Boundary crises among neighbouring communities seem unabated in Nigeria.
The rift between brotherly communities in Cross River State – Akparabong and Bendeghe Ekiem – is the latest, which should be of concern to every right-thinking man. In the interview, a Second Republic legislator, Atta Obi, relieves his mind on the sorry state of things, with our Special Correspondent, Reuben Bojor.
Excerpt:
The recent crisis between Akparabong and Bendeghe Ekiem is troubling, considering the damage done; what caused it?
Mature individuals in Bendeghe or in Akparabong sat down and decided to go warring against each other; it is not so. Children have been brought up to support political leaders and more often than not, they have armed them; they have given them marijuana to smoke during elections; even cocaine! And then, after the elections, the people are rewarded by asking them to collect what they call revenue from people. And that revenue is not properly accounted for. So young men have started looking at it as a source of livelihood no matter how useless and how baseless such livelihood is. So it was more or less, the point to stay and collect toll that they were fighting. It is not Bendeghe and Akparabong fighting over land. Is not true! It is not true! So some excited grown-ups who felt they could show off their wealth or something mistakenly sponsored youths to come and cause the havoc. For whatever reason they had whether it was a show of wealth or a show of stupidity or a show of irresponsibility.
So the crises are more political than communal?
No! It is not even political in the true sense of politics. It is more or less young men who collect money from people on the road. They extort money from people in pretence of generating revenue for the different local governments. They instituted themselves into warring forces. But when you come to think about it, it is the local government politicians who said that they gave them what they call agencies without telling them the point where they should stay and collect the money. So they were more or less fighting for control of territory. It is from here that I will collect. That’s all. But surely, the government knows where the boundary is and the government should go on and make sure they follow this thing up, until everybody is clarified where the boundary between Bendeghe and Akparabong is. It is absolutely ridiculous for mature Akparabong people to come to Batang.
That’s after the mayhem.
Yea!
They decided to expand their horizon.
Well, I don’t know how they intend to. But Bendeghe has built from here to Agbogbo (community farm stead) and they are saying, these four miles or five, right from here to Agbogbo, is their land.
What about the controversy on the area?
The controversy. There should be no controversy. That land belongs to Bendeghe. The government should go and look at it.
For almost 20 years, Bendeghe community has witnessed uncountable youth violence, ending up with the death of several youths. Don’t you think the politics of revenue or check point is the basis for this. In other words, doing more harm than good?
The political class of Bendeghe does not know Bendeghe. Immediately, they are elected or appointed, they relocate either to Calabar or to Ikom. They stay at Calabar and take decisions for Bendeghe. They don’t know what is on the ground in Bendeghe. So to start up, I don’t know if they have any thought of Bendeghe except for what they can gain. That is, what I am saying is, how many of them have come to Bendeghe to have a meeting with the people for the last six, seven, eight years? Is it just to come and announce that there’s election and after that they pack themselves and go and stay in Calabar. Do they know what Bendeghe man suffers? Do they know the travails of Bendeghe man?
So they come along and ginger young boys to support them, after elections the children are left like orphans to do what they want to do.
They are not guided. So the people they brought-up to help them in the elections are left like sheep without shepherd. So they take the laws into their hands. Even the so called, emm what do you call them? Our representatives in the local government. Once they become elected, they relocate to Ikom. I thought the local government was to help people, the politicians and the grassroots to interact with those people and those people will take their problem forward to the government. But once they get elected, they get out of the community. There don’t even belong here. They only come here to pass down information. The government wants this and that and then, they go away. How many of them have spent two nights or even one night in Bendeghe for the last 10 years? There build houses in Ikom and Calabar. How many of them have built houses in Bendeghe to come and live in Bendeghe? None!
Could you expatiate on the difference between the political ideology of now and that of yours.
When we came to do politics, we came to offer service to people. We interacted with the people. We felt their pulse and we followed up things. It was not just enough to say you have given a contract, then you sub-contract it to somebody who has no idea of what he is doing. As they have done in Bendeghe. Look at the road. Look at the tarring, under one year it has collapse. Hasn’t it? Are they offering us a service or making themselves wealthy? Look at Abia road, how long has it taken, it has collapsed. If the Rev. Father at Abia did not use cement to patch up potholes e.t.c, it would have been impassable. I don’t think that is the political leadership which any reasonable person deserves. We want services to be improved. We want to belong. So if you are talking of the people here, they are like orphans. Projects are started, projects are never finished. Even Bendeghe, even with the poor standard of work, Agbor Oru has not been attended to, Ntoukwa Close has not been attended to, Mba Ogim Effe, the other way has not been attended to. All of them are impassable. Is Bendeghe so large that they cannot receive comprehensive attention? Okay, the so called politicians who give these jobs, do they know the pains of Bendeghe people? They don’t. To whom do we cry if we cannot get to Ikom? The road to Ikom is impassable. Have I seen the politician? Where is the Etung representative? Has he raised it up in the House of Assembly? No! But, we fought. We opposed. In fact the Cross River State as it is today came along because we who were in the State House of Assembly then wanted what we called new Cross River State. We wanted the Akwa Ibomites to be excised from us so that we could manage our affairs.
Were they exploiting your region?
Yea! We were very much in the minority. They had to expoit because they were more educated than we are.
Is it what it should be?
No! It was not expected ideally. But the point is this, in Nigeria, politics is like this. When your man gets there, it is your turn. Hardly anybody comes with a comprehensive view of development for the welfare of the generality of the populace.
What do you think caused the present political degeneracy?
One of the major things as of today is that one party system can only bring anarchy and suppression. There is no opposition. That’s one. Two, most of the young people who are getting there are self-seeking. They are ready to condone any situation provided they see what they gain out of it. There is a mad rush for wealth. People want money at all cost. Service is a second thought if at all. So that’s what the problem is. When people start fighting for their stomach rather than for the welfare of the people. When people start thinking, being afraid to air their views, because they may not be considered for particular juicy jobs or things. When people start looking for contracts for themselves and start thinking that, if there is a farm, they should own all of it, as it is in the Cocoa Estate, people are bound to behave the way there do. Because self-preservation had taken a very prominent position in the politics of today. And shortsightedness and complete lack of understanding that you go to politics to offer a service to the people, that has been suppress. Indeed we have gotten to a stage of which nobody asks you how did you make the money but somebody claps for you because you have money. We have gotten to place where money over rides reasonableness. That’s what the problem is.
Could you mention few of your contemporaries?
When we were there, Udom Essiet was the Speaker of the House and Ndayo Ita was our Deputy Spaeker, Louis Udim from Biase was the Majority leader in the House. But I do know that Declan Ogar, Bankong Obi, Hon. Akunjom, who is now late, Declan is still alive, Timothy Omang we worked as a team, to stand together for the welfare of Cross Riverians, that is from Calabar up to Obudu. We were working as a team. We were very much in the minority. The House was sixty six representatives. We were only twenty two. They were forty four. So we were in the minority. But that didn’t stop us from standing our grounds. That didn’t stop us from expressing our views. That didn’t stop us from pointing out where the government was not doing what they wanted them to do.