Onitsha: Reclamation Of A ‘Lost’ Paradise

 

Have you been to Onitsha lately, especially around the once dreaded Upper Iweka area? Have you noticed that Zik Roundabout, the meeting point of the Old Enugu-Onitsha Road and the Enugu Onitsha Expressway, is taking on a new shape with massive beautification? Also, drive on Awka Road, Onitsha, up to DMGS Roundabout and you would see a whole lot of changes. Not just that the roads are properly constructed with drainage systems and streetlights, they are also clearly marked, with road signs. 

People who traveled home for the Xmas holiday would be surprised to see what Upper Iweka has become. The motor parks have been pushed out of the expressway. The days are gone when touts held sway at Lagos Park. Today, no one ‘threatens’ your luggage, and your mobile phones are relatively safe, provided you don’t drop them. When you are there, watch out for fierce looking military men. You’ll find them on the alert, fishing miscreants off the park. You might also find them disguised in mufti, making it even easier to pick out their preys. Now, one can actually take a walk under the beautifully adorned Onitsha Head Bridge. In the past, no one dared move close to the area, as it was a notorious den of robbers. But with mobile policemen now on guard, pedestrians may walk freely up to the riverbank.

The Upper Iweka and Onitsha Head Bridge area have witnessed massive turnaround with streetlights and landscaping befitting of a gateway town. The statue of late Biafran hero, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, signals arrival to the land of the Rising Sun. With standard toilet facilities in place along the stretch, the drainages are now free from faeces. New pedestrian bridges are also springing up.

“Crime came into Onitsha through Upper Iweka. So, if the government could turn this place around, then I can say it is all over for criminals in this state. It’s better experienced than what I’m trying to explain to you; it’s like magic. What this tells me is that government can do a lot, if it is committed,” said Ifeanyi Okafor, a passenger at the Lagos Park. 

Who would have imagined a Christmas decoration in Onitsha, talk little Upper Iweka? It happened, however, in 2014! The governor and his team were there to light the trees. And social media networks were agog with glittering pictures of Upper Iweka at night.  

“My brother, we still don’t understand what is happening. Personally, I can’t believe this is Onitsha. In the evening, you will see people watching football on that big screen over there. That’s how safe this place has become. At the rate they are going, I’m afraid... Time could come when people, like us, would be asked to take our old cabs off the road,” said Tony, a taxi operator at ABC Motor Pack in Onitsha.  

It used to be that driving to Onitsha Main Market (the largest in West Africa) was an arduous task, with market men and women displaying their wares indiscriminately. In those days, once you move past the Central Post Office Onitsha, driving becomes hellish. Both the New Market and Old Market roads used to be lawless zones, with touts and unruly bus drivers, who feel that offering N20 to a police officer is a ticket to perpetrate impunity. The government, however, appears to have summoned courage to bring the situation under control. 

A visit to the popular Iweka Road, the home of electronics in the South East, shows that normalcy has returned. Unlike in the past when the road was usually awash with street traders, the place is now regularly policed, leaving no room for lawlessness. Even the Ochanja Market axis is feeling the heat. From Odoapku to Fegge, Bida Road and environs, there are noticeable changes; the streets look cleaner. Some inner roads on this axis, however, need to be reconstructed to allow free flow of traffic.

GOOD old Onitsha used to be a lovely town; it was like what Lagos is to the South West. Apart from its commercial viability, the town is also an educational and religious hub, blessed with a river port. In the early 1960s, before the Civil War, the population was officially recorded as 76,000. Though it experienced great distress during and after the war, by virtue of its still-strategic geographic position, Onitsha has continued to develop. By 2001 it had an estimated population of 511,000 with a metropolitan figure of 1,003,000.

Onitsha became an important trading port for the Royal Niger Company in the mid-1850s, following the abolition of slavery. And with the development of the steam engine, Europeans were able to move into the hinterland. Trade in palm kernel and palm oil flourished, as well as other cash crops. Immigrants from the Igbo hinterland were drawn to the emerging town, as were the British traders who settled in Onitsha and coordinated the palm oil and cash crops trade. In 1965, the Niger River Bridge was built to replace the ferry crossing.

