KWENU: Our Culture, Our Future

Ogbaru - The Development and Governance Challenge

OSELOKA OBAZE

selonnes@aol.com

Paper Presented By Oseloka Obaze at the First Ogbaru International Convention, Dallas, Texas, USA,  June 30th – July 2nd, 2006

Monday, July 3, 2006

    @www.kwenu.com

Our humanity is contingent on the humanity of our fellows.  No person or group can be human alone. We rise above the animal together, or not at all.

                                                      --- Chinua Achebe, 1998

Introduction

As always, it is an honor to be amongst one’s kith and kin – the Ogbaruans in the USA and the Diaspora. I welcome those who have come from home and outside the USA.  As we gather in the historic City of Dallas, Texas, for the first ever Ogbaru[1] International Convention, I bring you all good tidings and wish each of you well.   Onye na nke ya! Onye na nke ya!!  I salute you all.

I stand before you a proud and committed Ogbaruan.  I stand here solely in my personal capacity.  I speak for no other persons, group or chapter, but myself.  I stake no particular claim to a greater insight, vision or ideas, but feel compelled to add my voice to the discourse about the challenges confronting Ogbaru and its people and the modalities for addressing them.

While mindful that the theme of this First International Convention is “The Eradication of Cholera Epidemic and other related water-borne diseases in Ogbaru”, I hope I will be permitted the liberty of delving briefly into the various challenges that we face as a people, our healthcare concerns included.

Our people, the Ogbaruans, are united by a common and defining cultural identity.  We are mainly riverine dwelling people and as such, naturally fishers, farmers, river merchants, traders, educators and distillers.  Ogbaruans are law abiding, tradition-minded, honest and enterprising people, compelled by nature and long-standing adhesion to social ethics, customs and norms, to hold steadfastly to the rule of law.  We have a social and pecking order and an ultimate respect for seniority, be it of the aged or nominal. Ogbaru traditional age-grade system and the collective public arbitration and mediation role of the community elders are renowned for ensuring amity and accountability.  Additionally, the knowledge that traditional justice measures can be enforced through traditional religious precepts and practices, frequently act as deterrence to those who may dare to deviate from accepted norms.

Though we are a people bound by a common traditional affinity and values, today the contemporary Ogbaruan resides in three different contiguous geo-political entities,[2] namely, Anambra State, Delta State and Rivers State of Nigeria.   Today, Ogbaruans can be found on the western Bank of the River Niger, from Okoh Amakom, Okoh Ogbele and Okoh Anala, to the old Aboh Kingdom, encompassing Abalagada, Aboh, Adiawai, Okpai and Utchi. On the eastern bank of the great river, our people are dispersed from Okpoko and Odekpe to the Akilis and Ogwus in Anambra State and further down to Ndoni and environs in Rivers State.

While in the main, Ogbaruans are of the Igbo stock, as people of olu (riverine dwellers), we share, exhibit and stake claim to certain unique values that have over time, become the differentiating ethos, between us and our other Igbo kith and kin.  Certain Ogbaru customs, simplistic as they may seem, make it inherently unacceptable for an Ogbaru people to engage in what is considered alu, or nso ani – an abomination, or  desecration of the land.   By customary dictates, which is tantamount to the force of law, Ogbaruans abhor coveting another’s property, or what is referred to as oku uzo.

Hence, in the Ogbaru of yesteryears, theft, murder, cheating and various social ills were not just frowned upon, they were totally unacceptable.  “It is a taboo in Ogbaru for one to disrespect his or her parents, or even lay hands on them (beat them up).”[3]  These underlying attitudes, meant that our communities by their norms were attentive to social ills, intolerant of them and collectively and punitively reactive when they happened. Accordingly, Ogbaru communities were secure but not by any means insular.  Premium was always given to human security. Life, liberty and property were safe from conversion and illegal expropriation, either by traditional powers or individuals. Those who fell foul of the norms risked being ostracized. We had civic and social responsibility and our people paid their taxes as at when due.  Kindness permeates our culture. Indeed, “the Ogbaru culture mandates kindness to strangers, good behavior, respect to elders and older siblings.”[4] Once, we were a people renowned for our limitless hospitality and for being our brothers’ keepers.  That renown remains an attribute of our contentment, open hearts and open homes. But like all things, Ogbaru is changing with the times.  And in some regard, sadly so.

