My good people of Enugu State! You are on the threshold of a new era, right at the gates of the new dawn on appreciating and tackling poverty, ignorance and degradation. In a matter of hours from now, we shall join other citizens of Nigeria to reflect on the systemic erosion of man's dignity and relevance by deprivation and want. It is the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty (IDEP).

In recent times, the incidences of poverty, as well as the process of deprivation, some of which arose from intermittent failure of economic programmes or deviation from development policies, made it imperative to take more than a casual interest in the affairs of such fellow citizens who, not by any shortcoming in their individual creation but a loophole in the system, lack in what it takes to be happy members of the society. Following global studies and eventual findings on the facets of poverty, some of which actually manifested in ways not quite easily discerned, the democratic Federal Government of Nigeria launched what could be called the official response of government to take this malaise head-on. That is the National Poverty Eradication Programme (NAPEP).

The official attitude of government is to zero in on poverty and see to the elevation of most of our citizens from the morass of living deeply and dejectedly below poverty line to at least a point of self-start, to have the ability to join in the rank of hope and industry in our system.

Indeed, prior to the current era of official recognition of the devastating effects of poverty on the polity, it remained a reality of life that the system had not carried every person along and that so many of our noble compatriots had been shoveled aside due to the degrading effect of poverty.

Here in Enugu State, we never pretended to be unaware of the cold hand of poverty on our people for which we have driven hard the road to achieve a rebuilding of our socio-economic base, with the aim of providing a level playing field for all.

In the days through our first term in office, we pursued, without relenting, an elevation of this society, first by our drive at revitalizing the infrastructural base of the State, alongside the moves to erect new ones, so as to meet the current trend of development across the globe.

Our interest in road development has been to open up our environment, with the strategic aim of achieving easy movement, worthwhile interaction among people separated by locales and exchange of commodities among the people. To this effect, we had, through our Enugu Ring Road Network project, successfully linked many parts of the State, creating in that process, valid commercial and industrial import of identified cluster towns and outskirts.

Our follow-up action in rural electrification was to ensure a full berth of modern economic and wealth creating ventures in every part of this State. This had gone hand-in-hand with our pipe-borne water development scheme, including many kilometers of pipeline reticulation and new boreholes at Ninth Mile Corner, Olido, Ozalla-Ezimo, Agbani and others.

Actually, we made our bold moves at tackling poverty, ignorance and apathy-to-things-governmental very early in the life of our government, when we launched our Community County Council (CCC). While it remained the fact that we were keen at bringing our people to performing roles in locality administration, it was also true that we were also seriously committed to spurring our people to the old path of communal endeavours and consolidation of the age-old community-vitality.

Of course, we cannot take poverty for granted, knowing, as it is, that ours is a very open society, which is propelled by the traditional process of Igbo life as embodied in the trinity of our national character. The openness of our society makes it imperative to appreciate the deviation which the poverty of the individual, as well as of the collective can cause for an environment not accustomed to accepting a special societal elevation of any individual other than through such persons' accomplishments and the texture of their endeavour.

Such customary reality of Ndigbo appreciating life from a definitive set of principles via the process of thought (akpa uche), process of mobility (njepu) and process of endeavour (aka ikenga), all leading to incidences and or appurtenances of accomplishment or well being (ntozu), leaves no one in doubt that tackling poverty cannot be delayed any more in our environment.

Coming then of this background and fully conversant with the historic duty our forefathers performed and on whose injunction we have to carry aloft the banner of this society, we have broadly elected to take on poverty as the main battle we must not postpone and which we must win. In that case, whatever programme we have to design to tackle poverty cannot be a one-incident fanfare. We are not going to be limited in scope and time by the symbolic nature of this day on which we make this remark on poverty but rather, will pursue a continuous course of achieving the millennium goal of totally checkmating poverty in 2015.

Consequent upon this, we took the bold step to create the Enugu State Ministry of Human Development and poverty Reduction, for which a Commissioner, in the person of Mr. Ogbonna Ike, has been appointed. Acting in full operation and in response to the trend of global aspiration to reduce poverty, the government has now developed a well-defined and simple Enugu Poverty Reduction and Wealth Creation Strategy (EPRWCS).

This is embodied in a three-pronged drive at sweeping into the State arena some definite attitudes of government, which must - (I mean must) - ensure employment, wealth creation and eventual poverty reduction. Already, the approach to this has been subdivided into four major areas, namely: improved communication and participatory governance, improved public expenditure, leveraging on existing institutions or infrastructure and public sector reforms.

