Ebonyi’s Amasiri-Oso-Edda feud: Nwifuru wrong on all fronts
The Bible tells of how King Solomon applied wisdom to settle a dispute between two prostitutes over a baby. One woman’s child was smothered at night, and both women laid
- By Emma Anya
The Bible tells of how King Solomon applied wisdom to settle a dispute between two prostitutes over a baby. One woman’s child was smothered at night, and both women laid claim to the one alive. To know the real mum, King Solomon directed a soldier to cut the baby alive with a sword and give half to each woman. The mother whose child died accepted Solomon’s suggestion, but the other said no: “Please, my Lord (Solomon), give her the living baby! Just don’t kill him. At that point, King Solomon knew who the true mother was and directed that the baby be given to her.”
The story highlights Solomon’s divine wisdom and ability to administer justice.
Juxtapose the Biblical story with the dispute between Amasiri and Oso-Edda, Ebonyi State, over Okporojo, a disputed farm settlement. What you see is an unwise action akin to those of Germany’s Adolf Hitler, China’s Mao Zedong and latter-day leaders like King Leopold II of Belgium and Pol Pot of Cambodia. These despots were infamous for decisions often involving tyrannical acts, catastrophic wars, or devastating policy failures.
“Their failures,” according to John Mattone, “reveal that without inner-core strength, power turns destructive.’’
Mattone, in a piece titled Five Worst Leaders in History: Avoid Their Fatal Leadership Mistakes,’ states that “True, intelligent leadership produces transformative results” and “requires the courage to confront’’ destructive behaviours.
Did the governor, Francis Ogbonna Nwifuru, (FON), display emotional intelligence during his visit to Okporojo where four people were killed by those NTA called ‘Unknown Gunmen (UGM)? The answer is no. Emotional intelligence (EI or EQ) is the power to recognise, understand, manage, and influence one’s emotions and the emotions of others. It enables effective communication, conflict resolution and stress management.
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High EI fosters better relationships and leadership, influencing success more than brash actions.
Nwifuru also did not demonstrate emotional intelligence. He exhibited destructive behaviour loudly. His action can readily make a Guinness World Record.
His brash actions on the Amasiri-Oso-Edda feud have left a rough scar on the Amasiri clan and its people. He has scapegoated and stigmatised Amasiri people. And history will remember him not for good but for folly. He fails to realise that collective punishment does not resolve disputes. It produces disastrous outcomes instead.
The punitive actions taken against Amasiri, ranging from dethroning its traditional leader, delisting it as a development centre, a 20-hour curfew, and banning its town union signposts a clear abuse of executive power.
Those clapping should cause him to read an honest piece by his kinsman, Ezeh E. Ezeh, titled: ‘Amasiri–Oso Eda Crisis: A Few Words of Caution.’
In the well-articulated post, Ezeh, a former governorship aspirant, warned that leadership must not be driven by anger. The actions by the governor, according to him, shows ‘unpreparedness and incompetence.’’ Ezeh did not only point out that Nwifuru’s response was not holistic, he argued that they are “designed to shock the system and demonstrate presence”.
The Izzi-born politician wrote: “The killings in Okporojo in Oso Edda community, Edda Local Government Area … reflect a broader political and economic tension simmering across the state. Leadership is a call to responsibility.
“The government’s recent actions project a leadership posture that appears angry and reactive. Leaders should never speak or act from a place of anger. Leadership demands calm, clarity, and seriousness. Anger signals unpreparedness and, at times, incompetence. True leadership is demonstrated through composure, not emotional outbursts.
“The steps taken so far seem designed to shock the system and demonstrate presence. While such actions may temporarily loosen tensions, they must not be seen as taking sides.
“Most importantly, they should be recognised as short-term interventions and not long-term solutions.”
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Governor Nwifuru should understand that when an entire group or clan is penalised and stigmatised for the alleged offence of a few, it amounts to collective punishment, which is prohibited by national and international laws.
The international humanitarian law (Geneva Conventions) views such an act as a war crime because it disregards individual criminal responsibility, a fundamental principle of justice.
The over three-week curfew in Amasiri has resulted in a humanitarian crisis that the federal government and the international community need to urgently bring under control.
Last week, two women put to bed. The first to deliver lost her baby because of movement restriction. That baby came into the world but did not see the world simply because Nwifuru wants his mum, dad and his kinsmen to produce four torsos he gathered from security agents, who were cut off during the Okporojo onslaught. That innocent baby’s only offence is being born to an Amasiri family. Two days after the baby’s video began trending online, the second woman was put to bed. While her baby survived, she died due to the curfew.
These two are just a few examples of the scripted annihilation against the Amasiri people.
Many Amasiri youths, children and some elders became Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs). Waking up early on January 30 and finding scores of soldiers and other security agents in their community, they left their once peaceful community in droves, like people in war zones.
One of them is Okechukwu. His whereabouts remain unknown. Reports have been made to the Police. Okechukwu’s case is just one of the sad fates that the governor’s thoughtless action has visited on an entire community.
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Despite the so-called relaxation of the 20-hour curfew that brought the entire community to its knees, the security agents are combing most compounds at night in search of the WANTED FOUR HEADS needed by Nwifuru from all Amasiri persons to magically bring back the dead Edda people.
Last week, my kindred‘s compound was invaded, homes broken into and ransacked by persons believed to be security agents. The security agents are also busy humiliating and dehumanising the Amasiri people. Trending videos show all these.
While Nwifuru’s government has Amasiri and its people gasping for breath, it is daily giving access to quarry companies in the community and their clients to lift our natural resources. What does this tell? Snooker them, suck their resources.
Nwifuru is engaged in what psychologists call forced compliance. But he fails to understand that such leads to high resentment or resistance.
Mr Governor: now that over 30 people, including two Amasiri traditional rulers suspended by you, have been arraigned, give way and allow the defence and prosecutors face each other in court. End the curfew. Direct the withdrawal of soldiers and other security agents from Amasiri. Order the state Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) to begin remediation of the humanitarian crises you created.
Allow Amasiri to breathe.
•Anya, an Amasiri indigene, is a journalist and reputation manager.