Today, Ogbaru remains a paradox.  Despite many years of development, education, political emancipation, great natural endowment, arable land and fresh waters for fisheries, Ogbaru remains essentially an underdeveloped segment of Nigeria. Like other entrapped parts of Africa, Ogbaruans also confront and feel the prevailing reality of the “increasing evidence not only that more Africans are falling into poverty, but that income inequality has opened a wide gap between ordinary Africans and the African elite.”[5]    Our culture and norms are equally being eroded, tainted by the infiltration of external influences, which are characteristically alien to the Ogbaru culture.

Surviving In A Changing Environment

Today, we behold an adversely changed circumstance, an altered state – a different set of values and attitude.  Even though as a people we have the inherent capacity to become a solution to the myriad of problems facing us, more often than not, we elect wittingly or unwittingly to become part of the problem.   The Ogbaru person, even in abject poverty, is a proud and fulfilled person.  This is true, insofar as he or she is not reliant on the neighbor or friend to put food on the table.  But sometimes this streak of independence undermines community work and the social cohesion required to uplift our communities.

Even though an Ogbaru idiom counsels that the five fingers are never equal, we encounter increasingly, a tendency within Ogbaru inter-communal interactions and Ogbaru community-based associations, in which we seem to have stopped respecting certain defining principles.  These include the sanctity of the lines between elders and youths, between those who know and those who think they know, and the separating lines between those who are steadfastly proactive in the contribution of ideas and resources and those who are perfunctorily engaged in the same vein.  Another impediment is that we continue to sacrifice purposeful leadership, progress and activism in the name of collegiality, even when uncalled for.  Oftentimes, we elect not to look reality and truth squarely in the face, as we ought to. In the end, we collectively pay the price by our retrogressions.

The situation in which we find ourselves, pose an unquestionable governance and development challenge.  Today, discussions about Ogbaru, often present us with several mutually reinforcing and disobliging tendencies: in Ogbaru bad news often seems to overwhelm good news; negative, adverse political and economic events seem always to trump positive developments; and lack of basic amenities, invariably preoccupy us and distract and dilute our ability to positively focus on the larger issues that pertain to Ogbaru.     

Without dabbling into mundane exigencies, let me bring this down to a personal level.  As individuals many Ogbaruans are comfortable, and some perhaps, self-sufficient within the limits of that definition.  But as a people, Ogbaruans are certainly not self-fulfilled. We have also not done all we can for our people and posterity. Whereas, there are many accomplished Ogbaru personalities and notables in the world of academia, politics and business, and Ogbaruans have made indelible “contributions to the cultural and civic emancipation of Ogbaruans and indeed the Igbo”[6], we frequently seem marginalized. These, in part, are direct results of the choices we have made or refuse to make.

Meeting the Most Pressing Needs of Ogbaru

Having delved into the generalities, I turn now to the specifics, which relates more to meeting the pressing needs of Ogbaru and its people.  First, let me dispense with the good news.   Food security has never been an Ogbaru problem.  It is still not an Ogbaru problem.  Ogbaru once served as the bread basket of eastern Nigeria and the defunct Biafra.  Ogbaruans still feed themselves and others.  So, for now, Ogbaruans are not at risk of contracting kwashiorkor.  Neither do Ogbaru children at home, risk going to bed at night hungry.  But as part of the underdeveloped world, the pitfall remains; as many Ogbaru families still subsist on less than $1 a day.

