My cry for Owukpa (Opinion)

By Ali Adoyi

As you read this, I may have done something ‘bad’ to myself.

I woke up this morning in a state of utter desolation. The tears flowing down as I write this can only be compared to ‘Awube’ and ‘Adu’ Rivers. The feeling of inferiority and failure runs down my spine. I’m ashamed of myself. I can only hide my face wherever people are gathered. I can’t say proudly that I’m from Owukpa. I can’t beat my chest in pride. I’m mostly disappointed in myself because the thatched houses our ancestors left for us now leak. Water drips on us directly and the fate of the unborn generation remains in Limbo. I’m sad, and I believe everyone is too, whether you are bold enough to confront this reality or not.

Seldom do I write on this platform. It’s obviously not because I’m naive or timid. It’s simply so, because I’m constantly lamenting the state of things in Owukpa.

Owukpa is a district and not a local community, neither is it a village. It’s the third and the least district in Ogbadibo LGA. But how come we are the least in the socio-political and economic space in Ogbadibo and Idoma by extension?

Well, that is the irony of life, because paradoxically, Owukpa is a community massively endowed with individuals of intellectual capacity, a community richly endowed with natural resources, with unimaginable volume of coal deposit. A community with fertile lands and so much of economic trees which are already destroyed as a result of poverty and backwardness. A community with no motorable and manageable roads, a community with no electricity. Do we call what we have at the moment electricity? A community with no schools as what we have are dilapidated structures, where dilapidated classes are empty with no seats and no teachers. We can count the number of boreholes in our community. It is only in Owukpa and in the 21st century that people still drink from the same water they bath and dispose waste. This is the sad reality of our existence.

But what have we done as a people???

I acknowledge great and purposeful individuals among us who have contributed their quotas and deserve some commendation. Even though it will be a misplaced priority to begin to mention names, I can highlight efforts without necessarily mentioning names so as not to politicize this lamentation (Cry).

I’m aware of the effort of a few persons who responsibly and selflessly did the Onyirade bridge some years ago. I know individuals whose effort took the current nonfunctional electricity to some interior villages such as Udaburu, and I recognize the current effort on the Awube bridge in Ugbugbu. I know a few individuals who in their own capacity have given qualified Owukpa sons and daughters jobs in their own capacity. I understand that a few people from Owukpa have written to the Benue State government, demanding urgently, the renovation of schools across the community. It will a good mention, the effort of young Owukpa men who are now shouldering the responsibility of paying the only available auxiliary teachers’ salaries monthly in the only GSS. I have information of an alumni of a school contributing and making frantic effort to renovate one of the oldest schools in the community.

Yes, I recognise these efforts, but we are surely bigger than these. Society has gone beyond this stage. Transformation and development are not scientific, they happen through collectivism and not individualism. They come when individuals understand their various strengths and harmonize same. It’s not about holding ODA meetings monthly. It goes far beyond that. It’s not about holding Esther family meetings every year, it’s about how the meetings affect us positively as a community. Yes, we have been holding ODA meetings, what are our annual targets. Have we ever met a target we set for ourselves???

I understand that we need to call on the government to help us, but ”Egbi and Iroko” trees can’t do that for us. Human beings go to the government for help. In our various capacities, have we been doing that? Individually, we are big people in the larger society, back home, who are we? Individually, we are schooled, back home, are there schools? Are those left behind in our community schooled? Today, we have schools on papers, inks no longer working, chalkboards have turned white, and classes are now under trees. What have we done about it?

The worst that could happen to any community is educational retrogression. It is the extreme form of backwardness. I’m sad because individually, we are capable, but collectively we are disabled. I’m crying because individually, we have names, but collectively, we have no name. I’m lamenting because individually we are boastful, but collectively we are ants. Today, I lament, I cry, and I’m ashamed of myself just for the truth, but my lamentation ‘forbids mourning.’ I lament with hope, I lament with zeal, zest and enthusiasm. I lament with courage that the challenges are surmountable. My cry is simply to wake all of us from our slumber. Let’s do something right. Let’s step further to another level.

Lest I forget, contrary to a popular belief, Owukpa is not cursed. We are our own ‘curse’ and we can neutralize this ‘curse’ if we say ‘yes’ collectively. A food for thought this afternoon.

Never! I won’t do anything ‘bad’ to myself. I will stand with us in this battle. It’s just to get you reading.

God bless and Long Live Owukpa!

Ali Adoyi is a humble son of Owukpa and writes from Abuja.