A snake that swallows its species may soon discover that it is doomed to die of hunger. This is because there may be no one left for it to swallow in due course. The South-East of Nigeria is gradually turning into this type of dangerous snake. From cult killings to banditry and from frequent sit-at-home exercise to the menace of unknown gunmen, the region has embarked on a journey to self-destruction. How it will end still wears a hat.
I was in Anambra State last month. My plan was to return to my base in Lagos on Tuesday, October 22, 2024. Somehow, news filtered out that that same Tuesday was sit-at-home. Mondays are already seen as statutory sit-at-home days. Once people hear this type of news, they fear to come out because nobody wants to fall victim to any action by some non-state actors enforcing the order. So, on this particular Tuesday, most people stayed indoors. Videos of people being punished for venturing out that day were on the social media. Some were mercilessly beaten and their vehicles burnt.
This type of action has been going on in the South-East for about three years now. Sometimes, the captured violators of the sit-at-home order are shot dead. In 2022, the Finland-based Simon Ekpa issued a sit-at-home order for five days. His loyalists killed some people seen to have violated the order.
Sometimes, there is confusion about who issues some of these orders. For instance, it is not certain who gave the Tuesday, October 22 sit-at-home order and the purpose for giving it. The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) denied issuing it. The situation is such that anybody can now record a video threatening people not to come out on any particular day that comes to his fancy and people will obey. They have no choice because they fear for their lives.
Recall that it was IPOB that originally gave the Monday sit-at-home directive in solidarity with its leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, who has been in the custody of the Department of State Services (DSS) since June 2021. Nevertheless, the group has since cancelled the directive. Even Kanu has urged people to stop the action. But it is worrisome that the exercise has become a malignant tumour.
More worrisome are the lives being wasted on a regular basis in the South-East. The same last month, some gunmen invaded Nibo community in Awka-South Local Government Area (LGA) of Anambra State. The community was celebrating a traditional festival called ‘Onwa Asaa’. Some young boys were entertaining themselves in a pub at Oye Nwochichi Market. Suddenly, there was a rain of bullets. About 16 people lay dead. The assailants were alleged to be cultists.
Few days after the Nibo incident, there was another suspected cult attack in Ifite, behind the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, the capital of Anambra State. At least, seven people were reported dead. Two years ago, a similar cult attack at a funeral at Ebenebe community in Awka-North LGA resulted in the death of about 20 mourners.
The killings are not only cult-related. Recently, gunmen kidnapped some sports journalists at Isseke-Orlu Road in Ihiala LGA of Anambra state. They reportedly killed three persons and two police officers while security operatives rescued six others.
In 2022, the billionaire Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of Ofoma Associates Limited (an estate surveying firm), Chief Gab Ofoma, was killed on Ukpor-Lilu-Orsumoghu-Azia, Mbosi Road while returning to his base in Port Harcourt from his home town, Nnewi. The 88-year-old Professor I.O. Onyemelukwe who was the father of Dr. Cheluchi Onyemelukwe, the winner of the Nigeria LNG Prize for Literature 2021, was also killed the same year at Oko, in Orumba-North LGA of Anambra. Dr. Chike Akunyili, the husband of the former Information Minister, Professor Dora Akunyili, was also a victim.
Security agents who are supposed to protect the people are not spared. Scores of them have been killed in the past few years. Some of their stations and operational vehicles have also been destroyed. Last September, some hoodlums attacked a police station at Umunze in Orumba South LGA of Anambra state. Two policemen died during the attack. The worst year was 2021. It was the year some police stations at Umulowo, Isiala Mbano, Ihitte Uboma, Obowu and some others in Imo State were attacked and set ablaze. Some policemen died while their weapons were carted away. In Abia State, gunmen attacked the police in such places as Abiriba, Omoba, Abayi, among others. In Anambra, security agents were targets of these gunmen in places like Nkpologwu, Omogho, Awkuzu, Neni, Ekwulobia and so on.
