Ifeanyi Valentine Lekwauwa in this interview, spoke about his performance as the president general of Nsirimo Amaise Improvement Development Union (NAIDU) in the last three years and why a vote of confidence was passed on his administration by his people. He also spoke about the chairman of Umuahia South Local Government and special call on “Ndi Abia State” to vote Alex Otti come 2027. BLESSING ADIMABUA brings the excerpts:
Recently, a vote of confidence was passed in your leadership to continue as President General of Nsirimo Amaise Improvement Development Union. (NAIDU). May we know how you feel about it?
You see, that is a very big question for me to answer but for the people of Nsirimo Amaise that passed the vote of confidence in me and my executives, part of the reasons they gave was that they are comfortable with the projects we have attracted to the community, with the law and orderliness of improved security in the midst of all the challenges and difficulties. They also raised the issue of some of the projects we are already embarking upon currently. As far as Nsirimo Amaise is concerned they felt that it is our executives that can help to bring those projects to a logical conclusion and based on that they passed a vote of confidence in me and my executive members.
So, how many more years would you continue?
That is yet to be determined because they said for more three years but for me, I am really tired because I told them that I can only stay till December 2026, but the motion that was moved for my government to continue for another three years.
What projects did your administration attract to the community?
So far, what our administration and the people of Nsirimo Amaise have attracted to the community is a uniform security outfit in Nsirimo Amaise in the last three years without any problem and we have maintained the payment of the little stipends we agreed to be paying the personnel for the security outfit. In fact, as a matter of fact, the people of Nsirimo can attest to the impact the security outfit has made in Nsirimo Amaise in terms of maintaining peace, orderliness and bearing in mind the security challenges we are having in the country now, the people of Nsirimo Amaise are of the view that we need to continue with that good work, and as a matter of fact improve on it. Another thing we also did within one year in office with the support from Ndi-Nsirimo Amaise, Ndi-Ubakala and also with the support of Ndi-Umuahia South, and especially our amiable Governor, His Excellency, Alex Chioma Otti and our son in the person of Honourable Chinedu Philip Ewereuzo who emerged as the chairman of Umuahia South Local Government Area which is a dream come through for the people of Nsirimo because since the creation of Abia State we have never had any of our sons being elected as the executive chairman of Umuahia South.
However, we have also tried to maintain orderliness because it has not been that easy but we have done our best. Then we need to understand that there is need for cordial relationships between us and the union, the three autonomous communities, the traditional rulers, even though there have been some challenges, but I can assure you that we are managing ourselves and we both understood that we cannot work without each other. In as much as we acknowledged the fact that the royal fathers are responsible for the culture and tradition and that the union is responsible for the developmental issues within a united Nsirimo Amaise. We also understood that there has to be a synergy between the two and for each of the two to function very well, it is my belief that we don’t need to interfere on each other’s areas of responsibility.
There are so many projects embarked upon by your administration. How far have you gone with those projects and what are the levels of completion?
For now, the most important project we are currently on is that as we came on board we took a comprehensive statistics of the fact that some of the villages, I am not talking about the autonomous communities in Nsirimo Amaise have their village town Hall but it is very shameful and embarrassing that Nsirimo Amaise that is the umbrella body of the three communities do not have a town union hall. So, whenever we want to have our meeting we either to go to one hall or the other looking for space to hold our meeting. When we came on board, we revisited the Civic Hall Foundation that was laid by then government of Callistus Agomuo sometime in 2013 and by the special grace of God we called on the good people of Nsirimo Amaise during our Nsirimo Day Celebration on December 30, 2024 and our people came to our aid and we all agreed that we needed to build a standard civic hall in Nsirimo Amaise.
As I speak to you by the special grace of God and with the support of Ndi-Nsirimo, we have been able to complete the block work of one-storey building civic hall and by the composition of that hall we have the Nsirimo Hall in that building. We have the Administrative Block, the President General office, the Secretary General office, the store and then the conference room for the executives and committees. Upstairs we have a Civic Hall, an Event Centre which will be profitable to the community and the people of Nsirimo, instead of going to the neighbouring communities to rent halls, somebody can comfortably pay half of what you are supposed to pay outside.
Again, we have a carrier development unit in that hall. We are targeting the roofing of the place in the next two to three months from now even though we don’t have the money now, we believe that God will provide the money.
There is this worry among some communities that infrastructural development is centered in one particular community. What is your reaction to that?
Sincerely, I understood that views from our people and it is also expected but the truth of it is that in every town or community there are people who nature has positioned them in such a way that they are at the centre of reach or connection to others.
