1. My Person
I am Barrister Benedicta Ndudi Osakunih-Izuegbu, a thoroughbred daughter from Obiaruku in Ukwuani Local Government Area.
I had my primary education at Eke Model School, Kwale and secondary education at Abraka Grammar School, Abraka both in Delta State. I later went to Ambrose Alli University where I obtained a Bachelors degree in Law and then the Nigeria Law School after which I was called to the Bar.
Other training I have been privileged to attend includes the Haggai Leadership Course, Florida, USA and the Berfsforderungs Institute (BFI), Tirol, Austria.
Before pitching my tent in politics, I started my career with Tony Momoh Chambers as a lawyer and later worked as a Principal Partner at Izuegbu & Co Legal Practitioners.
Before now, I have been Member, Governing Board, Institute for Continue Education (ICE); Assistant Organizing Secretary, Peoples Democratic Party PDP), Delta State; Special Assistant to Ukwuani Local Government Chairman; Senior Special Assistant to the Governor of Delta State on Community Relations; Commissioner, Delta State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission (DESOPADEC).
At international level, I have had the rare honour of serving in the following capacities
• Assistant Country Representative, Education Partnership International, UK.
• Member, Delta State Women Delegation to the United Nations on International Women’s Day in Manhattan, New York, USA
• Training of Migrants as Peer Educator, Tirol, Austria.
2. My Quest for the Chair
Since the establishment of the Ukwuani Local Council in 1991, we have had nine (9) Chairmen in both Executive and Transition capacities. They have all impacted the Council Area modestly.
Like a relay race, I am coming to take over the baton to take the Council Area a notch higher. I am inspired because I know how Government works. I have the wherewithal to attract requisite development to Ukwuani Local Government Area. I know what to leverage to impact our people positively. I have the love and the empathy not to short change Ukwuani. I am proud to be Ukwuani. I will make you proud as your Chairman.
3. My Vision for the LGA
I envision an Ukwuani land of opportunities with citizens free and safe enough to pull their dreams through.
4. My Promise
As I seek your mandate to become the Chairman of Ukwuani Local Government, I say with every sense of responsibility that the drive is to represent your interest and serve you. My mandate will deliver on the following:
a. Youth Empowerment – Our youth empowerment initiative will be driven on two pedestals:
i. Graduate School-to-work Programme: recognizing the deficiency of our high school curricula, this programme will intervene to bridge the gap between the knowledge our graduates are equipped with and the work place requirements. The core objective here is to make our young graduates work-ready and make job-interview and job procurement easy for them.
ii. ICT Development: the Local council presently has an internet backbone facility provided by a Federal Agency (NITDA) that has the capacity to turn Ukwuani to internet village, but this facility is redundant. We will collaborate with relevant agencies to revamp this infrastructure to drive ICT development. This will boost ICT compliance among our youth and of course their economy.
iii. Empowerment for Higher degrees
In conjunction with our foreign partners, we will establish a world class learning facility where our graduates will procure special skills in English Language to prepare them for Masters Programmes in English speaking countries of the world.
b. Security of Lives & Property
Given the volatile security situation in our communities, we seek to promote peace through development and empowerment. Besides, we will be engaging able bodied youths to act as community police. They will be kitted with gadgets, trained in the art of intelligence gathering to support policing activities of the conventional Police. They will be rebranded for communities’ advantage to curb insecurity and crime.
c. Improved Healthcare Delivery
The dictum “Health is Wealth” is almost as old as man. To complement conventional health facilities and infrastructure, we plan to deliver quality healthcare to the doorstep of the average Ukwauni person. We will achieve this through “Mobile Clinics”, which will be launched in every community. These mobile clinics will be in such neighbourhoods as markets, schools, farms, etc. and can be called on emergencies.
d. Roads Maintenance & Upgrade
To ensure that the LGA has accessible roads, we will procure relevant machinery that will be deployed to paving and grading of roads within the LGA. Part of this effort will focus on opening up feeder roads that lead in and out of our farm lands to promote hitch-free movement of farm produce to the towns.
e. Transport Corporation
This is an investment initiative aimed at generating revenue for the LGA and providing employment for Ukwuanis. In addition, this initiative, through branding will boost Ukwuani visibility and perception.
f. Empowerment of Local Economic Units
Our people will be empowered economically and politically to meet their developmental needs. In furtherance of this, we plan to:
i. Build standard lock-up stores and markets
ii. Provide farm implements and consumables at reduced cost
iii. Community cooperative to set up industry
iv. Subsidized examination fees
v. Direct labour deployment in project implementation
g. Provision of Portable Water
We have the option of revamping the existing water works infrastructure, setting up Solo Photovoltaic Powered Community Water Services or a combination of both. Core objective here is to ensure that our people have access to portable water.
h. Computer Education
First, we will improve computer facilities in our schools to ensure that they produce the right results. We will then extend focus on our youth that are out of primary school on their way to secondary school. Bottom line is expanded frontiers of our ICT knowledge.
i. Agricultural Development
To improve our agrarian economy, we will be encouraging private investors to process produce, package and distribute portable packs.
We will be embarking on a programme of “One Youth, One Acre” to massively reorganize and reengineer to live, sleep and enjoy Agriculture with the solid support of both private and foreign partners.
The desire of local governance is to see that the great majority of the citizens enjoy and reap good life through efficient service delivery.
Building local capacity is key to local administration. The tenets of capacity building would be institutionalized, focused and deployed in the short and long term.
This Local Government will promote decentralization and strengthen local institutions and farmers’ cooperative organizations to enable them actively participate in the elaboration and implementation of rural development policies and programmes.
