By Emeka Alex Duru
Gradualy and steadily, peace is returning in the South East. Anyone in the region during the yuletide or who listened to those that travelled would appreciate the extent of normalcy that is taking shape in it. At some social gatherings, it was common hearing residents telling one another, ‘Happy survival’, as in Cyprian Ekwensi’s novel, “Survive the peace”, which mirrored the reactions of the people of the defunct Republic of Biafra after the 1967-1970 Civil War. The South Easterners had reasons to do so, this time. The region had literally been reduced to a wasteland in the last five years. For communities that fell within the war zone, it was a holocaust of sort, with lives lost, properties destroyed and villagers dislocated.
My article of Friday, September 12, 2025, titled; “Let peace return in the South East”, which featured two related incidents concerning Lilu community, in Ihiala local government area of Anambra State and Agwa, Oguta council, Imo State, said it all. The piece was a summary of a virtual account of the true situation in Lilu by the Palace Secretary, Dominic Okoli, in a function by the Amnesty International, a foremost non-Governmental Organisation (NGO). Lilu was among the communities caught in the crossfire between the Nigerian military and the so-called unknown gunmen.
With the commencement of the crises in 2020, Lilu was reduced to a ghost town, community life obliterated and its streets deserted. According to Okoli, 25 villagers were kidnapped, many killed, while 30 houses were razed. The traditional Ruler of the community Igwe Godson Onyediri, along with many notable residents, were forced into exile while their mansions in the village were burnt. “In Lilu, you can smell tension and death in the air”, the Palace Secretary cried.
Nduka Ozor, an indigene of Agwa, Oguta local government area, Imo State, narrated similar disturbing experience and unlawful killings in his area, lamenting how the community had been rendered uncertain by climate of insecurity that had enveloped it. For illustration, he played a video of his relation, a lawyer and retired police officer, who visited home but was abducted and butchered. As if killing him was not enough, the assailants phoned the family to “go and pick his corpse where it was dumped”. At this point in the narration, Ozor was seized by emotion. He wept. There was pin-drop silence in the hall. The picture was gory and horrifying.
As it was in Lilu and Agwa, so was the ugly story in some parts of Orsumoghu, Isseke, Ihiala, Owerre Ezukala, Awa, Umunze, Isulo and some other communities in Anambra state. On the Imo axis were Orsu Ihiteukwa, Awo Idemili, Awomamma, Orlu, Mbano, Okigwe, Ihitte-Uboma, Izombe. So also, was the story in Izamgbo, Isieke, in Ebonyi, Isuochi in Abia, and other areas where gunmen held sway, leaving in their trail, blood and destruction. At a point, the Azia-Orsumoghu-Lilu-Orsu Ihiteukwa-Awo Idemili axis was almost deserted, forcing villagers to seek refuge elsewhere.
A detailed report by Amnesty International, titled, “A decade of impunity: attacks and unlawful killings in South Est Nigeria”, stated that 1,844 people were killed in the region between January 2021 and 2023. In Imo alone, 400 people were mowed by gunmen between 2019 and 2021. The Director, Amnesty International Nigeria, Isa Sanusi, was clearly at pains reeling out the figures. These were of course, documented accounts. Some of the casualties were not recorded and would remain unaccounted. A colleague from one of the affected communities, could only visit his home last December – five years after. Bereaved families paid ransom to bury loved ones.
While the carnage lasted. The World took note and branded the zone negatively. In its 2016 national human development report for Nigeria, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) had rated the South East the most human security secure geopolitical zone in the country. Nine years after, the zone had lost its ambience; the tranquil environment that had enabled its people put their spirit of industry and enterprise at work. In place of peace, insecurity and lawlessness took over and left the area a byword for violence and destruction. It was that bad!
But like Dionysus in the Greek mythology that rose from the ashes of death, the South East is bouncing back to life, reenacting its twin spirits of resilience and renaissance. The people are standing firmly on their feet, looking beyond the misfortunes of the last five years and silently praying, “ozo emena”, their own version of “Never again”, as the Jews chorused after the holocaust. There could still be pockets of disturbances in some instances but the volume is no longer as fearful as in the days before.
In a satisfactory note, the governors are beginning to take their assignments seriously, particularly on roads and opening up the communities. What the governors; Charles Soludo (Anambra), Peter Mbah (Enugu), Hope Uzodimma (Imo), Alex Otti (Abia), are doing in road construction, is commendable. I did not have a first-hand experience of the situation in Ebonyi, but I was told that the governor, Francis Nwifuru, is equally trying. A drive from Awka, through Ekwulobia, Orlu, Owerri to Umuahia, was a pleasant experience. Some inter and intra-city roads have also been rehabilitated. Movement within the region, is fast becoming less stressful.
However, the two areas that the governors need to accord immediate attention are water supply and primary health care. None of the cities had a functional water supply system, thus leaving the residents at the mercy of exorbitant private water suppliers. Primary health centres are few and not near to the people that need their services. Secondary and tertiary sectors are not better. Situations in General and Teaching Hospitals are not particularly exciting.
But the most intriguing challenge to the leaders of the South East, is the articulation of a precise political philosophy and agenda for the region. In a system as the present-day Nigeria where equity, fairness and justice, are hardly given considerations, each zone needs a common voice to pursue its case and command attention. Doing so does not require belonging to a particular political party but rather, clarity of purpose on how to reposition the area. Experiences of the past, show that it is doable. In the Second Republic, while the likes of Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe (Zik), Sam Mbakwe, Jim Nwobodo, Edwin Ume-Ezeoke, belonged to the Nigerian Peoples Party (NPP), Dr. Alex Ekwueme (Vice President), Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu (Ikemba) Kingsley Ozumba (KO) Mbadiwe, Chuba Okadigbo and others, were in National Party of Nigeria (NPN). Philip Umeadi (SAN) and foremost journalist, MCK Ajuluchukwu teamed up with Chief Obafemi Awolowo in Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN). Chinua Achebe and other intellectuals, bonded with Mallam Aminu Kano in the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), while Dr. Basil Nnanna Ukaegbu and like minds from the zone, worked with Waziri Ibrahim in Great Nigeria Peoples Party (GNPP). At the commencement of the current dispensation, leaders from the region showed commendable presence in the major political parties – the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and All Peoples Party (APP) later, All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP).
Sadly enough, the situation is no longer so. With the possible exception of the 2023 presidential candidate of Labour Party (LP), presently a chieftain of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Peter Obi, there is hardly any political figure of national status from the South East. Politicians from the region seem to be contended with playing subservient roles, seeking accommodation or to avoid prosecution over their activities while in previous offices. That has made the South East not to be reckoned with in distribution of key offices in the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the limping opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). A people that are justifiably lamenting marginalisation and exclusion from the scheme of things, need to be more audacious and forceful. But that can only be done with a defined group agenda.
DURU is the Editor, TheNiche Newspapers, Lagos