EZENWAKA URGES SOLUDO’S INTERVENTION IN ADDRESSING WORKERS HOUSING CONUNDRUM

By Michael Ezenwata

The Chairman Anambra State Civil Service Commission, Mr. Anthony Ezenwaka, has called on Governor Chukwuma Soludo to add more feathers to his cap by breaking the 27- year-old jinx on Workers Housing needs in the state.

In a press statement in Awka ahead of the governor’s second term inauguration, Mr. Ezenwaka described the governor as the master of jinx breaking since his assumption of office on March 17, 2022.

Having broken the 34- year- old jinx of giving a befitting Government House and Lodge (Light House) to the state, demystifying the Okpoko slum tragedy, bequeathing to the state a modernized Civil Service Commission, re- inventing the entertainment industry, construction and dualization of Amawbia – Agulu- Ekwulobia – Uga road among other near impossibilities, the Civil Service Commission boss urged him to replicate this laudable gesture by giving workers in the state an affordable and livable housing estate.

He decried the current plight of workers in the state who live on loans to pay for exorbitant house rents, children’s school fees, transport to various work places, feeding, medicals and other social needs.

According to him, these excruciating conditions and other challenges hinder the service delivery preparedness of Anambra workers to the state.

Mr. Ezenwaka appealed to the governor to change the ugly narrative that the two available workers estates, (Iyiagu and Real), were built by Wing Commander Emmanuel Ukaegbu and Dr Chukwuemeka Ezeife respectively in the early ’90s, adding that the estates are built to give workers secured accommodation and conducive environment to render prompt and quality services to the state.

The CSC boss said that while real estate business thrive in the state with many housing estates in place, they are quite outlandish and totally out of reach of the workers.

He expressed high optimism that Governor Soludo who has demonstrated his capacity to make omelet without breaking eggs, will address this housing problem by formulating a worker-friendly housing policy with a robust staff housing loan scheme for the state workforce.

He expressed his gratitude to the governor nick named “Oluatuegwu’ in advance as he conveyed his hope that during his second term in office, he will break the decades- long jinx.

Ezenwata is of the Ministry of Information, Anambra State