Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi
Insecurity in Enugu: DAAs to the Rescue!
M. O. ENE
DAAs? Put a stone on it. The main meat is insecurity in Enugu State. For obvious reasons, border communities are bearing the brunt of foreign Fulani terrorist herdsmen. Safeguarded by Miyetti Allah managers, who are in turn snuggled by government, the AK-47 and machete-wielding, mindless minions maim, kidnap, kill, rape, and ravage remote communities: Ukpabi-Nimbo, Opanda-Nimbo (Uzo Uwani), Amaofia-Agu Afa (Udi), Mgbuji Eha-Amaufu (Isi Uzo), etc.
When the government reacts with crocodile tears and stale proposals, many wonder if this is not what Ndiichie (Igbo ancestors) axiomatized as “killing with bad spirits and mourning with good humans.” What does it take to empower people to defend themselves? How many more must die to satisfy the bestial and bloodthirstiness of vicious invaders from outside the borders of Nigeria?
You retort: ‘You think it’s easy; what would you do if you were a governor?’ No, I do not think that it is easy; that’s why governors get set-aside, security-vote naira in hundreds of millions monthly: to secure our society. No, I do not aspire to govern anyone: I am too much of a free oracular spirit; plus, we do not all have to be in mind-altering, political-power bubbles to serve our humanity honestly.
The solutions are simple: First, ease the mega-millionaire Miyetti Allah allies into modern ranching and ban open grazing of livestock. It is counterculture to rear such large population of loose cows in a populated countryside, and it is an abomination to destroy crops and plants that sustain communities. Second, institute community governments (CG); the details are in the possession of Enugu State Government (ENSG).
Enter DAAs. Not many noticed that “development centres” are renamed “development areas.” There you have it: Development Area Administrators (DAAs)—all 68 of them, four per each local government area (LGA), big or small. In a state with Deputy Governor Cecilia Ezeilo, only one DAA is a woman: Mrs. Regina Onoh (Udi Central). How does DG Ezeilo explain ~1.5% women participation when the 1995 Beijing Platform for Action demands 30% minimum?
Renaming the sub-LGA centres “areas” is a further brutal indictment of failed LGA administrations, which President Buhari called out recently as a partisan crucible of corruption and criminality, regarding their aiding and abetting the diversion of funds meant for rural development. Otherwise, everything that ENSG wanted these DAA appointees to do could have been handled better and cheaper by LGAs and functional CGs.
ENSG continues to approach CG and security with far too many baby steps. In banning open grazing, no step! Security architecture is all over the place; none is concretised. A straightforward setup would be community policing in CG for all true communities (not the ‘autonomous’ hogwash). CG has an elected and tenured mayor, a community council of village reps, and departments for education, works, maintenance, policing, culture, etc. The officials must be permanent residents: where you live, there you thrive (‘ebe onye bi ka o na-awachi’).
ENSG has all the ingredients to make a great community soup. Sadly, it is dissipating the urge to defecate decently by farting frequently. The stopgap DAAs will fail like the uncoordinated, half-hearted development dash of N5/10 million naira to each community, the payment of N30k monthly stipend to PGs (many live in Enugu or outside the state), the continued sustenance of ‘traditional rulers’ with no job description (many live in Enugu or outside the country!), the continued creation of autonomous communities for wannabe kings for-life, and all sorts of ill-equipped security outfits (underpaid, undertrained, and owed salaries).
According to reports from the Governor’s office and published verbatim today (August 4, 2021) in some news outlets, we read: “Gov. Ugwuanyi also directed that the new Administrators must engage all Traditional Rulers, Presidents of Town Unions, Religious Leaders, Youth Organizations, Women Organizations, Neighbourhood Watch groups, Forest Guards and indeed all stakeholders in their respective Development Areas, to inspire a grassroots security architecture underpinned by robust intelligence gathering and communication of same to security agencies.”
Great listing, but he forgot the Community Police! We have not. On Friday, February 12, 2021, Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi inaugurated 272 special constables recruited from 17 LGAs and trained at Oji River Police College to facilitate “our rejigged and retooled Enugu State security architecture.” Six months later, he made no mention of the outfit: another failure! Forget the dead-on-arrival joke called “Ebubeagu.”
Major question: What is left for the federally funded LGAs, when none could supply a simple borehole water to any community in two years? From where will the money come to sustain DAAs, the secretaries, members, and the padded bureaucracy of ghost aides, bag carriers, receptionists, drivers, clerks, cleaners, messengers, and hangers-on? How do they “engage” communities that are raising on their own millions of naira to self-address continued security concerns, including solar lights and stipend for vigilantes?
The report further informs us: “Determined to stem local security challenges, Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State has directed the 68 newly sworn-in Development Area Administrators in the state, to relocate to their areas and take charge immediately. :::: [He] stressed that the grassroots engagement strategy ‘is the only means of fully reclaiming our neighborhoods, and we expect no less.’” Without banning open grazing, this is like sending someone to buy salt and then making rain!
Let’s then philosophize that policing as a “grassroots engagement strategy” is a collective community pursuit of peace, prosperity, and progress projected to produce an enabling environment that is safe, sacred, secured, and sustained. In that case, policing requires the direct commitment of community citizens, residents—not non-residents with a weekend-corner connection to the community.
This is the fourth time I have noted that Governor Ugwuanyi is “directing” LGA officers to relocate. Why keep saying the same thing that we know won’t work? They know that he will do nothing about it. Why not allow officials to emerge from the areas? That is the main difference that CGs will bring to grassroots development.
©MOE
August 4, 2021
ALADIMMA
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