Sometimes in August 2025, I called to remind a
caterer of my petty-contract with her, which was getting belated. She replied that my job
was delayed because she was engaged with ‘ọsọ- Soludo’. Osọ- Soludo?
That must be the newest phrase on town! Since
I did not understand that phrase, I
sought for clarification. That was when she explained that she was removing
her stocks and other movables from her shop because bulldozers were clearing
the way for the proposed dualisation of Ekwulobia-Nnobi road, which would pass through Nkwo-Igbo! People were notified to retrieve
all retrievable from their shops before the
bulldozers did their duty. However, they, felt it would take long in
coming. However when the machines began ‘active service’ from Ekwulobia and
got to Isuofia, Soludo’s hometown, people knew that it was a serious affair. Oso-Soludo literarily means fleeing from Soludo
but in this context, it means fleeing from the bulldozers as they commenced preliminary works on the Ekwulobia-Nnobi highway. Soludo
is involved because it is his government
that awarded the contract.
Nd’Igbo
as a people have engaged in ‘oso’ twice, when they hurriedly left their places
of material sustenance for ‘home’. But for the people of Igbo-Ukwu, this is the 4th
oso in the history of the town. The first oso was around 1920 when
our forbearers protested against the highhandedness of the imposed warrant-chief
and the Whiteman, with a troop composed mostly of black-men, came to restore
order and, as they usually said, pacified Igbo-Ukwu. It was our fellow blacks who did us in! Igbo-Ukwu people, mostly the males, fled into
the bushes, valleys and mountains in neighbouring towns and that marked the end of
the short-lived rebellion. The second oso was the Oso-Biafra, which
occurred when the rest of the country ganged up against Nd’Igbo, which
initially included everybody from Makurdi downwards. It started from the pogrom
in Kano and the entire north, and then the ‘police action’ in 1967 and the
unequally-yoked war, in which most of the world, led by UK backed Nigeria to
subdue my people. The oso started from the North and then
from all parts of the country down to the East and then, from some parts of the
East to other parts of the East. My family was luckily not involved in the oso but
I remember that some of my father
friends from Abba ( in Njikoka LGA) occupied our house at Igbo-Ukwu while
several families from Onitsha axis occupied our classrooms at St Anthony’s Primary
School Osumenyi, where my father was a an institution, as a revered headmaster.
All these ended in January 1970 followed
by Gowon’s fake declaration of no victor no vanquished and the mouthed
policy of 3Rs, which was implemented
more in breach.
We
then had oso-Abiola, when Nd’Igbo fled from all over the country,
especially Southwest, down East, following the June12 imbroglio. The
transporters, who were also Igbos, exploited the desperation
of the fleeing horde, most of whom sold
their household items for less than peanuts at the various motor parks. I was
so pissed off that I wrote an article: ‘Igbos, when will this stop’ asking
why we should flee even when two cocks were fighting over a hen! And now we have this oso-Soludo , which is refreshingly quite different from all the
previous ‘osos’ that our people had run. In this case, even electric poles
also fled, as they were being relocated to make way for the new road. Oso Soludo
is unique because of its relationship with the Theory of Creative Destruction.
The theory of ‘creative destruction’
enunciated by Joseph Schumpeter in 1942
simply states that the old
should be creatively and deliberately destroyed to make way for the new. It is the process of
innovation and transformation that accompanies economic growth and generally
involves destroying the old (outdated industries, products and processes) and
introducing new ones to replace the
‘expired’, old ones. By a stroke of fate, Joel Mokyr, a Jewish, Phillipe Aghion,a Canadian and Peter Howitt, ‘Frenchist’ (Professors at US, French
and British Universities) jointly won the 2025 Nobel Prize for Economics, and they wrote oo
Creative Destruction. If you don’t like the word ‘frenchist’, go to court!
Oso-Soludo
is a positive oso as the old roads and all that are associated with them, are
being destroyed so as to give way to the new road for the good of the people. The oso is
not just for Nd’IgboUkwu. Towns from Amawbia to Ekwulobia, Agulu to Nnewi,
Nnewi to Okija and inhabitants of Okpoko also ran! We know that nothing good
comes easy and that every change comes with its own wahala. I mean genuine
change, not the Buharian change. If oso-Soludo
is the only type of oso, let us keep on fleeing! And with the outcome of the election of November 8, the oso
continues. More contracts are being
awarded since then and Ocha Brigade( Operation Clean & Health Anambra), which some people
call Ocha
Brigandage, has returned with
more gusto, asking owners of illegal
structures, street traders and shanty owners to try elsewhere. But relocation
is not as easy as it sounds
There are
however three issues of concern on the part of the Government. First is that the
notice is usually short as if it were a deliberate effort to administer a shock-therapy.
Methinks people should be given adequate notices to relocate, even though
people are usually reluctant to relocate, even when given a year’s notice.
Secondly, some people complained that there were significant gaps between the
road and the destroyed buildings. I believe that this may be because of the
regulatory distance between roads and buildings. However efforts should be made
to minimize the damages. At times, the damages are unintended. When an iron rod
is touched, it may go beyond where it was intended. Finally there is the issue
of compensation. Government should make efforts to compensate property owners, who
are affected by this commercial ‘ecocide’
even when it can adopt a do-nothing approach because most of those affected had run afoul of the law. On the part of the people, it appears that some of us deliberately flouted the
regulation by not observing the mandatory space between their buildings and the
roads. Most often, it is the later-day attachments,( gates, compound walls,
emergency shops) that were adversely affected. I
advise that we follow regulatory
specifications in whatever we do so as to avoid stories that touch
But all said and done, if Oso-Soludo were to be the only oso, let’s keep on
‘osoing’!
Join Me
1)
Join me to the funeral
ceremonies and akwa-ogo of Ide JNC
Ezeife, a man of many FIRSTS, my colleague, friend and in-law
who left this world at the age of 102+. Funeral takes place at his compound,
Ihuakaba Igbo-Ukwu on Saturday, January 3, 2026
I can
attest unequivocally that Ide JNC Ezeife, created indelible marks in all fields of
endeavour where he has trod: education, culture, community leadership and customary jurisprudence. He walked on the
path of truth and honour on the issues of the day in Igbo-Ukwu. Probably
God created him on a Monday morning, after a restful weekend,
and that was why He endowed him with
intellect, strength, wisdom and courage to play all the diverse
roles he has played in our community and beyond. Ide Ezeife was an ICON
by all standards, as his footprints dot all spheres of human endeavour where he
has been privileged to serve. Because of
his height and his assertive voice, you could not miss him in any crowd.
2:
Join me as I celebrate my 68th birthday to the glory of God on
1/1/2026. The venue will be in the cloud(www.muoigbo.cloud.dontcome!). Don’t worry, before long, we
shall celebrate in on the ground!
“Find a great mentor, someone who has already been through the many challenges of being an entrepreneur..” -Jodi Levine
Entrepreneurship in Practice: Cases, Challenges and Lessons By IK, MUO PHD is now available on Amazon, since 14/5/21. Click here to view Available for order +2348033026625 | Delivery: Worldwide
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