Odili’s Legacies & Omehia’s Definition Of Peace

 

Any family or clan that their method of climbing the tree is with the teeth knows the bitter tree. And it does not go well with a man bathing in a big sea that soap continues to enter his eyes.

The spate of killings, I mean human beings, in the ancient city of Port Harcourt during the time of ex-Governor Peter Odili of Rivers State, has drifted its ugly wings to the successor’s, Barrister Celestine Ngozichim Omehia. Port Harcourt that was known for its lucent features has become a land where no one lives in or goes into without first embarking on a spiritual exercise. Port Harcourt that was known for its magnificent beauty has lost its glory to manmade havocs. Criminality and shoddy businesses of human menacing, mayhem and murder have taken the streets. Children are crying woes, mothers are weeping out their eyes and fathers continue to gnash their teeth, thinking of when this madness could come to an end.

In his state broadcast, after his inauguration in May 29, 2007, Governor Omehia said that his government would not tolerate, entertain, inshort condone any form of violence in Rivers State. This assertion could be from what he saw under Odili. And it smacks ones intelligence and imagination that upon the much-revered speech, violence has still become the order of the day in Port Harcourt. Can you beat that? Innocent people are killed. From Oyigbo to Eleme Junction, from Artillery Junction to Boro Park, the story has not changed.

Upon these, but Governor Omehia was reportedly saying that he was the ‘luckiest’ governor in Nigeria. According to him, having inherited a lot ‘goodies’ from his predecessor, Odili. (We now know the Odili legacies!)

Governor Omehia addressing newsmen in Abuja was reported as saying that the state was currently ‘the richest’ (in what?) with a lot of investments and completed projects, lot of cash, goodwill and human resources put in place by Odili. (Define the human resources!)

In that journey accompanied by Odili to see President Umar Yar’Adua, hear Omehia, “I thank God for giving me the opportunity to have such a wonderful predecessor”. (A predecessor that now lives in Abuja than in Rivers State?)

Omehia went further and stated that his government would focus on education, provision of infrastructure and security of lives and properties. (When would that start? When would they have effect on the residents?).

Maybe, to gain the long-love of the predecessor, Omehia aid that he was in the State House to brief the President on the current situation in Rivers State, which he described as ‘peaceful’.

I would not agitate the President to come to Rivers State to see things himself. But, notwithstanding many other killings in Port Harcourt since Omehia assumed office. On Sunday 1 st July, 2007 blood flowed in Mile One, Diobu area of Port Harcourt, when unknown gunmen reportedly shot randomly in the Street, killing 15 people in cold blood, 20 others were badly injured and were hospitalized.

These gunmen, according to reports, came to Elechi Beach Street, in Diobu, in an unmarked Mercedes Benz car from where they drove to No1 Abakiliki/Okija Street, where they shot and killed three young men. Ikuroa Briggs and Biobele Princewill were among the victims of that night’s shootout. (That is the kind of peace in the state?)

In Njemanze Street, the gunmen shot two persons to death, including an elderly man. In Okija Street, the gunmen killed a lady and two men. The lady was killed inside her dark blue 504 Peugeot car, with registration number, Rivers AV 270 PHC at No 2, Okija Street, while the two men, identified as Ifeanyi, a welder and Clement Nwene were killed a few blocks away.

In Gambia Street, near Okija another lady whose name was simply given as Rose and two men said to be Housa were, with other victims, said to have died at Teme Clinic where they were taken for treatment.

Killings in Port Harcourt, we are not even talking about the recent (Rumuorumeni) mayhem where the death of a youth leader by unknown gunmen left the inhabitants packing. We are not even talking about the incessant kidnappings! At least, we heard of the Margret Hill and Prince Samuel Amadi kidnap saga. Even, we heard of the Omehia’s mother’s abduction, apart from expatriates too numerous to mention. All took place in Port Harcourt.

Following these anomalies, recently Eleme youths in a suburb of Port Harcourt embarked on a peaceful protest, condemning in totality the un-peaceful state of things in Rivers State. Port Harcourt that was with the Treasure City status has metamorphosed to a city of blood.

There is hardly any day that passes in Rivers State without one form of killing, gunshots or another in various parts of the city. Yet, Omehia said that Rivers State was ‘peaceful).

The killings had become so rampant that human lives seemed to have lost value in the City. The current killings in Port Harcourt took a different dimension, because no rival group seems to be fighting each other.

While bullets spotted innocent people, Governor Omehia mounted the radio podium, as usual, announcing that the government would not accept such again, and that every parent should warn their children and wards to refrain from causing public unrest in the Port Harcourt metropolis. But, before the dawn the announcement was heard, the unknown gunmen kept Woji residents on their heels, maybe knowing full well that the Governor was a ‘broadcaster’.

As Omehia is thankful to God for the opportunity given him to have such a ‘wonderful’ predecessor like Odili. It is a shocker and an eye opener to read in a national daily recently that the ‘wonderful’ Odili recruited 700 militants. (If not more than!)

Well, except that the government began to trace its problem from where the rain met it, the tale could not be complete. Because, according to Poet Okogbule Wonodi in a poem ‘August Break’, “The playgrounds jump and chatter/ with the presence of children/ in games abandoned yesterday/ when the sky was falling tears”.

Any family or clan that their method of climbing the tree is with the teeth knows the bitter tree. And it does not go well with a man bathing in a big sea that soap continues to enter his eyes.

 

By Odimegwu Onwumere

Onwumere, author and poet, writes from

Oyigbo, Rivers State, Nigeria.