Chidiebele Obika | I-Witness News
Igbo people which are found in the South Eastern part of Nigeria are known as itinerant tribe. They can live, work and do business in any part of the world. They have the ability to adapt to various cultures, traditions and other conditions and still succeed in whatever they venture into. In fact, there’s a popular saying that whereover there’s no presence of an Igbo person, that it means the place is dangerous and unsafe for human habitation or to visitors.
Some few years ago when Xenophobic attacks broke out in South Africa, Ndigbo were main victims of that unfortunate crisis as it has been argued and won that ndigbo own a fair share of non-indigenous businesses and buildings in South Africa. Fortunately, through the intervention of Nigeria’s High Commission in South Africa and others, the issues were resolved.
For an average onye Igbo or Anambra, festive seasons are opportunities for enjoying their wealth as during these periods which could be Yuletide or new year celebrations; ndi Anambra head homewards where series of activities have been scheduled. These activities range from family meetings to village meetings to community mass returns to community igweship/PGship elections to chieftaincy title takings, ofala festivals, house warmings, memorial celebrations, burials/funerals, traditional and Christian weddings, Thanksgiving events and others.
So, every year, ndi Anambra troop home en masse for the aforelisted and more events. During Christmas and new year celebrations in Anambra, every village and community beam with activities and the 2024 Christmas and 2025 new year celebrations were the highest in recent times.
Some communities infuse other events like football competitions, beach games, cave visits, masquerade festivals, quiz competition, empowerment events, community hall openning, musical album launch and several others. All these serve as side attractions and more colour to the celebrations and families take their children along with them and use the opportunity to introduce them to their relations and their people’s culture and tradition.
Anambra was and still is a behive of activities for the last Christmas and this new year as communities engage in various activities and people take chieftaincy titles and other social events that lighten the communities and make them busy.
Available records show that last Christmas/new year in Anambra witnessed massive return of the people to their various villages in the state. Many communities held their mass return last Christmas after so many years and some towns changed leaderships through elections monitored by the state through the Ministry of Local Government, Chieftaincy and Community Affairs.
Governor Chukwuma Soludo of Anambra state through his many developmental projects has enhanced the massive home coming through undertaking litany of people-oriented projects.
Through the flag off for construction of over 600 kilometers of roads and completion of about 400 already linking hitherto hard-to-access areas and connecting communities, to the dualization of all federal roads in the state and turnaround development of former Okpoko urban slum to New Haven, the giant Ekwulobia flyover and ancillary roads, the upgrade of general hospitals and building of five new ones, Solution funcity, new Anambra government house/lodge and several others. Ndi Anambra now access their villages and towns with ease.
Places that were flashpoints of heavy traffics during festive seasons have been decongested with new roads that ease off traffics from such areas. Ekwulobia, Aguata people and all users of that very important flyover/roads have ready testimonies in that regard. The people of Awba Ofemmili, Ugbenu, Awa, Ndikpa, Okpeze, Nzam and others now have a feel of what tarred road is. Nzam which is the headquarters of Anambra West LGA was the only council Secretariat in Nigeria before the coming of Professor Soludo that had no tarred road. Today, Nzam and other communities in that cadre have access to standard roads built with cement stabilization, stonebase and asphalt.
Testimonies abound of how Governor Soludo has turned Anambra into a huge construction site. Last June, Governor Soludo won the Champion newspaper Best Governor on Infrastructure and Rural Development for the year 2023, a testament of infrastructural revolution in the state.
An award winning journalist, Eleke Chudi David after visiting Umunze community in Orumba South LGA recently wrote on his social media handle, ” Christmas in Umunze is sweet. I experienced it today. Once the problem of insecurity is solved, the entire Anambra may no longer have rural areas.”
Insecurity like David observed is an issue in Anambra, Southeast and Nigeria as a whole. According to investigation conducted by the DSS and Police, criminal activities that occured in the boundary communities of the state were perpetuated by people from neighbouring states. Even the Monday sit at home is an issue and Governor Soludo has been working to nip it in the bud. He is working to launch a major security operation soon that will see to the end of the security issues facing the state. If you see something, say something for the betterment of our state.
Christmas and new year celebrations in Anambra were glamorous and ndi Anambra have continued to thumb the governor up for his developmental strides and sterling performance.
