Hmm! Read this: Kennedy Friday with Preye Aganaba and 19 others AMAECHI: RIGHTING THE WRONGS OF MORE THAN FIVE DECADES IN KAANI Totally abandoned and forgotten by successive governments; incredibly cut-off from development, perhaps, owing to the lugubrious fact that she had no notable voice, no individual connected to government, the great and ancient Kaani community in Khana Local Government Area of Rivers State, recently notorious for internal crises and cult-related disturbances, is today experiencing its renaissance under the Rivers State Government led by development-driven, compassion- propelled Chief Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi. With two model primary schools, one primary healthcare center, and 6.5 kilometer road currently under construction, people of my own generation in the community are experiencing the recrudescence of the greatness of Kaani that was painfully put in abeyance. The quality of the 6.5 kilometre Bori-Kaani-Sogho Road is comparable to the best in Port Harcourt, with sub-surface drain system of 1.2 diameter rings having a total length of 925 meters complete with manhoods at intervals as service chambers to discharge the storm (water) to the catchment area which is the downstream River of Beemaakosi. That means that a particular portion of that road which has always caused a terrible flood in the community will be a thing of the past. The strategic nature of the 6. 5 kilometre Road cannot be over-emphasised. It starts from Taabaa Road in Bori, traditional headquarters of Ogoni people, traversing the Kaani community and stopping on the East- West Road in Sogho, providing alternative route and access to the Banana Plantation in Ogoniland. Things have changed for the people of my community, and positively so. Young people of my generation are seeing what we never saw before. In those days, we used to walk many kilometres with childish enthusiasm to our neighbouring communities to watch swam buggy, catapillars and and other heavy equipment work in other villages and come back with the tales of our adventure and discovery as the subject of moonlit stories at night. Those things are now working and bulldozing in my village. And todays children are having a surfeit of adventure. They gather every morning to watch with fascination as the roaring sounds of those heavy duty machines chase away decades of silence of neglect. We have never had it so good! Kaani community, arguably Ogonis most distinct and spectacular hamlet, had learnt a long time ago to help herself owing to her history of painful neglect. Proud and dignity-filled, my people hated to let other communities see them cry. So as early as 1979, through breath-taking gargantuan communal efforts, they constructed and commissioned the first community-owned secondary school in Rivers State. Peasant farmers, bricklayers, palm wine tappers, local tailors and petty traders-all of them without formal education-tasked themselves and built an imposing structure as a secondary school so that their own children and childrens children can worship inside the temple of the white mans education that they themselves were not privileged to have! That was after they had built two community primary schools! Kaani was, and is, the pride of Ogoni! Great Ogoni sons and daughters, and even people from other tribes of Nigeria flocked into the community in search of educational tourism. A long list of very outstanding individuals had their educational baptism within the walls of that monument of communal sweat and epitome of the self-help model! Kaani educated Ogoni and many other tribes of Nigeria, but remained uncared for by government! There was a Garri Industry established by Governor Ukpo, it was abandoned. There was a water project by Adeleyes government, it was abandoned. And the community itself became abandoned! Little surprise then, that the only government presence in the whole community in those days were rusty water pipes heaped at the frontage of the Palace of our Royal Highness by the NPN government. The pipes were meant to pipe water from the ground into the jerry cans of community members and into their patched throats,but their gulping holes only turned comfortable homes for dangerous reptiles and rabbits. Nothing told the story of the abandonment of Kaani community than the heap of those rusty water pipes. Thats why I was pained when some criminally minded persons without authorization surreptitiously and dubiously sold the pipes that were once the symbolism of abandonment. One of the culprits who benefited from the illegal sales of the artifacts of neglect is today holding appointment in Khana LGA as supervisor ! And you wonder what a local government is doing with a common local thief! That was the story of Kaani, a story of parallels and contradictions: that a people could be so enterprising and so visionary and so value-oriented, yet appallingly abandoned and neglected by government. But that was before a certain Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, our little miracle worker--at least to members of my community-- ascended the seat of Governor of Rivers State. Today, Kaani, abandoned in the past, is a hamlet of construction site. Amaechi has made it so. Not that now we have gotten a voice in government, but God has shown mercy, and Amaechi is that instrument of Gods mercy for my community. Some people I spoke with said that our brand new Royal Highness, Mene Godwin Barikpoa Zor Apere, the Mene Bua Kaani, is a the good omen attracting good things to the place. I can hardly disagree! So we can now say, and boldly too, that we are also part of the Rivers of possibilities! Yesterday, I drove to my village, and the wonders that I saw compelled me to pour a little libation to the great spiritual progenitors of my community. I prayed to our ancestors that may the gods of the valiant Kaani race fight Amaechis battle for remembering a forgotten people! A le doo wo!
Posted on: Tue, 22 Oct 2013 09:17:09 +0000
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