The Chairman of Isi-Uzo LGA, Enugu State, Hon. Obiora Obeagu, emphasized that continued collaboration between the Nigerian Army and the local community is essential for solidifying the relative security and peace established in the region.
Obeagu made this assertion during the recent commissioning of the Community Secondary School, Mbu (CSSM), a project initiated by an indigene of the area and Commander of the Nigerian Army Ordinance Corps, Major Gen. Jonathan Ugwuoke, under the Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) Civil-Military Cooperation initiative.
On this occasion, the Council Chairman also expressed the gratitude of Isi-Uzo’s residents to the governor of Enugu State, Dr. Peter Mbah, and the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. General Taoreed Lagbaja, for their partnership and intervention, which have significantly addressed security concerns and facilitated development projects in the council area. He noted that both the governor and the military have been deploying a combination of kinetic and non-kinetic strategies to achieve these goals.
Obeagu highlighted that the establishment of a military camp at Ogbete Mgbuji, Eha-Amufu, and throughout Isi-Uzo, forged through the partnership between the Mbah Administration and the Nigerian Army, is a vital aspect of these successful security interventions, and he pledged to further enhance this collaboration.
“Other interventions in the areas of road infrastructure, health and education projects such as the ongoing multi-billion naira Smart Green School initiative across the 11 Wards in Isi-Uzo and 260 wards of Enugu State, 11 Type-2 Primary Healthcare Centres, and the CSSM project commissioned at Mbu are critical projects that will help tackle insecurity and sustain development in Isi-Uzo. Education will help to bring people out of poverty and raise a generation of informed and empowered youths and leaders that will contribute to community development instead,” Obeagu stated.
He added that his engagements with Army Generals over the years had exposed him and the communities in Isi-Uzo to the nature of intervention projects executed by the military for public good and dispelled the childhood and usual notion that military only exists to fight war, adding that Isi-Uzo LGA remained a great beneficiary of Civil-Military Cooperation projects.
He expressed his willingness and readiness to sustain that partnership in order to attract more people-oriented projects that will help secure Isi-Uzo, foster long-term stability in the communities, deliver democracy dividends and sustain development in the Council area.
