DR CHIMA AMADI: “WE WANT TO FIX OUR STATE SO WOMEN CAN STOP DOING THE JOB OF THE GOVERNMENT”

— Commits ₦19m to Women’s Projects, Says the People Should Vote for Leaders Who Will Make Society Better

There is something about the August meetings of women that continues to reveal the strength of communities that is often overlooked by government.

Across communities, women gather not merely to celebrate culture and solidarity, but to raise funds, build halls, support families, improve their surroundings and respond to needs that, in a functioning society, should ordinarily be addressed by government.

It was against this backdrop that Dr Chima Matthew Amadi gate-crashed the August meeting of the Aladinma Ndom Okwu Emeke Women, Emekuku, Owerri North, held at St Paul's Catholic Church field, Okwu Emeke.

Speaking to the women, Hon Henry Onwukwe explained that Dr Amadi is seeking to represent Owerri Zone in the Senate on January 16, 2027, while stressing that their support would also be needed in the November governorship election.

But Dr Amadi's intervention was less about politics and more about the reality confronting ordinary people.

Apologising for gate-crashing the meeting, he explained that he had been passing by when he saw the gathering of women and felt compelled to stop and greet them.

He told the women that as he was passing and saw their gathering, he was touched to stop and say hello because issues concerning women have always been close to his heart.

From there, his message turned to a question that has become increasingly difficult to ignore: why are ordinary citizens, particularly women, continually being forced to provide what government ought to provide?

Women are gathering to raise money for projects that should ordinarily be handled by government. They are contributing from businesses that, in many cases, are barely strong enough to sustain their own households.

“If women keep doing all of these, then what's the need for us to have a government?” Dr Amadi asked.

For him, the problem is not that women are willing to contribute to their communities. Their commitment is admirable. The problem is a system that has gradually normalised government abandoning its responsibilities while citizens are left to fill the gap.

Many of these women, he noted, are struggling with businesses that are barely enough to support their families. Yet they are still expected to contribute money towards roads, schools, community halls and other projects that should receive public funding.

That, he argued, is not sustainable.

“This time around we are going to vote the right people, because if we continue the way we are going, we won't have a comfortable state in the years to come,” he said.

His message was simple: the objective should not be to create a society where women become substitutes for government. It should be to build a government that works well enough for women to concentrate on their families, businesses and communities without carrying responsibilities that do not belong to them.

Dr Amadi subsequently supported the women's project with ₦2 million.

The message followed him to Emii, where he met with women gathered opposite Central School Emii, Owerri North, for their August meeting.

There, the PG, Madam Christy Nnadi, thanked Dr Amadi for what she described as his consistent efforts to put smiles on the faces of women, praying that God would repay him for all he was doing.

But beneath the appreciation was also a clear description of the economic reality facing many women.

The women called for empowerment, noting that many currently have little or nothing to do, while some who have businesses are operating enterprises too weak to provide the level of income required to support their families.

They also identified the need for billboards to help the community communicate information about important activities and occasions.

Importantly, the women made it clear that their support was not about a political party but about the individual they believe can contribute to making society better.

And they declared their support for Dr Amadi's political journey.

Responding, Dr Amadi explained why he continues to respond whenever women invite him.

“Whenever I'm invited, especially by women, I definitely answer,” he said.

His reason is rooted in what he sees as the unique role women play in keeping communities and households together.

Whenever there is a problem in a family or community, he noted, women are often among the first to step forward to find solutions. It is part of what, in his view, gave rise to the annual August meetings, an occasion where women come together to deliberate on the welfare of their communities and find ways of making life better.

But he questioned what happens when those responsibilities are continually transferred from government to citizens.

According to him, leaders have become increasingly nonchalant because they have come to believe that election periods provide an opportunity to return to the people with money and buy their votes.

The consequence, he argued, is visible everywhere.

Public schools are neglected. Health centres are left without adequate attention. Families are pushed towards expensive private alternatives because the public education system can no longer provide what their children need.

He asked the women to imagine a parent with five children who has to pay private-school fees for all of them when public schools ought to provide affordable, quality education, at least through the secondary-school level.

For Dr Amadi, this is where the power of the vote becomes important.

“You all must stand strong, vote and make sure you follow up your votes to the final level,” he told them.

He reminded them that changing the environment in which they live ultimately depends on the choices citizens make at the ballot box.

The women, he said, must insist on putting forward people with credible profiles and the capacity to make society better.

He also supported the Emii women's project with ₦2 million.

The same message of government responsibility and community renewal resonated at the August meeting of the Nguru women, held at Umuaro Central School, Nguru Umuaro, Ngor Okpala.

There, Dr Amadi said he did not need to say much because the people were already living with the reality of their communities.

He observed that the people could already see and experience the condition of their local government and communities, and therefore he did not need to tell them what they already knew.

But when the women presented their ₦15 million project for the construction of a hall, Dr Amadi made a decision that immediately transformed the project.

He offered to take on the entire cost of the ₦15 million project, relieving the women of the burden of contributing towards the construction.

He further appealed to the women not to contribute towards the project, saying his engineers would take over the construction.

He also proposed that the hall be named after a true son of the soil, Cajetan Duke.

The intervention means that within three August engagements, Dr Amadi committed a total of ₦19 million to projects being pursued by the women: ₦2 million for the Okwu Emeke women, ₦2 million for the Emii women and ₦15 million towards the Nguru women's hall project.

In the same Nguru gathering, the political significance of the moment was underscored by the defection of prominent individuals, including High Chief Bona Nlemadim, Hon. Vitalis Opara, Chief Sir Sonny Ndiukwu and others, from the All Progressives Congress (APC) to the Action Peoples Party (APP).

But beyond the politics and the financial commitments, the larger picture emerging from Dr Amadi's August engagements is a question of what kind of society Imo people want to build.

A society where women must constantly raise money to repair the failures of government?

A society where parents are forced to stretch already inadequate incomes to pay private-school fees because public schools have been neglected?

A society where communities must fund projects while public resources are expected to provide them?

Or a society where government works well enough for citizens to no longer have to perform the functions of government themselves?

For Dr Amadi, the answer is clear.

“We are saying we want to fix all of this and make the society better, so that women don't have to be doing the job of the government.”

And perhaps that is the most significant message from his August meetings.

The ₦19 million committed across the three engagements may provide immediate support to the communities involved. But the larger intervention he is proposing is political: to build a system where government does not merely appear during elections, but works for the people every day.