Victoria Agwu, 26, is a National Diploma Holder in Marketing. She deals with yam and fruits which she buys in large quantity in Igbodo, Ika North East Local Government Area of Delta State, and takes to either Lagos or the northern part of Nigeria. She lives a comfortable life at that age to the extent that she caters for the other members of the family, becomes employer of labour and even thinks of becoming an exporter. But last year the tall dream collapsed when flood ravaged the Igbodo market and swept away her oranges worth thousands of naira. Since then her business has stopped and life is not friendly to her anymore. Monday Ikechukwu, 57,a lorry driver, is another victim. He took the lorry on a higher purchase which he pays monthly. He was doing well, at least able to have a son who is a graduate while another one is an undergraduate, apart from the one in secondary school. The wife, Gloria buys and sells seasonal food like corn, oranges and other fruits which she buys in large quantity and with the husband’s 911 lorry transport to Port Harcout. Last January, there was a heavy rainfall in Igbodo, the lorry, loaded with yam, entered a pot hole in the community and fell. Apart from the damages to the lorry, most of the yam scattered. While the family could not repair the lorry, the debt over the yam is giving the family sleepless nights and it is affecting the children’s school fees. If Monday is lamenting, the family of Ebikeme Arhavware, 34, may have given up fate. In 2012 he went to Igbodo market to buy goods for the family upkeep. After buying the foodstuff, he stopped a motorcycle, popularly called ‘Okada’, to take him and the load home. They were to cross the highway when an Onitsha bound Hilux bus on top speed hit the motorcycle from behind, both the rider and the passenger fell and they sustained injuries. Ebikeme’s injury was worse which required immediate treatment but since there was no hospital in Igbodo he had to be rushed to the next community. Unfortunately, he lost a lot of blood before getting there and he gave up. Today the family members are regretting the loss of their bread winner just as the children have nobody to take good care of them. By its geographic nature, Igbodo located on the Benin-Onitsha expressway, is a point of convergence for farm products, especially fruits. Trading there is further in large scale as it has links with six communities, including Idumuje, Onicha-Ugbo, Obior, Ekwuoma, Mbiri and Ekpon. This may have also exposed the area to security challenges. Delta State is one of the largest producers of food items which presuppose that food, a necessity to millions of the people, deserved to be given priority attention by the three tiers of government. But in some areas in the state, conveyance of food to the market has been neglected and such priority is at the mercy of the people in the communities. The management of the market has become a threat and beyond the reach of most of the ordinary residents. Against this backdrop, the people of Igbodo Kingdom, specifically on March 29, 2014, trooped out in their large numbers. Ironically, it was one of the market days. Passersby, especially strangers, may have mistaken them to be traders who visited the community every four days to buy one food item or the other. But the presence of some title holders in the community, members of Community Development Unions, among others, changed the perception of non-natives that the usual buying and selling in Igbodo that day was different. The Chiefs led the women and youths, the staged a peaceful protest over government absence and its insensitivity to the residents of the area despite its determination on ‘Delta Beyond Oil’. The protesters moved round the market with series of inscription on their placards such as, ‘’Build a market for Igbodo kingdom, Commission Igbodo hospital as it has been completed, Governor Uduaghan deliver on your promises as 2015 beckons, Igbodo, Delta food basket has no market, we have no government presence in Igbodo, save Igbodo from erosion menace’’ among others promised to repeat the agitation until their demands were met. They said it was an affront on the psyche of the average mind and a slap in the face of thousands of hardworking and long suffering residents of the community who had no tarred roads, their hospital not commissioned, boreholes abandoned coupled with a collapsed town hall. Obi (King) Ikechukwu Osedume of the Kingdom, while lamenting said there is no single government presence at all based on the numerous abandoned projects that litter the agrarian community, claimed the residents are getting fed up with government insensitivity to the area despite its determination on the ‘Delta Beyond Oil claim’. Represented by Chief Gilbert Nwajei, Oza/Ojifulueze of Igbodo Kingdom, said the market is in a deplorable condition despite the cry to the three tiers of government without response, saying the most annoying aspect is the big pit close to the market which was dug during the tarring of the