SAVING CITIZEN BEN EMMAN’S HOME

Sylva Nze Ifedigbo

Among the comment threads that followed the publication of my piece “Celebrating Dele Giwa and Unveiling the identity of his killers” on Nigeria Village Square was one strange but very important entry by an individual who signed his name as Ben Emman. The comment was strange because it had nothing to do with my article but very important as it was a request or better put an SOS appeal to Governor Rotimi Amaechi of River State to think again about his planned demolition of properties along the Eliogholo – Port Harcourt Airport road as part of efforts to widen the road by 450 feet on both sides.

Giving that I neither know Governor Amaechi or any of his an aides, nor am I a PDP member, a Port-Harcourt resident nor do I even know of any one that knows how to get to these people, my first impulse was to ignore the appeal which for all intent and purpose was directed to the wrong quarters seemingly, But on a second thought-a conscience induced re-think-, I decided to do something to help this citizen who perhaps out of the hopelessness of the situation had decided to tell the world of his problem, by indeed bringing the details of his plight to public knowledge and hoping that Governor Amaechi or any of his aides or friends might take a positive interest in it.

Citizen Ben Emman from his letter of appeal is a resident of the garden city of Port-Harcourt. According to him, he and other persons bought and developed the land along the Eliogholo-Port-Harcourt Airport when the area was uninhabitable and had lived there for years. Recently, the out gone government of Peter Odili dualised the said road which led to the demolition of the hard earned properties of many people most of whom are yet to recover from it till date. It thus comes as a rude shock to him and other residents that there is yet again another proposal by the new Governor to widen the already dualised road by 450 feet this time for the purpose of erecting high-rise buildings.

Citizen Ben, who said he was still servicing the loans he took from a co-operative society some time ago to help him in developing his property is asking the modest privilege of the satisfaction that comes from living in his own house as he has no where else to head to if Governor Amaechi makes good his plans.

Ben Emman’s touching story reminds me of the El-rufai demolition craze a while back in Abuja. I live in Abuja so I am in a position to tell the kind of unquantifiable hardship many Nigerian families had to go through for no fault of theirs. Many persons including retired parents watched as all they’ve work for all their lives were leveled flat by the El-Rufai bulldozers. Many of them couldn’t survive it with the many recorded cases of death from Hign b.P. those that did survive had to most despicably, begin again.

It would be easy for any one not affected to sit around and talk about “master plan” and “Beautification”. But it was a whole different experience to have your properties lying around in the open and the structure you’ve called home for so long being leveled by a bulldozer. Alas, the FCT Senate committee has revealed the fraud which El-rufai supervised as minister but the damage done to many Nigerians can not now be undone.

I am not familiar with the said Eliogholo-Port-Harcourt Airport Road, in fact I have hardly ever been to Port-Harcourt, neither am I familiar with what ever plans Governor Amaechi has for the Road, but whatever it is, I guess it is important he thinks again about it.

Governance must have a human face. What ever one does as a leader must be to better the life of the led. Any policy or project that has the propensity to even in the remotest way affect the lives of a portion of the led negatively without any plans to cushion or ameliorate such effects can best be described as wickedness and if Governor Rotimi Amaechi feels he indeed has the mandate of the Rivers people and by extension has their welfare in mind, he should listen to this special appeal.

It is pertinent to even ask what justification the said High-rise structures the Governor wants to build has. How will such a project better the lives of the citizens? Is it really worth demolishing people’s homes for?

If however the said project must go on for whatever reason, it should be the responsibility of the River State Government to first consult with the people that would be affected, make adequate plans to compensate or re-settle them, ensure they are re-settled or adequately compensated, before sending in the bulldozers.

Like I have noted in a couple of my writings, Nigerians are a traumatized people already with the harsh economic realities of the day almost driving us all nuts. Any attempt, this time by our leaders, to further compound the mess they have put us all into over the years will be most unbearable and I dare say unacceptable.

I am therefore calling on all well meaning Nigerians, both at home and abroad, the media, civil society groups, NGO’s, freelance lawyers, Human Right activists and you the reader to join forces in what ever little way you can to help save Citizen Ben Emman’s home. It is the least we can do in being our neighbours keeper.

Let me conclude this piece with the exact words of Ben Emman in his appeal:

I am strongly appealing to Governor Rotimi Amaechi to consider the mess that many families will be put into by this singular act. It would be good to mention here that some of the landlords are widows and even jobless men. The fact that they have a roof on their heads makes life a little bearable for such people. I wonder what would be their fate should this plan materialize.

I beg the Governor in the name of God to reconsider this plan and as well imagine the pains that it will bring to many lives and families. Many to-be-affected people, if the plan is finally executed, may never come out of this mess for years to come.

I hope Governor Amaechi listens.

Sylva Nze Ifedigbo

nzeifedigbo@yahoo.com 08063767306

www.nzesylva.wordpress.com

Robot  Villager

# 1 Reference: Special Appeal to Gov. Rot.... Posted by Robot| 14.10.2008 16:05

Mikky jaga  Villager

# 2 Thanks for your empathy with a fellow citizen, but the truth must be told, we are all tenants on any land on which we have invested so much of our hard earned incomes, even with a duly signed Certificate of Occupancy, courtesy: The Land Use Act. The government may wake up one morning and decide that "in the overriding interest of the general public", your only inheritance from your papa including your ancestral shrines must be bulldozed to give way for an urgent development. The Act does not empower government to consult or seek your opinion on the issue, it only encourages the government to pay you compensation determined by it. Unfortunately, people's farmlands and only means of livelihood have had to give way for pipelines with little or no compensation this way without so much as a whimper being heard. That is the situation as at today. No one knows tomorrow. Posted by Mikky jaga| 15.10.2008 04:59

SimpleMan  JJC

# 3 MikyJaga, You have been brutally frank with Sylva but apart from that hard truth I have written him a private mail in which I pointed out that for me as PH resident who visits Abuja and sees what El-Rufai has done for our Capital city, that Guy deserves clapping for. I have asked our friend whether he enjoys passing through A-Y-A in Abuja now that the 2-filling stations that were on both sides of the junction have been pulled down by E-Rufai bulldozers. I cannot comment much about this place where Citizen Ben has his house but in Abuja, El-Rufai told us that a lot of the houses being demolished were on locations that had been earmarked for other amenities - just as we have seen what the A-Y-A junction is turning into. Weknow ourselves that as Nigerians, we tend to disregard Law and order and anytime someone is beingstrict with law and order we start calling the persons names and try to get rid of the person. Gen Idiagbon/Buhari are other examples with their WAI. We are lucky we have continued to keep Dora at NAFDAC. Maybe because the stark reality of taking fake drugs is too scary to toy with?? I can join to appeal ro RVSG to adequately compensate those that have genuine properties on the land they are trying to reclaim in the "over riding interest of the public" Mikky, is it only Oil pipe line that you can remember? Note that Electric Power lines come from Kainji (Niger)/Igbin(Lagos) to every part ofthe Country God help our leaders to lead alright and we the followers to do right at all times. I am SIMPLEMan Posted by SimpleMan| 15.10.2008 18:02