Optimism as Anambra West unveils 12- year Development Plan

As Anambra West Local Council launches a 12-year development plan, the Anambra State Commissioner for lands, Bonaventure Enemali, said the effective implementation of this policy would ensure that the council area would develop continually to guarantee steady improvement on its sectors, writes Uzoma Nzeagwu from Awka.

Anambra West Development Plan is designed to respond to the developmental needs of the good people in the communities in its efforts towards transforming the council area and moving from its present state to a better state of existence and development. This twelve (12) year development blueprint is aimed at providing a systematic and unified development of council area.

The blueprint succinctly identifies the pressing needs of the council area and workable intervention and satisfaction mechanisms for the realisation of the needs across all sectors, including the potential sources of funds. The identified needs are captured in thematic areas, reflecting the socio-economic development pillars for the overall development in the council area. For instance, the policy recognises the need to improve the quality of Early Child Care Development education and primary and secondary education in the state as critical foundations to tertiary education. It also recognises the importance of non-formal education, out-of-school youth and adult literacy.

Considering also the challenges confronting the council area, this development plan seeks to achieve a sustainable, participatory and people-oriented blueprint that will bring the areas before the eyes of the government, with the overall objective of improving on the quality of life and living conditions across all the communities in the council area, through the transformation of the relevant sectors; education & human capacity development, agriculture & Natural resources development, health and wellness, safety and security, infrastructure and social welfare, politics and strategic positioning, arts/culture and tourism.

According to the Commissioner for Lands, Anambra State, Bonaventure Enemali, “The process of developing the blueprint was meticulous, inclusive and participatory, and involved key stakeholders in the council area. It is therefore imperative that there should be absolute stakeholders’ ownership to guarantee a successful implementation of the development policy document in the council area. The effective implementation of this policy would ensure that Anambra West council area develops continually to guarantee steady improvement on its sectors.

“I therefore, fully endorse and recommend the Anambra West Development Plan to all stakeholders whose valued support in its implementation would ensure the development of the council and ultimately improve the quality of lives of the people,” he said.

Anambra West is one of the 21 local councils in Anambra State. Situated between Rivers Niger, Omambala, and Ezich, the council is made up of 10 government recorgnised autonomous communities, politically subdivided into 10 council wards, with two main linguistic groups being the Anams and Igalas. The communities are cultural people, known for many colourful ceremonies that combine real entrainment with economic values, and with a vast expanse of fertile land, the council area is one of the food baskets of the Nigerian nation.

As a riverine area, all the communities practice fishing of different forms and magnitude. There is, however, the natural challenge of seasonal flooding, occasioned by the over flow of the bank of the River Niger and Omambala and Ezichi. Being riverine also makes the council area constricted and waterlogged, making access by road a herculean task (between the months of June and November); a situation that accounts largely for slow pace of development in the area.

Within this period, all the roads are flooded, often times to the point of making the indigenes of the area Internally Displayed Persons-IDPs, for upward of four months annually. This singular factor has negatively affected the council area in the overall practice of farming, education, and the sustenance of health facilities, etc. 

“It therefore becomes very necessary that we understand that it is only a well thought-out development plan that the council needs to step out of underdevelopment, and the attendant deprivation and mass poverty,” Enemali added.

Chairman of the Technical Committee on Anambra West council development plan, HRH, Igwe Pius O. Omachonu, said the document is put together by a carefully constituted Committee of 30 person of Anambra West council origin, who set-out to write a twelve-year development blueprint, to lift our people out of the present hardship.

He added that the twelve-year Development Plan presented herein examined seven developmental and existential needs of the council, each of which was examined by carefully constituted study groups during the working retreat that took place in Awka for two days.

According to Igwe Omachonu, “Attempts were also made by the committee to identify and state possible sources of funds, human and material resources for the effective implementation of the plan. The Committee was, however, mindful that things would continue to change during the 12 years time space set-out for the implementation of the blueprint.

“The Committee recommends that the blueprint be bench-marked into three (3) rounds of four (4) year rolling plans that tally with the terms of office of our State Governors. Of course, there is no gain saying the fact that an atmosphere of security, peace and harmony is required for the effective implementation of the plan…the last menu in the blueprint is titled – Conflict Resolution and Peace building in Development Management.”

The vision is to see, in the next twelve (12) years, to the development of Anambra West council and her communities in all the vital sectors through bringing the council into the eyes of government, investors and tourists and through effective mobilisation and exploitation of the strengths and opportunities inherent in our human and natural resources for the final aim of improving on both the conventional and human security indicators of life for the people of area.

The mission is to actively work through effective representational lobby and self-help towards providing sustainable amenities, infrastructure and educational development to sons and daughters of Anambra West council area.