Ogbaru’s agricultural potentialities remain largely undiminished. The Odekpe rice fields in Ogbaru, in conjunction with those in Ogboji Ezira, in Orumba  reportedly earned for Anambra State the third richest rice potentials area in Nigeria.[7]   Indeed, a  study funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Abuja, Nigeria, revealed that merchants brought in yam from Ogbaru (Anambra State), to Zakibiam (Benue State), Ogoja (Cross River State)” and Abia State, to complement local production.[8]

The other pitfall relates to infrastructural deficiencies. Much of the foods produced in Ogbaru still do not readily reach their destined market, even though the Onitsha market is just several miles away. The crux of this problem is the bad roads, poor transportation and absence or poor standards of preservation facilities.  Invariably, Ogbaru farmers and fishermen are forced to under sell their cash products or risk their perishing.   But the troubling reality is that in Ogbaru, farming is a dying enterprise.   Big-time family subsistence farmers we have long been accustomed to, no longer exist.   This is traceable, in part, to natural attrition. But there are other contributing variables.  In the social and economic sectors, lack of formal education, and requisite skills, unemployment,  dismal healthcare services, rise in HIV/AIDS combine with the drift to urban centers to pose a great challenge to our communal wellbeing.

The prevailing youth urban migration and the pervasive culture of buying and selling and motor-park touting, means that Ogbaru youth are incrementally losing the farming skills and technical know-how that served our forebears so well.  A corollary to this deficit,  is that since subsistence farming only provides enough food for the farmer and his family but not enough for sale, Ogbaruans have also failed to embark on commercial or mechanized farming, which provides products for sale.  Invariably, we can expect Ogbaru’s food production capacity to decline in the years ahead if this trend remains unchecked.

When Ogbaruans are confronted with identifying the challenges facing Ogbaru, many naturally point to poor amenities and infrastructure. Bad roads and transportation system, unsafe and unregulated water crafts, healthcare delivery, education, river bank erosion, (iboh) and lack of potable water generally top the list of concerns. Whereas the former needs are vital, and have a direct correlation to unemployment in Ogbaru, lack of potable water is direr, since it has a direct link to many of the ailments that plague the Ogbaru people.  For the purpose of this convention, I will restrict myself to addressing only two of these issues: water and education, in the context of governance and development challenges facing Ogbaru. 

The Healthcare Conundrum

In February 2005, inhabitants of two prominent communities in Ogbaru – Ossomala and Odekpe – were victims to a massive cholera epidemic.  No less than 25 people lost their lives before it was contained.   This reality puts this convention in its proper perspective.  Ogbaru has lots of water sources– the rivers, the lakes and ponds – but there is a dearth of water purification systems to provide potable water.  As the great English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge would have remarked, “Water, water everywhere. Nor any drop to drink.”[9]   Hence, it is understandable that most of the mortality in Ogbaru both for adults and children, are related to water-borne diseases.   Our poor healthcare delivery system only compounds the problem.  What we have as health clinics and hospitals are rudimentary, inefficient and charge exorbitant fees for less than satisfactory services.  Their operators, seem to forget that illness, is never a matter of choice or social standing.

In 2002, the Anambra State Ministry of Health dragged some 1,124 “pure water” producers; many from the Ogbaru LGA to court for indiscriminate sale improperly purified water.[10]  But we need to admit that while the Government has regulatory responsibilities, the ultimate remedy does not lie entirely with the Government as it does with Ogbaru entrepreneurs and professionals. Ironically, undertaking self-help projects that will begin to ameliorate this problem is not exorbitant, if properly articulated.   This is where the Ogbaru Diaspora will have to come in.  A good and deep artisan well or borehole cost some N150,000 or $1,080 to sink.   More sophisticated and electric-powered pumping systems will, of course, be slightly more expensive.  But the stark reality, is that it is affordable, if made a priority interest.  Through a Canadian firm, “Lifewater Canada,” which does business worldwide and in Nigeria, and train and  equip the rural poor in Africa to drill wells and build washrooms, individuals or groups can sponsor water projects for their communities.[11]  As Dr Ofunne Omo Obaze observed, “the paradox of water-borne diseases is well captured by a popular Nigerian musician, Fela Anikulapo Kuti, who once sang, “water has no enemy”. True as that may be, untreated water can be a very deadly enemy.” [12]

