An imposing billboard, adorned with a beautiful smiling face of a teenage girl, Munachi Okey-Nwoye, stands in front of the Aguata local government secretariat.
Aguata is a local government area in Anambra State, South-east Nigeria. Charles Soludo, a former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria and the governor of Anambra, hails from the area.
The billboard, erected by Chibueze Ofobuike, the chairperson of Aguata local council, is to celebrate Munachi for emerging as the winner of the maiden edition of the Aguata Best Student Challenge, a competition initiated by Mr Ofobuike to promote education among the youths of the local government.
Munachi, from the Akpo community in the council area, defeated over 150 other secondary school students, after three stages of examination, including creative writing, to win the competition.
She got N500,000 prize money. Her school, St Peter’s Secondary School, Achina, got a desktop computer.
Munachi was flown to Lagos, with other top nine contestants, for a tour of the Microsoft, Google, and Moniepoint headquarters in Nigeria, as well as the Australian and German embassies in Lagos to expose her and others to “life outside” Aguata.
“We have projected her as a model to numerous other teenagers in the local government (area),” Mr Ofobuike said in a Facebook post, in August. “Our #AGreaterAguata vision not only identifies excellence but rewards. Our future is the young people. Our future begins today.”
The first and the second runner-up in the Aguata Best Student Challenge also have their names and faces jointly celebrated in another billboard.
‘Things that matter’
Mr Ofobuike who previously taught political science at Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University, Igbariam, is one of the youngest local council chairpersons in Nigeria.
He was 33 years old when Governor Soludo appointed him last year as the transition chairperson of Aguata local government area.
His brilliance, commitment and the ease with which he does his job stand him out as a promising grassroots leader in Nigeria, some people in Aguata council area say.
Mr Ofobuike’s leadership style has been to take up projects and programmes that matter the most to the local communities and tackle them passionately, so much so that the residents get inspired by his accomplishments.
“Growing up, I have always thought that chairmen of local government areas only come to sit in offices and at the end of their tenure, they would go to one government school and do repainting and erect a signpost and tag it as their project,” Cynthia Agupusi, from the Umuchu community in Aguata Local Government Area confessed.
“But this time, Chibueze has proven us wrong. Chibueze Ofobuike has shown us that a local government chairman can actually do a lot,” she added.
Some of the council’s projects are done through partnerships with entrepreneurs and corporate organisations.
Mr Ofobuike’s vision, tagged #AGreaterAguata, is reduced into six development goals – social infrastructure, agriculture, youth empowerment, education, healthcare, and sports development.
In just over a year, the local administration has been able to resuscitate the Aguata Mass Transit Scheme to ease transportation in the area and shore up the council’s revenue. It has rebuilt a once dilapidated local library, the Nkpologwu Library, and also rebuilt the Umuchu Mini Stadium.
Chibueze Ofobuike and other Aguata council members
Chibueze Ofobuike and other Aguata council members
The administration has rebuilt the dilapidated building which houses the traditional rulers’ council in Aguata.
It has set up Aguata Farms to promote agriculture in the area. The poultry farm took delivery of hundreds of chicks on 8 August.
The farm is run by a Manager, Daniels Izundu, while the Supervisor for Agriculture in the Aguata council, Chukwuma Ezeokoye, supervises it.
The farm manager said they have already sold out all the broilers they had in stock, and that they had started taking new orders from residents.
“The farm is doing very well, we are currently seeking for partnership to expand it,” the farm manager confirmed.
To complement the Umuchu Mini Stadium, the Aguata council successfully established the Aguata Football Academy to nurture young talents. Seventy-five boys had been selected as the first set of candidates for the academy.
Mr Ofobuike and other officials, in August, flew the U-13 boys of the academy to Uyo for a 2023 summer camp, where they played friendlies and toured some beautiful places, including the famous Ibeno Beach, in Akwa Ibom State.
The Bureau of Public Service Reforms, under Nigeria’s Presidency, honoured Mr Ofobuike in October as the country’s Digital Local Government Chairman of the Year 2023.
The honour is apparently for his achievements as the chairperson of Aguata council, one of which is the Aguata Youths Arise summit – a monthly-life changing gathering of young people in Aguata – where the economy, social issues, and mentorship are discussed in a relaxed and interactive setting. At the end of each of the summits, some youths receive start-up grants under the Aguata Youths Business Plan Challenge. The council also assists the youths in their business registration and branding, and mentorship.
There is a Community-Government Partnership programme to keep the communities’ environment clean.
There is the Aguata Marathon. Its second edition comes up on 3 January, 2024, with N2 million up for grabs by participants.
Mr Ofobuike has exciting news regarding next year’s Aguata Best Student Challenge.
“I am extremely delighted to announce that the finalists of the 2024 Aguata Best Student Challenge will be flown to Accra, Ghana, for a tour,” said the council chairperson.
“The students will be spending days in Accra where they will visit the Ghanaian headquarters of Amazon, IBM, Bolt, Jumia, Google.”
Continuing, he said, “We are committed to complimenting the tremendous works of Prof Charles Chukwuma Soludo, in the education sector.
“Young people in Aguata will shine brighter.”
Mr Ofobuike’s leadership is exceptional and inspirational, says Silas Okolie, a resident of Ezinifite community in Aguata Local Government Area.
He talked about the chairperson’s performance, especially in the area of youth development.
“His (Ofobuike) leadership focuses on investing in human infrastructure and developing the capacity of Aguata and Anambra youths to be vital contributors to state-building,” Mr Okolie said.
“He is committed to anything concerning education. He has given scholarships to a lot of students,” says Wilson Izuchukwu who hails from Achina community.
“He is a leader that is restless until the needs and plight of his people are attended to,” says Chukwuebuka Umezuluora from the Uga community.
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