Oba tasks RSSDA on rural poverty
• Friday, Sep 12, 2008

The Chairman of Rivers State Council of Traditional Rulers (RSCTR) and the Oba of Ogbaland, Sir Chukumela Nnam Obi II has tasked the Rivers State Sustainable Development Agency (RSSDA) to urgently formulate and implement a comprehensive plan of action to tackle rural poverty and boost local economy of the state.

Sir Nnam Obi gave the charge in Port Harcourt, Wednesday when the management of the agency paid him a courtesy visit in his office.

Admitting that the task of eradicating rural poverty was an onerous one, especially against the backdrop of the alarming increase in the country’s poverty index, the council chairman urged the agency’s management to visit oil producing communities to fully ascertain the frightening degree of poverty, squalor, misery and devastation occasioned by exploratory activities of oil companies operating in the communities.

He insisted that unless this was done, every efforts at tackling rural poverty and entrenching sustainable development would fail.

Sir Nnam Obi listed planlessness, poor policy implementation, corruption and poor execution of jobs as the bane of development in Nigeria, and urged the agency to emulate the Asian tigers, whom he said, worked very hard to obliterate impediments to their country’s development.

The monarch assured the agency of the preparedness of the traditional rulers to partner with it to realise its set goals and objectives.

The Director of the Rivers State Sustainable Development Agency (RSSDA), Mr Bolaji Ogunseye had earlier briefed the traditional rulers council chairman on the activities of the agency, explaining that the agency was a strategic initiative of Rivers State Government aimed at tackling rural poverty and building effective community institution and viable local economies across the rural areas of the state.