Neglected by Governor Ugwuanyi's Government and Saved by the Federal Government: the Grass to Grace Story of the Imilike-Agu Community in the Vindictive Hands of Their Governor by Odo Christian Obinna Lying some distance away from the Enugu metropolitan city is a suburb surrounded by greenery and beauty. Somewhere in this suburb is a big compound that has received more "pilgrims" in the last seven years than Mecca and Jerusalem combined. These 'pilgrims,' on the other hand, do not come to this big compound for religious reasons. They are ordinary men and women who want to save their communities or interests from the grinding cycle of neglect, or to grease their stomach infrastructures, or simply to receive one or two minted crisp papers from the generosity of one god who is sheltered by this house and ever willing, in generosity and compassion, to throw crumbs on those gathered around the big gate of his mansion.
On this particular day, somewhere in this compound, this god was seated, dazzling and bright as the day itself while some men arranged themselves in a cresent moon style about him. The day was a Saturday, and obviously a happy day for the god and his praise singers, but a sad one for these men with forlorn expressions.
A small mahogany table with some refreshment items—palmwine and colanuts conspicuously stood out from the rest—stood between these men and the god. A fat cow, pigmented black from head to toe and casting the same forlorn looks as the men who had brought it there, was tied to a giant tree just a few steps away.
From this table, each of the men picked whatever refreshment prickled their fancy and munched away at it while discussing the pressing business of the day—the same old business that had banished smiles far away from them. The cow whined now and then, as if the realisation of what was about to happen to it—the same fate that had befallen other cows brought and tied to the same spot by these same sad-wearing men—had just dawned on it.
It would have been better if this show, which appeared to be set in a third world, had been geared toward serving dramatic effects. But these aren't your typical screen actors, as seen in one of African Magic's infamously repulsive scenes, in which some African men offer prayers and appeasement with cows or other animals to some gods in order to appease whatever wrath they bear against them against a melodramatic backdrop. This is the nummb reality of the people of Imilike-people at the hands of their vindictive governor.
Imilike-Agu, an autonomous community in Enugu state, the stories alleged, was condemned to a perpetual ritual of periodic begging or 'solidarity visit and greeting,' as they christened it, after being shoved into the bottom pit of years of neglect. And to whom? Their governor, to whom they entrusted their mandate, arrogantly assumed he was a god over their destinies and fate. They were not appeasing this "god" with a fat cow in order for him to remember them in his orgy of injury time political appointments like his "Nrashi" cronies, or to create jobs for their wasting children, or to provide working health care for their failing health, or good schools to harness their wasting human resources—all of which their experience with this "god" has taught them to be a pipe dream for mere poor peasant farmers—but not to, for whatever anger this god bears against them, vindictively scheme them out from his rural road projects, the only area his administration has made a little statement.
Walking through the nook and corner of this community, one is received with feedback of years of government's neglect. Apart from two dilapidated primary schools, a neglected secondary school, a borehole, and a malaised clinic that ironically needs more the help of the community it was meant to help, everything that meets the eye points to a people who have been left to fend for themselves or perish in the depths of their acute lack of basic amenities. In the words of a vlllager, "these sorry sights are the distant relics of our blind, cult devotion to the PDP for 23 years."
However, In the midst of this generational lack of basic needs, one had a death grip on the community—the only road connecting the community to the outside world had degenerated into a death trap, a wasteland of ruins. This road, however, is more than just a road; it plays an important role in every aspect of the lives of the people of Imilike-Agu, and the people are aware of this. It is an embodiment of their struggle, which began in the colonial era and has given their history the lion's share of its flesh. Thus, the construction of this road is significant not only for its ease of mobility and realisation of their aspiration to someday have an unhindered link with the larger world, but also for its symbolic implications—a defeat of the backwardness their forefathers ignorantly chose in front of the white colonialists and given a lifeline with an ancient spell, the birth of modern civilization, and the signs of good things to come.
Motivated by their quest to rewrite this old narrative and blinded by the grating bite of their ordeal—which is understandable—they threw their pride overboard, swallowed their ego, and, amidst scorn and humiliation, reduced themselves to mere seasonal pilgrims, with cows, to their governor's home, His Excellency, Rt. Hon. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, the executive governor of Enugu state, for a "solidarity visit and greeting."
According to the stories, His Excellency would accept their 'offer'—cows—with open arms but never minced his words in telling them that they were wasting their time.
While the end result of these seasonal pilgrimages to the governor's house is unmistakable—His Excellency would not build their road—the reasons he offered for his blatant rejection of their appeals are the subject of numerous accounts. But one thing is clear from these accounts: His Excellency is hell-bent on settling an old score tinged with political consideration. And, to his discredit and the benefit of the federal government, his Excellency would not have the honour of being the instrument through which the ancient spell of no modern road or development for this abandoned community is to be broken.
While His Excellency was busy arrogating to himself the power of a god of who and which community his administration would perform his statutory duties for, sadly, according to his grace and goodwill, constructing roads for the few communities girding Imilike-Agu while spitefully leaving this agrarian community in the heart of these communities to perish and lick their wounds, it didn't occur to the mere mortal that thought himself a god that his vindictiveness in discharging the functions of his office was drawing the attention of the Buhari-led government at the centre through one of the illustrious sons of the soil, Engr. Dr. Marcus Ugwuanyi.
Today, with the road under construction, Imilike-Agu can proudly stick out their shoulders tall and boast of being one of the few hinterland communities in the country so vital to nation building that the federal government has taken notice! And to whom do they owe the honour? To the Federal Government and their own distinguished son, Engr. Dr. Marcus Ugwuanyi, who brutally taught the vindictive god in the Lion Building the most basic lesson of life—that no man is a god to arbitrarily decide who to freely pour his grace on and who to perish in the wasteland of neglect!
Through Dr. Marcus, the federal government has saved this community from the grinding and repeated cycle of appeasing the wrath of their governor, who also doubles as a "god," with a cow and receiving feedback of his displeasure, not at their cow, but at their mission! The days of making a pilgrimage to His Excellency's big compound with a cow and being turned back with or with no money to cover the expenses they must have incurred in greasing his (the governor's) crassly vindictive hands with a cow are over. However, what is not yet over for this community is the great day of reckoning. This agrarian community, which has paid blind obedience and cult worship to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) since the return of democracy in the country, even threatening to fine any "erring" members of the community who have dared to vote for any party other than the PDP in the past, will have the last laugh in the state's general elections in 2023.
Emotions are heightened, searing anger rages with animal strength and passion, years of humiliation and scorn still smell like new, the dark days in the web of crass neglect haunt the wounded hearts, but vengeance is to the wounded—and 2023, with its promises and perils, is not too far away to mend open wounds! The people of Imilike-Agu are agitated. 2023 appears to them to be an eternity, as does the restlessness of the strong statement they want to strike into the unguarded and meatily fleshy hearts of those who took part in the fun orgy of grinding their vulnerable souls in an open, shallow field of scorn and humiliation with their voting power on the great day of reckoning—the 2023 general elections!
Odo Christian Obinna, a student journalist, writes from the University of Ibadan. 
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Should I garnish this post with snake's pictures to hope for the front page. Lol.