Do Not Reduce Ewohimi to a Distraught Giant

@ernestomoarelojie

Recently, I was privileged to be a part of the Ewohimi group that answered the pro bono call to rally round two of Okaigben sons detained at the Force Criminal Investigation Department, FCID, Abuja. Thanks to the committed efforts of the group and contributions from back home, their four-week or so ordeal came to an end after a resolution was reached to sort out the issue without recourse to legalities. Happy as the outcome was, a lot of us were, however, traumatised by certain bitter and very tragic truths that were unearthed while we discussed other issues from back home.

Most prominent among them is the (near) irresponsible manner some of our kinsmen at home have been conducting the collective affairs of the community. The impression is that certain people are deliberately determined to reduce Okaigben to a beggarly community despite housing a number of natural resources from which it makes money on a daily basis. The development is the subject of this piece. 

Following the request for funds we made in order to navigate the rather complex bail procedures we received a response from home that was most unpleasant to the ears. We were informed that Idumu Agho did not have the funds in its account.

As a matter of fact, the community had to go, cap in hand, to borrow money from certain individuals in nearby communities. The disclosure was, putting it mildly, a scandal that required immediate collective attention. It is a crying shame. A little check on the facts would suffice here.

It is a fact that Idumu Agho gets paid for each of the tippers that ferries sand from the community. The money is collected on a daily basis. Without going into any ugly details, tankers taking water from Odu River are also under mandate to pay for it just as the community collects annual rents and royalties from non-native farmers that live in tens of camps scattered round large swaths of farmlands over which children of erstwhile owners no longer have access.

Ordinarily, the money so collected ought to be enough to sort out emergent challenges facing the community. Sadly however, that is not the case. The realisation raised immediate questions, including the whereabouts of all the monies accruing from the exploration of the community's natural endowments over the last few years, particularly since the new community leadership took over.

The question above became most relevant in the light of certain revelations about the conduct of those currently running the financial affairs of the community. Credible information from reliable sources back home has it that the leadership before the current one left money in millions, all of which were sourced from the community’s tapped natural resources. The funds are said to have been handed over to the new leadership after they hounded out the former caretaker for allegedly refusing to put them for scavenging as requested by certain individuals.

Facts from home also have it that each time anyone raises questions about the management of monies accruing from the community’s natural resources, members of the new leadership respond by demanding that the one raising the question should permanently relocate home to qualify for such information.

They are also known to insist that whoever is not living at home has no right to question the authority of or manner with which the new leadership is handling the affairs of the community.

They make these statements blatantly forgetting that they are always running to the same people, particularly those in the diaspora, whenever the community runs into challenges that require funding. The ongoing Okaigben Ultra Modern Park/Garage is a glaring example. 

The reality of the situation raises another important question: if the current leadership is against any call for accountability and transparency as they affect the handling of the community’s affairs, why do they always call on their kinsmen scattered across Nigeria, and in the diaspora, to raise funds for community projects?

There are too many other unfortunate issues with details the space here would not accommodate. For instance, while the near-intractable Oko-Oma land dispute that sits like a jagged bone on the community’s jugular still remains largely unsolved, certain people in Idumu Agho community clandestinely drew up a sordid lease agreement that almost ceded hectares of community land to another individual under the guise of a 99-year lease. But for the quick intervention of a few concerned indigenes, it would have been signed off without the knowledge of the vast majority of the community’s sons and daughters.

Apart from the unfortunate cases listed above, there is also the largely unresolved legal status of the numerous camps/settlements, covering large expanses of Idumu Agho farmlands. Their unresolved legal status is like a timed bomb billed to explode in the future.

Whereas it will be impossible for children of original owners to access the farmlands, there is also the possibility that the settlers and or their children will begin to assert their indigenous status at some point in line with certain statutes that make it indisputable for any Nigerian to become an indigene of the community he/she was born (has lived) over a given number of years.

The truth right now is that those that leased and continue to lease Idumu Agho lands are pleasantly dumb, lacking in functional knowledge. The other truth is that coming generations of Idumu Agho children will be the ones to confront the eventual outcome, any which way. Unfortunately, the most enduring truth all of us must never lose sight of is that indigene/settler controversy is arguably the biggest challenge Nigeria has always contended (and still contending) with. It is the biggest single threat against the country’s unity.

A few examples include the ongoing murderous Fulani rampage, the Ijaw/Itsekiri deadly feud, the Aguleri/Umuleri murderous rage, the Ife/Modakeke catastrophe, name them. It would appear that those who negotiated the loose leases under review are priming Okaigben for the same deadly experience in the future? That is, if necessary precautions are not taken immediately, one of which should mandate the settlers to live within the various Okaigben communities from where they can go to the various farms like every other individual.

A number of those involved in nefariously leasing of Idumu Agho farmlands have lived in major towns and cities across Nigeria. A few of them have also lived in the diaspora. It is not on any record they lived in communities which created, leased or handed out any particular camp to them as they are now doing with Idumu Agho farmlands.

This piece is not to witch hunt anyone. It is about the need for us to be guided by the facts of life which, unlike cheap opinions, are sacred. Opinions may romance the ego of people, but facts often stinge like the bite of bees. The big truth we now face is that Ewohimi is currently being troubled by individual and group conducts that slap accountability and transparency hard on the face. Okaigben is the epicentre and Idumu Agho is the heart. Sadly, Idumu Akhilemhen, my homestead, is the soul. It would therefore stand to reason that every right-thinking son and daughter of Okaigben, alongside those of all Idumu Agho, must join the few from Idumu Akhilemhen, to engineer the move that seeks to return Ewohimi on the pedestal it rightly belongs. It is a clarion call.