From: Ben Dunno, Warri.
The Olu of Warri, His Majesty, Ogiame Ikenwoli, has stressed the need for Nigerians to begin to hold their leadership accountable for their commonwealth if truly they are desirous of genuine human capital and development in their areas.
Speaking in an address delivered to mark his second year coronation anniversary, on Tuesday, at Ode-Itsekiri also known as Big Warri in Warri South Local Government Area of Delta State, the monarch noted that the era of being docile about how those saddled with the mantle of leadership runs the affairs at local level was no longer tenable in ensuring service delivery.
The royal father, who took time out to acknowledge greetings and gifts from various communities and corporate bodies operating in his domains, stated that he has reviewed his reign in the last two years, thanking the Itsekiri people for
their support so far and assuring them that his vision of bringing good life to the people still persisted.
Ogiamme who disclosed that he had embarked on a tour of the various communities and villages of Itsekiri land so as to obtain firsthand knowledge of the experiences of his people, adding that he had reorganized the operations of the Olu-in-Council, so that more could be done to make life easier for all Itsekiri people.
According to him, “In this regard, we had earlier on set up the Olu-in-Council, an advisory and futuristic platform, designed to assist us in formulating and defining goals, executing policies and crafting strategies, including short and long term development plans for our communities and our people.
“As you already know, I have in the course of this year continued with
my visits to many of our communities to see things firsthand and for myself. We plan to do more of these visits in the new year, by the grace of Almighty God”.
“We all know how dilapidated some of these communities look right now,
which is why for a long time I refused to bulge on the matter of reconstituting and repositioning the IRDC by Chevron, for better performance on expected service delivery. As it is, even though not
100% what I wanted, we conceded a lot in the interest of our people and the new board has recently been inaugurated.
“The rest is now in the hands of you, the Itsekiri people, to demand
accountability and hold managers of IRDC fund responsible for rapid
development of oil-bearing communities. I will, however, want to see a clear departure from the old idea of building uninhabited two or three bedroom bungalows in uninhabited communities”.
“The IRDC communities must work in cooperative manners to build mega
projects, which can be rotated among member communities, which can create jobs for our teeming youths and encourage people to work and live in these communities”, he said.