I have also been attacked for that because of this community that is being talked about is Umumba and it is interesting to know that my maternal home is from Umumba. But be that as it may, do not think that I will be interested to favour my maternal home more than my paternal home. The truth of it is that the project we are talking about was not attracted by the people of Umumba but rather a collective decision of Ndi-Nsirimo and the reason is by the geographical setting of Nsirimo Amaise Umumba is always at the centre.
Now, I give you a typical example, the civic hall we are building, I have been accused by some communities of doing that in Umumba and my question is, was I the one that started the project and the answer is no. That project was started by Chief Calistus Agomuo’s administration in 2013 and we are doing what we are doing in 2025 and that is twelve years after the foundation was laid by then Chief Calistus Agomuo’s administration and the land belongs to Nsirimo Amaise. I don’t know how much we got during the launching that we will start thinking of getting a land elsewhere because it simply means that money, we used to raise the building would have been used to look for a land. I don’t know if it would have made a sense to every proactive person.
Now, I want to draw your attention that somebody from my house in Umuako who wants to go to that Civic Hall will reach there first before somebody going to the same Civic Hall from the house of the chairman in Umumba.
Now, if we decided to mount that in Umuako or in Mbara-Ikoro, think how difficult it would take somebody from Umumba and Umu-Erim to go to that place.
In fact, we talked about it as if it was the people of Umumba that are doing it and it will interest you to know that some people in Umumba had to forfeit their land to get this project built in that area. Somebody will ask me that the Health Centre is in Umumba. Why is it not in Umuako or Umu-Erim?
I am also aware that some couple of years back there was a project that came to Umuako; where to site the project stopped it; so, when people now say everything is being centered in Umumba, it is surprising and we are not being realistic. We are just allowing sentiment to overrule our judgement. Therefore, for me, I don’t think that siting the projects in Umumba was caused by Umumba people but was caused by nature; but however, what I think we should know is if we allow unity to reign in Nsirimo, my administration has a vision of diversifying developmental projects of Nsirimo, I can assure that. Let me give you a typical example, the women of Ezu na Erin built a market but the viability of that market I cannot tell; but believe me if we are united and working as one body that project can help Nsirimo Amaise, and also bring Ezu na Erin to limelight. Now, imagine a situation where we say that we are turning the market into a skill acquisition centre for fashion designers, solar installers engineers and bring in shoe makers and say we are giving you one to two shops but in return you are to train two to three people in different skills in Nsirimo Amaise and you will see people from Ngwa and neighbouring communities will begin to come there to learn a skill and that will bring development to Ezu na Erim and by extension to Nsirimo Amaise.
We can also look for something to site in Nsirimo autonomous community, and before you know it, we will be attracting development to those areas. So, there are things we can do but the only thing is that people are allowing sentiment to overrule their judgement and that is why developmental projects in our community is stagnant.
What is your assessment of the chairman of Umuahia South Local Government since he assumed office?
Well, I think you know that the local government chairman is my brother and he is also a personal friend even before he became the local government chairman. I will also want you to note that I was among those in my own little way and capacity who worked for him. I am still bearing the enemity of ensuring that he became the local government chairman as far as some people are concerned. But I make bold to say that I don’t owe anybody any apology for whatever role I played in making sure he emerged as the local government chairman because as at that time, I think and I felt that he was in a better position as someone that is closer to the powers that be to get that position as what was interesting to us in Nsirimo then was to make sure that our son became the local government chairman.
I have been called names about that but it does not bother me at all. I only thank God I was justified because he eventually became the local government chairman. Now, what he has done as the chairman of Umuahia South Local Government as far as I am concerned is that development and performance are seen by people from different angles. I will tell you that for me, there are areas he has not done well but however, there are areas he has done well and that is why he is a human being because I don’t except him to be perfect. He has his areas of weakness and also his areas perfection. My prayer for him is that God will give him the wisdom and strength to live above board and expectation.
How will you assess the performance of Governor Alex Otti in the last three years?
Honestly, one on one I do not know Governor
Alex Chioma Otti, but I have followed his political journey since 2015, when I was a card-carrying member of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP). I left my base in Lagos and came down to Nsirimo and I was mobilising support for the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) because Alex Otti was contesting on that platform and my reason for doing so was that I have seen Alex Otti talk and I saw a degree of proactiveness, and I also saw a man who understood what it takes to be a leader. I saw a man who has vision and desire to bring about the development of Abia State and in 2023. When he came again, I did not hesitate to give him all my support and I am very glad and happy that he has not disappointed those of us who believed in him.
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