Gov Orji’s Focus Is Youth Empowerment    —Okoro

Mr. Maduka Okoro is the Special Assistant to the Abia State Governor, Chief Theodore. A Orji on NEPAD and SEEDS. He speaks to CHIKA NWABUEZE in Umuahia on the efforts being made by the administration to eradicate poverty in Abia State. Mr. Okoro insists that Abia is working under Chief Orji and that the people are happy for it. Excerpts:

What does your job as Special Assistant on NEPAD and SEEDS entail?
First of all, NEPAD is all about development, that is, New Partnership for African Development and SEEDS which is State Economic and Empowerment and Development Strategy.
When we talk about NEPAD we are talking about bringing projects that will better the lives of African folks but here we are talking about bettering the lives of Abia people.
The framework of NEPAD under the mind of former President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo; Wade of Senegal, Boutefilka of Algeria, Mubarak of Egypt and Thabo Mbeki of South-Africa was that Africans need to be looking inwards harness the potentials that nature has bestowed on them; to use those resources to the benefits of African people. So NEPAD is everywhere, in ICT, agriculture in housing and tourism.
So in SEEDS, we all know that Obasanjo, after the framework of NEPAD decided for us to come home and strategically roll development down to the grassroots. And it started off with NEEDS, the National Economic Empowerment Development Strategy and then we have SEEDS, and LEEDS and then recently we have come up with what we call CEEDS. In essence, my job is talking about development and strategising on how to utilise those resources available to develop our state.
The general opinion of Nigerians is that the so-called NEEDS of Obasanjo was a failure right from the onset. How do you intend to make it work at the SEEDS level now?
I don't think so. What I think is the problem are the people who run the programme. We have finished with SEEDS 1 and we are now into SEEDS 2. The essence of SEEDS two is going back to SEEDS 1 and finding out the mistakes that we made, and the ways through which we can move forward. In Abia State, SEEDS is working; it has not failed. What I am doing is to sensitize the people on the meaning of SEEDS and NEPAD because a lot of people do not know about their existence. We are saying that development must come from bottom up. So my job is to let the people in the rural areas understand that the state is out economically to empower them and to better their lives.
In my programme as the special aide to the governor of Abia State Chief T. A. Orji, I am embarking on a sensitization tour. After that we are going into fish farms, we are doing practical things. And what I am trying to do is to let the people know that SEEDS is all about alleviating poverty, which Abia is trying very hard to reduce. We have programmes mapped out of 2008 even up to 2009. Abia is going to prove a bit different in what we are doing to improve our economy.
You said SEEDS is all about alleviating poverty when we all know that there is so much poverty in the land today than before. So how is your programmes going to empower the citizens, especially those in the rural areas?
We have started off by organising a seminar.  On public private partnership initiative during which all the organised private sector came together to say that government cannot do everything by itself. So we have an understanding with the banks which have agreed to undertake several projects that will better the lives of the people. One of the banks agreed to transform one of the secondary schools into a model school and to build a library in the local government. And also giving scholarship to over 25 indigenes of that local government, precisely Umuahia North Local Government. Other institutions agreed on some other programmes which will impact positively on the society.
So we have decided to create a new concept which is quite different from what is on ground before. We called it 'NEPAD farms, and in the NEPAD farms we have different kinds of farms namely fish farms, we have the grass-cutter, the snail rearing and then we have the cropping farm. So, now we are at the first phase which is the fish farm. We are going into the 17 local government areas in Abia to build fish ponds in each of the local governments. The idea is to build seven fish ponds in each council, then we will train 20 people who will in turn train others. They are going to go into hatchery, into fingerlings after which we will link them up with the micro-finance institutions that will extend soft loans to them.
You see, when we establish these things we are creating a new sense of belonging in the new orientation. We are keeping away from diseases like bird-flu and the rest. So we want Abians to economically empower themselves through these initiatives. By the grace of God we are going to build three model fish farms in the state, and the people will really be proud of the administration of Governor T.A Orji. Again, we are reaching out to faith base organisations to partner with Abia State government to fight poverty. We are going to tackle poverty from the pulpit so in the next few weeks we are gong to hold workshops as part of our programmes. The clerics are coming to partner with us by establishing scholarship schemes and acquisition centres; we are going to build artisans village. At the end, you will see that our people will be better of. So we are going to spread economic empowerment across the territory of Abia state. By 2015, Abia is going to be a better place going by the level of development being witnessed in the state now. We are going to give people jobs to make them stay away from criminal acts
What about the financial implications of establishing the farms, and how are you going to source the funds?
In each of the local government. The cost is in the region of N5million. But we are going to ask the local government chairmen to nominate 20 individuals and give them the necessary assistance. They will in turn train another group in accordance with the World Bank train the trainee programme. Building of the fish farm; training them, sustaining and monitoring of the farms and the ponds; that is where the funds come in. We will also manufacture the feeds here. We will get the feeds from USA, after which we start to manufacture it here, we don't want anything that will impede on their growth.
So the funds will come from the local government. The money from the excess crude revenue will be utilized in financing these projects, it is a viable project at any rate.