The Time Has Come to Re-construct Onitsha – By Emeka Chiakwelu

Posted by admin Anambra, Articles, Columnists, Emeka Chiakwelu, NNP Columnists, State News Friday, August 12th, 2011

By Emeka Chiakwelu, NNP, August 12, 2011 – Gov. Peter Obi should set up technical Committee to re-make diminishing
Onitsha. Onitsha the most important commercial center in eastern Nigeria is in
shambles and needs immediate attention. Governor Peter Obi and his
administration must now listen to a voice of reason and logic without
being defensive. This is not time to verbalize any constructive advice as
an opposition and as a voice of acrimony to the administration. After all
a descending voice and constructive criticism cannot be easily discarded
but must be weighed for its worth. The influential sociological–commercial
integrity of Onitsha that is fast diminishing must be revived with
re-construction, refurbishment and environmental face-lift.

The famous Upper Iweka Road in Onitsha has been branded, “Anambra crime
headquarters,” in a write-up published in Daily Sun and The Nigeria
http://thenigeria.com/. In the article the writer, Aloysius
Attah gave a mind-bending description on how robbers, kidnappers,
lawlessness, and pure evil ‘reigns’ in a back drop of filthy and refuse
overflowing environment.

Onitsha is too important to Ndiigbo and Nigeria to be left to go down in
the dustbin of decay and rottenness that characterized a failed urban
township in the 21st century. Onitsha has given a lot to Anambra state
including the birthplace of the first Nigerian President Rt. Honorable Dr.
Nnamdi Azikiwe, Louis Mbanefo and many others. Onitsha gave us Main
Market, the largest open trading center in West Africa. But today’s Main
market is unkempt – a health hazard without indoor plumbing and running
water. How can this be possible when the Governor Obi did promise that he
will make the development of Onitsha the hallmark of his administration?

Governor Peter Obi should set up a committee of technocrats and technical
advisers on Onitsha because it is quickly becoming a lost town – dirty and
unkempt, mesmerized with refuse, debris, pot holes, and penetrating
darkness at night. It is essential that the state of Onitsha must be
improved not just for sake of reviving the commercial integrity of Onitsha
but also for health benefits that comes with clean ambience and healthy
environment.

The proposed technical committee must consist of experts, technicians,
traders and stakeholders. They will be given assignment to come up with
solutions, remedies and methodology to improve and reconstruct Onitsha.
This is not time to prattle about Governor Obi’s Anambra State Integrated
Development Services (ANDIS) for it has become self-evident that it is not
working for Onitsha. To technically and scientifically measure the
correlation between ANDIS and its presence in Onitsha, the result will
almost end up in zero percentiles.

Therefore let not waste our time to debate whether the administration blue
print ANDIS for development is working for Onitsha. For inspite of noise
making about ANDIS, its presence in Onitsha remains a mirage. Onitsha is
still the dirtiest major township in eastern Nigeria without running
water, traffic lights, refuse recycling center to mention but few.

Onitsha has deteriorated to its nadir level that Onitsha of 1970s and
early 1980s were much better and appealing than Peter Obi’s Onitsha of
2011. It sounds incredible but it is the bitter truth. That past decades
of 70s and 80s was Onitsha that had running tap water managed by Water
Works and gutters/ditches were not clogged with solid waste and debris.
The generated refuse and trash were safely hauled from residential homes
to landfills at stipulated intervals in the yesteryears of those decades.

Many of Onitsha residents which are mostly traders and business men may be
politically powerless and may find the system cumbersome and time
consuming to be leverage for development. That does not mean that they are
not observant and recognized quite well that the health and wellbeing of
their town is nothing to write home about.

The political actors and elected politicians in the state took Onitsha
residents lack of political involvement as their acquiescence to the
status quo. But if the truth is to be tell the people have been disengaged
from the polity because it is not working for them rather they go about
doing their trading nonchalantly without attracting necessary attention to
themselves and their families.

What does Onitsha really needs?
Onitsha needs environmental facelift and to be launched into 21st century
with modern amenities and infrastructures including:

1.Running tap water to replace ubiquitous water boreholes

2.Waste water treatment plant to process sanitary wastes into manures

3.Modern landfill to contain discarded materials, refuse and solid waste

4.Recycling centre where refuse are separated for further use in
production and those materials that cannot be recycled transported to
landfill

5.The reconstruction of Main Market to assume the trading center of 21st
century

6.The re-dredging of Otumoye/NwangeneCreek to lessen the effects of
flooding disaster at Fegge, Oboko and surrounding sub-municipalities. The
continuous inspection and monitor of the storm water ditches to discourage
mosquitoes inhabitation and subsequently malaria.

7.The re-building of electric infrastructure and provision of electricity
at a limited capacity. It is quite understandable that the state
government does not have the prime control of electric energy generation
and distribution. The responsibility lies with federal government but that
does not imply that the state government or Anambra state for that matter
cannot contribute to the improvement of the process. Anambra state can
start by acquiring solar panels to provide street lights.

It was a good move on behalf of Anambra state on the visit the Governor
Peter Obi paid to the Minister of Power Professor Nnaji. It must not be
just a courtesy visit for photo opportunity but a visit that the governor
should equipped with a detailed proposal on improving electricity
deliverance that he should present to the minister.

The time has come to do justice to Onitsha and its residents by
transforming it to a place worthy of its historical significance and it’s
continue importance as the commercial nerve center of Anambra state.

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Emeka Chiakwelu is the Principal Policy Strategist at Afripol
Organization. Africa Political and Economic Strategic Center (Afripol) is
foremost a public policy center whose fundamental objective is to broaden
the parameters of public policy debates in Africa. To advocate, promote
and encourage free enterprise, democracy, sustainable green environment,
human rights, conflict resolutions, transparency and probity in Africa.
www.afripol.org, [email protected]wp_posts