Okpeze , a community abandoned and neglected in Anambra state

Okpeze, a relatively small community is in Orumba North local government area of Anambra state. It is basically an agrarian based society.

The situation in Okpeze, a small industrious farming community in Orumba North Council of Anambra state was perhaps no so different from other border communities within Anambra and Enugu states. They are usually neglected, abandoned and left to their own uncertain fate.
Ironically, Okpeze and her sister community-Ndiukwuenu, with which it shares one electoral ward in the area from history gets remembered by the politicians, the Anambra state government and her officials only during elections like now. 
Because, despite hosting the popular Mamu Forest Reserve which has been there from the colonial days in 1911. But it was until 1927 that a formal written agreement to its establishment and the terms and benefits accruable to the community was drawn and signed.
Sadly, the agreement has not benefitted them at all ever since, and they are now crying out. It was therefore surprising that after several formal letters had been written to the state government without response, the communities now resorted to self-help, speaking out to be heard. This was after a Voice-To-the-People (V2P) interface sensitization and intervention meeting organized in the nearly forgotten community by the Justice, Development and Peace Commission(JDPC)of the Catholic Diocese of Awka, in conjunction with the sponsorship of the Christian Aid/UK Aid. Paradoxically, besides bad barely motorable road into the area, Okpeze is a mere outskirts of Awka, the state capital yet there is no government presence therein.
Even the government's Mamu forest reserve which covered about seven by seven kilometers, the community is connected to Amaetiti/Awgbu neighboring communities by a very small narrow wooden bridge constructed by the colonial masters in the twenties when the forest reserve was established. It has remained weather beaten, broken and washed out. Except for the light traffic, it would have broken up and the community cut off completely from any form of civilization.
A flicker of hope came few years ago when Senator Ikechukwu Obiora brought a Federal Medical Centre and a borehole projects to the area. But both projects remained uncompleted and abandoned. According to the President General of the community, Chief Donatus Nwafor, the siting of both projects gave a ray of hope that Okpeze and Ndiukwuenu have not been completely forgotten by the state and federal governments and their functionaries.
Again, recently the state government awarded the construction of the only access road into the area as well as the construction of the bridge across the Okpeze river which has remained their only source of water for domestic uses and drinking. But incidentally theses projects were awarded without carrying the people of the area along, either for their input, guide or domestication. So any attempt by the residents and natives to come close to the construction sites for whatever social, economic or community-related reasons were usually constantly rebuffed by the contractors.
This all-important road project urgently needed to connect the community to outside world seems to have been abandoned has now thrown the people to cope with slippery marshy/swamp terrain during rainy seasons and heavy dust at dry seasons. It's such that once it rains, no one would be able to come in or go out of the area till sun shines to improve the grip on the unfortunate terrain.
The people fingered this as one major reason why these contracts fail. Because as could be seen, the road construction was being undertaken by what looked like a skeletal staff of the contractor while the bridge project has been abandoned long time ago. Incidentally almost all the key materials required to execute the job had been mobilized to site and abandoned under the harsh weather, for about three years now. The iron pillars, rods, mesh and pilings have continued to rust, while the imported chemicals which reportedly came in containers were off-loaded and left on the bushy side of the river caking away.
About three water borehole projects have been brought to Okpeze at different times by different segments and levels of government, -the World bank, the state government under former Gov Dame Virgy Etiaba, and then the one by Senator Obiora many years ago. It was only the one brought by the World Bank that was completed but was never reticulated. It therefore runs only in one spot, serving just few living nearby, while those families living far off continue to make do with the local unsanitary stream for all their needs as well as all their animals.  
Okpeze with about 120,000 population has no secondary school and its two primary schools have remained in ramshackle archaic buildings with broken floors, little desks, without doors and windows, lacking in any basic teaching and learning facilities whatsoever.
Okpeze town, one can say without fear of contradiction that the community is not represented on the map of duty bearers except during election periods when politicians are allegedly said to swoop on them to canvass for their votes. 
But the Voice to the People(V2P) project implemented by the Justice Development Peace and Justice Commission of the Awka diocese with support from the ChristianAid, UkAid and DFID is prepared to bring the attention of the whole world to the sufferings of Okpeze people and the environs. This was with a view to rescue them from living like Stone Age men in a modern world.
