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In what my friend, Professor Chukwunonso Ejike described as, “When a wild animal runs an energized run, the hunter fires an energized shot”, Governor Chukwuma Soludo of Anambra State, in a rare test of wills, has resolved to wield the big stick against a stream of provocative, amoral, and nasty desecration of the state’s social harmony by some inconsequential and devil-may-care money ritualists.
Anambra is a pride of Igbo man as a home of commerce and self-help. It has produced notable industrialists and businessmen in history who built their verifiable wealth from the scratch. From Sir Louis Odumegwu-Ojukwu (1908-1966), the founding president of Nigerian Stock Exchange, who donated his fleet of trucks to the British during World War II, and became knighted by Queen Elizabeth II, Ndi Anambra had always set the pace in the legacy of generational wealth. Apparently, the motor-park billionaires in the transport sub-sector like: Ekene Dili Chukwu, Izuchukwu, Chisco, E. Ekesons & Bros, Young Shall Grow, Chidiebere Motors, G.U. Okeke (GUO), among others, drew inspiration from him. These captains of industry and others became role models for successor-generations who sustained the legacy of wealth creation through hard work and perseverance.
Without any intent of spewing controversy, Anambra and Abiriba people of Abia State led the pack in developing Aba to an industrial hub. Before the recent modernization of Ariaria international market, I was reliably informed that over 70% of shops in the market were owned by people from Anambra and Imo States. It is therefore not a mere coincidence that 65% of cargo that comes into the country largely ends up in Onitsha and Aba, according to the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA),
Besides, the Onitsha Main Market has reportedly birthed other 14 markets. A netizen jocularly noted recently that those markets have produced more millionaires that the universities in the Southeast. All towns in Anambra are sprawling markets and businesses, including eye-popping hotels and filling stations. The road revolution that began from Chris Ngige’s tenure crisscrosses the hitherto rural communities and turned them to sub-urban towns. Indeed, the markets are incubation hubs of Igbo apprenticeship system (Igba-boi) which Dr. Law Mefor masterfully explained that “it involves learning a trade or craft under someone who is already well-established in the field and is now a master in his own right a.k.a ‘Oga’ in local parlance”.
Nowadays, the younger generation are scarcely interested in going through the rigours or learning the ropes of wealth creation. The fond memory of Cyprian Ekwensi’s Onitsha Market Literature which was popular before the Nigeran civil war resonates its mirror-image of stories about love, sex, marriage, money, and folktales admired mainly by school-age children, primary school teachers, journalists, taxi drivers, traders, and artisans. And in analyzing the impact of the genre, Britannica notes that “The Onitsha writings have two distinct characteristics: a fascination with westernized urban life and the desire to warn the newly arrived against the corruption and dangers that accompany it.”
Indeed, the crave for quick wealth, its allures and obscene display of it, especially in Anambra State, are at the root of the crisis we have in our hands today. The can-do-spirit of enterprise has been displaced by wealth-without-work syndrome (Ego Mbute) that is inimical to Igbo cherished culture of diligence (Igba-mbo). Kidnapping-for-ransom and cold-blooded killings for harvest of human organs or sensitive body parts are rife. Others are neck-deep in internet-related fraud perpetrated by those called ‘Yahoo boys’ (a slang that was recently updated in the Oxford English Dictionary {OED} as one of the 19 new entrants in acknowledgement of Nigeria’s “linguistic and cultural impact”).
The yahoo-yahoo racket and its degeneration to Yahoo-plus (from cyber-swindling to Oke-Ite and Eze-Nwanyi blood-sucking rituals) for money-making assumed a frightening dimension as if the forces of darkness had overpowered the inimitability of light. The prevailing reign of terror and brigandage almost turned Anambra to Thomas Hobbes’s state of nature and its wild animalistic bullying. Respite, however, came a few weeks ago with Governor Soludo’s audacious move to tackle the raging monster head on. He unveiled the Anambra Homeland Security Law 2025 and launched a special security operation codenamed: Operation Udo-Ga-Achi, loosely interpreted as, ‘peace shall reign’.
In his words, “Operation Udo-Ga-Achi is a special intervention force that complements regular policing, and is designed to upscale intelligence gathering, reward whistleblowers, enhance rapid response, and urgently root out criminals from every camp in Anambra State.” Already, the criminals and their accomplices are facing the heat. The Law provides for the use of technology in tracking heinous crimes; the State Call Centre will toll-free lines; monthly security support grants to communities, and a N10 million monthly bonus to Divisional Police Offices with no violent crime within their jurisdiction. The traditional medicine practitioners are obliged to undergo documentation and profiling to sanitize the social milieu and fish out the bad eggs. The Law also metes out stringent punishments in prison and monetary terms to those who contravene the Law. Hotels are also mandated as a security policy to keep the government-recognized means of identification of their guests.
Indeed, Soludo as a star governor, with first class footprints in the classroom, research, and public service, and whom former president Obasanjo publicly eulogized for becoming a Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor without a godfather, should not allow criminals to rubbish the reputation he built over years. His security strategy should be a model for the formation of credible joint security outfit in Southeast, as well as the proposed state police.
So, the vigilante operations should be devoid of partisan politics. The opposition will scream blue murder but let them lack hard facts. The vigilante should steer clear from debt recovery, land dispute and marital affairs. Soludo deserves our prayers because the buck stops at his desk and those at the receiving end must fight back with the last inch of their blood, including spiritually,
With apologies to Nathaniel Bassey, let what the enemy meant for shame, turn around for the good of the people.