Incidentally, the identity of the perpetrators of these vicious attacks is not very clear. Some people believe they are not even Igbo; that they are paid agents brought in from other regions to destabilize the South-East. Some believe they are members of the Eastern Security Network, the armed wing of IPOB.
Whoever they are, the motive has gone beyond agitation for self-determination. It is ironical that a war of liberation has ended up consuming the people meant to be liberated. What is simply at play is criminality buoyed up by unemployment. When there is no job to keep body and soul together, some youths engage in some criminal ventures. It starts by congregating at some joints where they take illicit substances like ‘mkpuru mmiri’. Then they graduate to carrying guns to kill or kidnap people for ransom.
Sadly, they have succeeded in destroying the South-East. Anambra State Governor, Professor Chukwuma Soludo, had lamented in March 2022 that the poor masses lost as much as N19.6 billion each day the state observed sit-at-home. Enugu State governor, Dr. Peter Mbah, similarly noted that every Monday sit-at-home cost his state over N10 billion. The region reportedly lost over N7.6 trillion to insecurity and the Monday sit-at-home between August 2021 and July 2023.
The governors of the region have been calling on their wealthy citizens to come home and invest. But who will want to invest in a place where security is not guaranteed? Most citizens of the region now return home with trepidation. Ironically, many of them face persecution in their places of residence.
To be fair to the South-East governors, they have done a number of things to curb the crisis in the region. In 2021, they floated Ebubeagu security outfit. It was fashioned after the South-West security outfit, Operation Amotekun. But while Amotekun is well funded, well equipped and doing well, Ebubeagu has become comatose. In some states like Imo and Ebonyi states, people have accused them of extra-judicial killings and some other criminal activities.
In a state like Anambra, Ebubeagu is not in existence. Different communities have vigilance groups while the state has the central vigilance group called Anambra Vigilante Services (AVS). These groups have done a lot in protecting life and property in the state, but occasionally, they come under fire by the hoodlums. Like the police, scores of them have paid the supreme sacrifice in their efforts to protect the people.
Professor Soludo has severally warned against observing the sit-at-home directive. He had threatened to sanction workers who failed to come to work on Mondays. This has not worked. Other state governors have issued similar warnings all to no avail. So, who will save the South-East?
The Federal Government controls the instrument of coercion. It has the power to put an end to the criminality in the region. But does it have the will? Do the current leaders have the interest of the region at heart? Does the cry of marginalization of the people of the region mean anything to them? Will they ever invite the people of the zone for dialogue like former President Musa Yar’Adua did with the Niger Delta people when there was serious agitation there? He later granted amnesty to the Niger Delta militants and initiated different empowerment programmes for the youths of the region.
It was former President Muhammadu Buhari who described the South-East as a dot in a circle. Since the majority of the Igbo did not vote for him, he chose to marginalize them in terms of appointment and some other forms of development.
President Bola Tinubu appears to be moving in the same direction. He did not receive much support from the people of the region in the last election. Part of the obvious reason was that the people found him unsuitable for the presidency. Besides, the All Progressives Congress (APC) is not that strong in the South-East. If not for rigging, the party would not have been in control of any state in the region. But a detribalized President must overlook these issues and address any cry of injustice in any part of his country.
Will the security agencies come to the rescue? I seriously doubt. They are more reactionary than being proactive. After every attack, the police will threaten fire and brimstone.
But it ends there. No significant arrest, no prosecution. Police authorities had promised to mop up illegal arms and ammunition in the country. So far, they are not able to do that.
Last year, the five governors of the South-East met in Enugu and resolved to tackle insecurity in the zone collectively and individually in partnership with the Federal Government and other stakeholders. So far, nothing much has come out of this. The people who can save the South-East are the citizens of the area themselves.
Major stakeholders must put heads together with a view to tackling the insecurity problem once and for all. Otherwise, Biafra agitators may soon discover that by the time they gain ‘independence’, there may be just few souls remaining for them to govern!