By Jude Atupulazi
One Bloody Dry Season Morning in Mgbakwu
Last Monday, as I went to work, I was passed by a convoy of members of the Anambra State security outfit known as Agunechemba. From the dust that plastered their vehicles and some of them, and the swagger they displayed while many of them hung on the doors of their vehicles, brandishing their guns, it wasn’t difficult to guess that they were coming back from a successful raid.
I would soon learn that they indeed operated somewhere between Mgbakwu and Isuaniocha, in Awka North Local Government Area of Anambra State. But as they sped through Mgbakwu that morning and shot into the air, a bullet hit a young girl and snuffed the life out of her. It was a tragedy in the midst of joy.
A video of the girl soon flooded the social media as her people wailed beside her lifeless body. Many in the video were berating the Anambra State Government for establishing an outfit which, instead of saving them, was killing them. You could excuse this as they were grieving the unfortunate loss of their own. Who wouldn’t?
From what I saw of the returning members of the security outfit, I surmised that they did not even know that one of their released bullets took a life. At least, no sane mind would be that unperturbed after taking an innocent life. But that is also the danger of unwarranted firing of guns.
This incident once again highlights the needlessness of firing gunshots without cause. Many times we have heard about people being shot dead or wounded accidentally at events when some people let off shots from their firearms.
I remember the day a man who came on holidays and decided to escort his friend to pay a condolence visit was killed after a security official accompanying someone tried to shoot into the air to announce their arrival. It was indeed a tragic day. This is something that has happened many times in many other places. But still, the practice of firing off some rounds of bullets at events has persisted.
This is why I immediately leave anywhere this happens because the dead don’t hear apologies. I’ve often wondered what people see in this practice which constitutes a grave danger to the public. While a few communities have banned this practice, many others are yet to take action.
The Mgbakwu incident was highly unfortunate and more so when it was avoidable. The Agunechemba Security Outfit, while good, should be exposed to appropriate training which will make them a more disciplined and professional force.
The man with the gun should be the most careful man on earth because once anyone is killed, no amount of crying or compensation can bring them back.
Often, I see policemen or soldiers at the back of their vehicles holding their rifles with the nozzles pointing directly at the vehicles following them. Once I observe this, I immediately slow down and allow them to get some distance between us but when I’m in a public transport, I leave my fate to God.
This is a very dangerous thing to do as something as little as their vehicle galloping or stopping suddenly can do things to those guns. It is also a very unprofessional way to carry guns and this is something the appropriate authorities should correct.
As for the Agunechemba, people have expressed fears that they could in the near future become monsters that may be difficult to control. Already, they have started extorting money from commercial drivers in Onitsha and I hear they can now be called to settle private matters. These are dangerous signals.
What to do? There should be established, a media arm that should be receiving and reacting to complaints, with their hotlines made public. This security outfit is generally doing a good job and I wouldn’t like them to derail so soon or at any point.
Their emergence has restored sanity to the polity and the people of the state are having a new lease of life. Soludo, please do something so that this outfit will not derail.
Soludo’s media interaction with ”abroad” journalists
Recently, as part of his celebration of three years in office, the Anambra State Governor, Prof Chukwuma Soludo, had a media interaction with journalists from outside the state. From the questions they asked, it was easy to discern that they were not abreast with issues in the state as would have been the case if those on ground like us had been involved.
In his early days Soludo was interacting with the local press in live programmes on the state owned radio station. I was part of the second edition. But gradually, that interaction died off and now we have seen him interfacing with foreign journalists who are largely oblivious of the true situation of things in the state.
For the audience who rely on the journalists to be their mouth on such occasions, they are usually disappointed when the questions they expect are not asked.
Perhaps what happened that day was a one-off event and Soludo will return home to us. As earlier said, it is always different when you interface with those who know the terrain and they ask the questions those listening or watching would like to have posed if they had the opportunity. Soludo should therefore resurrect his earlier interactions with the home branch as soon as possible.
Peter Obi, the wily fox
To succeed in Nigeria as a politician, you have to have courage and connections. But often times, one realizes that these two may not be enough. You may have the courage of Sampson and know all that have to be known, but when you run foul of the ”owners” of the country, they will rummage in their records and produce something about you that will force you to shut up or they set the dogs of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, after you.
This is a well-tested method of checkmating troublesome politicians in Nigeria and this is simply because the average Nigerian politician is not clean. There’s always a skeleton in their cupboard. This last one makes it necessary for one to be clean.
Besides this, though, there’s another quality one should have in order to remain one step ahead of the chasing pack of wolves. That is guile but in a more positive sense. This quality enables one to avoid the traps set up by one’s adversaries. It is however not easy for anyone in Nigeria to possess all these qualities. And that is why they always fall prey to the establishment.
But then, if there is one politician in Nigeria that possesses all these qualities, that man is Peter Obi, former Anambra State Governor and Presidential Candidate of Labour Party in the last General Elections. Obi has the courage to fight the establishment. He has the connections, not necessarily with the establishment, but with the masses.
He has a clean record, so clean that despite all the powers that be did to find just one fault with which to nail him, they could not. It is a rarity among Nigerian politicians. It is because Obi has the above three qualities of Courage, Connections and Clean Record that he was able to challenge the status quo last time and still challenging them, while they continually scratch their heads, thinking how to find something to nail him with.
But Obi has a last trump card: he has Guile. You could say he is as cunning as the fox and you would be right. This quality of his has ensured that he is always one step ahead of his adversaries. You just never know what next Obi is up to or even where he will be the next moment.
You see him in Kafanchan in the morning donating money to a school and in the afternoon he is in Kano felicitating the Emir. Same evening he could be in Awka breaking fast with the Muslim Community. Obi is just one big bundle of energy and unpredictability, whose style certainly deserves to be studied.
Despite not having been in government for eleven years now, he has still remained among the most relevant Nigerians, as well as the most loved. He has become a brand that cannot be run down. He is probably one face that most children will see and recognize.
He has been able to permeate into the consciousness of Nigerians and while he brings joy to the masses, he brings pain to the establishment. Different strokes for different people.
Note: I decided to write this about Obi after watching him breaking fast with the Muslim Community in Awka recently.
