Eke-Ukwu Owerri, and Kanu’s meeting with the governors

By Obi Nwakanma

Two issues this week calls for some interrogation. I will dispense very quickly with one – the Eke-Ukwu Owerri imbroglio between “Ndi Owerri” – the original Owerri people and the Imo State governor, Mr. Anayo Okorocha, who goes more by his street sobriquet, “Rochas.”

Last week, after a long year of threatening to bulldoze it, and in spite of an injunction of the courts, the Imo State governor finally ordered the demolition of the Eke-Ukwu Owerri market, also sometimes known by the locals as “Eke Onunwa.” Opposition to the action, and the proposal to demolish the market had more to do with the claims of the original Owerri people, traditional owners of the market about issues of heritage; the antiquity of the market and its significance as a site of ancient communal rites.

The market in short, has deep symbolic significance for the Owerri, who for long has protected it jealously from “violation” by all administrations. It was about claims of primary ownership of what has long become an intricate part of a growing and increasingly cosmopolitan city. Forceful destruction of the market goes very directly to the heart of the Owerri indigenous claims to property and lands, and it needed to be resisted. The Owerri people put up real resistance, both physically, and legally, but in the end, the demolition took place, and some would argue about the legality of it, and the method of accomplishing it, and the fact, according to some reports, that the Imo State Government – please note the difference between the Imo State Government and the Imo State governor – brought in armed military men, and some thugs, it has been said, to fight off the crowd of protesters. In the end, a poor child was among the dead from the shooting of live ammunition by the soldiers.

Here is what personally irks me: the very use of violence to deal with purely civic issue is irresponsible. We have personalized public governance. The talk in town is that “Okorocha sent in soldiers.” I am an unforgiving critic of governor Okorocha, but on this matter, I think we must take a soberer view of these events, and ask important questions. First, let us all be clear, the Imo State Government statutorily has the rights to enforce the rights of “eminent domain.” That is one of the privileges of government, to assert rights over any land and property “in the public interest,” and claim such a land, in so far as it pays due compensation to the original private holder of the property. In other words, the Imo State Government by law, could appropriate Eke-Ukwu Owerri for re-development, for as long as it takes the right steps, and pays appropriate compensation to the original owners of the property known as “Eke-Ukwu” Owerri.

The business of government is development, but it must not be “forceful development.” Governments work in partnership with the people, through a civilized process of negotiation, through public education and the subtle propaganda that ultimately ensures citizens buy-in to government programs. That is why we chose to be a republican democracy, and not a dictatorship or a monarchy, where laws and their enforcement come from the throne, top down, to the plebeians. Imo State is a democracy, and there are those who quite clearly agree with Okorocha, and I am one of them, that the Eke-Ukwu Owerri, has long been overdue for re-development, and needed to be redesigned, and redeveloped.

What one does not agree with, and no sane, civilized, and thoughtful citizens would agree with is the use of forceful means to acquire public space. But by law, as a matter of fact, the market is public space, and has been so since the Imo State Government was established in Owerri as its capital city. But Eke-Onunwa does not belong either to the “original” Owerri people, or to the Imo State Government for that matter. It belongs to the Owerri Municipal government, under whose authority the market is regularized. It is public property managed by the Municipal government. The ancient claims of the Owerri  “indigene” is nothing but sentimental because, frankly, anybody who lives in Owerri, works in Owerri, owns property in Owerri, pays rent in Owerri, pisses in Owerri, is “Onye Owerri.”

Owerri no longer belongs exclusively to its “original” inhabitants. Time did not stop when the first migrants settled in Owerri. Modern patterns of migration has ensured that more people have converged in Owerri to make their lives in this thriving city, and contribute to its texture and character, and have as much rights as anyone claiming “ancient” rights of residency. That is why all these claims of indigeneity and exclusion is an amusing distraction. All those who reside in Owerri have used “Eke Onunwa” and the fundamental question must be, should the state government acquire it for redevelopment? The answer is yes. Should the Imo State Government work with the Owerri Municipal Authority, to plan a redevelopment of the areas around Eke-Ukwu? Yes.

Should the Imo State Government, through the proper channels have established public enlightenment dialogue first with the residents of the city, particularly the areas that would be most affected? This is where an enlightened citizenship steps in. They should force the government to be up front about its development plans for the area? That is all one could do at this moment. What are the landscape plans? Is it a mixed mode development with a new city square, office and apartment blocks, coffee shops, bookshops, art galleries, modern shop fronts for new elegant shopping experience as you might have in a place like London’s Oxford Street or the Rue de Passy in Paris? In short what’s the plan for demolishing and acquiring this very core of the Owerri Central Business district?  This is an opportunity to give Owerri a very elegant shopping district, and it is not such a bad idea, if this were the intentions of the governor and the government of Imo state. And we must be realistic about it…

KANU’s MEETING WITH THE GOVERNORS OF THE EAST…

On a different note, a very important development, and a welcome one at that, was the meeting between Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the IPOB, and the governors of the five core Eastern states last week. It is now very clear that these governors can no longer ignore the movement Nnamdi Kanu leads: it is the movement of the youth. As a matter of fact, it was a thoroughly thoughtless statement last week by MS Lauretta Onochie, one of the numerous presidential “touch-and-follow” people, that Nnamdi Kanu be locked up again, and the “keys thrown into the sea,” and that he leads a movement of the rabble – illiterate touts, hooligans, and hoodlums who grew up in “dingy” Aba and Onitsha. This is an unconscionable statement. One wonders under what conditions Ms. Onochie grew that gives her the rocks to be so uppity. But betterstill, uppity types do not make or lead revolutions, unless they have conscience. The so-called “rabble” following Nnamdi Kanu are angry, disempowered youth, and many of them have university education for whatever it is now worth in Nigeria.

It is such idiotic statements from the likes of Onochie that attenuates the office of the president, and raises this question about a blind class of Nigerians choking under privileged pork and porridge in Aso Rock, far removed from the realities of the Nigerian street, while leading Nigeria down a hell hole. Nigeria burns. That is a fact. Hooligans and touts know how to carry cudgels, and pushed to the wall, they too can bear arms to defend themselves. That is a fact. This is exactly where we do not want to arrive at. This is exactly why Nnamdi Kanu and the governors must be saluted for taking the first steps towards dialogue and rapprochement by meeting last week in Enugu. Biafra is not fantasy. There are many who swear by it.

 

 

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