BREAKING NEWS: Umuaka set to rule Nigeria, the world!
3 min read
Umuaka community, a town in Njaba, Imo State of Nigeria and the fastest developing community in the state has emerged as one of the finalists in Bloomberg Philanthropies 2021 Global Mayors Challenge. Umuaka Times gathered that the community was among the 50 Champion Cities competitively and carefully selected to advance in Global Innovation Competition uncovering most transformative urban solutions to emerge during the COVID-19 pandemic. The community has entered successfully, the process of Four-Month Testing Phase with Support from Bloomberg Philanthropies.
While announcing this to the community, Ms Lesley Agams, a daughter of the soul and the Executive Director of Women’s Crisis Centre WCC told the community that, “Umuaka is one of 50 Champion Cities selected today as finalists in the 2021 Global Mayors Challenge, a global innovation competition that identifies and accelerates the most ambitious ideas developed by cities in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. These 50 urban innovations rose to the top of a competitive pool of more than 630 applications from 99 countries, in the first-ever Global Mayors Challenge.”
“As a Mayors Challenge finalist, Umuaka now advances to the four-month Champion Phase of the competition. From June through October, the 50 finalist cities will refine their ideas with technical assistance from Bloomberg Philanthropies and its network of leading innovation experts. Fifteen of the 50 cities will ultimately win the grand prize, with each receiving $1 million and robust multi-year technical assistance to implement and scale their ideas. Grand Prize Winners will be announced in early 2022.”
In a statement credited to Michael R. Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg LP and Bloomberg Philanthropies and 108th mayor of New York City, he praised Umuaka community and other communities for their efforts thus: “By helping these cities test their ideas over the coming months, we will have a chance to identify cutting-edge policies and programs that can allow cities to rebuild in ways that make. These 50 finalists are showing the world that in the face of the pandemic’s enormous challenges, cities are rising to meet them with bold, innovative, and ambitious ideas.”
Agams also has proposed via the community to create and develop apps that will enable survivors, social workers, and service providers to report gender-based violent incidents, coordinate services including a city health insurance scheme and provide microfinance to support economic independence in the community.
Reacting t this development, the president-general of all the presidents-general in Umuaka, Chief Nuel Okezuo Oguike excitedly said, “Take the people where they want to go, not where you want them to go. That is what the Mayor’s Challenge, UmuAka Municipal Council and other democratic institutions are all about”
Umuaka Times further gathered that “the recent Covid19 pandemic worsened existing levels of violence against women and girls VAWG and eroded marginal economic and human development gains made by women in Umuaka in the last two decades. The city leadership and its citizens collaborated to ensure that Umuaka was prepared for the pandemic and the lockdown. Cooperation between the city is its many citizens in Diaspora was at its highest and led to the present idea.
Bloomberg Philanthropies works in over 120 countries around the world to ensure better, longer lives for the greatest number of people. The organization focuses on five key areas for creating lasting change: Arts, Education, Environment, Government Innovation, and Public Health. Bloomberg Philanthropies encompasses all of Michael R. Bloomberg’s charitable activities, including his foundation and his personal giving. In 2016, Bloomberg Philanthropies distributed $600 million.
Barrister Lesley Agams: the iron lady behind the success story.
Umuaka is a city of about 100,000 people in Njaba local government area of Imo State in south east Nigeria. It is situated mid way along the Orlu/Owerri road. The highway crosses the Ukwuorji-Nkwerre/Amaigbo Road at Afo Umuaka Market.
Umuaka is bounded on the North by the Njaba River, north east by Ekwe, on the south by Orodo, east by Amurie- Omanze, and on the west by Afara. Umuaka is made up of ten autonomous communities; Achara, Amaiyi, Amakor, Ibele, Isiozi, Obeakpu, Obinwanne, Uba, Ugbele and Umuele. The main occupation of the people is trade and commerce. The market is a beehive of activity and has been on major trade routes for over 500 years. Farming is reported as a secondary occupation. The area is dense rain forest situated in the Njaba River valley. Njaba River was part of a network of water ways in the rain forest that facilitated trade and development.
