Destitute Relocation: A Debacle Worth Avoiding

Bus leaving for Anambra

The Lagos State government may have gone drastically wrong in relocating some Anambra indigenes to their state and abandoning them to the elements, but the Anambra State government allowed the situation, which it, regrettably, tried to harness for political gain. Vincent Obia writes

Amid the celebration, reservations, and spats between the federal government and the opposition last week over the coming of All Progressives Congress, there was a bizarre ethno-political interlude. It was a departure of sorts for politicians eager for an interval of escapist discourse. The Lagos State government provided the occasion with the transfer of some alleged Anambra State indigenes from Lagos to their home state.

There was a debate over numbers and nomenclature. The Anambra State Governor, Mr. Peter Obi, stated in his petition to President Goodluck Jonathan that the Lagos State government had on July 24 “forcefully deported” 72 persons of Igbo origin to Anambra State. But Lagos State Governor Babatunde Fashola stated in a response that only “14 not 70 or 72 destitute were picked up on the streets of Lagos” as part of a routine exercise to assist vulnerable citizens with rehabilitation and “integration” with their communities.

Whatever the number or nomenclature, the relocation of the alleged Anambra State indigenes has created a problem that is not likely to be resolved soon. It takes no special insight to recognise this. Elections are near and politicians are wont to latch onto the inevitable sectional debate generated by the relocation issue for political capital.

The state at the centre of the whole debate, Anambra, will hold a governorship election on November 16, which has been widely described as a test case for Peoples Democratic Party, the ruling party at the national level, and the opposition merger party, APC, which governs Lagos State. Obi, though currently a member of All Progressives Grand Alliance, is believed to be on his way to PDP.
The Anambra election will be followed by other governorship polls next year, leading into the crucial general election of 2015. Already, politicians are doing their best to get hold of anything that could earn them points, while discrediting their opponents ahead of the election. This has been evident since the transfer saga.  

PDP said in a statement by its Acting National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Tony Okeke, that the action of the APC government in Lagos State betrayed the sectional and bigoted agenda of the opposition party.

“Nigerians can now see that those who have been parading themselves as messiahs are indeed the real monsters who will ultimately trample upon them without mercy if allowed to hold power at any level in 2015.

“What else would one expect from a party whose proponents have the cold-heartedness to haul fellow citizens like cattle and dump them at a place like Upper Iweka Bridge in the middle of the night?” PDP stated.

APC responded in a statement by its Interim National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed. It said, “We are not saying Governor Obi has no right to play politics, but he must fight clean and avoid any action that could hurt not just the enduring harmony between the Igbo and the Yoruba, but also the unity of the country.

“Resorting to primordial sentiments anytime election is approaching is Governor Obi’s modus operandi. He did it just before the 2009 election, when he labelled the ACN as a Yoruba party, and he is going down the same path now.”

It was a needless, dangerous debate and rivalry that could have been avoided had the principal characters been more tactful. Fashola seemed sincere but certainly indiscreet in his handling of the issue. Yet, the situation on the ground was not quite as difficult as Obi made it to look. It did not require the seemingly extreme position adopted by the governor.

The constitution of Nigeria states in section 15 (3), “For the purpose of promoting national integration, it shall be the duty of the state to –
“(a) provide adequate facilities for and encourage free mobility of people, goods and services throughout the federation;
“(b) secure full residence rights for every citizen in all parts of the federation.”

The “state” here refers to every governmental institution in Nigeria, including the Lagos and Anambra states governments.
Relocating Nigerian citizens from one part of the country to another and dumping them across the bridge to their supposed “community” to rot under the elements in the name of “integrating” them with their people, certainly, does not promote integration, particularly, the kind envisaged in the constitution. It is doubtful if any sane person could have meant this form of “integration”. This is more so when the victims have not been accused of constituting a danger to fellow citizens, beyond the repulsive faces of their poverty and misery.

The Lagos State government could have better handled the situation by staying put on the path of urbane conversation it charted when it opened communication with the Anambra State government on the arrested destitute. The question begging for answer is-was that conversation spurned or did it break down before the resort to deportation to Anambra?

But nothing excuses the way the Anambra State government has acted. Obi, certainly, played for the camera of belligerent ethnic nationalism when he rushed to the media and the presidency with the allegation of anti-Anambra or anti-Igbo policy without exhausting the line of amicable resolution of a destitution issue that had been opened by the Lagos State government. Had the Obi government showed real care for the state’s indigents in Lagos and responded appropriately to the correspondences of the Fashola administration, like the governments of Kano, Katsina, Oyo, and Imo, had, reportedly, done, perhaps, the country would have been saved the stress of the reopening of sectional cleavages that ought to have been lost in the midst of time.

The relocation debacle seems, obviously, the result of the Anambra State government’s dereliction of duty or deliberate indiscretion to cause ethno-political tension. From correspondences between the Anambra and Lagos governments, which are in the public domain, the former was well aware of the plan to relocate the affected persons.

As Mr. Emeka Ngige, Senior Advocate of Nigeria, put it, “The Anambra State Government has no excuse whatsoever not to follow through on the transfer after acknowledging letters from Lagos State Government and agreeing on the exchange date. Further reading the letters, I have no doubt whatsoever that the blame for the current debacle rests squarely with Anambra State Government despite its desperation to politicise the matter.” 

According to Ngige, “It is apparent that the controversy would have been averted had the Anambra State Government played its part as agreed. What is clearly in issue is that Anambra State Government wrote to Lagos State Government requesting ‘urgently’ for particulars of the destitute claiming to be indigenes of Anambra State so as to ‘facilitate their integration with their families if they are from Anambra’.  Lagos State Government responded with a list of 14 names, including their particulars, and requested the presence of Anambra State Government officials for a screening exercise at the Ikorodu Rehabilitation Centre. Anambra State Government never got back to Lagos State Government!”

Unfortunately, politicians have once again made the welfare and security of citizens, which ought to be the primary essence of government, a subject of unwholesome politics rather than responsibility.

The build-up of ethnicity and politics in and around the relocation saga is very unhealthy for the Nigerian body politic. This is another case of political chauvinism and insularity, which leaders across the country must learn to avoid.