It is perhaps worth being pedestrian here just to illustrate the point.  What it cost to sink a borehole that will serve a population of 1,000 people or more, is exactly what it cost to buy a Korean or Japanese made “okada” motorbike that plies the poorly maintained roads of Ogbaru.   The choice between an “okada” for one person and potable water for an entire village is a no-brainer.  But the priority has to be defined and articulated.

It must, however, be reiterated that the core issue is not the cost, but the policy and importance we assign to the need for potable water.  Lest Ogbaruans feel alone, water insufficiency is a global problem. It is noteworthy, that some 1.2 billion people or 18 per cent of the world’s population lack access to a safe, affordable drinking-water supply. [13] It is thus understandable why in 2003, the United Nations proclaimed the years 2005 to 2015 as the International Decade for Action “Water for Life”.  In the main, the goal of the action plan is to reduce by half, the proportion of people without access to safe drinking water by 2015.

How does this apply to Ogbaru one may ask? Let me be candid.  Pervasive lack of potable water in Ogbaru is a governance and development challenge. Like most rural Nigerian communities, Ogbaru have always had a water problem and it will not go away unless we vigorously attack it.  It is, therefore imperative, that we begin to do so and well outside the ambit of the government.  We must also grasp the core problem, which is poor management rather than a shortage of water resources.  If big Nigerian cities like Onitsha, Aba, Jos, Ibadan and Enugu still lack potable water, it is hardly possible that government’s priority will be Ogbaru. What we need, therefore, is to develop a sense of water culture and begin giving the delivery of potable water the priority attention it needs. Along this line of this thinking, its needless to stress that potable water ought to have equal or higher priority over electricity and transportation.

The Nexus Between Education and development

Let me now turn to perhaps the most critical issue facing the people of Ogbaru --education. In our globalized and interdependent world, there is an acute awareness of the shifting paradigms of leadership and development.  Preceding this, is the inextricable link between literacy and development.  This is really nothing new, but there is now an added impetus to education.  Regrettably, in the wave of consumerism and buying and selling that presently dominate the Nigerian mindset, especially the Igbo, young Ogbaruans like the rest of Igbo youth have become entrapped in the notion that ownership of wealth or seeking wealth by any means and at the expense of good and formal education is an assured means of economic stability and well being.  While this may be true for a handful, it is hardly true for the majority.  

The wealth-before-education mindset has the capacity of dire negative consequences that is already manifesting in our communities.  As a people we risk grooming a succeeding generation of well-to-do but functional illiterates. Who then, will speak for Ogbaru the way the late HRH Robert Olisa of Ossomala and HRH John Oduah of Akili did may years back or how notable Ogbaruans like Prof. Ben Nwabueze, Prof. Ben Akpati, Prof. Geoffrey Olisa, Prof. L. Azubuike Uzoka, Attorney Rowland Egonu (SAN), have done in recent times.  Who will promote Ogbaru the way Chief Sule Ugboma and Chief Osita Osadebe have done? And who will stand and represent Ogbaru interests in the political forum, a task H. E. Dr. Peter Odili and Hon. Ojiba Okwudili Uzoka now perform?  Without educated people, who will represent Ogbaru at the table or corridors of power?  These questions ought to give pause to any well thinking Ogbaruan.

It is common knowledge that educational enrollment in Igboland is dropping drastically.  This is equally true in Ogbaru, where perhaps, it in most acute, given the combination of urban lure and the need for those children who stay in the villages to continue to assist their parents in farming and market chores.   The prevalence of child labor and limited enforcement of existing regulations against them, only compound the problem. One must add to this, the prevailing dysfunctional state of our schools.  

