Effium Peace Is In The Nigerian Constitution: Open Advice To Governor Nwifuru Of Ebonyi State.

By Monday Eze
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On Tuesday, 14th January, 2025, a week to the 4th anniversary of the ongoing bloody war which has turned the once exuberant Effium community into a human abattoir, there seemed to unfold a plan to introduce a fundamental lie to the Effium war in order to compound the already bad situation. A purported map of Effium Community with an obnoxious caption, "Disputed Land Between Ezza-Effium and Effium (Effium Land) in Ohaukwu Local Govt. Area", began to make the rounds on media platforms. Unconfirmed reports alleged that the map which had all the insignia of big time mineral speculators was released by the Amb. Frank Ogbuewu-led Peace Committee on Effium war.

My wont as a neutral citizen of Effium Community compels me to make this open message to the governor of Ebonyi State, His Excellency, Builder Francis Ogbonna Nwifuru as he continues his efforts to restore peace in Effium. It is a recap of my considered piece of advice to all mediators in the Effium war.

The Effium war was sparked by rival factions of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) which struggled for the control of the funds generated in Effium motor park. Contrary to the impression of the purported map of Effium mentioned above, no land is in issue in the Effium war. Rather, the only underlying issue about Effium war is an age long dispute over the relevance or operation of sections 42 and 43 of the 1999 CFRN as well as section 34 of the Land Use Act in Effium community. The dispute is about the insistence of Effium Indigenes of Korri Extraction (Ufiom) that Effium Indigenes of Ezza Ezekuna Extraction (Ezza-Effium) are second-class citizens who for circumstances of their birth are not allowed to register and vote in the nearest registration areas. In the apartheid enclave called Effium, polling unit and electoral ward boundaries are created in the air with family names and not with geographical landmarks. The aim of this was to diminish the voting strength of a section of the community. The criminality of having ward boundaries on air has been exposed by the transformation of voting points to polling units: In Effium Community, Ezza-Effium with about 40,000 voting strength and 66 polling units are squeezed into two electoral wards while the Ufiom with about 14,000 voting strength and 29 polling units are spread like lotion across three electoral wards! The only traditional stool in Effium community has long been exclusively appropriated to the Ufiom without regard to the fact that Ezza-Effium produced the first traditional ruler of Effium known as Chief Ekuma Omaka. Chief Ekuma Omaka was issued certificate of recognition by the defunct Eastern Nigerian Government on September 1, 1960 - a month before the lowering of the Union Jack to mark Nigeria's independence! Due to circumstances of Ezza-Effium people's birth, state apparatuses was manipulated to exclude Ezza Ezza-Effium people from Effium traditional stool elections of Effium community, yet Ezza-Effium people are expected to be bound by the orders of the king. The presentation of an Ufiom exile with staff of office as traditional ruler of the giant cemetery known as Effium community without the involvement of Ezza-Effium people is viewed with tall reservations. Pundits feel that coronations should have waited till peace returned to Effium or at best used as bait to hasten the Effium peace process. These are the discriminations prohibited by section 42 of the Nigerian Constitution.

Ezza-Effium people are largely seen by their Ufiom brothers as inferior citizens who should not be allowed to peacefully enjoy their lawfully-acquired immovable property as provided by the constitution! The war in Effium is therefore all about the repudiation of the Nigerian Constitution by a section of the community.

Above all, there is no doubt that Effium war or dispute will automatically end the moment the Nigerian Constitution, especially sections 1, 42 and 43 thereof, are enthroned and enforced in Effium community. The Constitution is the supreme law of Nigeria; and Effium community is part of Nigeria. That Governor Nwifuru swore to dispassionately uphold and defend the Nigerian Constitution is heartwarming because both the constitution and the Land Use Act do not permit yanking people off their interests in land without regard to their number and investments which have survived the war and ultimately turning same land as appeasement to other individuals by fiat as the committee is feared to be poised to recommend. Such will amount to a brazen affront on sections 42 and 43 of the 1999 CFRN and it is capable of compounding the Effium debacle. This cannot by any stretch of imagination be in the "over riding public interest" as envisaged by section 36 of the Land Use Act.

Peace has eluded Effium community for long because various administrations had approached Effium peace unconstitutionally, thereby putting the Nigerian Constitution in abeyance in Effium and reducing a section of the community to inferior citizens. Any committee truly interested in peace is expected to avoid the known banana peels which had toppled previous peace arrangements. I want my beloved Governor, Builder Francis Nwifuru, to succeed where many failed by avoiding their mistake.

For the records, thousands of lives, including children, women, the aged and the physically-challenged; and properties worth billions of naira have been consumed by the Effium war. Thousands of surviving children in Effium, most of whom have been rendered orphans or physically-challenged by the war have not had access to education, healthcare, good life etc for close to four years. Successive Ebonyi State Governments have been complicit in the age-long apartheid in Effium Community. I have written extensively on that and have no intention of boring us with details within public knowledge. To avoid pitfalls and make a positive difference, it is generally-craved that Governor Nwifuru will, as usual, find time to critically look at whatever recommendations put forward to him on Effium.

This dispute over the operation of the Nigerian constitution in Effium community has far reaching and very sensitive implications for the sovereignty of Nigeria; and it is hoped that Governor Nwifuru will assert his authority to enforce the sovereignty of the Nigerian constitution in Effium community. It is my irrebuttable conviction that a peace committee should not make recommendations against the constitution and national unity! Effium. Peace lies comfortably within the Nigerian constitution. My dear governor, Builder Francis Nwifuru, is hereby charged to summon political will, shun unnecessary protocols and activate it.

It is well with Ebonyi State.

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