By Chibuzo Ihegboro
Expectations are high among Lagos residents inside Greenfield Estate, a bustling middle-class neighbourhood in the Amuwo Odofin local government area, following the inauguration of their new executive team to pilot the affairs of the estate.
Greenfield estate is arguably one of the biggest Community Development Association (CDAs) in Amuwo LCDA. It is a well-known community known for its large landmass, population, serenity, beauty and greenery. It is also a business hub of many flourishing plazas, hotels, offices and schools.
However, many factors have hampered the growth of many residents and businesses inside the estate.
According to residents one of their biggest bane in the estate is poor power supply by the IKEDC (Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company). They complained that most times they go for days and weeks without electricity even after paying the heavy bills sent to them by the electricity company.
Also, challenges are insecurity, poor drainage network, flooding, lack of street lights, and bad roads that have eroded the beauty of the community.
It was in a bid to find solutions to these difficulties bedevilling the community that the community elected and inaugurated a new Greenfield Estate Executive Council led by Monday Akunna alongside his council members.
Mr Akunna and his team were sworn into office in July after winning the estate’s election with an overwhelming majority and would be on the mantle for the next two years.
Speaking at their inauguration, Akunna affirmed that he is ready to face the daunting task of leading the affairs of the community.
He said, “I am very happy to serve the people. I have rolled out my 10 point agenda at the General Meeting. I want to improve on the electricity, we don’t enjoy power here, I want to make sure we have constant light daily, at least 12 hours in a day. I want to improve the security which I have already kick-started and equipped. I want to make sure all the boundaries in Greenfield Estate are closed and sealed with barbed wires and gates. I want to ensure that the inter-lock in Greenfield Estate is continued until we tile all the roads in Greenfield Estate. I want to ensure that the people live in very good health. I have a health committee. I have a Sports committee that will be taking care of our sports so that soon maybe in less than six months we might be coming out in the Premier League of Nigeria.
Related Posts
“I have so many agendas to revive the beauty of our estate. We are creating a database. I have a Revenue committee, Electricity committee, and Special Duty Committee. This Special Duty will be working with me, giving me ideas. We have so many committees, 17 in all.
Akunna explained further why he needed to create the committees. “I and my excos created the 17 committees to help us take care of all the major problems we are facing in the estate.
“Our estate is quite large. There are 43 streets and we have more than 600 landlords in this estate. I need the committees so everyone would be involved in finding solutions to our problems. Leadership here is a selfless job. Nobody is being paid a dime. So we do it with our time and money. We develop the estate and Lagos state as a whole in Isolo Local Government for the benefit of the human beings that will be living here,” he added.
Another exco, Mr Chigozie Njoku, the newly elected PRO also said that the team have braced up to sort out the problems and leave a lasting legacy in their community. “It is us the landlords that came in here and began to organize and develop this area. We lived together without minding anyone’s ethnicity or religion. We came together named our community, Greenfield Estate.
“The estate is registered and we moved into becoming a CDA. Since its inception, we’ve had four chairmen. Our first chairman – Late Chief Monday Imoh. we had a second chairman – Mr Nickson Okpara, the third chairman- Nnanna Achugo and this present made by Chief Monday Akuna is our fourth leader.
“We have achieved a lot because we are united. And I pray that God continues to keep us united. It is the unity that brought us together and we have been together as one family. I pray that this unity continues so that we can achieve more. When we achieve more, the value of our estate will continue to rise,” Mr Njoku said.
[09/07, 10:27] Henry OKONKWO: Also the newly elected Financial Secretary of the estate, Mr.Okeke Austin, while admitting the huge expectations from residents, vowed to use his experience as an accountant to manage the resources of the estate.
He said, “Personally, being a seasoned banker, I want to see a total turn-around in terms of the management of finances, accountability, and transparency. We want to ensure that all the money generated is used judiciously, we want to also trace and track all the income and ensure that we use it to beautify and make this estate a very good place.
“In the past, we found out that when you pay money into an account, it is difficult for the people working in the estate to confirm it. So what we want to do now is to ensure that we put in place a system whereby once you pay, the people working will see it, give them some real answers so that they can get to know who has paid and confirm it.”
Okeke also spoke on their drive to build a database of all residents in Greenfield Estate. “We want to have an impeccable data system whereby we can get the database of everybody in the estate both the landlords and tenants. With that we track all the income, that will help to reduce the amount we will be paying.
Barely 30 per cent of residents pay security levy because we don’t have a very good data system. but with data everybody would be paying a smaller amount to generate money to provide security. This will even reduce the cost, and will go a long way to help us increase the revenue.”