Today, only the children of the very affluent can afford to go to the few good schools in Igboland.  The Missions no longer own or support the schools as they once did, and the State Governments are incapable of sustaining the schools, talk less of making them the centers of excellence they should be.   Today, the schools we have in Ogbaru, both at the primary and secondary levels are just that.  They are schools only in name and composite structures.  Ridiculous as it may sound, its noteworthy that the students enrolled in these schools as well as their teachers are there, not because they are stranded by choice, but because they have no choice or any affordable alternatives.  So, what is the solution, especially in the case of Ogbaru?

The Ogbaru Diaspora must invest in our people and their education as a means of promoting tolerance, leadership, human rights, promoting good governance, the rule of law and avoiding unemployment and others causes of insecurity and instability that tend to pit people against one another.  Our collective failure to tackle these challenges will only create unemployment, idle hands and souls, and a body of youthful masses without any future ambition. These kith and kin of ours,  will continue to sponge off us, and if need be, resort to forcible and other extra-legal means of taking from us when we visit home, what they believe we are obligated to give them.  But that would not be all.

As observed, “Youth who are able-bodied but unskilled, jobless and alienated have been ready to take up arms in exchange for small amounts of money—together with the promise of recognition, loot and “wives” – and are ready to be drawn into the influence of warring factions or criminal gangs to gain this “empowerment”.[14]  While criminal activities are often attributed to the uneducated, the cultism in many academic institutions in Nigeria and even armed robbery and “Area Boys” vagrancy are carried out by educated  but  unemployed youths.  I for one, worry, when I drive through the villages of Ogbaru and see able-bodied youths idling away when they should be in school or at work.  Such a tragic waste of human resources ought to concern us all.

Presumably, it would amount to preaching to the converted and stating the obvious, to posit that rudimentary education is the vehicle for hope and freedom from poverty in Ogbaru.  In helping to provide such education to our people, through self-help projects, we will uphold definitive values that support our traditional Ogbaru norms and values, and also promote self-reliance, capacity-building, reconciliation, justice, equality and service for others.

In 2006, Africa contains 32 of the world's 48 poorest countries and has the lowest primary school completion rates of any continent.  Likewise, Africa has a largest percentage of school children, mostly girls; who are out of school worldwide.  Just as our  life expectancy has declined from 50 to 46 years, our per capita income has plummeted, falling by 13 per cent since the 1980s.  Today the per capita income in Nigeria is below $250 – the equivalent of the amount most Nigerian families in the US spend on McDonald and Pizza in one or two months.  By projection, the number of people mired in “extreme poverty” in Ogbaru and in other parts of Nigeria have similarly increased.  Those who can barely put food on the table, can hardly afford exorbitant school fees. 

This is where as Ogbaruans we have a critical role to play. I say so,  with the first hand knowledge that a group of individuals can make an enormous difference.  Ten years ago, we formed the CKC Onitsha Alumni Association in America. Our aim was to revitalize our old school, which had deteriorated to an appallingly  sorry state.  Today, CKC Onitsha is in a far better shape than it was five or ten years ago.  Through our collective efforts and support, but an active membership of less than 300 persons, we have rebuilt the school’s  decrepit structure; we have rewarded good students as well as dedicated teachers with our motivational award programs. Between 2000 and 2006, our association CKC-AAA, pumped in over N13 million naira into the school.[15]  The efforts of the association have been variously cited as exemplary,[16] with Ibrahim Gambari calling on “other alumni associations to emulate the noteworthy assistance the organization’s members had provided to their Alma Mater over the years”. [17]  I only cite this example not to gloat, but to show what is possible.