Onitsha played a vital role in institutionalising Christianity in Nigeria. The town is home to the Holy Trinity Basilica (Catholic) and the All Saints Cathedral (Anglican Cathedral). Both are headquarters to satellite churches in and outside Onitsha. Other churches such as the Grace of God Mission International, and Christ Holy Church, also have their headquarters in the town. Onitsha is also host to many church organisations and socio-cultural groups.

Recall the days of Onitsha Market Literature – a term for a number of pamphlets, books and other publications sold at Onitsha Market in the 1950s and 1960s. Much of it was written in pidgin and Creole varieties of English. This form of literature has become of interest to researchers seeking information about social conditions at the time. With notable secondary schools such as Christ the King College (CKC), Dennis Memorial Grammar School (DMGS), St Charles College, Queen of the Rosary College (QRC), Washington Memorial Grammar School, New Era Secondary School, Modebe Memorial Grammar School and others, Onitsha was key to the education of the Igbo in the past.          

But the Civil War brought widespread devastation. At its end, came the oil boom years, bringing in huge influx of immigrants. The war-damaged facilities, still under repair, could not cope with the pace of rural-urban exodus into the city. Slums consequently began to emerge.    

“Compared to other cities and other centres of population, Onitsha has had its glorious time. Prior to the war, we had the market, which was a big market; New Market Road in those days was full of bookshops that sold scholarly materials - law books, medical books, educational books, because Onitsha was a big centre for what we now call private education. At a stage, six years ago, I could count six governors who went to school in Onitsha,” said the Obi of Onitsha, HRM Alfred Nnaemeka Achebe, in a recent chat with The Guardian.

According to the Royal Father, Onitsha has had its glorious periods: “People came from the Cameroons to trade in Onitsha. Culturally also, things were great. The war, probably, was a major factor in the neglect and apparent decline. Onitsha was heavily fought for and a lot of damage was caused. In the revival, after the war, was an opportunity to begin to give attention to other centers. For instance, Awka became the state capital. Naturally, it had to get government’s attention. Nnewi grew in its economy. The Onitsha market was brought back. But it was not what it used to be. So, there has been a decline. Agreed. But it’s on the upswing again.” 

In the last eight years under Governor Peter Obi, Onitsha started to witness some turnaround. But the current administration, led by Willie Obiano, might have found a winning formula on how to reclaim the once ‘lost’ territory. 

For instance, in terms of physical development, the Onitsha General Hospital has been improved upon, with a dialysis centre in operation. There are two business parks in Onitsha with various offices, making it possible for people to go to the stock exchange there and trade online. 

In terms of factories, there’s a new brewery in Onitsha, reportedly owned by a former governor. Life Breweries has also been revived. The industrial park is back again. There’s also a five-star hotel under construction. The Protea Group initially started it. The Mariot Group, however, bought over Protea. Protea had been constructing a 90-room hotel, which Marriot plans to double in capacity. There’s a modern shopping mall under development in GRA. The stadium is back, with school children now using facilities there for daily exercise. 

But one area where very high points have been scored is security. “If you want to sleep at Upper Iweka now, you can do so without any hassles. It’s been cleared and cleaned up and it happened just like that. It takes the will, but you have to sustain the tempo. If you clear away all those vehicles that pick passengers by the roadside, you must provide motor packs. If you clear the roadside traders away, you must provide markets for them and that’s what the governor is doing,” Igwe Achebe said.

 

Information has it that the Onitsha seaport, which was conceived as an inland port, is ready for use. Though the challenge of concessioning by the government is still there, once in full operation, Onitsha can serve as an inland port, much as it did in the olden days. In this case, goods that arrive at Warri or Port Harcourt are put in barges and moved down to Onitsha. And with the long-awaited second Niger Bridge coming up, another commercial boom could be around the corner. 

‘How The Transformation Happened’

ACCORDING to the Special Assistant to the Anambra State governor on Environment, Toochi Obi, when the new administration came in, Onitsha was a dirty zone. Governor Obiano, however, declared his intention to clean up the commercial town. 

