The Rivers State Ministry of Water Resources has led a high-powered delegation on a strategic working visit to the Abua/Odual Local Government council, closely followed by officials from the Ministry of Agriculture.
In a statement by the Chief Press Secretary to the Local Government Chairman, Mr. Eeogude Sampson Iyabi on Thursday 4 December, The separate engagements focused on forging stronger partnerships to accelerate water infrastructure and agricultural programmes, aligning state resources with the council’s fast-evolving grassroots development blueprint under the leadership of Hon. Engr. Owolobi Michael Ofori
The ministries’ outreach came against the backdrop of widespread acclaim for Hon. Ofori’s revolutionary intervention in the education sector.
Despite education being primarily a state function, the chairman, immediately after inauguration, launched a comprehensive rescue plan to tackle dilapidated school buildings and critical teacher shortages.
Last month, in a historic move, he convened Odual Kingdom traditional rulers, presented the grim situation of the schools, and incorporated their input into the educational recovery plan.
The council immediately recruited and fully funded auxiliary and volunteer teachers, effectively reviving academic activities in classrooms abandoned for years.
Dubbed the “Abua/Odual education template,” the initiative has been adopted by several local government areas across Rivers State.
Governor Siminalayi Fubara recently announced a statewide teachers’ recruitment drive, while the Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly openly called for replication of the model.
Residents of the Local Government Area say his deliberate, people-centred governance continues to restore hope and reposition Abua/Odual as a benchmark for purposeful leadership in Nigeria’s local government system.
Read also: Rivers PDP Rejects Wike’s Expulsion
