The Girl Found In Gutter In Awka Is The Closest Person To My Children-Steve Nwankpa

In this intervew with the Executive Chairman of Izzi Local Government Area of Ebonyi State, Hon. Steve Emenike Nwankpa, told Alex Odeh of Panafricreporters in Abakaliki that his administration is focused on capacity and human empowerment. He said that his government is open to those who ordinarily wouldn’t be found on Facebook. 

According to him, a girl who was found in the gutter in Awka and whose parents could not be traced is now the closest person living with his children. He added that his administration has empowered people who are too vulnerable to believe that hope still exist for them. He also spoke on other sundry issues. Exerpts:

Can we meet you sir? 

My name is Steve Emenike Nwankpa, the Chairman of Izzi Local Government.

As the man at the helms of affairs in the grassroot, what measures have you taken to make your people feel the touch of governance?

One of the most proactive measures that we have taken to ensure capacity and human development within our local government is one; We have started by bankrolling hospital expenses of young men and women who were abandoned, rejected and dejected And who now stay on the corners of different bedsides across the local government. Beginning from Saint Vincent hospital in Igbeagu. We didn’t just pay for one, we closed down and made sure everybody who is in that place were fully paid. We also had to help people bury their deceased ones who were left in the mortuary for years. When we finished from St Vincent Hospital in Igbeagu, we moved to Sudan United Mission Hospital in Iboko.

Bankrolled the expenses, not once, it was a periodic, monthly intervention. When we finished from Iboko, we went to General Hospital in Iboko and did the same. When we were through with General Hospital in Iboko, we had to move to Sudan Mission Hospital in Izziogo.

And when we were through with Iziogo, we moved to Sudain Hospital in Onuenyim Agbaja. The truth is that if you are healthy, you will contribute to economic development of our local government and by extension the state. Because they say that health is wealth.

What actually motivated you to emabrk on such life-touching project? 

Where you see people, able-bodied men who are tied down by sickness and disease, you have to remember that they too want to go to work, they too want to learn trade, they too want to enhance the dignity of self and provide for their families. Most often time, these are the bread winners of their families. So if you forget that some able-bodied men are down with sickness in various corners of our hospitals, that doesn’t speak good of us.

But this gestures of yours are rare in Nigeria politics. How did you come about this? 

Because if you look at the theory of leadership of politics, you see that people come together, relinquished their powers and say, if you can take care of us, more than we can take for ourselves, you can lead us. And that is what we have to do. And that’s what we’ve been doing. We started receiving distress calls from Lagos, from Newi.We’ve been to Newi General Hospital, we’ve been to Umuahia. And it speaks volumes of that thought.

And when we come back home, when we are through with all of those things, though it is a continuous process, we are not yet done, but by Monday, we intend to begin again, because of the enormous distress call that we are receiving. I told you that we have gone to AE-FETHA, also to pay for those who went through bone surgery. Most of them had an accident and all of that.I think you need to know that we didn’t just get very conversant with hospital talent.

Apart from the hospital services which other form of services have you rendered to your people? 

We also patronized these traditional bone setters at different locations, both at Agbaja. What we do, we realize that these people are also part of us, even though they are not in a conventional hospital, but they are seeking medical support from the best way they can.

And we visit them and we pay for their dues, and do borehole for them. because we saw that sometimes, because their legs are broken or their hands are broken, some of them will be on the same side of the wall on the day the accident occurred, and the distance between the place and where they get water. Sometimes they could stay for one more month without having to take their bath. That’s why we have to go to Igbeagu to do borehole for them. We go to Agbaja to do borehole for them at Nwegede’s compound. We have to do that.

What are your achievements in the areas of capacity building? 

And when I was convinced that now we have opened ourselves to those who ordinarily wouldn’t have found us, because they are not on Facebook, they don’t contact us until you get to them. We proceeded again and said, look, young people, young graduates who have interest in ICT should come together. We collected ten of them, though we later sent eight because two couldn’t make it.

We went to TAG Global. TAG Global is in Akwa Ibom. We brought guys who have interest in cyber security, programming, networking, and then all we did was to go and pay for a flat in Akwa Ibom for six months. We paid for a whole one year because we needed them to. They said we must pay for what we paid. And paid TAG Global. TAG Global is an affiliate of Cisco. You can Google it. Cisco has about 90% of the entire ICT market in the world. That is the company that certified them. And we kept them there and we’re paying them 50,000 every month for their upkeep apart from that we paid for. Not only that, I also sent my driver and the police to take them there.

