Our attention has been drawn to a demonstration by a group
of about fifty youths dressed on T-shirts with the inscription "United
Ogbunike Youths Association" directed against the person of the wife of
the Governor of Anambra State, and founder of the NGO, Caring Family
Enhancement Initiative (CAFÉ), Chief (Mrs.) Ebelechukwu Obiano.
We fear that some opposition elements may have infiltrated
the peace loving town of Ogbunike and secretly instigated a band of youths to
stage a protest with placards and claims of neglect of the community by Mrs.
Obiano who happens to be a proud daughter of Ogbunike. They complained that the
public toilet recently commissioned at Oye-Olisa Market is the only project
sited in the community by the Anambra State Government in three years.
These wild allegations that have no close relationship with
the truth and are obviously orchestrated to mislead and incite unsuspecting
members of the town against Mrs. Obiano.
The facts are that:
The wife of the governor of Anambra State, Chief
(Mrs.) Obiano has neither a statutory role nor financial allocation from the
Government of the State. Her role as wife of the governor has no executive powers
to it. However, in support of the programmes of her husband in the service of
Ndi Anambra, she set up the NGO under whose auspices she embarks on several
charitable programmes and projects including the popular CAFÉ Housing Programme
for indigent widows as well as Borehole projects.
That the CAFÉ Market Toilet and Borehole project
commissioned recently at Oye-Olisa, Ogbunike is just one out of eight completed
toilets and twenty boreholes that CAFE built in select community markets across
the State to promote hygiene and dignity of the rural women and men. The
projects can be seen at Afor-Mbaukwu, Afor-Igwe, Umudioka, Eke-Igwe Nteje,
Otuocha, Nkwo Awkuzu, Zone 3-Main-Market, Onitsha, and Oye-Olisa not to mention
boreholes in other communities.
That in 2016 CAFÉ also built and handed over one of the ten
free CAFÉ Housing projects for indigent widows to a beneficiary at Ifite
Village, Ogbunike.
That CAFÉ charity programmes and projects are funded with
the financial support of philanthropists and people of like minds who donate
generously from both within and outside the state.
That since the youths and their faceless sponsors
acknowledge the good intentions of their daughter, it is therefore unfortunate
that an issue that ordinarily should have been a family discussion has been
dragged into public space by fifth columnists who would prefer that Ogbunike is
set on fire for no just cause.
We consider it important however, to enlighten the public on
the statutory projects executed by the Obiano administration in Ogbunike which
is just one out of 181 communities in Anambra State. We must bear in mind that
these projects were all executed in three years of the worst economic period in
Nigeria ever, when some other states could not even pay workers’ salaries.
These include:
- Reconstruction of St Monica Road Ogbunike - 1.3 km - Completed
- Reconstruction of Umudioka to Ogbunike Cave Road with Spur to Girls Secondary School Umudioka (St. Kizito Girls Secondary) (2.4 km) - Completed
- Construction of Ugwunwasike - Azu Ogbunike - Amawa - Osile - Ifite - Umueri - St Monica - College Road by Sageez (7.9 km) - On Going.
- Also as part of the Electrification Assistant project several transformers were installed to boost power supply to the community, while a good number of Ogbunike sons and daughters were employed in various capacities in the state civil service.
- Even HRM Igwe John Umenyiora of Ogbunike recently acknowledged the projects so far sited in the town by Governor Obiano and endorsed him for second term come November 2017.
We understand that the political season is at hand and that
a desperate opposition is looking for willing youths as tools to disturb the
peace of Anambra State. We however advise that while every democracy makes room
for opposition, we should all be mindful of the limits imposed by ethics and
decency in a free society. For the truest test of democracy lies in what
purpose we finally put its many freedoms to.
Emeka Ozumba
SSA, Media to the Governor
