The year 2020 is better remembered for one thing we have: Life! No one should lament over what we wanted. Whoever survived the pandemic should rejoice. Let us hope for better months ahead. No one knows tomorrow, not even profiteering prophets of cancelled crossover crusades. We need citizenswho are able and willing to change our communities for the better.
On Saturday, December 19, 2020, I presented the inaugural C.C. Onoh Memorial Lecture. Someonetexted me kudos over the Christmas period. To conclude the exchanges, he wrote: “Enugu needs to be RESCUED.” I did not know why, but I responded: “I don’t know how, but I blame it on the absence of a serious political alternative.”
We cannot always blame governors, legislators, and LGA chairs—as bad as many are. We should blame ourselves. We elect them and let them run circles around us. In 2023, we will repeat the madness—if we do not stand up. Now! That we have no focused and organized opposition party has robbed Enugu State of the chance to bring out the best in 21 years of unabridged PDP political domination.
Wenow need crediblecitizens to articulateconstructive criticisms. Alas, the generation that C.C. Onoh left behind has a band of bad boys with soft spines.The leopard has sired grass-eating cubs! I present below excerpts from the lecture, in the hope that wewill learn and emulate the man who helped to reshape our polity.
#############
Excerpts from “C.C. ONOH: Vindicated by History”
Almost everything we learn in history, religions, arts, and sciences is about the life and times of great men and women. History places the stories and events in proper perspectives by highlighting their impacts on our worldviews and on our social values. OweleNnamdi Azikiwesaid in 1983:“History shall vindicate the just.” For these wordsto hold true, we must tell our stories our way; else,others will tell our stories their way.
Everyone with whom I talked about this lecture had a story to tell about the great man. I learnt so much I could have written a book. So, while we have those who knew him and still recall his deeds, letus record for history someaspectsof the man we called “C.C. Onoh”: the famed father of anation I call Waawalandia, a nation of peoples who refuse to accept awful acts and bad actors.Let us talk about a man whose actions spoke and still speak louder than a million voices: Okaa Omee na Ngwo.Aninaefungwu.
Barrister C.C. Onoh steppedinto politics in 1959, soon after his return from Wales, UK. The people of Enugu constituency elected him to the Federal House of Representatives. The issues at home demandedhispresence.Hejoined the Board of Nigerian Coal Corporation as its first indigenous chair. He desired to redress the 1940s ill-treatment of Enugu coalminers, which triggered the push for independence, andof Waawa people. When Biafra was declared on Tuesday, May 30, 1967, Odumegwu-Ojukwu appointed himthe administrator of Enugu Province.
Onoh saw the continued marginalization of Waawa people in Biafra. No one from the fourWaawa provinces (4 out of 20) was deemed fit to serve in the ruling cabinet of Biafra. Onoh and about 40 others looked beyond the war: win or lose. The mission to create Waawa State was born.
The war ended on Monday, January 12, 1970. The petitionfor the creation of Waawa State out of East Central State continued.In 1976, the group came close to closing the deal under the Murtala Muhammed regime. It failed, reportedly cancelled at the last minute.The fake fear of “abandoned properties” caused the Igbo an extra state to this day.
Onoh posited that more states would helpIgbo nation to develop faster. At the same time, it would allow Waawa people to refocus from fightsfor fairness to achieving their full potentials. It was a simple position of equity and progress for all. The dictators and their obedient civil servants deployed divisive disinformation to tarnish Onoh’s name as a Waawa separatist who wanted to dispossess non-natives of their lands and properties. Sadly, this false and petty perception still stands in some sections of Igbo society.
In 1979, Onoh contested forthe NPN gubernatorial candidacy. He beatDr. Alex Ekwueme in the primaries, but he nominated Ekwuemefor the vice-president position. Thanks to Zik’s influence, Onoh lost to Chief Jim Nwobodo. The 1983 rematchelection was contentious andmalicious, characterized by intimidations, violence, and accusations of malpractice. The numbers showed that NPP retained the tenancy of Lion Building. Onoh disagreed. He went to court, up to the Supreme Court. Onoh was sworn in as the Governor in October, butMajor General Muhammadu Buhari sacked the second republic on December31, 1983. Onoh kept fighting, fighting for equity and justice.
Before the Third Republic, Onoh was the only prominent politician courageous enough to call military administrators to order. He did not spare any, especially those whose penchant for hostile acquisition of prime properties in Enugu exceeded decent bounds. Onoh ralliedothers to continue the quest for Waawa State. Finally, on Tuesday, August 27, 1991, the federal government of General Ibrahim Babangida created Enugu State.
Christian Chukwuma Onoh died on Tuesday, May 5, 2009 at his Enūgwu Ngwo home. He was 82. His daughter, Her ExcellencyỊyọm Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu (former Nigeria’s ambassador to Spain) recounted his last moments as being “actually very restful.” The governors of Southeast states and the crème de la crème of Igbo nation attendedthe July 3, 2009state funeral:
The most befitting tribute to Chief C.C. Onoh will be to rename Ninth Mile Corner. Let us call the new urban area: AMAONOH. The term “Ninth-Mile” has lost the accuracy ofits mileage with the express road over Ugwu Onyeama.
Onoh was the champion of Waawaism: Total rejection of injustice. His life’s work focused on Enugu, but he abhorred injustice everywhere. He applied all means necessary and possible in the pursuit of justice. Despite the divisive politics of 1983, Onoh jumped into action when a military governor attempted to auction the Enugu home of Buhari-jailed Jim Nwobodo. Justice Anthony Aniagolu once said: “Christian Onoh was always fighting injustice, but he would not mind using unjust method to fight injustice.” C.C. Onohwas blunt and practical, so it was easy to judge his method as unconventional. He hated injustice passionately, especially when the powerful oppresses the powerless.
We must stop the foolish fallacythat Onoh was hateful or hurtful. When did the demand for equal rights become hate speech? We must continue thequest for equity and demand our rights. Manyprovincesnow seek statehood. Not many remember that Onoh was achampion of state creation for development—not division. With the creation of Enugu and Ebonyi States, no one is known to have lost unlawfully a piece of pebble in either state. Powerful propaganda and petty politics polluted the people-oriented policies pushed by C.C. Onoh.Yet, when light meets darkness, darkness dissolves.
Many people have stories to tell about C.C. Onoh. They range from stories that spread smiles to stories that sow sorrows, from those who pursued law careers to be like C.C. Onoh to those who dared, dated, or married across the Anglican-Catholic denomination dichotomy.Regardless of what the future further reveals, C.C. Onoh was a mostly misunderstoodman. He was misjudged by humans, but he has been vindicated by history. He was an epitomeof equity and a juggernaut of justice. He fought the good fight. May his soul continue to rest peacefully, and may his spirit continue to guide us.
May history judge us right as we continue to say a defiant “Waawa” to inequity and “No way”to injustice, thereby making way for peace and progress in our beloved Igbo nation.
##########
Every community deserves its leaders. If enough elites want to be slaves, then they and their generations will continue to suffer the shame. Our ancestors fought to secure a solid space for us to prosper. We are the ones holding ourselves down. “Ihe na-eme anyi si anyi n’aka.” When we havesoaked enoughembarrassment, we will stand up and rescue ourselves.
Happy New Year!
@Aladimma
THE ECHO 