On our part, Ogbaruans long ago received the clarion call to action.  I recall vividly, reading an open letter in 2002 or thereabouts, from Chief G. C. Nwabueze, the President of Ogbaru Development Union (ODA) to the Ogbaru Diaspora. In the letter, he canvassed the establishment of the Ogbaru Education Endowment Fund.  To buttress his point, Chief Nwabueze stated, “Ogbaru generally is still suffering from the I.P.I. syndrome of illiteracy, poverty and ignorance.  This syndrome, unlike AIDS, and to a lesser extent SARS is curable.  The good thing in the curative approach to I.P.I. is that you only need to tackle the first ‘i’ for the other components to disappear.” [18]

Our first role is to recognize and acknowledge the seriousness of the retrogressive educational opportunities in Ogbaru, and the need for a shift of focus and search for practical ways of dealing with the situation.  The secondary schools in Ogbaru, be they in Ndoni, Aboh, Ossomala, the Okohs or Ogbakuba, continue to cater for traditional educational interests and curricular.  This should not be.  Rather, as a people with specific needs related to agriculture - our primary occupation,  the focus of our schools’ curricular ought to be those vocational training related to our needs.  Such a delineation,  prioritization and focus, would enable our youth to acquire the necessary skills pertinent to fishing and fisheries, outboard motorboat mechanics, mechanized farming, irrigation technology,  poultry and gin distillation processes.

The attending benefits of this focus would include a possible reduction in youth migration and attraction to urbanization, which has been described as the greatest challenge of the 21^st century.  Our youth, if gainfully employed, will also stay at home generate income and support the local economy.  A commitment to vocational training will also help us address the growing youth unemployment, which in reality, is multi-dimensional.  Our communities are presently being hurt the most by the warped notion and dubious belief that to be educated and functionally literate, one has to posses a university degree. This skewed belief has resulted from equally skewed educational policies and emphasis on curricula that panders to the white-collar industries.

It is an open secret that the middle class and the blue-collar segment of the Nigerian work force have literally been emasculated.  It is increasingly becoming difficult to get youths to engage in arts and crafts and other skilled training. Instead, they opt for trading and motor-park touting which rarely require any skills.  No developed nation subsists without  a blue collar work force.  It does not happen, since a balanced and progressive economy invariably relies on a working class and blue collar employees with vocational skills. Indeed, we can trace our rotting and decrepit public infrastructure and deteriorating maintenance culture to the dearth of workers with vocational skills. In Ogbaru, as in most part of rural Nigeria, there has been a consistent “mismatch between skills offered and those required for the job market due to education and training system tailored to suit the needs of the civil service, because few graduates are employed in the private sector.”[19]  A corollary to this problem, is the recognition that the government remains the predominant employer at all levels in Nigeria.  The task for the Ogbaru Diaspora, is to take the lead in the advocacy and push for the full conversion, or in the least,  the redesign of the curricular of Ogbaru secondary schools to give priority to and “emphasize vocational training for practical and marketable skills”. [20]

Exclusion of Ogbaru By Contrivance

The word marginalization has become an overworked cliché in Nigeria. But it is not a matter for debate that in terms or resource allocation, development, and locating of industry and public parastatal, Ogbaru has been marginalized for many years.  There seems to be a design to exclude Ogbaru from its rightful entitlements by contrivance.  Promises made to us are never honored and without consequences to those who fail to do so. In any event, marginalization has been described as “the doppelganger of bad governance.” For Ogbaruans, marginalization is quotidian and a realty. So, by luck or design, Ogbaru has become a place systematically and frequently bypassed by each succeeding state government. And the Federal Government too!

We are living witnesses to the long, vexatious and agonizing debate as to whether the Onitsha-Ossomala–Ndoni road is a federal or state road. The reality is that we are still unsure where it belongs; another reality is that the road remains unrehabilitated. Since Ogbaruans are hardly engaged in the governance circle, we also suffer immeasurably. Here is a confirming case in point. Between 2004 and 2006, the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) executed 122 projects in Rivers State. These included, 40 roads, 29 water projects, 11 electrification projects and 3 canalization projects. The other projects were the construction of 85 blocks of classroom, 1 bridge and 3 jetties.[21]  At the moment, 36 of the projects have been completed and commissioned, while the rest are in progress. Because Ndoni and environs were by political cartography excised from Anambra State and specifically from the Ogbaru Local Government, only Ogbaruans in Delta and Rivers States may have benefited from the specific NNDC projects mentioned above or similar ones. 

