Ohafia Must Not Mortgage Its Honour on the Altar of Politics – Professor Eni Kalu
When some of our sons were elected in 2023, I was delighted that we had returned to the glory days. I was a proud Ohafia man. But recent events have made me wonder whether these positions are now a blessing or a curse to us. Ohafia used to be a home for educated people and intellectuals.
We must not allow charlatans to cause havoc in Ohafia in the name of politics. It is time for our people to think with their heads and stop being emotional or allowing someone from another clan to destroy our community in the name of politics
The election that produced Orji Uzor Kalu also produced an Ohafia son in Ibe Okwara Osonwa. Abiriba has long moved on. Why did Bourdex not sponsor his own people to destabilise his community? Why must our sons be the ones to destroy Ohafia? Serious investors who watch the ugly video of our mothers chanting or wishing another man dead will certainly think twice before coming to Ohafia to invest.
We must remember that Ohafia is the headquarters of the zone; our actions must prove that we merit that status. It is not a title to be desecrated by destabilising the community. We need investors. Both local and international. Insecurity, intimidation, threats or violence only scare investors and development away. Communities grow where there is order, civility and respect for the rule of law, not where tempers are weaponised for political gain.
The right way to fight back, if we feel dissatisfied, is through the ballot. It is important that we respect ourselves. Those we elected in 2023 should bring honour to the community and not destabilise it.
Ohafia is not the only clan in Abia State. One can see the disgusting comments against Ohafia on social media over the issue of wishing another man dead. It came from supposed mothers. That is the height of callousness and incitement.
The actions of the youths were wrong. It was a hatchet job, and we know that. We must call a spade a spade. It was inciting to declare a former Chief Security Officer of a state persona non grata.
A current senator representing you, and indeed representing Ohafia, is the host of his constituency office. It is as good as saying that Alex Otti should stop visiting Umuahia or that Tinubu should stop visiting Abuja. When we act, we must think carefully before we do so.
I call on the leadership of the Ohafia Improvement Union to immediately dissolve the leadership of the youth group. Discipline must be restored, and clear boundaries must be set. No group, no matter how passionate, has the right to drag the collective image of an entire clan through the mud for narrow political interests. Leadership demands courage, especially the courage to correct one’s own.
I listened to a voice note in which one of those seen in the protest video in Umuahia called on Ohafia to support an Elu son to become the senator representing Abia North. If you wish to become a senator, lobby your party members for the ticket, contest the primaries, and if you win, we will all support you.
That is the democratic path. It is not for you to sponsor youths to destabilise the state. The politics of Abia is different from that of Rivers. If violence paid in Rivers, it certainly will not pay in Abia.
It is sad that instead of condemning the situation, some government officials from Ohafia fuelled it in conjunction with their allies from outside the community. The likes of Prof Eni Njoku, Kalu Ezera and others would be deeply saddened to witness what we are seeing today.
Their generation laboured to build an intellectual and dignified image for Ohafia; we must not be the generation that squanders it through recklessness and political desperation.
Let us also be clear: political competition must never translate into communal hostility. Today it may be one individual; tomorrow it may be another. If we normalise threats, incitement and public disgrace as tools of engagement, we plant seeds that will eventually consume us all. Ohafia’s strength has always been its discipline, strategy and capacity for calculated action that is not mob theatrics.
I condemn the actions of the youths, the women, their sponsors and those who supported them. It is not in our character to behave foolishly. We are very calculative. Let us return to that tradition of thoughtfulness, restraint and dignity, so that future generations will inherit a community strengthened; not fractured by the politics of our time.
Eni Kalu, Ph.D writes from Maryland, USA.
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