By CHIEDU UCHE OKOYE

The ancient Obosi town, which is in Anambra state, has existed for more than six centuries. It is an important and well-known town in Nigeria owing to some factors. Its war with its neighbour, Onitsha, over land, which lasted for a long time, has birthed sayings and stories. Those stories and sayings have been incorporated into the Igbo folklore, to which people make allusions while instilling morals into their children.

Again, Obosi is the home town of nationally and internationally known personages, who had contributed their quotas to our country’s development. Is Chief Emeka Anyaoku, a former commonwealth secretary general, not a native of Obosi? And Obosi is the home town of Chief Mike Ajaegbo, a one-time senator in the federal republic of Nigeria; Chief Chimezie Ikeazor, a legal luminary, who founded the legal aid council; and Chief Osita Chidoka, a former minister of aviation in Nigeria.

More so, Obosi is fast transforming to an urban centre and an economic hub in Anambra state. While markets are springing up in the town, educational institutions, which cater to the various educational needs of the people are being built there, too. The migration of people, who come from diverse socio-political backgrounds, to Obosi for educational and commercial reasons has swelled the town’s population and given it a cosmopolitan outlook.

Interestingly, and happily, too, Obosi town has not abandoned its cultural practices, although it is a modernizing town, which is at the intersection of modernity and antiquity. Natives of the town are still the custodians of the town’s cultural beliefs and practices. The Ito Ogbo festival, which is a collective commemoration of birthdays of members of an age grade, who have become octogenarians, is a uniquely Obosi cultural festival. Other cultural festivals like Obiora, Agwu, Olisa, and Idemili are still celebrated in the town, too.

But in the recent past, Obosi was ravaged by cult clashes which caused the deaths of young people in the town. And at that time, many indigenes and non-indigenes of Obosi left the town because it was unsafe. Then, the name, Obosi, was a by-word for cultism.

Thankfully, today, cultism has been obliterated from the town. The councillor for Obosi ward, Hon. Obichukwu Anyafulu, formed the Movement Against Cultism in Obosi (MACCOB), a group that stymied the resurrection of cultism in Obosi. The town is, now, safe. Today, love, and not hate, reigns among the young demographic of the Obosi population.

But another destructive monster, erosion, is ravaging the town, causing people to lose their farmlands, economic trees, and houses. Obosi is encircled by deep gullies in the same way enemy forces surround a city. In each village, which is in Obosi, there are gullies, which have swallowed economic trees and farmlands, and sundered village pathways apart.

Lately, the downpour that was experienced in Anambra state caused the gully erosion, which is near the Union Secondary School, Obosi to start encroaching on uninhabited swathes of land. Its deadly advancement resulted in the sundering of the trunk road that passes in front of these infrastructural facilities located at Ugamuma village, Obosi, namely Union Secondary School, Anambra State School of Health Technology, and Anti-Cult Police Station.

The bifurcated trunk road leads to the totemic Idemili river, which has cultural significance and economic importance. And the road is useful for agricultural and commercial purposes as it leads to the interior areas of the town, where people’s farms and shops are located.

The devastation of the road has caused Obosi people to become saddened, agitated, and worried. A social media influencer, Chibuzo Odogwu, whose stage name is Ezemmuo Bluetooth, stirred the hornet’s nest when he called out well-heeled Obosi indigenes for their alleged inaction regarding the gully erosion. His outburst put him on a collision course with the Obosi traditional and political leaders. As a result, he was compelled to retract his tendentious viral video and tender unreserved apology to the people he traduced.

But it took his viral ecological video to rouse the political leaders in Anambra state and notable Obosi indigenes from their state of inertia and indifference. The Anambra state commissioner for works, Architect Okey Ezeobi, visited the erosion site and promised that the Anambra state government would intervene to halt the gully erosion’s further encroachment on the land.

More so, Chief Victor Umeh, who represents Anambra Central Senatorial Zone in the national assembly, stated that he would present the case of the Obosi town’s ecological disasters to the federal government.

“I will seek the federal government’s intervention to arrest this ecological problem. Anambra state government cannot fill this gully.

“But I am consoling the Obosi people. They should take heart; and they should not remain heartbroken. And they should not run away,” Umeh said.

Meanwhile, billionaire politician and philanthropist, Engr. Eric Anyamene, is carrying out remedial work on the deepening gully erosion to check its further advancement on the land. Anyamene, an NDC political stalwart, whose multi-billion naira house is near the erosion site, has spent millions of naira in checking the erosion menace.

May God save Obosi land from the devastation of its land, houses, roads, and economic trees by erosion gullies.

•Chiedu Uche Okoye, a poet, writes from Uruowulu-Obosi, Anambra State. He can be reached via 08062220654 and 09125204141

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