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An Open Letter to Dr. Eric Oluedo
(Stop More Autonomous Communities!)

M. O. ENE

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Greetings, my brother Eric!

That lightning never strikes in one place twice is proven again to be what it is: a myth. Congratulations on your membership of “the committee for the creation of autonomous communities” in Enugu State. You have been here before, both as a state commissioner and as chairman of committee on Visit Every Community (VEC) from Governor Sullivan Chime to Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi.

I flew in from USA to make a presentation to your committee in 2009. The Diaspora Office could not get me an appointment. Commissioner Emecca Ani visited me at a hotel near Parklane and took me to the Coal City Centenary event at Ofu Obi Africa Centre. I was shocked by the karmic connection. It was destiny because the centenary celebration was my 2005 idea, which Chime inherited from Governor Chimaroke Nnamani. It was botched badly on a podium of parochial, personal, and pre-2011 political permutations, but that’s another story for another day.

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Over lunch, I told Emecca my mission. We drove back to my hotel. We walked to a new detached wing of the hotel “to see someone.” We met you! We talked. I presented my proposal on town government. It had been presented to Chime in 2007, which scrapped development centers and triggered VEC initiative. I later presented an updated version to Ugwuanyi in 2015.

Our local government and traditional councils have failed to uplift our communities. Ugwuanyi split LGAs into development areas. They never got off the ground. The government now wants to split traditional councils into more dysfunctional “autonomous communities.” Meanwhile, government is yet to deliver on the ₦10 million allocated to existing communities through your headship of VEC Directorate! This is a depiction of absurdity in approach to grassroots growth.

Autonomous communities cause continued deterioration of our republican democracy. The chieftaincy conflicts worsen socioeconomic decline, discernible depopulation, land disputes, and rampant herdsmen vandalism. A radical reversal may trigger anger in ‘(s)takeholders,’ and it may be deemed a deviation from your committee’s apparent mandate, but we cannot continue to pamper policies that thwart the growth of grassroots communities.

With your years of experiences in grassroots policies and politics, consider an addendum to the final report or a constructive minority report. Recommend a reversal to original town formats. No two towns are of equal population and prospects. The central concept of community is cultural cohesion, common causes, and communal concerns. Traditional rulers should morph into custodians of culture and state salaried customary judges with their council elders as jury. Peg compulsory retirement at maximum healthy 80 years. Even Catholic pontiffs retire, and we may get two papal emeriti—if Papa Francesco joins Papst Benedikt XVI.

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It is absurd that half-an-electoral-ward communities are split into two or more autonomous councils just to install for-life kings of villagers who mostly reside in urban centers. Some wards have five traditional rulers and angling for more highnesses, many of whom live in cities—if not overseas. These chiefs rake in more money monthly from government than entire communities get in a year! As Ndiigbo, the joke is on us.

Chime tried to push town governments but failed with VEC initiatives: “A” for attempt; “F” for follow-up. Ugwuanyi moved the needle by paying presidents-general (PGs). We need enabling laws to create these functional organs of government with community policing and departments for provision of basic amenities and maintenance of common facilities—not more autonomous communities. The government can launch pilot programs this December in communities still embroiled in Igwe-succession struggles.

We complain about our leaders, yet those they appoint to help hardly speak naked truth to power. When the show is over, and they want to be executives or legislators, they rediscover their voices. The disruptive strategy will endure and may define Gburugburu era. Try it, sir. Good luck.

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Everything else is embellishment.

© MOE, 9.15.22
@aladimma