Ochaigede is a hamlet under the Agadagba clan of old Onyagede district in Ohimini Local Government Area of Benue state. Ochaigede was previously known as Agadagbaemichi until the community decided to have a name change. Ochaigede, like Agadagba or the entire Ohimini LGA is famed as one of the leading farming communities in Idoma land. The rich loamy soil is reputed for favouring the cultivation of root crops like yam, cassava, legumes and cereals like beans, sesame seed, guinea corn, maize, millet and rice.
The people of Agadagba, like most of Idoma, also have a well established culture and traditions that guide various aspects of social, political and economic activities. The Idoma believe in the efficacy of an omnipresent ancestral spirit that protects the people and punishes evil doers in the community. The people of Ochaigede are not exempt. They have a shrine where the spiritual leader goes to invoke the spirit of the departed ancestors to mediate in the affairs of the village, either for good or bad.
I travelled to Ochaigede last weekend on a community relations voyage. The object of my mission was to placate an allegedly aggrieved community over a land acquisition process.
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My journey to Ochaigede commenced on a hot Friday morning in Abuja as I bid farewell to my family and set forth to Ohimini Local Government of Benue state. Determined to enjoy the best of both worlds I routed the journey through Makurdi, the Benue state capital, just to enable me to enjoy the newly completed and tolled Abuja-Makurdi highway. It was great fun, filled with nostalgia as I sped through the windy and undulating Mada hills that remains the nightmare of articulated vehicles. The road, now being a dual carriage way is safer for truckers and lighter vehicles. The Makurdi-Otukpo portion of the road was a real nightmare. It has been completely marooned by long period of high usage without commensurate attention paid to its maintenance. The recent onslaught of trailers owned by mining and cement production companies does not help matters.
The obvious truth is that the Otukpo-Makurdi road is now derelict. A journey between the two towns, which used to take about an honour or less took me almost three hours to Otukpo. The good news however, is that the road is now being completely revamped and dualised. At the current pace of work, it is hoped that the stretch would be completed before year ending. What is even more exhilarating is that the reconstruction extends all the way to Enugu in the South Eastern part of the country.
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I arrived Otukpo late on Saturday and decided to touch base with friends and some critical stakeholders who shall be playing vital roles in the resolution of the emerging conflict. The consultations continued even at Ochaigede where we held court with a prominent son of the soil, as we say. He is a highly regarded patriot who recently retired from the aviation industry after an unblemished career that was most adjudged as outstanding.
The pitch
An indigenous corporate entity with foreign partnership had sought the permission of the villagers to establish a farm project at Ochaigede. With help from the Clan head of Agadagba, after negotiations, the villagers were convinced to part with some of their landholdings in exchange for a cash payment. On its part, the community shall be entitled to a Corprorate Social Responsibility (CSR) project. Also, youths of the village shall be entitled to employment opportunities. Indeed, they shall be accorded the first option of rejection in all job openings where they possess the required competence and skills. This option was chosen in relation to alternative proposals, one of which entailed that the community would grant permission to the company to access as much land as it requires for the project. In return, the company shall commit to donating some CSR projects, either in power supply, school or health infrastructure to be donated to the community.
Upon the ratification of an elders’ consent, following payment of cash to the willing land donors, the company proceeded to process the land for title and commencement of work. Then trouble started. A prominent member of the village community mobilised some village youth to prevent ad hoc staff of the company from work. First, the individual complained that their community does not sell land. Second, it was complained that neither the ownership nor the purpose for which the land was being acquired was disclosed to them. In fact, a conspiracy theorist when to the bizarre length of spreading a rumour that the land was being acquired for an undisclosed Fulani beneficiary.
Community engagement
To resolve the impasse, elders, youth leaders and other stakeholders across the clan gathered at the village shrine for a conclave at Ochaigede. To be exact, attendance at the meeting was comprised of delegates from all the villages that make up Agagdagba.These are Ohugbane, Akwunu, Ochaigede,Ebu and Akpewo.Their distant ‘cousin’ Ikikla, was not invited to the meet.
Further, leaders of organised groups from the city (town unions), prominent among whom was the President General of Agadagba Town Unions, was present at the meeting.
Very revered elders of the village commenced proceedings by invoking the spirits of the ancestors to provide guidance. A curse was also placed on anyone that would make contributions, knowing fully well that such was a liar, but told with intent to mislead the gathering or sabotage the exercise.
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Deliberations were frank, passionate and laden with anecdotes, proverbs and wisecracks. Indeed, it was an interesting spectacle, resembling a perfect parliamentary session as both the old and young were accorded ample time to state their cases. It was democracy in action as it looked like all was going to end well until a rabble rousing elder created the bedlam by inciting the youth through a very misleading assertion that the project was not appropriate for their community and that they must never agree to the proposal until the promoter of the project, who is also from the village but a Nigerian diaspora came home to address them.
Several interpretations have been adduced as the motive for this action of the prominent individual. A youth opposed to his approach alleges sabotage. According to the young man, the individual had acquired a large swathes of land for free with the promise of developing it but no such development has happened as the land has remained fallow.
The project
The proposed project is an agro-industrial complex. It entails a high-yielding palm plantation, a cattle ranch and a piggery. When fully operational, the palm plantation shall feed an ultramodern palm produce processing plant where every aspect of the crop shall be harnessed, from the oils, kernel, fronds and numerous by-products.
As is to be expected, feeder crops like varieties of corn and special grasses shall be cultivated for feeding the animals.
The real catch in all of this is the existence of an expansion plan not just for the palm but the animal produce.
Conclusion
Certainly, only a misguided populace would object to a project of this humongous beneficial complexity being sited in their community. As one of the leaders of the community alluded, opposition to the project could only have been fueled by jealousy, egomania or outright ignorance.
He cautioned the villagers, especially the youth never to let this opportunity slip by them, noting that whosoever advises them to the contrary does not have their welfare at heart.
As for the elders, he warned that frustrating the project idea had serious security implication. He alluded to the well known saying that an idle mind is like the devil’s workshop, and said that with the project, the youth would be kept busy thereby minimising their predisposition to crime.
Opposition to this project is exemplifies one of the root causes of the lack or poor pace of socioeconomic development in Nigeria. It is either the misplacement of priorities, lost opportunities or both, with either emanating from a lack of vision on the part of those who claim leadership of our societies.
