike Ekweremadu,<br />
deputy Senate president, who<br />
have decided to form a strong<br />
team for peace and development<br />
in the state, particularly in the<br />
rural areas.<br />
The relationship has turned<br />
out to be a huge blessing to the<br />
people of Enugu West senatorial<br />
zone in the area of development,<br />
considering the interest<br />
shown by the governor in the<br />
infrastructure development of<br />
the zone.<br />
At the inauguration of Enugu<br />
West People’s Forum, Ugwuanyi<br />
pledged N1billion to assist the<br />
zone in the provision of some<br />
basic developmental projects.<br />
Some of the projects earmarked<br />
by the forum include rural roads,<br />
water boreholes, rural electricity,<br />
youth and women empowerment<br />
programmes.<br />
The forum was born out of<br />
Ugwuanyi<br />
a desire to unite and aggregate<br />
the interests of all the sections<br />
which constitute Enugu<br />
West Senatorial Zone, namely<br />
Awgu, Aninri, Oji-River, Udi<br />
and Ezeagu Local Government<br />
Areas to foster development<br />
that will attract investors to<br />
these areas.<br />
Ekweremadu<br />
Also at the forum, Ekweremadu<br />
provided a water drilling<br />
rig with a capacity of drilling<br />
600 meters; it was ‘tagged Enugu<br />
west water for all programmes’.<br />
The equipment, which costs<br />
millions of Naira, was procured<br />
for the provision of portable<br />
water in all communities in the<br />
zone; as portable water has become<br />
a persistent challenge in all<br />
the five local government areas.<br />
The duo had earlier promised<br />
to take development to the rural<br />
areas to create more cities to decongest<br />
Enugu metropolis and<br />
also attract investors.<br />
The governor kick-started<br />
the programme within his first<br />
two years in office by “changing<br />
the face of Nsukka town” with<br />
various infrastructure developments,<br />
ranging from dualisation<br />
of existing roads to creating new<br />
ones, provision of portable water,<br />
street lights which restored<br />
night life in the area.<br />
Despite the fact that Enugu<br />
West had produced some military<br />
governors and even the<br />
immediate past governor of the<br />
state, the zone is still lagging<br />
behind when compared with<br />
the other two senatorial zones.<br />
All the LGAs that made up the<br />
zone have little or no government<br />
presence and that is why<br />
most of their financial transactions<br />
are still done in Enugu city.<br />
A place like Awgu, one of the oldest<br />
local councils cannot boast of<br />
a commercial bank; a situation<br />
that places the civil servants<br />
and local government workers<br />
at a serious risk of transacting<br />
business.<br />
Ugwuanyi has completed<br />
more than 37 projects in various<br />
rural communities in the 17<br />
local government areas of the<br />
state within two years in office.<br />
A greater part of the projects<br />
are road construction which to<br />
a large extent demonstrated his<br />
love for rural development.<br />
One major product the governor<br />
seriously improved on was<br />
the Visit Every Communities<br />
(VEC) programme, where communities<br />
are allowed to choose<br />
priority projects they would like<br />
the government to do for them.<br />
The governor, despite the poor<br />
economic situation of Nigeria,<br />
approved N10 million projects in<br />
each community in the state and<br />
had released N5 million to each<br />
to kick-start the projects.<br />
He has equally started a face<br />
lift at Aki na Ukwa junction in<br />
Awgu Local Government Area,<br />
the gateway to South-South<br />
as a step to improve the basic<br />
structures in the council area to<br />
attract investors.<br />
CITAD cautions FG against move to<br />
monitor social media posts<br />
Adeola Ajakaiye, Kano<br />
Centre for Information Technology<br />
and Development<br />
(CITAD) has cautioned government<br />
against move to<br />
monitor Social Media posts, noting<br />
that the rising incidences of hate<br />
speech in Nigeria was caused primarily<br />
by the unfair distribution<br />
of dividends of democracy.<br />
Instead of the current move, the<br />
Kano-based Non-Governmental<br />
Organisation (NGO) wants the Muhammadu<br />
Buhari administration<br />
to develop a more coordinated and<br />
dynamic method of tackling the<br />
root causes of hate speech across<br />
the country.<br />
Yunusa Ya`u, executive director<br />
of the NGO, made this call in Bauchi,<br />
while responding to questions<br />
from BDSUNDAY, at the end of a<br />
one-day workshop organised by<br />
the group to evaluate the implementation<br />
of the peace-building<br />
initiatives being executed in<br />
some schools in Northern Nigeria<br />
through the support of MacArthur<br />
Foundation.<br />
Ya`u noted that rather than<br />
monitoring social media alone,<br />
government should aggressively<br />
embark on addressing the various<br />
outcries of perceived marginalisation<br />
raised by the groups fueling<br />
hate speech.<br />
The NGO also acknowledged<br />
that it was the failure of the government<br />
to fairly deal with issues,<br />
such as, fight against corruption,<br />
mounting poverty, as well as, what<br />
it described as slowness to manage<br />
communal conflicts, among other<br />
