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Erosion: Abia community on the brink, blames government for neglect

Negative mindset

Erosion is one of the major ecological challenges besetting Abia State. The natural disaster is endemic in Ariam Usaka, one of the clans that constitute Ikwuano Local Government Area of the state. Ariam Usaka is a boundary community contiguous to Akwa Ibom State. The present rampaging erosion has evidently gone beyond the local capacity of the community to handle and if no intervention is sent urgently the next rains might as well sweep the community from the surface of the earth. Ariam Usaka is unarguably among the major food food producing belts in Abia State. The people are mostly subsistence farmers producing yams, casava, garri, plantain and palm wine in commercial quantity. It gave Ikwuano the epithet, food basket of Abia State. But erosion menace appear to stand on its way to progress. Writing on the disturbing scenario,the former President of Ariam Usaka Professionals, AUP, Chief Ifeanyi Ibe, blamed it on government neglect and insensitivity.

History

According to Ibe, “Barring an 11th hour miraculous intervention by the Almighty, the compound of Bishop Dr. Mark Oturu will be overrun by the ferocious gully erosion attacking the Ring Road at the Obugwu end. If the rains return and the situation remains as it is Ariam-Usaka and Abia State will witness a calamity of the hugest proportion in history.” He noted that aside the personal loss to Bishop Dr Mark Oturu, the implacable erosion has circled Ariam Usaka for annihilation. The wrathful ferocity of the natural disaster has cut the clan from the Bishops point of the Ring Road to extent that there is no vehicular movement beyond there. The community has therefore sent an Save Our Souls, SOS, to all levels of government, organisations and individuals to come to their aid. “The clan has been cutoff from this point of the Ring Road as there is no more vehicular movement beyond here from Ime Ariam-Ala- Ala on your way to Amaegbu, Usaka-Ukwu, Ndieke-Okoro to Ekwelu. It is same scenario from Ekwelu on the reverse; your movement comes to an abrupt end at the Obugwu Central School as you cannot move to Ekpiri-Ala-Ala/Azunchai and indeed to Ariam-Ala-Ala on the Ikot-Ekpene-Umuahia highway.”

Rough edges

“The above scenario was too evident during the commissioning of the Community Hall built and donated to Ndiokoro by its illustrious son, Dr. Nzeribe Okegbue on December 15th 2022. The commissioning which drew to the border clan the who is who in the LGA and Abia State government, including House Speaker Engr. Chinedum Orji and House Member, Hon. Stanley Nwabuisi, etc, the venue could not be accessed through Obugwu. They had no choice than to go through the Ekwelu-Oboni- Upah end of the Ring Road. That’s how things stand presently in the clan. “This erosion site on the Ring Road has successfully divided the clan into two: one from Ariam-Ala-Ala to the Obugwu Civic Hall and the other from Ekwelu to Obugwu Central School. This has created unspeakable socioeconomic pangs across the community. Today’s hardship will be child’s play by the time the rains return in the year. Remedial attention is needed now more than ever.” Ibe tried to trace the origin of the problem. “How did Ariam- Usaka come to this sorry existential challenge? The answer is in no other factor than the lack of commitment on the part of the Abia State government to construct the Ring Road. In the political and economic corridors of power in the state everyone knows that this road is the only factor holding the clan down in terms of socioeconomic development in the 21stC. They are also fully aware that “the sky will be the beginning” of development for the clan if the road is constructed. It is painfully difficult and irreconcilable to grapple with the reality that in the 21stC world Ariam-Usaka has not seen any tarred road in all its 15 villages as the government prefers to look the other way. The community only sees tar on the Ikot-Ekpene- Umuahia highway. Compare this with Akwa-Ibom where Ikot-Ekpene(a neighbouring community which is not the size of Ariam-Usaka) has its streets tarred.”

Diverse experiences

He lamented that the politicians have used and dumped them after every election cycle with hollow promises. He said that in the 24 years, PDP had held sway in the State Ariam Usaka had been abandoned to its fate. “In every election cycle the community will be patronised and promises will be made concerning the road. In the 24 years of PDP from 1999, including governments of Senator Orji Uzor Kalu and Senator Theodore Orji and from 2015 under Gov Ikpeazu till today, the road has been abandoned to a deeper and rapacious erosional ruination that is about to sweep away everything on its path.” “Thus, the lack of will or deliberate wickedness of the state government under whose purview the construction of this road falls is responsible for the suffering of Ariam- Usaka people. In fact, without motorcycles there would be no transportation on this road.”

More aspects

The emeritus AUP president corroborated the advise of the Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Chief Chinedum Orji, to the professionals of Ariam Usaka origin to push for the cancellation of the road contract spanning over a decade without significant impact. “During his visit last week, Speaker Chinedum Orji reportedly advised Ariam-Usaka Professionals(a leading association in the clan) to urge the state government to cancel the so called contract of the road which has spanned over ten years without execution. The speaker, an adroit, humble, grassroots politician who has been involved in practical delivery of democratic dividends across his Ikwuano-Umuahia Federal Constituency, has not hidden his helplessness over the road.

Grief, sorrow

In the same vein, his colleague, Hon. Stanley Nwabuisi, who had in the past toured the road and erosion site, has not hidden his disdain for the government on account of the state of this road. It is therefore a call to duty for the AUP and all stakeholders to do the needful by urging the government to cancel the contract forthwith. As the contract is being cancelled a fresh one must be awarded within the few months of Ikpeazu’s government.” He, however, acknowledged that some intervention programme in 2014 through the collaborative effort House of Representatives Ecology Committee, the Ugwuegbu community and Ikwuano Local Government Council saved some houses from being swept away but regretted that the remediation work could not stand intense onslaught of the erosion. “In a 2014 SOS intervention that resulted from the effort of the Ugwuegbu Community led by His Lordship, Bishop Dr. Mark Oturu, the Ikwuano LGA and the Federal Parliament through the committee on Ecology, carried out some form of remedial work on the site thereby saving many homes from going down.

Solution required

However, in what then was a poorly executed job and lack of maintenance, the intervention collapsed as the impact of the erosion became stridently violent.” “Today, as the situation has become more life threatening than ever, who is going to save Ariam-Usaka from from an unprecedented, imminent destruction? This is the ample time for lives and property to be saved in the agrarian community.”‘ He also called on all Ariam- Usaka political stakeholders, community leaders and professionals to deplore the current state of affairs and use it to bargain in exchange for votes in the forthcoming elections.

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