Posted by By Geoffrey Anyanwu, Awka on
If she had seen it in her dreams, her mind would have been filled with strong doubts. It was not, however, a dream as Mrs Onigbo Nnonyelu, a petty trader, who traverses the hinterland of Amaku in Ayamelum Local Government area of Anambra State doing small-scale business was uplifted from grass to grace. She had won for herself a Camry LE 1998 model car valued at N1.3 million at the recent Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) Anti-Poverty Raffle Draw.
• Poor woman wins N1.3 million car in NULGE raffle draw
If she had seen it in her dreams, her mind would have been filled with strong doubts. It was not, however, a dream as Mrs Onigbo Nnonyelu, a petty trader, who traverses the hinterland of Amaku in Ayamelum Local Government area of Anambra State doing small-scale business was uplifted from grass to grace. She had won for herself a Camry LE 1998 model car valued at N1.3 million at the recent Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) Anti-Poverty Raffle Draw.
The NULGE Anti-Poverty Raffle Draw held in the penultimate week designed to support the poverty eradication programme of the Federal Government was believed by the organizers to be the first genuine effort in poverty eradication in the country.
Their reason was that the ticket for the draw was only N50 with which participants were expected to win the first prize of a Camry-LE car, the second prize of a Volkswagen Gulf car worth about N400, 000 and the third, a deep freezer.
Before her change of fortune, Mrs Nnonyelu could not boast of more than N5, 000 and so her sudden entry into the millionaire club justifies the kudos given to NULGE ably led by Dr. Godwin Ibekwe in the poverty reduction effort.
Many a member of NULGE has come to the ceremony hoping to cart home the posh Camry car, which would be an addition to their fleet of cars, but God gave it to a widow to justify NULGE spirits of tagging the programme anti-poverty raffle draw.
Also the second prize of a Volkswagen Gulf car was won by another woman, Oby Nwabueze, from Enugwu-Ukwu whose background is yet to be known, while the third prize, a deep freezer went to Mr. N. I. Obi, who by the way he expressed excitement on phone when he was called may not have really crossed the poverty line.
Our poverty eradication initiative
According to NULGE President, Dr. Ibekwe: 'When my executive and I took over the administration of the great union, NULGE, one of our cardinal objectives is how to alleviate poverty among our work force and even members of our community. And to achieve the set goals, we decided to embark on the following projects."
Motorcycle loan scheme
We discovered during our tour of the local government areas that many of our workers trek to their work places and the negative impact of long distance trekking can be imagined. The executive in conjunction with Innoson and the Local Government Service Commission gave out motorcycles to local government workers on a non-interest loan scheme and today, the issue of trekking to work or reporting to work late is a thing of the past.
NULGE raffle draw
With the same spirit and good intention to alleviate poverty within our workers, and the general public, the executive decided to embark on this NULGE anti-poverty raffle draw. Its major aim is to empower our workers and the general public that are able to purchase our ticket which is just N50 to become a proud owner of a Camry Toyota car as a first prize, and Gulf car for second prize and deep freezer for third prize and other consolation prizes.
Our other achievements\problems
We will not dwell only on poverty; I will also use this opportunity to showcase some of our modest achievements and problems since we took over the administration of the great union.
According to him, the union was working out a plan to float car loans for all their staff who would be interested in the scheme.
The government
Governor Peter Obi of Anambra State who was represented at the ceremony by his Chief of Staff, Mr. Chuks Iloegbunam, commended the NULGE raffle draw which also saw the winning of 20 other consolation prizes of Nokia 1200 handsets.
He also lauded the transparency of NULGE in the programme and the mature way the organizers have been handling government workers issues in the state.
Obi said: 'I think the kind of thing NULGE is doing should be emulated by all facets, segments and sectors of the organized labour because their behaviour is antithetical to the kind of nonsense we are having from some insincere charlatans who have access to Abuja radio and see it as opportunity to announce all kinds of nonsense every two minutes.
'It is not going to lead them anywhere, what this government is achieving is on the ground and people will acknowledge it because you can't hide the truth under the sun".
For the member representing Anaocha I constituency in the state House of Assembly, Hon Joseph Dimobi, NULGE had shown that poverty eradication programme could be honestly planned and executed rathe than the politics being played with it by government.
He commended the union's transparency and conduct of the draw, urging politicians to emulate it, so that there would be less strife in the polity.