factors, that are responsibility for<br />
the worsening incidence of hate<br />
speech in the country.<br />
It would be recalled that the<br />
Buhari administration at a meeting<br />
with security chiefs ordered<br />
security agencies to commence the<br />
monitoring of Social Media posts of<br />
prominent Nigerians.<br />
The directive was one of the<br />
measures adopted by the administration<br />
to tackle the propagation<br />
of hate speech, especially through<br />
social media, which CITAD/ MacArthur<br />
Foundation is trying to discourage<br />
through implementation of<br />
its peace-building project.<br />
President Buhari at the security<br />
meeting held at the Presidential<br />
Villa in Abuja, had noted that the<br />
rising trend of hate speech on social<br />
media in Nigeria, was worrisome.<br />
“Relevant security agencies<br />
should as a matter of urgency tackle<br />
the propagation of hate speeches<br />
through the social media, particularly<br />
by some notable Nigerians,”<br />
Dan Ali, Nigeria’s minister of Defence,<br />
said.<br />
In the same vein, Ya`u identified<br />
factors, such as low understanding<br />
of the danger of hate speech, the<br />
growing culture of intolerance, in<br />
addition to heavy deployment of<br />
hate speech by religious leaders<br />
as factors driving the escalation of<br />
the trend.<br />
Going forward, he suggested<br />
that as a matter of urgency, government<br />
should establish a National<br />
Commission for Peace that would<br />
be charged with the mandate of<br />
promoting peace building among<br />
Nigerians.<br />
Abia group distances self from campaign against lawmaker<br />
UDOKA AGWU, Umuahia<br />
Ututu Youths Association<br />
has distanced itself from<br />
the campaign against<br />
Uko Ndukwe Nkole, representing<br />
Arochukwu/Ohafia Federal<br />
constituency in the National<br />
Assembly by a group of persons<br />
from Ututu ward in Arochukwu<br />
Local Government Area of the state.<br />
A statement by the Association<br />
signed by Isaac Okorie, its chairman<br />
said: “Our attention has been drawn<br />
to series of spurious campaign of<br />
calumny against our illustrious son/<br />
ancestral brother, Hon. Uko Nkole,<br />
Kogi State House of Assembly<br />
has tacitly rejected Local<br />
Government Council<br />
autonomy as proposed by<br />
the National Assembly in the ongoing<br />
constitutional amendment.<br />
Speaking to the House on<br />
Wednesday, Prince Matthew Kolawole,<br />
speaker, who doubles as<br />
chairman, however, submitted<br />
section 162 of the Constitution to<br />
the House Committee on Local<br />
Government for public hearing,<br />
saying it adopted the alteration of<br />
its financial autonomy as contained<br />
in sections 121 “3” (a, b,) of the 1999<br />
constitution as (amended ).<br />
member representing Arochukwu-<br />
Ohafia Federal constituency, Abia<br />
State by Dr. Philip Nto, provost,<br />
Abia State College of Education<br />
(ASECTA), Arochukwu; one Cletus<br />
Nwankwo, (Philip Nto’s PA ) and<br />
Obinna Nwankwo, former chairman,<br />
PDP Arochukwu LGA.”<br />
According to Okorie, “Ututu<br />
Youths Association hereby dissociates<br />
itself from the campaign of calumny<br />
against the federal legislator<br />
representing Arochukwu-Ohafia<br />
Federal constituetituency, Hon.<br />
Uko Nkole.”<br />
Meanwhile, Ututu youths in the<br />
state have expressed their support<br />
for Nkole’s continuity ambition<br />
Kogi House of Assembly passes <strong>2018</strong> LGA appropriation bill<br />
…Tacitly reject council autonomy<br />
Victoria Nnakiaike, Lokoja<br />
Hassan Bello Abdullahi, Majority<br />
Leader, member representing<br />
Ajaokuta state constituency while<br />
presenting the bill for debate said<br />
that members should vote for, or<br />
against, the fifteen items slated for<br />
alteration in the Constitution, disclosing<br />
to them the pending petition<br />
against the LGA autonomy by the<br />
Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT)<br />
Kogi State chapter.<br />
Adopting section 12 unanimously,<br />
the House voted against<br />
altering section 82 (a & b) 12 (a<br />
& b) which seek to prune down<br />
from six to three months in which<br />
expenditures shall be made from<br />
the previous budget before the<br />
passage of the new budget. Section<br />
7 (a & b) 318, part 1 of the fifth<br />
Nkole<br />
in 2019, for equity demands that<br />
Arochukwu LGA completes her<br />
tenure of another four years based<br />
on existing rotational accord with<br />
Ohafia LGA that has done eight<br />
straight years.<br />
schedule to strengthen the local<br />
administration was also stepped<br />
down even as the independent<br />
candidacy was thrown out. The<br />
House also passed 21 Local Government<br />
Councils’ Appropriation<br />
Bill for <strong>2018</strong> and adjourned till<br />
<strong>Feb</strong>ruary 27, <strong>2018</strong>.<br />
In his reaction to the development,<br />
Comrade Adeyemi Tade,<br />
chairman, Kogi State chapter of<br />
Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT),<br />
promised to mobilized his member<br />
and lover of Democracy across the<br />
state for the public hearing on the<br />
amendment even as he said he is<br />
confident that the members who<br />
are honourables would do the<br />
needful to respecting the will of<br />
the people.