Our target in this regard is to effectively address inequality and alter the noxious social configuration which has alienated many of our countrymen.

Indeed, we need not be reminded that we have already achieved a status of Enugu emerging from the erstwhile drudgery of a bare civil service state to one of industry and entrepreneurship. To this effect, tackling poverty, as we have embarked on, will ride the crest of a well crafted programme of sustaining a culture of entrepreneurship through self-help, investment-friendly environment, access to capital, improved delivery of basic social services, cultivating sustainable environmental management and, of course, a further leap towards improving the basic social infrastructure in the State.

To achieve these, which we neither consider too easy, nor impossible, government has built a compartmentalization of time frame and personnel to implement the various stages, with something to show for each. For instance, government has designed to involve all high officials of the State including political appointees, permanent secretaries and directors (both civil and corporations) in information gathering, so as to effectively prioritise operations in the objectives we have set.

It is now mandatory for such high government personnel to provide adequate information on the incidences and processes of poverty in both their respective operational areas and immediate localities. Already, the Ministry of Human Development and Poverty Reduction is drawing a timetable for group discussions on trends or extent of poverty, so that whatever priority we set will have to run an early course of direct impact on and meaning to the people.

Another segment of the strategy is that high state personnel will be charged with such assignments as monitoring the deployment of basic social services in their areas, so as to ensure the effectiveness of the delivery of such programmes as adult literacy, early child care centers, primary healthcare, school meals, orphan/foster parenting scheme, care for the elderly, programmes to elevate the disabled and prevention as well as care, for people living with HIV/AIDS.

We have no doubt that having established a track record in locality administration as in the Community County Development Committees (CCDC), which are operational and with impact in so many communities, the programme of improved basic infrastructure, penciled down in the plan to be rigorously pursued, will enhance existing micro-credit schemes, loan guarantee schemes, donor agency schemes and indeed, small and medium enterprises schemes.

As I said earlier, the decision to take on poverty is well thought out and we shall leave no stone unturned. We are involving every segment of this society, every identifiable community and group. On that note, we have designed a formidable Neighbourhood Association Programme (NAP), which will ensure the participation of everyone in the State. Such Neighbourhood Associations, which will emerge from this programme, will assist in the poverty reduction strategy, particularly in the areas of pollution prevention and control, solid waste management, water resource management, sanitation, town planning and the various loan schemes.

Aside this basic public policy drive at tackling poverty, the reality of Enugu ascending a top-notch industrial status has now conferred on us the responsibility of building the capacity level of our people to fit into the new order. As you already know, the fact of the big industrial complex of the Heineken International at Ninth Mile Corner - AMA Greenfield - has offered new promises in engaging our people in various areas of enterprise, some of which will require proper training and motivation for effective initiative or entry into the venture. So, the aspect of our Poverty Reduction and Wealth Creation Strategy dealing with capacity building is so strongly designed to offer effective orientation and grounding for our people to gainfully compete in the emerging open market.

Treated under our scheme of Entrepreneurship and Self Help Development Programme, we shall pursue with rigour the apprenticeship development scheme, co-operatives, extension services, entrepreneurship education, as well as skills acquisition through government technical/vocational/private sector trainings. The beneficiaries will move straight for roles in the emerging cluster of junction towns of Ninth Mile, Ozalla, Obollo Afor and Oji River, which are rapidly developing into strategic centers of business. In fact, it is a deliberate policy of government to foster the growth of these new towns, with a view to ensuring economic expansion and stemming of rural - urban migration.

Today, the days are gone when we saw poverty as curses upon men. It has to be permanently shunted aside that those who are poor are rejected by their God. We have to face the reality of our time, which stipulates that poverty is an incident inflicted on man by social disruptions, economic maladjustment, bad policies of government, wrong prioritization by government and individuals alike, wrong perception, ignorance and such limiting factors as underrating one's capabilities.

The challenge, therefore, is for all hands to be on deck, not necessarily to await provisions of government but to appreciate the programme of poverty reduction, so as to fit into the wealth creation loop of the State.

We believe that in the event of our people hitting home on the new order, lifting from what used to be the stigma of civil service society, we will imbibe the cherished private sector and self-help initiatives, as offered by the emerging industrial and junction towns as Ninth Mile, Ozalla, Oji River and Obollo Afor, for which we shall say, as usual,

To God Be The Glory.