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By Brown Chimezie
The youths of Amurri community, Nkanu West Local Government Area of Enugu State, have condemned what they described as the state government’s continuous negligence and marginalization of Amurri people in the state.
National president of Amurri Youths Empowerment Initiative (AYEI), Benjamin Nweke, who made the remark recently, enumerated absence of government’s presence and exclusion of the sons and daughters of Amuri in government appointments, among many reasons Amurri remained underdeveloped.
“We want to know why Amurri people are constantly being relegated and discriminated against during allocation of public offices and siting of government projects by the various administrations of Enugu State. Since the beginning of this democracy in 1999, no single indigene of Amurri has been appointed into any top government position in Enugu, including the chairmanship of our own local government area, Nkanu West. I am using this opportunity to also thank the present government of Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, who is the first governor to appoint one of our sons into his cabinet,” Nweke said.
He further disclosed that Amurri town was lacking in virtually all social amenities needed to sustain the lives of citizens, including roads, schools, healthcare, potable water, electricity and markets.
On exploring other options like individual and community efforts to champion some of their developmental needs, the AYEI general secretary, Bartholomew Nwodo, said: “That is part of our reasons for this initiative, though our immediate priority is how to train, educate and empower our youths economically in order to prepare them for the future. But the whole of Amurri can boast of only one school and one road, which is among the major causes of poverty in the community.”
Nwodo said the buildings at Amurri Community Secondary School, built many years ago, were already collapsing: “We have tried our best as a community to maintain it. Amurri presently is like a close, because there is only one road leading in and out of the town. The 45 kilometre road is very unmotorable until our grand patron, Chukwuemeka Ujam, who is a member of the federal House of Representatives, volunteered to construct it. But that move was allegedly halted by the Enugu State government, which later completed only five kilometres of that road, ending at Okpoka junction. The remaining 40 kilometres is still there undone.
“We are pleading with the Enugu State government to come to our aid now and upgrade the school to a state model college or technical school, with modern facilities. Also, let them provide Amurri people with a second link road connecting Ogbaku through a bridge across Nvuna river.”
Nweke, who also doubles as the president of Ereko Market Traders Association in Idumota Lagos, emphasised the need to recognise and equip Nigerian youths as leaders of tomorrow, and that tomorrow is now.
He said: “AYEI is a socio-economic organization with youth development and empowerment as our main objective. We cannot fold our arms and watch our youths wallow in abject poverty with their parents. The major occupation of Amurri people is farming, but there is no modern market to stock and display our farm produce for visitors to come in and buy and no motorable roads for easy transportation of products to other neighbouring towns and villages.”
