By Uzo Ugwunze
An Igweship hopeful in Nteje, Oyi Local Government Area, Anambra State, Chief Charles Uyamadu Nwodidi has disclosed that he is irked by youths’ joblessness which results in restiveness and criminal activities.
He announced his resolve to create an enabling environment that would assist in rapid infrastructure development of the community.
Throwing more light on the youths’ joblessness, he explained that he would focus on human capital development describing it as the most essential in all human investments.
He said that Governor Charles Soludo has recorded huge achievements because he valued human capital development more than any other investment.
“If I become the traditional ruler of Nteje, I have to get the jobless youths together and counsel them on the various trade for them to decide on the one they like and I will support by making them to be self-reliant, technically inclined and stop being dependants.
“By virtue of my connections nationally and internationally, I want to develop our community and ensure the youths are meaningfully employed. We are agrarian community and food basket of the state. We will explore the agricultural potential to the advantage of the community, “he promised.
Chief Nwodidi who said he has all it takes to become the monarch of Nteje further disclosed that as at the time he invested his money as sacrifice in the development of the area about 25 years ego, he never taught of being the monarch but just for his people to benefit from his God-given-wealth.
“The records are there for you to verify, I was the first to rehabilitate roads, install boreholes for water supply to my people, construct culverts, install power, assist in building houses for the poor, among others, when nobody was coming out to contest for Igweship of Nteje. But now I think they are about eight, I don’t have opposition, nobody is contesting with me because they know my antecedents.
“I started from a young age to be generous and it is not my fault but God made it that way that I must be generous and I am unstoppable in doing that because it is my nature. When I was providing the infrastructure 25 years ego it was to make my people happy.
” If I can provide all these from my personal wealth, the expectation is that if I am elected the monarch, the sky will be my limit in provision of dividends of good leadership to the people. I hope and believe that if God says I will be the monarch of Nteje, it is written,” he posited.
Chief Nwodidi who is called “Igiligi Abogu,” by his admirers, it was gathered built houses for the poor and had his own house planned as a palace not by himself but by divine intervention in his infancy.
On alleged land grabbing by youths in Nteje, he said, ” I need peace and development of Nteje, there is nothing like land grabbing. I have said it in so many fora that land is not for sale but for lease, you have to also say the purpose for the land you want to lease. Also our people have to be part of the management staff in the purpose for which the land is leased,” he affirmed.