It bears noting, that like in the era of the Petroleum Trust Fund, (PTF), NNDC resources continue to bypass Ogbaru, despite most of its communities being physically situated in the Niger Delta Basin.  Ironically, NNDC has undertaken projects in Abia State, which is not within its focal remit. What is perhaps most disconcerting, is that though Delta and Rivers States presently each receive over N8 billion annually from oil derivation and additional funding from NDDC capital or rehabilitation projects, Ogbaruans have not felt the trickle down impact.

 Which Way Ogbaru? Which Way? 

We need to ask ourselves some critical questions. First, how do we, the Ogbaru Diaspora contribute and respond to the governance and development challenges we confront in Ogbaru?  Second, where do we go from here, given the prevailing realities in Ogbaru? These are the fundamental questions that should preoccupy the attention of this august gathering.

First, I believe that we must collectively rise to address the rut that permeates our communities.  We need to reaffirm our beginning and reassert the value of our culture. Our traditional, cultural and social values are being eroded. The extended family system – a distinctive and major cultural mode for the sustainability and uplifting our communities through self-help, is disintegrating.  Experts warn us that “consumerism, an attitude of ‘get-rich-quick’ and westernization have led to rural-urban migration and the emergence of the urban poor. These migrants take on menial jobs and form the bulk of the traders in the streets and markets.”[22]  In this very context, we can each contemplate or recognize a close relative; a brother, sister or cousin.  We know too well, that touting (agboro) has become the niche of most Ogbaru youth, its often violent and unstable downside notwithstanding. 

Assisting our communities, require that we collectively resolve to lend a hand.  It is well to give a handout or hand down when asked. And we all do, all year round. But such handouts cannot become a panacea or an alternative to well articulated and implemented programs meant to uplift and develop Ogbaru.   But achieving that goal will require vision, commitment and resources.  The Ogbaru Diaspora has a strategic and critical role to play in reshaping our communities back home.  We need to begin to think of how to package the resources we can collective garner in the US and leverage them to Ogbaru’s benefit.  Diaspora repatriation of knowledge and resources to their home country is an expansive global trend and part of the new globalization paradigm. It is common knowledge, that remittances by Diaspora immigrants have become a fundamental part of the global economy.  Immigrants in the US reportedly sent home $23 billion in 2000.  By 2003, the figure had jumped to over $30 billion.[23]  For their part, Nigerians living abroad sent home some $4 billion in 2005.[24]  This estimate, inevitably, includes individual remittances by the Ogbaru Diaspora.  But what have we done so far as an Association in this regard?  This goes beyond a rhetorical question.

We Ogbaruans must begin to pool our talents and resources. We must find ways to address the exclusion by contrivance that Ogbaru is encountering, and how best to benefit from the states’ and federal largesse.  We must avoid undue distractions. We must also set out our priorities clearly and surely.  In September 2002, I was like many of you approached to make a donation towards the building of the Ogbaru Development Association Headquarters in Atani.  I had my misgivings about the essence and priority of the project, but nevertheless obliged with my widow’s mite.  I did, however, stress then that the venture was to my mind, pursuing the wrong priority for Ogbaru.

With N100 million meant for the ODA building, Ogbaruans could start a farmers’ cooperative that will guarantee Ogbaru farmers equitable prices for their yams, cassava, maize and potatoes and preservation and storage facilities if the products were not marketed immediately.  Indeed, we can subsidize our farmers as is the norm here in the United States or offer them no-interest agricultural loans.  We can also provide our fishermen and vegetable producers, centralized cold storages facilities, interspersed between towns for their fish and other perishables, even if for a nominal fee.  This way we would avoid the enormous wastage that is prevalent.  Interestingly, we could do all this at a limited cost; not from a N100 million edifice, but from one or two portable cabins, with a staff of 4-5 people and 4-5 personal computers.  What is needed; is the vision and the gusto!