road causing great havoc to the traders. According to him, the governments do not care for the market in such a condition but they come every market day to exploit the traders who come from all over the country to collect revenue, not even bothering to cover the pit which now looks like a trap to the residents. The Obi maintained that their situation looks like political persecution as there are many places where markets are built but people do not occupy them while politicians always come to the community to seek for votes based on their population but abandon them once they get to power. He said government should look into the market construction with all seriousness as lots of food items that can feed the state and the country are produced from the area, stating that the residents can only be happy with the government if it can fix the structures at the market to an appreciable standard. Corroborating, Nnamdi Okocha, members, Igbodo Central Executive Committee, regretted that Igbodo had become a dumping ground and that all developments in the area were palliative measures from the community and despite the plan by the government to build eight new markets, Igbodo was not included. He insisted the community would continue to demand for its rights while efforts to develop the place through self help would be encouraged. Mrs Felicia Okoh, another member, Igbodo Central Executive Committee, who spoke for the market women lamented that the government had to live up to its responsibilities, if possible call a stakeholders meeting to brainstorm on the matter. According to her, the government should rehabilitate the roads so that produce can come out from the farms without stress, reactivate the market which has been abandoned for long and compel the Local Government to do its part even if the state government is not ready to assist the community. Mr. Kingsley Emu, Commissioner for Commerce and Industry, when contacted on the development, said it was the responsibilities of the Local Government to provide such markets and that the state government could only intervene. On the allegation that the state government had given award to the construction of some markets in some places and Igbodo excluded while those built in some communities were not being used by the residents, he confirmed contracts for new markets had actually been awarded and that some new market are actually not in use. He stated that the market was not given to the original owners and the government has decided to revoke the agreement and re allocate. At one occasion in Igbodo, Delta State Commissioner for Basic and Secondary Education, Professor Patrick Muoboghare, had said government alone cannot shoulder the responsibility of funding education in the state as it is capital intensive. Not comfortable with government responses, the natives of Igbodo built a Divisional Police Headquarters for the state police command in response to the call by the Inspector General of Police for citizens to assist the police formations across the country to perform their duties effectively and efficiently. Delta State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Ikechukwu Aduba, who laid the foundation of the building project on February 22, 2013, also inaugurated it on April 19. Explaining how the project was executed, President General of Igbodo Development Union, Peter Ozili said Igbodo like-minds and stakeholder, home and abroad put up the building which was duly supervised by officers from the Works Department of the state police command. Ozili said: “We collectively agreed to embark on the project on the premise that when there is security in a community, peace will reign supreme; developments will spring up; and the well-being of the people would be improved. We have just set a ball rolling. It is, therefore, our collective duty not to allow the ball to stop gathering momentum. Now is never late. So, let us lead from the front and carry out the development of Igbodo together in the spirit of shared destiny, vision and identity.” Also, Dr. Isioma Okobah, an indigene, built a Health Center for the community saying the gesture was borne out of the need to give back the society and that as a professional doctor; she understood the challenges faced by doctors and communities, in their bid to save lives. Before then, Okobah had donated some hospital equipment worth millions of naira to the Central Hospital, Agbor and four Health Centers in Ika South and Ika North East Local Government Areas of Delta State. The benefiting Health Centers include Emuhu Health Center, Ute Ogbeje Health Centre, Igbodo Community Health Center, Uweifo Community Orthopedic Nursing Home, Ewuru. The items donated include, scanning machine, blood pressure measuring kits, stretchers, wheel chairs, hospitals beds, glucometer, incubation tubes, scalp veins, urinary catheters, face masks, cord clamps for new born babies, mattresses, gausse
Posted on: Thu, 10 Apr 2014 12:58:04 +0000
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