Tales from the East

Tuesday Column By VICTORIA NGOZI IKEANO 

vikeano@yahoo.co.uk | 08033077519

All is now relatively quiet in villages of eastern Nigeria as some 99 per cent of those that travelled to that part of our country for the Yuletide are back to their ‘diaspora’ bases where they eke out a living. Trading activities are now picking up in commercial cities and major towns after the ‘mass return’ that saw most traders journey to their homesteads for the Christmas and New Year festivities. So many easterners earn their living outside their states of origin, being arguably the most widely travelled people with an enterprising spirit. This has led to a new policy drive urging Easterners to think home, to plant some of their hard-earned wealth in their homesteads rather than accumulating assets outside their roots… 

There is usually some kind of population explosion in the east as yuletide approaches and in the first two weeks of January. The highways are particularly congested in the week leading up to Christmas day as people rush to be home by Christmas. All manner of festivities and meetings are slated during this time. Among them are cultural festivals, remembrance/ anniversary ceremonies, weddings, etc.One experiences the homestead differently every year. But I noticed some things that have become peculiar to the East in recent times.

As usual the roads to the East are extremely congested from from the  20th to 24th December leading to a nightmarish hold up with long stretches of vehicles as you approach the Niger bridge from Asaba. Motorists spent some four hours here  which is about half of the entire journey time if you are coming from the west. A large chunk of the entire stretch of the trunk A roads remain bad, notwithstanding that some portions have been and are being rehabilited by the federal government.The pace of work is rather slow. Overall only about 50 per cent  of the original express way from Lafia to Awka, the Anambra state capital  make for a smooth ride, forcing motorists to use alternative township roads. This of course extends the jorney time. Thus when you see the Ministry of Works’ conspicuous green sighposts  announcing  that Point A to Point B is 300 kilometres, do not take it to heart that you would get to point B in three hours time driving at a speed of 100 kilometres per hour. It will definitely be more than that given the bad roads  and the detours that eat up the time. Can we still in the near future have a straight line smooth ride through the expressways from  the north central to East  or the south west to the east? How soon can that be? Easterners are looking forward to when the second Niger Bridge will be completed and commissioned for use. It would significantly reduce their horrible experiences  journeying to the east during festive seasons.

As with most parts of the coutry, intra and inter transport  fares are usually high during  the Christmas and new year periods. But  they are particularl higher in the east. Imagine having to pay N15,000 from Jos to  Onisha and same for a return journey soon after the festivities.  In fact  fares for the outward Journey from the East begin to drop  only after end of January. And this is a reason why some postpone their return trips until when transport fares fall to their normal rates. Transporters attribute this to the high population of travelers — during the yuletide when people are coming to the east and after when they are moving out.  It boils down to greediness though because transporters at the Asaba end charge half the  price to Lagos during both on and off season periods. As a result transporters in Onitsha plying the Lagos route are fast losing their customers to their counterparts in Asaba, Delta state. Indeed, Asaba is now the new hub for those that used to travel to Lagos  from Onitsha. Apart from their low fares the ‘Lagso park’ in Asaba  is better organized with little or no harassments from the ubiquitous  touts. 

Another reeson why businessmen/businesswomen are shifting their gaze from Onitsha, the commercial nerve centre of the east to neibouring Asaba, the Delta state capital is the Monday  ‘sit at home’ order by the proscribed Indegenous People of Biafra (IPOB) led by Nnamdi Kanu who is currently facing trial in Nigeria. The ‘sit at home’ order is equivalent to a lock down. And although state governments have urged citizens to ignore it and go about their normal duties, most people obey it for fear of the unknown as some miscreants sometimes take it upon themselves to enforce it. Thus banks, schools, market days that fall on Mondays, and other organisations remain firmly shut every Monday and other days when Kanu’s case is slated for hearing in the courts. For example, sometime last month people  stayed at home for four consecutive days, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday because Kanu’s  court trials came up from Tuesday to Thursday. On ‘sit at home’ days you can neither travel to the east nor out of it to other parts of the country. So, there is usually a rush of passengers going to and from the east on Sundays. Alternatively,people travel to Asaba on Mondays, spend some time in Asaba and enter the east in the wee hours of the following day. This is especially the case with vehicles laden with goods destined for the east. You can then conjecture the economic loss this ‘sit at home’ is causing eastermers and its consequences, one of which as I stated earlier is that Asaba is becoming a big business hub. For instance, when I went to buy a new personal laptop in Awka, the seller said he had sold off the last piece while urging me to tarry awhile as he was expecting new consignment from Asaba. ‘Why Asaba and not Onistsha the famed largest market in west Africa’, I asked. He simply replied that  the company’s depot is in Asaba. The reason for this is not far fetched. 

There is some scarcity of money now in the east. Prices of goods and services there are much higher during the yuletide season, quite apart from the inflationary trends in the country. One peculiar reason given by the traders for this is that they want to get a share of  the monies brought home by the huge number of returnees. But even well after the festivities, prices in the villages remain high in comarision to what obtains elsewhere. For example, a sachet of hypo disinfectatnt still sold for N60 as at first week of February in the village market whereas I just bought it for N40 here in the neighbourhood of my Lafia residence. 

Yet another rather peculiar observation in the east worthy of mention is that police stations, particularly the state headquarters  now have access to the highway on which they are situated partially bloked off. The road is inaccessible to motorists some 500 metress to the station and another 500 metres after it; the two road blocks on both ends manned by stern-looking policemen. Understandably this is due to security concerns but it is causing some hardship for the citizenry. Motorists going beyond the police station have to meander through dusty, ungraded side streets to be able to continue their trips to places further than the station. Needless to add that the fare is expectedly increased. Other commercial buses terminate their journey just before the checkpoint while commuters walk about one kilometre through the police station to the other end to board another  vehicle to their destinations. Both ways are more stressful and expensive. Overall living  in the eastern hinterlands is becoming more expensive and complicated somehow.