 

“Before now, it was just one firm handling waste management in Onitsha. And this was not enough. Again, when you talk about Onitsha, people think it’s about Onitsha North and South LGAs. Nkpor, Obosi, Oba and other neighbouring towns have also become part of the big Onitsha. So, at first, we didn’t even know where to start,” she said. 

The first move was to get the existing waste management company to sit up on streets cleaning. “We asked them what their problems were and also helped them to solve those challenges. Particularly, the governor gave them a mandatory order that he wanted the place cleaned up. Of course, they knew that now someone was watching them. Before, nobody monitored them. So, most times, things were not done. But we had to sit on them to do their job better,” she said.

 

“Then, there was an idea to increase the number of waste management companies in the town and its environs. With major markets in Onitsha such as Main Market, Ose Market, Ochanja Market, Relief Market, Iweka Road Market and others, you can imagine the level of waste generated daily.

“We discovered that we needed more than just one company to handle waste. We got different contractors to take charge of Idemmili LGA and Ogbaru LGA. In Onitsha alone, we have up to five contractors managing waste. Idemmili LGA was zoned into three. Ogbaru LGA was divided into two because of the massive waste generated there. Then we started with constant monitoring in Nnewi and Awka, but in Onitsha, we are always monitoring.”

 

Having put the contractors on the job with regular monitoring, there was need to de-silt the town and open up the drainages. 

“Anambra state has never been de-silted; it was a lot of money doing that. When you are passing the roads, you don’t even know where the drainages are anymore. We had to de-silt twice. I can tell you that the residents are happy now; it has reduced flooding in Onitsha. The drainages are free now. In some cases, you discover that the slabs covering the drainages had been removed, thereby exposing pedestrians and motorists to danger when rain falls. We had to cover them back. 

“That notwithstanding, we’ve started putting plans in place on how to keep Onitsha clean. Sometime ago, we advertised publicly that we wanted to have a Public Private Partnership (PPP) agreement with contractors, so that we could have a steady way of keeping Anambra state clean,” she said.

On beautification, Miss Obi informed that a plan has been put in place on how to enhance the town.  

 

“When we started, we discovered that Onitsha was so clustered; it was not well planned. What we are trying to do now is to build permanent structures that would give room for beautification. If you go to Upper Iweka area, you will discover that a lot of work is going on there, in terms of beautification. A lot of transport companies were pulled off from Upper Iweka to achieve the beautification project.”

As for the abandoned cars that dotted the streets of Onitsha, “we did a lot of road decongestion. A lot of cars were abandoned on the roads. The governor insisted he wanted all the cars off the road. So, the Ministry of Environment and Transport had to come together. We had to get lands in Onitsha, Awka and Nnewi, where we dumped those cars. There was an announcement on radio for people to take their cars off the road, after which we cleared the streets,” she said.

 

On the new look of Upper Iweka, the Special Assistant noted: “The place used to be a mad area. But right now, there’s sanity. The government, however, is not stopping at that; more is coming. Very soon, the permanent structure for environmental cleaning in Anambra will be in place. While ASWAMA (Anambra State Waste Management Authority) handles Awka, we intend to give out Nnewi, Onitsha and environs to contractors.” 

Getting the streetlights to function in Onitsha was another huge challenge. “Before we came in, some areas had streetlights, but we learnt that from the day they were commissioned, they had never worked. We moved in and discovered that a lot of the streetlights are damaged. We started by fixing those ones. With the little resources we had, we started mapping out streets where the lights are needed the most. If you go to Awka, you would see that streetlights are springing up. You would see poles going up everyday,” she said.

 

There is also the introduction of road markings and signage on Onitsha roads.   “If you know Anambra very well, you will know that the roads never had markings, even the new ones. These markings you are seeing now were done few weeks ago. All the roads that are awarded by this government come with signage, curves and markings. As for the old roads, we are trying to improve them,” she said.

Written by Chuks Nwanne and original published in the City Life of Sunday Guardian, January 4, 2015.