For the Ogwu-Ikpele people in Ogbaru Local Government Area of Anambra State, living by the bank of River Niger portends no evil, rather, it affords the people a means of livelihood, supported by aquatic splendour and resources. To them, there is no other way of life aside the one surrounded by the mass of water.These people have been living on farming and fishing along the bank of the River Niger for ages until recently, when the serenity of the coastal community was broken by the surging river that submerged half of the community, leaving behind in its trail tears, pains and irreparable losses.When the administration of late president Umaru Musa Yar'Adua, announced the dredging of the lower Niger, the decision was greeted with enthusiasm, given the inherent benefit of the project, but like everything about life, the ugly side of the project, which is the resultant rise in the river current has left a once bubbling Ogwu-Ikpele community in ruins.At the last count, about 600 including schools and health centres, have been submerged with over 1,000 hectares of farmland with cash crops washed away.Although, the ocean surge began about a decade ago, the residents, through self help, were able to curtail it by putting up palliative measures, but obviously, the measures could not stand the increased current as a result of the dredging project and the river over-flowed its bank.Conducting newsmen round the community which shares a common boundary with Ndoni, Rivers State, one of the residents, Mr Alphonsus Emordi, said that, 'over 600 buildings have been carried away by the surging river, adding that the situation which started about 10 years ago had become worse since the commencement of the dredging of the lower Niger.'Emordi disclosed that the community, through various mediums had complained to the relevant authorities to tackle the issue by constructing a concrete embankment along the river bank as was done in neighbouring Rivers State. He lamented that even schools and the only health centre in the community had all been washed away.Emordi who also said that it might appear foolhardy to continue to remain in the community given the level of the threat, insisted that the people couldnot just wake up and move out of their ancestral homes and abandon their life investments.'Our ordeal is not isolated from what people in other riverine areas suffer especially in the Niger Delta area, but the government, due to oil deposits in those areas have risen to the challenges and the menace has been successfully tackled. We have large deposits of oil as revealed by geophysical studies, all we are appealing is that the government should come to our aid as it promised before the commencement of the dredging of the river.'Also troubled, the community head, Okpala Ambrose Onwuma, described the development as a terrible disaster that was threatening the entire community. Onwuma said 'this has been going unabated for the last 10 years. We have lost billions of naira to the ravaging tide on our farmlands and our cash crops have been washed away.'Onwuma, a retired school teacher, disclosed that the palliative measures taken by the residents to check the disaster had not been sufficient or effective, adding that the community through self efforts had spent hundreds of millions of naira to no avail. He then called on the Federal Government to help safe guard their ancestral home.Another resident, Ogechi Azubuike, who recounted her ordeal when her building collapsed into the river, said that they were now living like refugees in their own land. 'The governments- both state and the federal ' seem to have forgotten us, but we cannot run away from our place of birth. Our appeal is that the Federal Government should help us safeguard our lives and investments like in Ndoni and other riverine communities along the bank of the River Niger.Today, the situation in Ogwu-Ikpele is such that when compared to the various flood disasters that have befallen some major cities in the country, one would be excused to say that it should be declared a national emergency.Most of the displaced residents who have lost all their belongings and investment have resolved to continue to put up whatever resistance they could to resist the ugly reality of abandoning their ancestral home as a result of a controllable threat.While commiserating with the victims, the Anambra State chairman of the National Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), Dauda Ajagu, lamented that negligence on the part of government resulted in the loss.The Moslem cleric disclosed that as an agrarian and fishing community, Ogwu-Ikpele contributes over 70 per cent of the daily food need of Anambra and other neighbouring states, especially yam and fish.Ajagu stated that if the river bank was reinforced with steel embankment, it would prevent the river from overflowing its banks and thus put an end to the current scenario that had brought untold hardship to the coastal community.However, Ajagu appealed to the Federal Government and other relevant authorities to quickly intervene and forestall further loss of lives and hard earned properties of the Ogwu-Ikpele people.Another indigene, who is resident in the commercial city of Onitsha, Paul Ikenna, informed the Nigerian Tribune that half of the community now sits in the middle of the river with over 300 buildings abandoned for fear of sudden collapse.Ikenna, who said he had not visited the community in the last two years for fear of the current which he claimed had resulted into boat mishap, hinted that the indigenes, through various organisations, had raised and spent over N2billion in their effort to control the surge. He added that if government had responded to the earlier call, the situation would have been averted. Some school children who were playing along the river bank when the Nigerian Tribune visited the community said that due to the collapse of their school buildings, they now ferried across the river to Atani to go to school, while appealing to government to do all that was necessary to put an end to the destructive encroachment.
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