Reflecting on Tuesday’s November 9 rescheduled Ihiala Anambra Gubernatorial Election
By Primus Igboaka – Cleveland, Ohio.
By a quick of fate and before the postponed November 6, 2021, Gubernatorial election in Anambra State, I have been a proud son of Ihiala with all humility. I have also expressed in all my relationships with others …friends and colleagues (both in Nigeria and in the United States including occasions I spent with them on holidays or on transit in my travels to Nigeria) that in the next world (if there is anything like reincarnation), please God make me an Ebeleri man. Yes, I want to be an Ihiala man.
In fact, siting back here in my city, Cleveland in the United States, about 8,000 miles and 8watching the news and participating in social media chats, I have been struck by number of emails and texts I received, all wanting to say congratulations to Ihiala citizens. How happy they are that Ihiala people are self-aware of the political intrigues of election rigging and determined to put a stop election malpractice that is the flaw and the bedrock of failures in our democratic governance. They were glad to let Ihiala citizens know that Nigerians love them for their boldness to stop election malpractices – the hydra -headed monster that has destroyed everything we know about equity, fairness in elections and getting the right candidates to lead the country.
As we are already aware, it is the attempt by Ihiala indigenes to stop election malpractices that led to INEC suspension of the gubernatorial election in the town and moving it to Tuesday, November 9, 2021. In essence, this remarkable achievement stemming from Ihiala to stop election malpractices also marks another milestone to Ebeleri’s landmark feats in the recent times. If it could be recalled, it was also in Ihiala that a group of young men – Ihiala vigilante, a group that our Diaspora organization, Ihiala National USA supported and provided motorcycles and van in the past gallantly stopped robbery, thus making history marking the first time ever a vigilante group was able to stop bank robbery in Nigeria. Thus, that feat added more to other accomplishments in education, politics, in the creation of religious and secular leaders among them reputable priests, teachers, medical doctors, ministers and successful businessmen that shape the landscape of Nigeria.
With all these qualities to the state and nation’s human and material capitals, Ihiala unfortunately has not gotten its fair share in the distribution or location of key infrastructural establishments in the state and the Nation. The village now turned into a big town has been completely neglected by previous chief executives of the state, since a governor from Uli in Ihiala Local Government Dr. Mbadinuju was elected the governor of the state. His tenure in office was short-lived, four years in office (May 29, 1999 to May 29, 2003) due to lost confidence by the people to reelect him for a second term. Therefore, with his administration four years in office, there were not much opportunities to invest in Ihiala town as Anambra State Governors after him have done for their towns/local government areas in their two terms while in office, and little or nothing for Ihiala.
The neglect of Ihiala is far more than physical and in what deplorable situation it is today in all aspects of infrastructural growths. The town has no good roads even to the food basket of the state and the nation. There is no reliable supply of electricity and drinking water; there is no medical facilities by the state since Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, once the migrating center of patients from across other towns in Anambra state and neighboring Imo State towns is overwhelmed with costs often encountered by treating patients that cannot afford medical treatments and bills. The hospital is owned by the Catholic Missionaries and now partly financed by the state. Ihiala town has lost all its glory we know and had in abundance while growing up.
Yes, to give you a sense of what Ihiala town and its citizens are missing, I also reminisce on the history of my beautiful village (now town) growing up. Ihiala as a child growing up was a peaceful village known for its rich agricultural harvest (farming), its educational and health care institutions including missionary primary schools, secondary schools, and hospital. Yes, it has the best schools that have produced giants in all fields of human history contributing their quotas to economic, technological, and industrial developments around the world not just in Nigeria. Ihiala has one of the most fertile lands in Urasi-Oseakwa the place that has been identified to be the valley to the deepest sea linking directly to the Atlantic Ocean. A space that has been designated as the closest entry point to as seaport and to the Atlantic Ocean (hopefully the seaport to Eastern region). Ihiala was also a village where whether you were born rich or poor, you enjoyed the same privileges irrespective of one’s background. The children were endowed with many things money cannot buy. We have schools – elementary, secondary, and tertiary institutions – public and private that their administrators and staff were our parents, relatives, and people we barely knew including migrants that include Africans (Cameroon, and Ghana), foreigners from Europe (Ireland) and Asia (India). In the village, you are your brother and sister’s keeper. It takes a village to raise a child. There is that community sprit of unity and people flourished with love and care for their neighbors.
