For Okuama to return-Omatsey

April 29, 2024, News/Comments

Commentary -The story of the poor and vanishing Okuama people will not leave our radar. It is because we are dealing with two sets of injustices. One is against the 17 soldiers who died, whatever their infractions in the local politics. The president and commander in chief has immortalized them with national honours and their families secured guarantees of federal government care, scholarships and provision.

 

The second are the suffering innocents in Okuama village. We cannot believe that the mothers, old women, and children were part of the conspiracy to kill the soldiers. I therefore align with the Governor when he set up a committee to resettle people in an IDP camp as succour for the innocents. Governor of Delta State, Rt. Hon. Sherrif Oborevwori said of the army: “They have been very supportive and they have kept to their promise that innocent people will not be victimised. I want to assure the people of Okuama there is no point running away from your community.” He also said President Bola Tinubu cares for the innocents.

 

The matter is a delicate one, especially because we are dealing with a grieving army. The army, though, has to get to the bottom of a fact that troubles me. Who brought down the village? Every building, hut, school, including what looks like a palace in their humble terms, was razed down. That was army revenge? But there is no room for that in a democracy or even civilized community. The army denied this in spite of the videos.

They have not explained to us who did it and why. Justice never succeeds as revenge. To show that there was method to the rage, why did they leave the only church building unhurt. It was the only innocent in the village. They did not touch the anointed. They were ready to hurt the hapless people, but they did not want the trouble of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN). It should concern CAN. But CAN crawls with timid souls. The poor people of Okuama are now left to scramble for their God.

They have crude oil that eludes them, so they have no silver or gold for CAN. And no cathedral magnificence. Otherwise, CAN would whimper. But their lips are clasped. Whoever razed the village was afraid of the holy of holies. But they wanted the people to belt out psalms and battle demons, like Elijah, in forests of a thousand demons.

Whoever committed the bonfires did not want to murder the cathedral, apologies to T.S. Eliot. We don’t know if there was a murder in the cathedral. Now who will worship in the church? Stones, clay splinters, remnant smokes? Even the area of dispute is less than a hundred yards.

There was also the arrest of the King of Ewu Kingdom. If he had a hand in the murders, this essayist is not about to plead for any monarch. But the military did not wrestle with Gumi even though he nestled with militants.

Good thing that the President intervened on the pleas of the Governor and other concerned persons, according to sources.

Okuama, according to someone in the region, is smaller than its name. It reminds one of Abraham Lincoln’s comment on sighting Harriet Beecher Stowe, the author of the anti-slavery novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, that tore apart American conscience during the Civil War. The 16th president quipped, “Are you the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war?” There is also the proverb about a dog being killed because of its bad name.

What is important for all the longsuffering villagers is for them to resettle and return to their boring lives. I believe that the committee, headed by Abraham Ogbodo, former editor of The Guardian newspaper and one of the vocal advocates for peace in the village, is the beginning of the way home. Governor Oborevwori’s quiet, mature and methodical approach is a better route to peace and justice, rather than catcalls from some quarters for him to show bad temper. As he said, the area was peaceful until recently.

“I have come to see how the innocent people of this community can be reintegrated with the cooperation of the military,” said the Governor when he paid a visit.

-Nation Newspapers

By afrikanwatchngr@gmail.com

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