By Ebube Chukadibia
It appears that during every electoral season, some barbarians and ill-assorted anarchists are determined to foist violence on Anambra State. Their activities are troubling the consciences of all right-thinking people. Common sense teaches that elections are not won by killing and attacking innocent people. These deviants are struggling vainly to create a case of insecurity in the homeland to cast the government in a bad light.
It is reassuring that the Governor of Anambra State, Professor Chukwuma Charles Soludo, CFR, has vowed to get to the root of these ignoble matters and mete out the requisite punishment to the evildoers. He was unequivocal in his determination to rid the land of those desecrating it against Igbo tradition. It is crucial that traditional authorities, market leaders, prelates, and priests buy into the drive to cleanse the homeland of these election-time evildoers, thus placing Anambra on the pedestal it cherishes as the light of the nation. It is unconscionable that, in this day and age of Anambra rising to great heights under Soludo, a tiny minority of atavists are sworn to unleashing evil because they want to win elections by hook or by crook.
The idea of seeing elections as a life-and-death battle is against the Anambra spirit. Governor Soludo is cast in the mould of the 32nd President of the United States of America, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who charged his people during the Great Depression thus: “The only thing to fear is fear itself – nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyses needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.”
The people must take their destiny into their own hands instead of bending the knee to outlaws who commit the dastardly act of murder in a vain bid to give a bad name to the incumbent government. It is noteworthy that the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, has forcefully stressed that it is against Igbo norms to shed the blood of the innocent. As things stand, only renegades working outside the mission and vision of the Igbo identity are behind the recent election-time killings and violence. The bloodthirsty brigands are only interested in killing, maiming, and paying retainer money to some internet warriors to place the blame on the government.
The measures initiated by the Anambra State Government through Udo-ga-chi and Agunechemba have assured our dear state of security. The hoodlums and their sponsors must be fished out to pay a huge price for their nefarious activities. Ndi Anambra will never stop saluting Governor Soludo for liberating the eight local governments of Aguata, Ihiala, Ekwusigo, Nnewi North, Nnewi South, Ogbaru, Orumba North, and Orumba South, initially held hostage by criminals. Now that elections are approaching and hoodlums are trying to sabotage the government’s efforts, there is an urgent need to redouble efforts to stem the stage-managed and induced insecurity. It is expected that the youths of Anambra State, union leaders, and vigilantes of the towns and villages will take up the charge of monitoring and enforcing the security measures put in place, in concert with security agencies, to stop the menace of election-time violence being foisted on Anambra State.
These barbaric invaders are akin to lunatics who have escaped from an asylum and are desperate to seize the sane terrain of the community. This unfortunate scenario must not continue for a second longer. Anambra State is well established as a foremost land of knowledge and camaraderie that must, on pain of death, not allow barbaric election-period marauders to define us.
Anambra State must have a free and fair election on Saturday, November 8, which Governor Soludo stands to win by a landslide.
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Dr Chukwukadia is an Awka-based public affairs analyst