In fact, among so many things – two things made me cherish my town so much. I say this with my experiences now that I have lived in the United States and some other parts of the world. First, we have men and women with the intellectual capacities to make the town and the Anambra state a mega city it long deserved to be. We have all that it takes to build a versatile economy where infrastructures in sciences, technology and manufacturing flourished. Ihiala and Anambra state have all it takes to build a versatile economic powerhouse. Since America we cherish and admire is built on knowledge, so does Ihiala and Anambra State have those in abundance – people that could transform the town, the state and Nigeria under a restructured political system into an industrialized developed city.
With much already said, TOMORROW, Tuesday November 9, 2021, is that day we should ask and answer the question is Democracy stupid, It’s Freedom Stupid. Meaning that Tuesday is very important in the lives of this generation and the future of our children. Tomorrow is the reality of what Randy Newman’s song “political Science” is all about. It reminds me of the line in that lyric that we should “DROP THE BIG ONE AND SEE WHAT HAPPENS.” The big one is our turn out tomorrow to vote and follow a moving Train led by Professor Soludo. Yes, Professor Soludo. I am not a politician and I have family members, friends, and respected colleagues in all the major parties. But the choice I am making for you all to go and vote en mass for the person that will deliver Anambra state is not by any sentiments but because of the intelligence, record, and achievement of the candidate Professor Soludo.
With Ihiala in the global limelight to finally deliver Anambra State to Professor Soludo, the man likely to serve as the state executive and bring all the qualities, talents and empower the people wished or are looking for and what we can be to show the world that a black man is ingenious – it is for this one reason (among others) why we should troop out to vote for Professor Soludo. We must also follow the winning team and not because of the party but because of the candidate and set example of what future elections in Nigeria should be. Professor Soludo has all it takes to make Anambra State be attractive to investors especially from Anambranians in diaspora. He has all it takes to build mega cities in the state – ones that would be reckoned in world map the most developed cities in the world. Let us therefore go out in our large numbers, vote for him, and reclaim our past glories and place in the history of political changes that will impact Nigeria for a very long time to come. Let us also be prepared to nonverbally announce to the world after Tuesday’s election that “WE DID IT” – Yes, IHIALA PEOPLE.
With Professor Soludo’s winning Ihiala, we should after the election make him recognize that Ihiala long left behind by previous administrators in the state must be compensated as their right and for voting for him to finally clinch the state. We should also claim back our past glory that previous administration in the state have for decades neglected. They did forget that Ihiala was and could be still revitalized as the center of commerce, agricultural produce, for mining of natural resources including oil, the future seaport, already confirmed as the shortest nautical miles to the Atlantic Ocean than any seaport in the Southeast or even Nigeria. It is only time that will tell when the new Governor of Anambra State, Professor Soludo assumes office; whether he will be able to make Ihiala dreams come true. His vision to invest and develop ihiala town is for the development of the state, Nigeria, and our economy, not just for Ihiala or Ebeleri where I was born and would be proud to be born again in the next world.
Primus Chuks Igboaka, Ph.D. MBA is a professor of Communications.
He is also the Acting Chairman of Ihiala National USA (INUSA) and Secretary of Nigeria-USA Chamber of Commerce (NUSACC).
He writes from Cleveland, Ohio where he resides with his wife and two adult children.
Maida expressed excitement at Nigeria’s success at World Radio Communications Conference 2023
Maida expressed excitement at Nigeria’s success at World Radio Communications Conference 2023
Maida expressed excitement at Nigeria’s success at World Radio Communications Conference 2023
Maida expressed excitement at Nigeria’s success at World Radio Communications Conference 2023