The Deputy Governor of Anambra State, Dr Onyekachukwu Ibezim, has called on residents to embrace value reorientation and take ownership of government projects to build a better and more sustainable state.
Ibezim made the call while inaugurating the Ka Anyi Dozie Anambra Volunteers and Ambassadors Network (KADAVAN) at Amawbia Town Hall.
Performing the inauguration, the Deputy Governor commended the founder and members of KADAVAN for their initiative, stressing that while the Soludo administration was investing heavily in infrastructure, citizens had a responsibility to protect and sustain the investments.
“This is the kind of forum where we ask ourselves what we want to do because posterity will never forget you. We are now living with animals in Anambra. That is why I like this organisation because they value change,” he said.
Ibezim urged Ndi Anambra to support Governor Chukwuma Charles Soludo’s development projects, noting that the administration was working to give citizens a new orientation in response to the erosion of societal values.
Chairman of the occasion and Commissioner for Information and Value Reformation, Dr Law Mefor, described KADAVAN as a critical partner in the state government’s value reformation agenda under Governor Soludo.
“The core objective of KADAVAN is exactly the same as the mandate of value reformation in the ministry. That means our partnership is made in heaven. We must cooperate. If we go together, we will go very far,” Mefor stated.
He said “Ka Anyi Dozie Anambra” must become the rallying cry for citizens committed to restoring the state’s values, noting that although many things had gone wrong, Anambra had also produced global examples of excellence.
Mefor cited Prof Soludo, who served as Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria for five years, as one of the examples young people should look up to.
“The question is: can our youth still see and emulate these examples? That is the issue. We must hold them up,” he said.
The Commissioner added that the ministry was building “a coalition of the willing” to help rescue society from eroded values and restore the virtues for which Anambra was traditionally known.
Delivering the keynote address titled, “Together We Build a Greater Anambra,” the Dean of Student Affairs, Nnamdi Azikiwe University (UNIZIK), Prof. Kingsley Uboji, stressed the need for citizens to remain consistent in doing good.
Uboji urged people to remain conscious of their resolutions and avoid postponing positive actions, saying that building a better society required individuals to begin making the necessary changes immediately.
Also speaking, the former Managing Director of the Anambra State Civic and Social Reformation Office (ANCISRO), Sir Chuka Nnabuife, thanked God for giving the Soludo administration the wisdom to commence the value reformation agenda.
Sir. Nnabuife urged members of KADAVAN to see themselves as history-makers and remain committed to the task of rebuilding the moral and social values of the state.
In his address, the Founder and General Coordinator of KADAVAN, Comrade Okechukwu Cyril Nwuche, said the organisation was established out of the conviction that building a greater Anambra could not be left to government alone.
He called for collective action and active citizen participation in the campaign to restore the state’s values and promote responsible citizenship.