It’s not as if I gave them money and left them here. We took them to the right place. And we matained a strong conversation throughout their training. And they have all returned as network engineers. In fact, one of them, Victor Igboke, has further been mobilized now to go and major in cyber security in Lagos. I just sent him last month expenses for living, including accommodation, and stipends for feeding. Okay, so that’s about capacity. Apart from sending people on ICT, supporting them, we’re also supporting a good number of people. We have 31 people on scholarship. And they are all in private schools. And let me give you just one example.

There have been incidences where you demostrated humaniatrain services to the vulnerables. Can you recall them? 

You’ll recall there was one time that one girl was told to have been abandoned at Awka. That girlbthat trended was found in a gutter. When she was interviewed, she said that she’s from Iboko. You’ll recall that I traveled to Awka myself to go and recover her. And I did, I brought her back. When I took her to Iboko, where the family stays, I didn’t find anybody in the compound. The mother died at the age of six. And then the father was said to have traveled to school to go and look for money as well. And when we returned, I told the wife of the governor, what do I do at the moment? The governor said, use your discretion.

That’s how she’s living with me now. I put her at Folk Technical College. And after doing her junior WAEC there, I put her at statesman. And she’s living here now. But she’s the closest person to my children. And she has found just a new home for herself. Her dream is to become a nurse. You also found out the guy that was trending, Friday, using left hand to do farming with hoe. You recall that I discovered that guy, brought him to town. I had to buy books for him. And then register for him for WAEC because her including JAMB You know, this one that happened. And I was providing stipend for him each time he comes. Anytime he likes, he comes here. He comes here and relax.

We have those people whose parents died during the election at Nkpuma after a gun attack. I’m sponsoring all of the children in the school. The one that’s sitting down here, you saw a young guy sitting down there. There’s a guy that’s sitting down there. That guy is one of the security people that worked with me at the program who was shot. I’m training him and the sister in the university.The sister is doing year two. He just wrote jamb now. I can see how he’s relaxed.

He’s living here. The number of people you see living here, we’re not related by blood, by any means, but because we’re all human beings. I can go on and on and on.

Your empowerment seems to have special targets? 

We don’t just empower people who are already empowered. We discover people who are too vulnerable to believe that hope still exists for them. We don’t empower people who go to Facebook and write stories of how we’ve met. We help to lift people that don’t have anything to do with Facebook, and they don’t have any traces of connecting to the powers that be here.

You recall that just a few months in the office, we discovered a child that was born and left at Iboko. We took that child to Onuenyim. Right now, we have about three babies at Onuenyim, fully paid by us, fully sponsored by us.

One of the children that we discovered at Iboko, a few months into my office in my first tenure, who I named Queen, myself, Queen Nwankpa, is about to join my family for the rest of her life. I would have left because I’m going to see her now at the Motherless Babies Home. She’s almost two years now.

I want to bring her home, give her an opportunity to also realize her full potential as a human being, as one of my children. That’s what we do because we’re a local government, when it comes to uplifting and empowerment. Every now and then, we support students who are trapped, not able to pay school fees, including house rent.

These are the things we do to support our people to succeed. We also help some people to go back to business. You’ll recall that just a few months ago, Ilaje was demolished. I’m the only local government chairman, apart from His Excellency, who sent ten vehicles and two trucks to bring them home. I received them at the local government. I can show you a video clip.

I received them at the local government, all of them. We have also promised to support them during this farming season to succeed. But it doesn’t matter what it will cost. We have to be available for our people when they are trapped. Let me summarize on this. Nobody who has become a victim of circumstances beyond their control has not got support from the local government.

I used to make bold to say it publicly. That is about empowerment. Empowerment is a continuum. Every day, we are giving people money to support them to go back to business in their good numbers. Now, when we’re doing documentation, we’re highlighting all of those things as proof and evidence of what we’re saying. Like I said, I’ve once been at the Legacy FM, and I say it, and I say, call me from any quarter and tell me that Steve, this one is not true.

I make bold to say it because I have warned people writing about me, don’t ever report anything you know I have never accomplished. Because I am prepared for the worst case scenario, one day you keep lying and they trap you with one, and then they will demolish every good thing you’ve done. So, stay within the bounds of reality, what you’ve done for yourself.