State/Local Govt cooperation necessary for grassroot development - Nnewi North Mayor

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By Madu Obi

The Mayor of Nnewi North local government area of Anambra State, Hon Echezona Anazodo, has lauded the cooperation between the state and the local government areas, noting that it has led to massive grassroot development.

Addressing journalists in Nnewi, Anazodo argued that the synergy between the two tiers of government was the reason for the growth in infrastructure noticed in the local government area in the past few years.

He said: "Before I became the chairman of Nnewi North, we had roughly 16 to 18 years without recording any tangible project here; either done by local government, state government or even federal government.

This is apart from the one Dame Virgy Etiaba did during that period she was Anambra State governor for three months. Subsequent governments did nothing here and we started looking at it to know what the problem was.

That is why we are happy with the synergy we have built with the state government. In Nnewi North, the state government has projects, either already done or ongoing. We too, as a local government, have a lot of projects and if you move around, you will see that work is going on in every part of the local government.

So we are better off with our relationship with the state government. We are working together because if Nnewi North is good, it is good for all of us."

On whether his local government is receiving all the allocations due to it, Anazodo said: "We have local government law 2024 and the way we are supposed to run our local governments is clearly stated there.

What we have is what is available for us to spend according to law and that is what we are spending. There is no state or local government that has enough to throw around. You have to strive to break even; you have to be more progressive in thinking to navigate and achieve certain things and to know how to get and use what is available to run your government.

In Nnewi North, we are operating far above what is available to us because we are exploring other means for us to be able to survive and have enough to take care of the needs of our people.

Why should I even be talking about allocation as my only means of funding when in Nnewi here, we have high concentration of billionaires and they have been supportive. We also have big markets that we can harness and I will be here talking about allocation. Even if they give you all the allocation, and those of others, you will still need more."

Anazodo also spoke on the forthcoming local government election in the state, saying that his philosophy when he entered office was to let everyday that he stayed in the office count.

" I’m not too obsessed with power. I’m still young and have held other positions before now. The tenure of a Local Government Chairman is minimum of two years and maximum of four years, according to the Anambra local government law.

My concern is, let my people see that I am doing well and then ask for me to return. Even if I decide to go for second term and the people say I have not earned it, I won’t go.

I am available to serve my people at this early stage of my life and the issue of second term is not what I want to think about now. We are just one year and two months in office and we have work to do for our people", he said.