Weeks After Distributing Wheelbarrow To Nsukka Youths, LG Boss Empowers Women With Headpans, Trowels, Shovels

There was outright expression of rage and condemnation at Nsukka Local Government Area of Enugu State, yesterday, following the distribution of head pans, shovels and trowels as empowerment tools to women of the council by the Caretaker Committee Chairman, Chinwe Ugwu.

The chairman last month, received heavy criticism from people of the council and beyond when he distributed wheelbarrows to some youths in the local government as poverty alleviation tools.

Some residents who condemned her last outreach programme to women suspected to be labourers, alleged that giving 50 head-pans, 50 shovels and 20 trowels to them as empowerment tools was a way to perpetuate their lives in abject poverty.

They also said that she could have given the women soft loan to start small scale businesses instead of encouraging them to remain in hard labour all their lives, adding that her action demonstrated the level insensitivity of Nigerian politicians to the plight of their subjects.

Speaking on the development, a public affairs analyst, Chijinkem Ugwuanyi, who joined other residents of Nsukka in condemning what he called “malnourished empowerment,” said he was surprised at the chairman’s empowerment initiatives.

Ugwuanyi said such empowerment items would further impoverish the creative abilities of the women and perpetuate their lives in poverty.

However, a professor of English and Literary Studies, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, UNN, Damian Opata, an indigine of Lejja, one of the communities in Nsukka, said the chairman should be lauded for her initiatives in alleviating the plights of the downtrodden in the society.

The don also said that she has given N100 million naira project to each of the wards in Nsukka Local Government in addition to other numerous development programmes she has undertaken.

Also supporting the outreach programme initiative, a Ph.D of UNN, Emmanuel Odoemelam, said “Let us ask ourselves this pertinent questions, are there brick layers in construction sites? Are there sand mixers who carry sands with those head-pans and shovels? If the answers is yes, then the chairman tried in a big way,” he said.