As a means of achieving this lofty objectives, the group organized a media tour of the abandoned community and at the same time ensured that some duty bearers were literally dragged to the community to hear their outcry. 
The program manager of JDPC, Mrs Eucharia Anekwe in company of the monitor and evaluation officer of the group, Mrs Manny Nnanna said during the media tour that that the effort was neither meant to curry favor nor undermine any government or politician but to highlight the needs and challenges of the people of Okpeze and Ndiukwuenu communities who have been suffering untold hardship due to inexplicable neglect by the various levels of government for decades.
The President General Chief Nwafor in his presentation raised even more disturbing issues of boundary encroachment from neighboring communities of Enugu state and urged the relevant governments and their agencies especially the Ministries of Lands and that of Environment to get the matter resolved peacefully before it escalates to bloodshed.
He also passionately appealed for the state government to accede to their years of request for a portion of the Mamu Forest Reserve to be given back to the community in line with the specific provisions of the 1927 mutual agreement between the community and the government. That they now need lands for the expansion of the community's rising population, a secondary school and additional primary schools. Other needs include; land for developmental purposes, resuscitation and completion of all the abandoned government projects in the community, to put them to good uses and employments for the teeming youths of Okpeze community so as to arrest the mounting level of restiveness and anti-social acts among the youths.
He lamented bitterly that the community self-help effort in building an only health centre in the area when the Federal Medical Centre became abandoned, was thwarted by the refusal of the state's Ministry of Health to equip and post its staff there, for years now. He also disclosed that the community initiated a secondary school project with 30 pioneer students but the project died because there was no interest, encouragement and assistance from the state government or any of its agencies. He admitted that Okeze has always given its maximum support and cooperation to every government of the day and wondered why they were so neglected.
He also confirmed that many letters and memos have been written to the authorities without any positive results. He indeed alleged conspiracy of silence against Okpeze by various duty bearers, accusing them of remembering the community only during elections and campaigns.
The Councillor representing the community in the Orumba North Council, Okoli Ezinwanne claimed that the town has been laid bare and exposed to the vagaries of deforestation, soil depletion and massive erosion due to deforestation without any attempt by the authorities concerned to ameliorate the situation or to replenish the trees. More so, that no tangible reward comes to the community as royalty other than the paltry annual payment of Ninety five thousand Naira only(N95,000) as included in the 1927 agreement. He also lamented that no native of the community has ever been employed to work in the forest reserve or it's supervising ministry as a form of compensation or in the spirit of the enabling 1911 agreement. Sadly, they watched outsider a who are staff of the forest reserve reap and sell the proceeds from the reserve.
Engr Ezinnwanne argued that the authorities are not complying with the 1911 agreement entered with the town that whenever they land, it would be released to the community. He pointed out that the population of Okpeze has now outgrown their limited enclave and therefore need land for expansion. That they now need some parts of the forest as it is done at 33 area of Onitsha.
He said the community is in dire need of land for a secondary school at least, market centers and other infrastructure that will give the community a sense of belonging. The youthful prodigy also claimed that the royalties paid to the town for the forest reserve has remained constant since 1911 not minding the current realities of inflation and other variables. " We are not represented in the civil service inspite of the fact that we can boast of over 10000 graduates and contributing over 20% of the state's internally generated revenue through the forest reserve. This is tantamount to killing us by installment." He stressed.
Adding his voice to the appeal, the traditional ruler, Igwe Jonas Onwumelu urged the Anambra state governor, Chief Willie Obiano to remember Okpeze in his development efforts.
Mr Romanus Obi who is representing Orumba North (under which the area falls) in the Anambra State House of Assembly claimed that he only got to know about the challenges of Okpeze community only 24 hours earlier. Obi, a member of the House Committee on Works said he assisted the community to cover the wooden bridge with some plates of iron sheets when the issue was presented to him. He claimed that there was no way he can get to know the needs of the people except he was informed as he represents a very large constituency in the assembly.
The chairman of the Orumba North local government area, Okechukwu Enekwe also claimed that he got to know about issues raised by the community just few days to christmas and that he has promptly made a memo to the Ministry of Environment and other relevant ministries. He assured that the problems of Okpeze community will be addressed now that it has become open.

Photo: President General, Chief Donatus Nwafor(r), with his assistant