Sheds Tears Over Bad Roads
It was a historical moment for the people of Ohaji/Egbema Local Government Area of Imo State as the House of Assembly candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the 2023 election, and Founder of the Anulika Tracy Foundation, Chief Uzoma Francis Osuoha (Eze Buguma), on Monday empowered 240 indigent women selected 20 each from the 12 wards of the LGA, with startup capital, food, clothes, shoes, hand bags and others.
Eze Buguma gave the empowerment at Central School Mgbuishi Community in Ohaji/Egbema LGA, through the Anulika Tracy Foundation.
Speaking to the jubilant mammoth crowd that attended the epochal event, Eze Buguma said that the empowerment programme was targeted at indigent women in order to assist them start some businesses, and help those whose businesses are strained to get fresh funding for their businesses.
According to him, engaging the indigent women in business activities would not only boost economic activities in the area but also help put smiles on the faces of the indigent women. He said the Foundation has been engaging in empowerment programmes over the years and has produced six university graduates while some others are in school under their scholarships.
He said: “I am grateful to God for this successful event. It has given my amiable wife and I another opportunity to meaningfully touch the lives of our people and help them start up one business or another. If you look around you would see that our people are in lack and the indigent suffer the most. That is why at Anulika Tracy Foundation we took it upon ourselves to touch their lives from time to time.
“Public infrastructures here are decrepit or none existent. I shed tears whenever I ply the deplorable roads leading to our community and the entire Ohaji/Egbema LGA. It is unfortunate that those we sent to represent us at the various elective positions neglected us all this years and without shame they are coming to ask for our votes to go back for a second term in office. The neglect by the elected officers spurred me into active participation in politics so that I can actually represent our people well and help uplift their condition and change the narrative for all of us.
“For me, joining politics was not just for the sake of it, but to seek broader opportunities to deliver the dividends of democracy to our people. I am using this opportunity to appeal to you, the good people of Ohaji/Egbema, to support me so that we can realize this dream for all of us.
“Give me your votes and trust me with your mandate and see how much we can achieve in four years. I need your mandate and by the special grace of God, I will not disappoint you. Don’t waste your votes by voting the wrong people, those who are delighted in impoverishing you, those who will do nothing for you. Vote wisely by voting for all the APC candidates to enable me have the right synergy to bring to you those things expected of me. Do not be deceived by anyone who will want to buy your conscience. You are not for sale. It is election time and they are bringing out the monies meant for our roads, electricity and other social amenities. Don’t give them your votes”.
Eze Buguma assured the jubilant mammoth crowd: “The programme you witnessed today is just the beginning of the good things to come. We have been in it over the years and wouldn’t stop.”
In an interview with newsmen after the occasion, Lolo Anulika Tracy Osuoha, the Director of the Foundation, expressed happiness over the success of the programme, saying that philanthropy is what keeps her going in life. “I am overwhelmed with the turnout of people and I am fulfilled in giving back to the society. We are touchers and we like touching the lives of people so that they too can live more meaningful lives”.
Hon. Eugene Dibiagwu, who was a Special Guest at the event, thanked Chief Osuoha and his wife, Lolo Tracy Osuala, for such an exemplary initiative, describing it as “unprecedented and dividends of hard labour”, as he said Eze Buguma carried out the gesture with his personal resources.
Dibiagwu who is also the candidate of the APC for Ohaji- Egbema/Oguta/Oru-West Federal Constituency in the 2023 elections, urged the electorate to galvanize all and sundry for Eze Buguma, adding that he would be the best for them at the Imo State House of Assembly in 2023.
Appreciating the gesture by Eze Buguma, some of the beneficiaries: Rosaline Alugha, Chinyere Onyewuchi, Ngozi Iworisha, Azunna Onwuegbu, among others, thanked the APC Candidate and his wife for remembering them at this particular point in time, adding that the startup capital given to them would go a long way in assisting them to commence petty businesses. On her part, Mrs. Eunice Nwafor, a young widow who also benefited from the empowerment, said that the money given to them would go a long way in boosting their businesses and help others who are yet in business to start one.
Hon. Obinna Ariaga, Coordinator of Egbema North Development Area; Hon. Obinna Obasi, the Chairman of the APC in Ohaji/Egbema LGA and Mrs. Harrieth Chioma Ukaegbu spoke in support of the programme and pledged their unalloyed support for Eze Buguma in the forthcoming House of Assembly election in Ohaji/Egbema come 2023. Obinna Ariaga, speaking to Journalists said that “Eze Buguma is a philanthropist who has been uplifting his people over the years. We are the ones owing him and this is the right time to pay him back for the good things he has been doing”.
