One year after President Olusegun Obasanjo vented his spleen on Odi, Bayelsa State, the town which runs along the left hand side of Rivers
Num as one enters from Patani (East/West) Road, has become a case study of a people living in progressive poverty.
Only one year ago, the Odi people were living in their own homes, going about their businesses as they waited for another day-break. But as
in a dream, the people woke up one morning to face a threat. They all ran for dear lives, but before they returned, all they had gathered in life were no more.
Men of the Nigerian Army had sacked the town reducing it to ruble and ruins - in almost its natural state.
One year after, the Odi people are ready to celebrate. Today (Sunday), they are holding an interdenominational service to commemorate that
incident that shattered their hope in life. And come tomorrow, the Odi people will enact the drama of that invasion. A play to be staged by the women of Odi, is
only part of the programme lined up to "mourn" the day.
Chief Millionaire Asangha, Chair-man of Odi Security Committee and Vice-chairman, Rehabilitation Comm-ittee threw more light on the events,
on Friday. The interdenominational service, he says, is to enable them thank their God for still keeping them alive against all odds.
" We will also pray to God about our rehabilitation efforts because we believe if all of us pray together, including the criminals too
- if there are any - then God will not fail to hear us."
There are very many reasons God must hear and also answer the Odi people's prayers. After one year of the sacking of the town, no single
house out of the hundreds of houses put to ruins, has been renovated yet. From the very beginning of Odi, either roofless houses or heaps of ruins were evident
where homesteads once stood -lining the streets.
It would be misleading to actually call those paths streets. Except the tarred road that links Odi with Patani Road, the others are sandly
roads or paths where heaps of sands, make driving a difficult task. And of all, only one major sandy road that runs parallel with River Nun leads one through the
small suburban settlement.
Every now and then, little children in dirty pants and bare bodies are seen playing innocently about. Most of them with protruding stomachs
and tiny legs as those seen in war-torn zones of Africa. The adults mostly go about their routine activities with gloomy faces: They say little, as a subdued
people.
But Chief Asangha explains away that mien: "Our people are quiet and peace loving people," he said. And how does he explain their
restive and confrontational posture with the government security personnel that led to the razing of the town?
Again, Chief Asangha: "I have said it over and over again. Those hoodlums that reportedly beheaded the police were not from Odi."
But the least the Odi people want to do for now is fold their arms and lament their plight. No more the self-pity. It is rather time for
action. Thus the people, having been rejected and abandoned (to use their word) by the Obasanjo government, have set themselves out to rebuild the town.
Consequently, they have set up Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Committee headed by Capt. J. F. Tombri but since the chairman resides in Port Harcourt, the bulk
of the job is done by his deputy, Chief Asangha.
The committee is set to launch rehabilitation and reconstruction funds. So far, it is happy with the response from international
humanitarian organisations. It is equally grateful to Shell and Agip that responded with N2.5million and N1 million each, respectively.
But most of all Odi people hold their governor Chief DSP Alamieyeseigha at heart. He has given them a local government and a health centre
as part of his efforts to rebuild the town. "He has been championing our cause to get the town rebuilt Asangha said.
And the River Nun whose support is the very essence of the city and its people. With their boats ( canoe) still intact, the people could
carry on with their fishing through the other fishing apparati had been destroyed by the soldiers.
" Tomorrow, we shall hold a solemn procession from one end of the town to the other, dressed in whites. That will be symbolic as a
peace loving people. Again we shall call on the whole world to come to our aid, to come and help us rebuild the town. We need our homes back. We cannot continue
to live as destitutes laments Asangha.
Though the Odi local government chairman was away on official duties, but his person assistant spoke of efforts on the part of the council
to get the town rebuilt. We generally create awareness both at home and abroad and bring to the forward the cause of our people, Ingozi Idoni said Friday.
In fact, the soldiers that destroyed the town out to be those that are highly God-fearing. Apart from the Jehovah's Witness's hall of
worship, they left in fact all the other churches in Odi. They would also appear to have been very loyal and honest workers. For they left in fact, the only bank
visible in Odi, First Bank of Nigeria plc, despite the fact that they destroyed the other building around it.
'Democracy has been our doom. At least, the soldiers ( military) abandoned us, but they never destroyed us. But see what democracy has done
to us", laments Idoni.
Thus, while others in other parties of Nigeria may be counting the gains of democracy, Odi people are right there in the ashes of their once
beloved homestead counting their loss of democracy.
The plight of the Odi people is simply that of a people homeless in their homestead. Very few homes today exist in the town mostly emergency
mud huts that the people in their wisdom have decided to raise over their heads. Where such exist, countless number of people, who have no homes of theirs
flocked. Others prefer to remain in their roofless homestead whether in shine or in rain. After all, they have no household belongings
Tomorrow, the people will put all their tears into a play. They will dance away their sorrows. It is not easy to forget ( the
incident). How
can you forget after losing what it takes a lifetime to build. You cannot forget you can laugh it away. But the laughter is not from the heart", says one
Chief Francis.
What perhaps appears to pain the Odi people the most has been what they describe as Obasanjo's unrepentant attitude. "Yes, he has not
come here so he has not seen things for himself, but he cannot deny watching film clips or documentaries on Odi. Besides the senate president and the speaker of
the House of Representatives have been here, so he would have been here so he would have heard from then "Chief Asangha laments.
If only the president has shown remorse. If only he has shown some concern no matter how little the predominant attitude in Odi seems to be.
Such Chief Asangha is more damming. The ( president) could not have done this in any part of the North, no matter how remote, neither could
he have done this to his people. He can only do it here, because we are South-South, because we are the minority. And because, we own the wealth of the land so he
wants to silence us... Asangha's tales have no end.
Even if few of them happened to have been Odi indigenes, they were joined by others from all over the Niger-Delta. We are naturally
hospitable and peace loving people", Chief Asangha reiterates.
He explained further of the security situation in the town that provided a safe ground to the hoodlums. The town has been plagued by
chieftaincy squabbles for some years now. Thus the security situation has been poor. This explains why the people set up a security committee shortly after the
sacking of the town.
I can tell you the town is very, very peaceful and secure now, you can leave your things outside there and come back in the morning and
still found them intact." Asangha chairman of the security committee explains. Adding " we cannot afford to be fools twice".
Mingling with Odi people is one exercise that turns out a dagger thrust into the heart. The sight of the devastated town is enough to draw
water from the heart of stone, let alone the tales.
'Imagine an old man like myself having nothing to share among my children when I die. All I spent my life fighting were swept away by the
soldiers" sobs and elderly man obviously in his 80s.
He sat in his house that has no roof. No other person is visible. Where are his wives and children? But the old man only stared into space.
What is he expecting from the sky. But again, no answer.
The writer wrote this after a visit to Odi.