Chuks Ododo
Brethren,
I come to you all with a passionate appeal from my spirit, soul and body to rise up and salvage this great community of ours called Ndokwa/Ukwuani, whose greatness has been grounded by visionless, greedy, selfish and inexperienced local and political leaders that has been representing their own interest and driving their own agenda, At the same time advancing their political career/building empire or accumulating wealth meant for the development of our community while neglecting the protection of our traditional institutions/values. I believe that those of you mentioned/copied in Chief Abel’s and Mr Ossai Udom’s write- up were not cited by mistake. It may be unknown to you, that you are the “Chosen Moses of our time” that God brought to life through Ndokwa /Ukwuani bus stop, to lead our people out of the Egyptian leadership, to leadership that gave direct pass to the Promised Land.
It may be unknown to us, how many individuals from Ndokwa /Ukwuani that has been made millionaires through representing the Community as political leaders since 1999. The question is, does that reflect on the level of infrastructural development on ground? Does it occur to us that we are voting for people to become millionaires, instead of representing us to attract development to the Communities? Yes, it is good to have millionaires from Ndokwa / Ukwuani extraction, but it does not automatically lead to the development of a Community. It is important to be aware that the only thing that develops a Community is Government presence such as institutions and projects that transform the many unemployed youths/ neglected lives through job creation for the citizenry.
I beg you all brethren and challenge every one of you that Ndokwa blood is flowing in your vein to come out and save Ndokwa of today, tomorrow and for the future. I challenge your spiritual man to be awakened and let the blood in the system flow faster than usual. Ndokwa/Ukwuani people has ever been dogged fighters and never afraid to challenge issues/leadership that has rendered us irrelevant or relegate the Community to the bottom in the list.
I believe the time has come for us to save this helpless Community from the hand of leaders, who are anointed by politicians from other ethnic groups to represent us.
The time has come for us to save this great Community from the hand of leaders who suddenly become or assume the position of “king makers” immediately after been selected/elected into public office, instead of seeing themselves as servants to the electorates.
It is about time we take back the leadership/representation of this Community from the leaders whose hand is so tight that could not rise up to save or protect our traditional/values when the time to defend that simple issue arose.
The time has come for us to save this Community from the hands of leaders who has continuously taken us for granted, ride, used as trade mark and as ladder to climb/break off after use.
The time has come to save our Community from the hand of leaders who fight to finish in internal matters/NNU election, but go cold when the same energy is required to advance Ndokwa / Ukwuani course in both state and federal levels.
The time has come to take the leadership/representation of the Community from the hand of those who will stand to see road projects in their area appear in the budget every year without execution and fail to challenge the budget.
I believe the time has come for us to take back the leadership/representation of our Community from the hand of leaders whose party interest come first before the general interest of the Community/ethnic group.
The time has come to stop leaders who see our people/electorates as labourers paid to do a specific job for representing us.
It is time to stop leaders who believe that the best way for our Community could/should feel the impact of representing us, is by attending burials and marriages in the village with pick-up vans loaded with mobile policemen.
The time has come to show the leaders/representative with questionable character exit door, whose wealth and popularity emerged from fraud as fraudsters.
It is about time we stop individuals whose highest leadership experience is student unionist/ head or cult group or political errand boy or political certified thugs.
The time has come to take the leadership/representation of our Community from “mediocre and political puppet” who believes that Ndokwa is having the best stake in Okowa’s Government with many political aides and Commissioner for no resources/portfolio from our enclave.
But the time has come to elect people with experience, who understand and feel our pain, ready to take Ndokwa fight to both state and federal levels. Those who put Ndokwa / Ukwuani first, passionate to drive/attract development to the Community and believe that we have to take our befitting place/position in the affairs of Delta state of Nigeria.
However, despite all the point mentioned above, people may still ask questions or think what is my business with the leadership failure in Ndokwa /Ukwuani? After all I don’t reside in Ndokwa/ Ukwuani Delta state or even in the Country, I am well-to-do and my children are all studying/living abroad. Anyone in that category should rethink about the negative impact/ long term effect of bad leadership.
Bad leadership breed more poverty
Bad leadership breed insecurity and increase the crime rate such as Robbery, Kidnapping and Assassination e.t.c.
Bad leadership breed more cultism activities, thugs/hooliganism and prostitution.
Bad leadership breed more unemployment.
Bad leadership encourages greed, corruption, lack of transparency/accountability.
Bad leadership breed division/divisiveness and hatred.
A typical example of bad/failed leadership in Ndokwa / Ukwuani is the prolonged court cases going on in Utagba-Uno. If we have good leadership/representative, they would have mediated long ago to end this crisis. The court cases in Utagba-Uno started when I was a young boy, almost thirty years down the line, the case is still on and none of them want to give up. On the other hand, I believe that in time past, Utagba-Uno Elders may have prayed for God to raise wealth men/women from the Community. Now the question is this, some of these wealthy people that God has given to the Community, are they a curse or a blessing? We are folding our hands and watch while the situation in the Community continues to deteriorate daily, the money being wasted in court cases is enough to kick start development. It is unfortunate that the situation has gone to the point that the only pension package that some illustrious sons brought back home after long service is litigation/Court action.
Brethren, let me warn or draw our attention to the consequences ahead of us, should we fail to address this cancer of the mouth.
A time will come when only those who could afford to pay for a pick-up van load of mobile police will visit and be comfortable at home.
A time will come when armed robbers, will be waiting for the wealthy people at the gate of their village houses.
A time will come when people will wake up to find the car supported with blocks while the tyres disappears to the spares parts market.
A time will come when those living abroad who may feel less concerned about the situation, will find it difficult to visit, because of insecurity and lack of infrastructure.
A time will come when those politicians who made us vulnerable to the situation we faced now, will find it difficult to afford pick-up van load mobile police each time they are going home.
A time will come when the few well-to-do in the Community will be a target for all sorts of crime activities.
A time will come when the negative impact of failed leadership will over-whelm us and become extra difficult to address. For example, in those early days when kidnapping started in Port Harcourt, nobody took it serious because their target was only white men/expatriate in Oil companies. Today where are the white men and who are the victims now? Let me warn again, those of you are well-to-do in our community will face the risk of visiting/enjoying your Country Home of you do not rise up now.
Lastly, as for the Elders who always chose to keep mute or remain neutral in every issue to avoid offending anyone or being quoted. You are not helping matters, there is no wisdom in failing to speak up when you should. And let me remind you that you have one life, whether you speak or keep quiet death will surely come when your time is up.
The time to act is now, take the warning or leave it.
God bless you all.
Nwa-Omenidu Nwa-Ododo Nwa-Chukwuma.
