I am not an Abian, but having spent nearly all my life in Aba , I consider myself at least a stakeholder. In the least, I should hold an opinion. I started life in the legendary town called Enyimba City from the dawn of the post civil war era. Indeed, Aba or Enyimba city need little or no introduction. It is home to the mesmerizing football giants, Enyimba football club, winners of 2009 Federation Cup (formerly Nigerian Challenge Cup). Aba is believed to the biggest commercial hub east of the Niger.
From the 40s and 50s when Aba gained its reputation as nerve center for commercial activities, the city, like the neighboring Port Harcourt (Garden City) was also haven for tourists and entertainment buffs especially during weekends. After the Nigeria Civil War, the trend upped with a natural flow of traffic towards the city by Easterners and their neighbours in search of Golden Fleece. As a result, today over 70% of the residents are non indigenes. A major reason why people from all works of life find Aba attractive for habitation and business is the serenity and hospitality of the indigenes and early settlers.
It was therefore no surprise that at the dawn of the post Civil War era, Aba was natural home to artisans, musicians, merchants, civil servants, importers and exporters, name them. The best of any endeavour gravitated towards Aba . For instance, the best musicians and bands were based in Aba , being the past time of most youths from the Eastern Nigeria that was at the time recuperating from the ruins of the War.
Adults at that time would remember the popular bands/musicians like The Apostles, Original Wings, Founders 15, The Funkees, The Black Ensemble, The Wings, The Spades, Cloud 7, Sweet Breeze etc. As a result, gravitation towards Aba every weekend was natural for fun lovers from Enugu , Owerri, Port Harcourt , Calabar, Uyo, Onitsha and Umuahia. It was no surprise why hotels and weekend resorts like Hotel Unicoco, Motel de Plaza and Ambassador Hotel were very popular.
Aba people also enjoyed fashion. Latest labels in clothing and designs originated from Enyimba City . There was industry and passion for creativity. Till date, nearly all Nigeria made products are freely called ‘Aba-made’. That is the ingenuity in the Aba phenomenon. The point being made here is that the city was peaceful, cool and full of life and business.
Aba was a metropolis that could be described as complete and full. It held life for adults seeking fun and business. It also spelt hope and future for the youth. As a child, I recall the popular TV series, Ukonu’s club, Now Sound, Children Variety, Take A Chance and Junior Opinion. All was tailored to create entertainment and leisure and most of all, build the careers of the youth. The society was so peaceful that most of those adult TVS programs were recorded very late in the evenings.
It was easy to take evening strolls through the high streets of East Road , Azikiwe, Faulks, Okigwe, Ngwa Road , Umungasi and Ogbor Hill without any form of molestation. There were venues for karate lessons, Boys Brigade and Boys Scouts, as well as extra mural lessons. Parents freely let their wards go to such vocations without fear that a shoot-out would ensue or that some folk would grab them
But all that have fizzled into the air. The South East commercial nerve center has beaten the book “One week, one Trouble’ Today, Aba could record as much as three different shoot–outs, five kidnap cases, two killings, three robbery cases in just one day. Yes, Aba ’s sad tales happen in second and minutes, and people now live in fear; the fear of armed robbers, kidnappers, police and the Abia State Vigilante Group, a.k.a Bakassi Boys.
Ordinarily, the police and the Bakassi should provide protection and hope to residents, but the two organizations have so compromised their commissions that the residents in Aba no longer trust them. Politicians and those who can afford their bill use the Bakassi to settle scores. Giving information to the police in Aba is asking for trouble. Pronto, the robbers could be your guest before dawn. Every other day, dead bodies are seen in the streets of Aba. Nobody seem to care or look for the killers
Bakassi started in Aba as the law enforcement unit of Aba shoe makers. Gradually they became militants and were easily rented by politician and business men to deal with their opponents. Soon they were outlawed and disarmed when the cry against their lawlessness became loud. Then the state government, under Dr. Orji Uzo Kalu, got the state House of Assembly to return Bakassi with a law under the baptismal name, Abia State Vigilante Group. With no other background/training other than ability to dress rugged and pose with a pump action gun, and perhaps consume as many wraps of Indian hemp as possible, many of motor park touts and less enterprising gun men get recruited in the Group.
They are trigger happy, and with the establishment authority of the state government they kill even people for offences as simple ‘roaming in the street at 10pm’. A driver told the story of how bodies of two boys were found with their throats slashed like goat at York Street , Aba by Bakassi Boys. Eye witnesses said that the Bakassi Boys accused the two boys of hemp smoking.
Like the police, Bakassi do not bother about kidnapers and armed robbers, But they bother about debts residents owed each other, or politicians who are in contest. They pose inside government marked Hilux Jeeps, and drive through streets, shooting into the air as if Aba is Iraq.
