http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/features/citysun/2009/nov/18/citysun-18-11-2009-001.htm


A monarch’s heartache
, God, when will govt return my properties?
By TOPE ADEBOBOYE
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
• HRM Eze Wogu
Photo: THE SUN PUBLISHING

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He lives in a magnificent palace, dons colourful traditional attires and presides over the affairs of his people in the Abia State capital. He’s blessed with children and grandchildren, all of who are doing quite well in their respective professions. Add that to the good health he enjoys even at the grand age of 82, and you’ll think His Royal Majesty, Eze (Sir) Mac U. Wogu, lives his days in utter fulfilment, with absolutely no worries troubling his octogenarian mind.
But you would be wrong.

In spite of his privileged position and pedigree, the Eze-Ohanyerugo and paramount traditional ruler of Umuahia has a big ache assailing his heart. Each day, a question traumatizes his soul, yet he can’t come up with an answer. The respected monarch is saddened that almost four decades after the conclusion of the Nigeria/Biafra war, items of his property seized by the Nigerian government are yet to be returned.
The monarch isn’t the only one enduring this pathetic fate. Many others have silently borne their pains since they were deprived of their land, homes, offices and other items of property after the civil war.

This Saturday morning, without a prior appointment, the reporter saunters into Eze Wogu’s palace courts in Umuobutu village in Old Umuahia. A casually attired palace aide takes the reporter’s card to the ruler, and Eze Wogu promptly invites the journalist into the king’s waiting room. Moments later, the royal father saunters slowly into the room and invites the reporter over. A little plate containing kola nuts, bitter kola and garden eggs materializes, and the Eze offers some prayers to God and the ancestors. And as the mouths munch the nuts, the king unburdens his mind to his impromptu, much younger guest.

According to the Eze, he has had no access to his jetty, warehouses and the other items of property he left in Oron, while fleeing from the war. Similar stories are told daily by many other Igbo men and women whose property, tagged ‘abandoned property’, have since been taken over by the Nigerian state.
And, indeed, in the minds of many people, the continued possession by the Nigerian government of buildings belonging to those on the other side in that war has ensured that the memories of the 30-month war perpetually linger like the pains of an open, festering sore.

The king speaks slowly, softly; but his words flow forth with power and passion. “I was in Umuahia during the civil war. Before the war, I was at Oron in Cross River. Then, one morning, there were booms of gun and a clatter of shots and everybody ran away. It is generally taken that the war is over; no victor no vanquished. But those of us who left our property and ran for our lives have since been denied of such property. That is why, this question of abandoned property, I will appeal to Mr. President to review it.”

“The Nigerian government took over the property. They were regarded as abandoned property, so when the war ended, people found it difficult to repossess their property. The current Senate President, David Mark, was, I think, the officer in charge of resettlement of war victims. And the abandoned property, most of us lost many things. You know when the Igbo man goes out, he builds there. Even if he has no house at home, he wants to settle down where he is, do his business and make money. Most of us, the investments we made, it’s like they all went down the drain.”

But the Eze is very pleased with the Federal Government’s amnesty for the militants in the Niger-Delta region. In his words, that initiative has drastically reduced the tension in the entire country. But he wants the amnesty expanded beyond the South-South.

“Some of us feel that the amnesty should be extended,” the Eze says. “We want the government to extend the amnesty to those of us whose houses, land and other items were seized during the civil war. That incident of abandoned property is a scar of the civil war which has not healed and disappeared. It is one of those things people look at when they are talking of marginalisation. That is why you still find some people talking of Movement for Biafra, saying they want Biafra again. So, I think Mr. President should, in the same spirit that the militants got the amnesty and they are now referred to as freedom fighters, in the same spirit, he should order that the abandoned property be returned to their owners in whatever state they are now. If our buildings are returned, it will go a long way in assuaging the victims of the war.”

Eze Wogu recalls that the issue of abandoned property has been raised several times in the past with no tangible result. “I know that the late Sam Mbakwe pleaded with the government, but nothing came out of it, “he says.

“I worked with a firm, GBO, for 17 years as an area supervisor in charge of Oron, Eket and a few other places. During the indigenisation, when the UAC was leaving, they handed over their buildings and the remnants of their tenancy to a family in Calabar with whom I was very friendly. And the family sold the place to me. But the Oron people said no, I should recognise them as the land owners. Eventually, I recognised them and continued to do my business there. But we had to leave at the beginning of the war.”
Eze Wogu mounted the throne of his fathers in 1976. Since then, he has ruled as the paramount traditional ruler of Umuahia, including Ibeku, Umuokpara, Olokoro, Ubakala and other communities in the Abia State capital.

The Nigerian government may be holding on to his buildings in Oron, but Eze Wogu’s mind harbours no bitterness against Nigeria’s rulers. Contrary to the thinking of a vast majority of Nigerians, the king believes President Yar’Adua isn’t doing too badly. In fact, the Eze-Ohanyerugo insists that the president is steadily tackling Nigeria’s problems.

“I like the president,” he asserts. “He seems very sincere. I’m very happy with this amnesty for the Niger Delta militants. But we are appealing to him to also look into this issue of abandoned property.”