Ogbaru already has the foundation for helping our farmers with micro credits. What is needed is its taking ownership and supporting the expansion of the Ogbaru Agricultural Development Foundation (OFADEP), a non-governmental and non-political organization, to help it in fulfilling the objectives.   Founded in 2001, OFADEP, seeks to “start the nucleus of a sustainable programme for aiding of Ogbaru farmers through micro credit; to help them to produce to meet the demands of the time.”[25] 

Let me posit two general premises on which to anchor our thinking in reference to enterprise and development.  First, we must remember that “low productivity and earnings account for lack of structural transformation and diversification into higher productivity sector, within agriculture or industrial and service sectors”. [26] Second, without a functionally educated community, especially in the vocational trades, we risk our communities atrophying.  All said, “inappropriate education and training policies result in both skills mismatch and low skill supply.”[27] This could remain our longtime bane.  But essentially, the eight cardinal points of the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), are applicable to Ogbaru as they are to other nations or communities.  They consist of eradication of extreme poverty and hunger, achieving universal primary education, promoting gender equality and empowering women, reducing child mortality, improving maternal health,  combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases, ensuring environmental sustainability,  and enhancing global partnership for development.  These aspirations and values have the needs of Ogbaru written all over them.  However, it will be foolhardy to wait for those in government to take the initiative in their realization in Ogbaru communities.

The greatest impact and legacy of the Ogbaru Diaspora is in identifying and taking the leadership on how to tackle on a tangible basis, the major problems bedeviling Ogbaru in particular and Igboland in general. Our getting involved in all spheres of leadership is half of the battle in overcoming the challenges we face.  What is critical, is the way and manner in which as Ogbaruans we manage our affairs henceforth.  In sum, we must as individuals,  continue to look at how to fine-tune our leadership.  We must also chose carefully,  leaders who are visionary and beyond reproach.

We have had our leadership difficulties both at home and in the Diaspora. The lessons from them should be clear: in the words of Chinua Achebe, “our humanity is contingent on the humanity of our fellows.  No person or group can be human alone. We rise above the animal together, or not at all.”[28]  Keeping the proper perspective will be essential.   To give practical effect to whatever we chose to do, we need to build synergies. We must partnership with Ogbaru Development Association (ODA) and its well-meaning and committed leaders, as well as other credible home-based community organizations the churches included.   Through them, we must begin to regularly provide seed funding for educational endowment scholarships for indigent Ogbaruans, and soft loans for small businesses and farmers.  On an individual basis, we must begin to think of Ogbaru’s development in terms of availability of basic services and cottage industries.  Ogbaru-owned block and concrete industries, fish farms, garri processing factories, gas stations, pharmacies, commercial transport fleets, fruit plantations, water purification plants, and small-scale drilling companies, come readily to mind.  All these are self-help projects that in the end, combine to help rural communities like ours develop.

Bringing these dreams to fruition will require coordination and selfless service.  Hence, to work cooperatively, we must resolve to respect and retain the right to disagree in our discourse whether on substance or on principles, without personalizing such disagreements.  Such are true hallmarks of civilized and democratic practice.  Likewise, we should retain the humility to reconcile and constructively re-engage each other, regardless of our differences, and if need be to apologize.  An apology, however, should not imply liability.

Let me end, by paying tribute to great Ogbaru leaders, deceased and living.  I salute our umbrella body, the Ogbaru National Association, USA (ONA) and its past and present leadership.  I also salute the various Ogbaru Chapters and Associations in the Diaspora.  Our collective path has not been an easy one or devoid of controversy. But I am gratified that we remain largely on course in our common quest to uplift Ogbaru.  We must keep faith. We must endure.  We must strive to selflessly uplift Ogbaru and in doing so, contribute in restoring the fading luster of the Igbo nation. 

Stay blessed and may your God be with you. 

I thank you for your kind attention.