CRY MY BELOVED EWU

BY GABRIEL OMONHINMIN.

I was home in Ehallen Ewu, in Esan Central in Edo State, some few months back. I discover to my chagrin that seventy per cent of my childhood school mates were dead and those that I met looked much older than I did.

After a very deep reflection, I realised that the only difference between me and my school mates especially those still living, is the education that I was fortunate enough to have.

The importance of access to education for all cannot therefore be overemphasised.

Since I returned to Lagos my place of work, I have daily sucked and ruminate over the backwardness of my village. And I have continually asked myself without really finding an answer, how do I get together people who feel the way I do about the town, so that we could collectively help find ways of attracting development to the place?

Esan land for the benefit of Nigerians not to familiar with the place is regarded as the heart-beat of Edo State. It occupies a large expanse of land North of Benin city. Esan land has an area of approximately 3,000 kilometres and a population of about zero point eight million people as at 2001.

There are thirty five clans each of which is headed by a traditional ruler known as “Onojie”.

Western education was introduced to the place at the turn of the century and the first government controlled school was established at Ubiaja in 1904. Schools were established in Uromi another neighbouring clan in 1905, Ekpoma in 1906, Irrua, Opoji, Ewu and Agbede in subsequent years. Despite the proximity of these schools and the relative low school fees at that time, most parents could not afford the school fees require them.



Post-primary schools were opened after a long struggle in Esan Land. In 1942 the first teachers training college was established, that is John Bosco in Ubiaja. Followed by Ishan Grammar School in Uromi in 1948; Annunciation Catholic College in Irrua; Pilgrim Baptist College in Ewhohimi, and Anglican Grammar School in Ekpoma. These schools alongside others such as Our Lady of Lourdes Girls Grammar School in Uromi, Scared Heart Teachers Training College in Ubiaja opened the gate to Western Education in that part of Edo State. The Esan man crowning glory came with the establishment of the Ambrose Ali University in Ekpoma, by the late Professor Ambrose Folorunsho Ali.

In spite of the proximity of these institutions, most Ishan parents could hardly send their wards to school, due to poverty. It been a long practice, that kids get withdrawn from school because parents can’t pay school fees; some become street kinds to make family ends meet. Some school age kids become road side motor mechanic apprentices and teenage traders at a time they should be fighting against illiteracy and preparing for the future. Tertiary institutions are seething. And yet, we want to enter the twenty-first century prepared to compete with the rest of the world.

Years later, the effect of lack of functional education, has become manifest in most Esan towns and villages. The backwardness in Ewu village in particular is worth mentioning.

As one worries about the plight of our people and what to do, to bring about a meaningful change in their lives, one is shocked to read in the Newspapers that the chieftaincy tussle which crated so much disaffection in Ewu land in the past and was considered settled with the court verdict in favour of the present Onojie His Royal Highness Jafaru Ojiefo Esesele II, is once again been reopened in another disguise. My worry therefore is, why have my people failed to realise that everything created by God has its destiny.

Past disagreement over this issue, did more harm than good in Ewu land, the ripple effect of the crisis is there for us all to see. While do we continue to engage in profitless crisis? Anyhow, while this matter was in court, government positions on the Onojie tussle were successfully challenged, hypocrisy by some groups on the matter exposed by the media, their arguments rejected by the courts of law, their repressive tactics resisted by some members of our community.
After years of calm the tide appeared to be turning against this group who meant little or no good for the Ewu people. Hence, the need for them to foment trouble afresh, but should this be allowed to continue? I say no.

The question therefore is, when will my people learn to do what is right and proper for themselves. Trouble at this particular time of our national development, will not help in any way to bring about the much require development in Ewu? I am of the belief, that “If we want to climb out of the hole we are in, it is a job for all the people”.

If Ewu must develop we collectively have a duty to perform, in ensuring accountability in our land.
We must serve as an early warning mechanism.
Act as a check to the excesses of some individual and their groups, government at local and state levels.
Hold whoever becomes our leader responsible for the attainment of agreed goals.
Be a vanguard for sustained fight for justice, fairness and equity.
Diversifier interests sufficiently in areas vital for economic, social and political development of our people, so as to get adequate and sustained attention.
Constantly remind those in government at the local government and state levels their obligations to people of Esan land.

Other areas worth devoting our efforts, if we must grow economically, are the enthronement of the rule of law, as one who had the privilege of watching our juridical system from within the court in the past years, I can say that the courts need the citizen’s keen interest in their effort to consolidate the rule of law and thwart what their detractors regard as the unacceptable face of judicial pronouncement.

The amelioration of poverty in Ewu land is possible if we create a structure that will help our people to have food and shelter alongside improving their economy. Poverty is spreading and does not seem to be prepared to take a flight back into its shell too soon. Food and shelter are becoming scarcer and less affordable. More families are making do with less food. The ranks of the homeless are increasing.

In the current dispensation, the pursuit of happiness is becoming a “battle royale” because the wherewithals for this endeavour are not available to may.

Experience has shown, that the much-touted improvement in the economy is seen more by statisticians and those who deal with figures without relating them to people’s experience.

In spite of this, we could, if we want to, help improve the welfare of our people. This can be done if we make concerted efforts to finance education in Esan land. And as a matter of priority return to values. The challenge of values is what sustained them in years past, this has given way to societal indiscipline: cultism, robbery, lack of consideration, disrespect is now the other of the day in our society. To cap it all, we are told our new politics and succession strategy should have no need for morals, as if leadership is only for the amoral.

The time has come for us to have a rethink. For us to achieve the above mentioned values, we must jettison the following
• Wealth without work.
• Pleasure without conscience.
• Knowledge without character.
• Commerce without morality.
• Science without humanity.
• Worship without sacrifice.
• Politics without principle.

His Highness Jafaru Ojeifo, Esesele II is an uncle to Prince Rasaki this relationship can not be wished away. Well, how long people think they can keep them apart for selfish gains or reasons are left for time to tell.

I believe that as long as our problems remain with us, we have no choice but to continue to re-visit them through analysis, new insight and unrelenting effort to find solutions. There is no viable alternative to either stop thinking them through or simply throwing up our hands in fruition. We cannot give up. Ewu my beloved place of birth can not move forward that way.

Gabriel Omonhinmin is with Voice of Nigeria.