The Governor of Anambra State, Professor Charles Chukwuma Soludo has announced his administration’s commitment to foster grassroots development in the state through the constitution of the Anambra State Association of Town Unions (ASATU) as the 4th tier of government statutorily, ANAMBRA PEOPLE reports.
Disclosing this to our correspondent in Awka, the National president of ASATU, Chief Barr. Titus Nnabuike Akpudo, said the governor is working assiduously to give ASATU her due recognition as the 4th tier of government because the governor appreciates the role of town unions in community development.
Akpudo said although ASATU has been on ground as 4th tier of government but Governor Soludo according to him, is intent in making it a statutory body backed by the laws of the Anambra State House of Assembly. He said the governor assured ASATU that such laws recognising it as a statutory body will come into force to engender community governance.
He said without the town unions, it would be very difficult for government to get to the grassroots; that ASATU is a grassroots based organisation because it is closest to those in the hinterlands.
Akpudo also disclosed that ASATU is currently enjoying a robust cordial relations with the present state government and that the Governor Professor Charles Chukwuma Soludo is giving every assistance to ASATU to enable her carry out her community development programmes.
He however pointed out that ASATU has made some request from the governor especially as it concerns assisting communities to reactivate community vigilante services to foster home land security.
That ASATU made another very important request from the governor for him to look into the welfare of Presidents-General and improve it. He said it is hoped that the welfare of Presidents-General will be captured in the new law the governor is proposing for ASATU.
Akpudo maintained that the Governor Professor Charles Chukwuma Soludo has made it a point of duty to intermittently interface with Presidents-General to discuss issues whose decisions may form integral aspects of government policies and programmes.
He said the governor had a meeting with ASATU on the 8th day of December, 2022 where three critical issues were discussed as it relates to security, the forthcoming national population census and of course, an impending law to make town unions statutorily 4th tier of government.
About Author
