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From Aloysius Attah, Onitsha
The Nimo Youths empowerment scheme in Anambra State has given hope to eight budding young entrepreneurs to boost their businesses.
Under the maiden edition of the programme, the eight beneficiaries, two each, selected from the four quarters of Nimo, received the sum of N250, 000 to support their various business endeavours.
The gesture, the reporter gathered was aimed at dissuading the youths of the town from wallowing in self-pity due to unexamined life; youthful exuberance and sundry social vices owing to lack of value and meaningful engagement.
Speaking during the empowerment programme, President General of Nimo Town Development Union, Youth Wing, Mr Gold Obiefuna, said the programme was to key into the state government’s efforts in youth empowerment and development.
He cautioned the beneficiaries against actions that would retrogress the ongoing development in the community.
The beneficiaries of the empowerment were: Ugo Ngukor and Doms Ezeoke from Etiti-Nimo Village, Akunna Kingsley Chidi and Melody Fredrick Chukwuma from Ifite-enu Village . Uchenna Anyadiegwu and Ikejide John Paul from Egbengwu Village and Uchenna Edochie;Fabian Ogbuabana from Ifiteani Village.
It was gathered that the Nimo Youth Empowerment programme was preceded the previous day by the inauguration of the caretaker committees of the youth wings of four communities in Awka by the President of ASATU youth wing, Hon Ken Okolie, who made it clear that the ASATU constitution provided for the conduct of youth leadership elections by ASATU but that where elections were not conducted, the PG of the concerned community had the power to appoint a caretaker committee that would be operating pending the conduct of elections.
The Nimo youth leadership also gathered on that occasion to commission the Nimo Skill Acquisition Centre.
Thus, before 12 noon on Sunday, September 24, the youth of the community had occupied the Egwegwe Square to witness the epoch event.
But while the noble gesture is being applauded by all men of goodwill in Nimo community and beyond, trouble reared its ugly head at the venue of the event as some misguided youths allegedly on sponsorship tried to disrupt and also pollute whatever good intentions of the project.
There is a saying that Human Monster, like Good character is not formed in a week or a month but is rather created little by little; day by day. On the other hand, societies often undergo developmental growth either morally, technically, economically and otherwise, culminating into evolution.
The above postulations are perhaps what Nimo Owelle, known as Nimo for short, in the Njikoka Local Government Area of Anambra State, is now pondering over after the incident that happened in the community on Sunday, September 23,2024.
At the famous Egwegwe Square, Nimo venue of the unveiling of the Nimo Town Development Union(NTDU) Youth Wing first edition of its youth empowerment scheme of N2m.
The music renditions of Oliver De Coque and Osadebe trended, the organizers were distributing T-Shirts to the youth attendees to adorn as uniform for the day. The spirit was high. Food and drinks were surplus packed by the corner, waiting for the event to officially commence.
Suddenly, like the flash of the lightning, a parallel youth group surfaced from only God knows where and disrupted the event.
Ironically, there was no atom of resistance from the youth organisers, everybody scampered for safety; canopies and chairs for the function dismantled and carried away by the opposition group.
The onslaught was reportedly led by a parallel youth leader in the area said to have obtained a PhD degree newly (name withheld).
There was no presence of security operatives on the occasion- both local vigilantes and the police. Thus, the attackers had a field day and ranted away after a few minutes.
Speculation was that they moved to the palace of the traditional ruler of the community, Igwe Owelle Maxi Oliobi to register their grievances. Visitors and the organisers were dumbfounded.
It was gathered that the opposition youth group in the community was being funded from abroad by a United States of America-based indigene of Nimo who was disgruntled because his father was not given an Ichie title by the Nimo Monarch.
“He approached Owelle to give his father the Ichie title. Owelle told him that the process would begin from his quarter. He went to start off the process in his quarter and failed. The father was rejected for the title in his village. He therefore came up with a N5 million bribe to further facilitate the title for the father, his bribe was rejected. Because of that, he began a war against the community through some youth,” a source told our correspondent.
There was also another version of the story that the opposition youth group got disgruntled because of an alleged mismanagement of a communal land in the area by the town’s leadership, hence their revolt against the community.
It was also gathered that the opposition youth had recently launched an attack on the home of a titled man, Emma Ndubusi, in the area and vandalized everything on sight to ventilate their anger.
But not deterred by the attack, the organisers of the youth empowerment programme reconvened later the same day and continued their programme after the assailants had left.
The NTDU Youth Wing leadership was later blessed by the Dean of Nimo Catholic Deanery, Rev Fr Alfred Anazodo, at St Vincent’s Parish Nimo.
Before the Sunday incident could end, the opposition youth had regrouped and stormed the Egwegwe Square for a second attack, forcing the occasion to end abruptly.
A concerned native who spoke on condition of anonymity quipped, “The fear of this is let this youth restiveness in Nimo not metamorphose into the type of insurgency in some parts of the South-East that has become hydra headed monster and unable to be controlled.”
