I was never banished from my community – Council Boss

Onyebuchi Ogbadu is the chairman of Ivo local government area of Ebonyi state. In this interview with Amarachukwu EgwuAgha, he not only speaks on the choice of beneficiaries of yam seedlings given by federal government, he also spoke debunked the rumour of being ostracised from his community.

About 90 persons benefited in the distribution of yam seedlings by the National Emergency Management Agency.

How did you select the beneficiaries?

You know in 2020 and 2021, there were flood disasters that ravaged people’s farms and you know farmers in this area are mostly the rural dwellers, peasant farmers. Also, you know the type of governor we have; somebody that has special love for his people. He took the statistics of the people and the farm areas, the local governments that were affected and communicated with NEMA. NEMA told us to come and carry yam seedlings.

They told us they have provisions for 90 farmers for Ivo local government area and we have already bagged them 100 bags. So, they asked us to go and get the 90 recipients. Councilors are the ones handling it because they are the real representatives of the people. So, I asked them to share that 90 to the eleven wards in the local government and get the real farmers. So, it is not for big men, it is for the rural dwellers and they are happy. We got the best from all the wards equally; it is a stakeholders affairs.

Experiences have shown that when reliefs like this is given to our people, rather than deploying it to benefit the people, they sell it to make money. So, what mechanisms are in place to checkmate such behaviour now?

Our job as leaders in the grassroots is to appeal to them to make judicious use of the relief materials. It is the same way we talked to them when rice seedlings came, the one we call Dave now, special rice.

People didn’t believe it would even outweigh the ones they are having but today those ones that sold their own later went and bought for people that did not sell to replant to replace the breed they had. So, I think our people have learnt their lessons from that rice paddy they distributed in 2016/2017. So, I don’t belief anybody from Ivo with the experience we had with the rice will go and sell these yam seedlings because for government to say this is the best you can do, we are already aware that people will go and sell. If they sell, they will regret it and we appealed to them to go and plant so that others will get from them the next year.

Governor Dave Umahi recently suspended the state SEMA secretary over expired relief materials. Did you check whether the yam seedlings are still good?

You see, the basic thing I have learnt from this administration is that no government hates its citizens. So, I know that the government of Ebonyi state and the governor would not give our people expired seedlings. And here, you have said it all, he suspended somebody who did it. So, I think they must have learnt their lessons from their field before coming and that’s why we didn’t waste time in distributing it. It came in the night and we distributed it in the morning the following day so that they will not say we kept it and it expired.

We are almost in farming season. What is the preparedness of your local government to ensure successful season?

Yes, as at last year, we hosted people from Abuja that came and gave us okro seedlings for Ivo. This is the only local government they chose and they are happy with us. Now, yam seedlings have come. So, what we will do is to make sure that we give them fertiliser that would benefit them and that is what we have been doing.

What is the security situation in Ivo local government after the violent protest in which valuable properties were burnt by protesters?

Normalcy has returned and that is what the Governor wants and that is why he said we should go and maintain peace. There is absolute peace because everybody has done what he wants to do and seen that you don’t remove a sitting government by force irrespective of what has happened, there are procedures.

Is there any penalty meted out to perpetrators of the violent protest?

The elders are on it and you know in Akaeze tradition, it is the people that give penalties; we say ometara vuru!! You know yourself; you know what you have done against the land. It is just the libation they will pour at the traditional centre, if you agree or if you don’t agree, you will pay for it. It is a law of karma in practice. They don’t force anybody to take any penalty, it’s government that does penalty at a cost. Is you that knows what you have done, the community will not just come and say they said you did this, no. Quietly, you obey the law of the land and in my place, there are guidelines.

You are one of the victims of that violent protest in your area. What were your losses?

It is an open issue, you can go and see. Go and see, visit and see. Your colleagues have come without my knowledge. You can go and see; it is like publicity, publicizing evil. It is when you get first-hand information that you will be able to know what has happened. This is two weeks now the incident happened.

There have been rumours that elders of your community are planning to banish you over the violent protest, is it true?

I am a son of the soil and I know the tradition and nobody communicates that to anybody. It is not in our tradition. So, leave rumour mongers. I am part of the people that are strong, so they cannot take over this local government if I am there.

They are not God because if you know what happened in my own analysis, it is not because Ebubeagu did this or Ebubeagu did that. Our finding is that they are drug peddlers that Ebubeagu chased away from the village, Akaeze for the past two, three months because it was shown by all the youths they gathered. People have run away, drug peddlers, they surfaced yesterday doing all these things.

You find out that it was sponsored based on what happened. They were looking for opportunities to get rid of people like me and thank God I am alive. So, if there is any other thing, those ones are another gimmick. They will still fail. No weapon fashion against the just will rise and prosper but the most important thing is ometara vuru because false allegation is part of it and it is part of the 10 commandments of God that one should not do against his neighbour.