Residents of Obiagu, a well-known ghetto in Enugu, are bereft of modern social amenities, a setback that has forced them to struggle for survival in the settlement as though they are in the pit of hell.? But MIKE UBANI, reports that in spite of the squalor, the residents appear not to be in a hurry to vacate the slum.
Constance Eze works as an auxiliary nurse in one of the clinics in Enugu, the Enugu state capital.? She regards the job as a temporary one, and therefore is not bothered by the fact that her monthly salary is small.? She is rather troubled over her bad living conditions.
The medic who has? been in the profession for 17 years lives in one dingy room at Obiagu in Ogui urban area of the city, and worries about the lack of clean water and other social amenities in the area.
She complains regularly of having unpleasant feelings on her skin each time she bathes with brackish water drawn from a shallow well close to her house. And to obviate this problem, she rinses her body with sachet water immediately after bathing with water drawn from the well.
A bag of sachet water in the area sells for seventy naira, and she spends averagely two hundred and eighty naira a week from her meagre salary on sachet water – not for drinking – but for rinsing her body.
Chukwuemeka Onwuka, a student of one of the secondary schools in Uwani area of the city, also lives in Obiagu.? But unlike Constance who lives alone in one room, Chukwuemeka lives with his parents and four other siblings in a narrow one-room apartment.
He usually leaves home to play football with his peers when he comes back from school, apparently to temporarily escape the distress inherent in staying in a congested room.
But the snag is that the area he lives is bereft of a playing ground.? And so Chukwuemeka and his friends resort to playing football on a rocky – makeshift playing ground.?
Chukwuemeka who is presently nursing a wound on his left leg, told LEADERSHIP WEEKEND that he sustained the injury while playing on the rock-strewn ground.
Obiagu, which in English Language means heart of a lion, has remained a ghetto since the city was founded over one hundred years ago.? It is not marked out in streets like you find in Ajegunle area of Lagos, which is generally regarded as a ghetto or slum area.
Though the area is located in the city centre, it remains several thousands of miles away from civilization.? The huts there which serve as living places were either built with mud or wood, and several years of exposure to the sun has helped change the colour of the corrugated iron sheets from white to brown.
Obiagu is a crowded residential area.? According to LEADERSHIP WEEKEND findings, about seven people live in one narrow room; making them vulnerable to communicable diseases. In fact, one of the residents, Okechukwu Agu, said that many residents of the area were affected by conjunctivitis – a painful and infectious disease of the eye that makes it red – when the disease broke out late last year.
It was gathered that the residents stopped enjoying pipe borne water almost a year ago following the burst of pipes that supply water to the area.?
Even? then, it was learnt that when pipe borne water was available, most residents refused to either drink or cook with it because, according to one resident, “it used to be dirty and coloured”
Today, residents who can afford it go elsewhere, particularly Uwani – a distance of about two kilometers to buy drinking water.? A twenty-five litre of drinking water sells for about fifty naira, and when you add transport fare, one would spend close to one hundred and fifty naira to get only twenty five litres of drinking water.?
Others resort to the dirty water drawn from wells littered around the vicinity. “This place is a? ghetto, and it feels like we are living in hell, since we have no social amenities, and everybody here behaves the way they likes,? said Ernest Ikechukwu, from Njaba Local Government Area of Imo state, who runs a chemist shop in the area.
According to historical account, Asata, Coal Camp, New Market, Ogui urban including Obiagu areas of the city, belong to Ogui Nike people. But when the White men arrived the city about one hundred years ago, they started developing parts of the land owned by the Ogui Nike people.?
This exercise afforded non-indigenes an opportunity to acquire land in Obiagu, where they built the huts that are still standing till today.
That explains why Obiagu is presently inhabited by people from almost the five south east states of Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Imo, and even the present day Enugu state.
Also, a portion of Obiagu was then inhabited by the Hausa community, who came to the city as either cattle dealers or artisans.? But following the events leading to the outbreak of the Nigeria/Biafra war in 1967, a good number of Hausa men living in the area left for their different States in the North, and never returned.
The area vacated by the Hausa community was taken over by Nigerians from other ethnic groups, particularly Igbos, yet it still answers ‘Ama Hausa- home of Hausa community, but has refused to shed its toga of a ghetto.
When the police or other security agencies are looking for suspected criminals, they usually beam their searchlight on Obiagu, because of the belief that it is a crime infested area.
“This place (Obiagu) is also called a jungle because you find a lot of bad boys here …They can snatch your bag, phone or any other valuable item at any time of the day; slap you if you complain and force you to say ‘thank you sir’ for stealing your property”, said one resident.
A graduate from one of the tertiary institutions in Enugu, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said he lost an opportunity of getting a potentially lucrative job because he told members of the panel who interviewed him that he lived in Obiagu as an off-campus student. “I hear Obiagu is a crime-infested area, and what is the assurance that if we employ you, you won’t behave like ‘Obiagu boys? one of the panelists asked him.
It was gathered that plans by previous administrations to relocate residents of Obiagu, and thereafter build modern low cost houses in the place, were frustrated by many residents who claim that the shacks there are their inheritance.