Residents praises Regional Vice Chairman for reaching out to them

The decision by the recently elected Regional Vice Chairman (RVC) of Region None, Bertie
Xavier to aggressively visit every community where he will engage residents on a number of
issues have been hailed by several residents as timely and the way to move forward. This was the
revelation by several residents in some of the communities that he visited.
www.aroundtheregions.com have been closely following the work being done by RVC Xavier
and found that he continues to stress the importance of regional officials interacting with
residents so as to update the government in an effective and timely manner on critically
important issues. The Regional Vice Chairman had told this media house that he has been
visiting several villages to better understand their issues, while he seeks to have these issues and
concerns addressed.
The Regional Vice Chairman described the general response from residents as overwhelming,
stressing they have never seen such senior officials before. This, he said allowed him to remind
the residents that in going forward this will be a regular feature. He had disclosed that he had
already visited several communities and was embarking on visiting some others.
“I visited Toka and Massara and Yakarinta and several issues were raised. The response was
very overwhelming as the residents were happy and eager to have discussion with me on several
issues of importance to them and their villages. They indicated that in the past there was none of
this with several villagers not seeing a single regional official because they were branded one
way or the other. I assured the residents that this wouldn’t be the way of operation, irrespective
of a community’s political persuasion I will be visiting and engaging residents with the view of
aiding regional development,” the RVC said.

He said that he was very disappointed to know that while in the past there were no senior
government officials visiting but he was hurt to know that even regional officials in the past had
ignored several communities. This, he said cannot be taken lightly and while some may think
that he has made a promise he assured the residents that it’s a commitment he made of
continuing along that trend.
“Toka for example had expressed so much excitement to see me as they cannot recall seeing a
government or regional official in the past. They indicated that many persons would just pass
through without stopping to engage the residents. This, they noted, was done by many persons,
thus forcing villagers to conclude that the village is of no importance to the RDC,” he related.
He disclosed that another community that was excited to welcome him was Fairiew as they too
shared similar stories. www.aroundtheregioons.com spoke to several villagers who stressed their
appreciation for the new initiative of the Regional Vice Chairman, declaring that this is how it
should continue. Several residents told this media house that what is being undertaken by the
Vice Chairman should have been doing before. “We have asked him (Regional Vice Chairman)
to continue this as this is what the regional officials should have been doing and we are
demanding that the present officials continue this in visiting villages irrespective of which

government is in place so that they can experience the opportunity of being engaged by regional
officials,” several residents said.
Xavier stressed the need also for the various programme heads and officers from various
departments to visit the communities with the view of addressing concerns that residents have.
He said that he intends together with the Regional Chairman to implement systems that will seek
to effectively address issues confronting villages. This, he declared, is very important in fulfilling
their mandate of addressing the needs of the people irrespective of which political side they are
on.