Bakassi is a metaphor for the Aba Abia state government attitude to crime check. Nobody in government bothers to reminisce on the complaints from members of the public. Nobody cares to take stock of the action of the group. The protection from Government House mobile police is enough for government functionaries, and the rest of the residents can go hang.
Kidnapping in Aba is big and small business. Children of the poor are even picked with ransom demand as little as N10, 000. A victim told the story of how his abductor asked him to warn his relatives not to invite the police as it would not help him. They told him they were working with the police. Before dusk they threatened him with the news that his people had spoken to the police. And it was true. The victim said the kidnapers confessed that a percentage of the ransom he would pay would go to the police.
The desire to feed fat on the predicament of Aba residents by security operatives is alarming. Every security operative posted to Aba approaches his commission with the same mind set. Instead of facing the patriotic, noble duty of combating crime and protection live and property, the police and army personnel now emphasize the collection of ransoms and percentages from criminals; an act that predicate on negative collaboration and partnership. The security operatives at the same time prey on Aba residents, especially commercial motorists
With the heavy presence of the army and police in Aba , a passerby along the Umuahia–Port Harcourt Express road axis of the Aba environs, would think there is element of concern for the security of lives and property within the area. Recently, a detachment of the Nigerian Army came into the metropolis as advance party to the ultimate arrival of the Joint Military Task Force [JTF] to support the existing security framework. They were received by a heavy contingent of both Mobile Police men and the regular Police force. There is also the notorious, gun-trotting, Abia state owned, rag-tag army called the Bakassi Boys who roam the streets with whistle sounding sirens
But what did the residents see; a higher regime of often confused road-blocks – that steadily result to vehicle accidents – where the regular collection of N50, up from N20, from motorists is the only purpose. Vehicle users often note with pity at the end of kilometer long traffic jams [go-slow] in the city and along the Express way that toll collection by a combined team of mobile policemen and their army colleagues is the reason for the bumper-to-bumper jam.
Sad enough, the road-blocks would disappear as soon as it is 6 pm daily. Aba residents would be left to the ‘care’ of kidnappers, armed robbers and Bakassi Boys cousins. Pity! It is sad that even soldiers stretch their hands to collect tolls from motorist on the high ways not minding what they carried in their vehicles. One in doubt should take a trip past Umuahia–Port Harcourt express way, and across Aba metropolis.
This brings one to the re-branding sing-song by Minister of information and communication, Prof. Dora Akunyili. Of the areas of Nigeria life and units she has spoken of, the Police is the least of them. But the truth remains that the brazen, bribe-taking habit of the Nigeria police, now sadly infecting their soldier counterparts, is the most glaring sore point in the country’s appalling image as a corrupt country. Many Nigerians think Akunyili is a joker and the re-branding message is a hoarse, perhaps meant to impress one Paris Club, or so.
Back to our Aba headache: Police records show Aba is the headquarters of kidnapping in Nigeria . Eighty percent of kidnapping case in the South East are rooted from Aba and its Ngwa aborigines, the Police say. Three royal fathers were this year dethroned by the Abia state government because of their roles in kidnapping and crime. Every top business executive, including politicians and wealthy private citizens now move around with tinted glass, sometimes bullet-proof vehicles, with mobile police attachés. Bankers are seriously endangered species with the highest toll of kidnap victims. Some people guess that almost a quarter of the mobile police contingent in Abia state is on rent to private personnel in the state. This is the summation of the hopeless security situation in Abia state.
This is definitely not the Aba that the early settlers met, which people like the late Governor Samuel Mbakwe fought to sustain even as governor of old Imo state. If the Police are now collaborators to criminals in Aba, and the Bakassi Boys are on the prowl with equally criminal missions; and now the army seem to have joined the feast on the residents, the federal government should consider a state of emergency in the town. We are talking about the complete breakdown of government inspired security machinery in favour of criminals. Very clearly, the managers of affairs in the State and their Federal Government counterparts have in all ramifications performed far below the yearnings and expectations of the people.
What is at stake in Aba includes to a large extent, the soul of business and investment in south east Nigeria . Many of the creative elements in the Aba industry are fleeing; not to talk of financial institutions doing business in the town whose cost of service delivery has jumped astronomically. Industrialists are no longer eager to come to Aba as it was before, due to threats to life and investment.
Shall it continue this way until Aba is exterminated from the commercial map of Nigeria? For the stake holders; indigenes, residents, investors, religious leaders, traditional rulers, those regarded as Aba-brought-ups, at home and in Diaspora, this is a clarion call not to adopt a “ sidon look” posture. We all have role to play. We must rise and hold our leaders accountable, starting from the point of asking all the questions, and speaking out. Enough is enough.
Ugo Nwamara lives in Aba, Abia State, Nigeria
