HISTORICISING THE POLITICAL AND SOCIO-ECONOMIC GROWTH OF OGBARU LOCAL GOVERNMENT, 1970-2000

Abstract

Ogbaru is one of the Local Government Areas that made up the Anambra State Local Government system of Nigeria. Before the creation of Ogbaru into a Local Government in 1989, the different communities that comprised what is today known as Ogbaru Local Government conducted their political activities/affairs under the nomenclature of Ogbaru District which was placed under Onitsha Local Government Area. Fifteen communities made up today’s Ogbaru Local Government and it is these fifteen communities that formed the five electoral wards that represented Ogbaru District at Onitsha Local Government Area until 1989 when Ogbaru Local Government was carved out from Onitsha Local Government and made an independent Local Government with full constitutional powers as other Local Government Areas in Nigeria. Since then Ogbaru has enjoyed both gains and pains associated with the Local Government System in Nigeria owing to the inability of its politicians to wield the needed political will that would stimulate speedy political and socio-economic growth of the area. Why was Ogbaru carved out from Onitsha local government? What have the people of Ogbaru gained from its independent status as a Local Government? What are the challenges faced by Ogbaru as a Local Government of its own and what should be done to mitigate these challenges and put Ogbaru in a proper political perspective to speed up political and socio-economic growth of the Ogbaru people of Anambra State? The study employed chronological and thematic method of discourse while data were collected from both primary and secondary sources. The study revealed that the problems of political and socio-economic growth of Ogbaru was the inability of government and individuals to provide the necessary infrastructure that will stimulate political and socio-economic growth coupled with seasonal natural disaster of floods and coastal erosion that constantly ravage the entire Ogbaru communities. The paper therefore suggested that for Ogbaru to achieve the needed political and socio-economic growth, her politicians must pinch their tent with the ruling political party in the state in order to attract government presence in the area which is the only surest way to stimulate unprecedented political and socio-economic growth in the area.