Onitsha, Anambra State, South-east Nigeria, reputed to be the biggest commercial city in West Africa, plays host to the famous Onitsha Main Market as well as many other smaller markets. Besides these established markets, virtually every street in Onitsha is a market. Hardly any landlord in Onitsha builds a house without attaching a shop or two on the ground floor of the building, which is why most flats on the ground floors of buildings in Onitsha, especially those facing the streets, often have less rooms than those on other floors.
In recent times, however, this very important Igbo city has continued to attract many negative comments. Everywhere you go in Nigeria, people, even those who have never been there, pass the same comments about Onitsha: Onitsha is a terrible place. People who live there are all thieves. They snatch people's bags. They pick people's pockets. They sell fake products, and so on. Some say that even if they are paid a million naira per month, they wouldn't live in Onitsha.
If for any reason you happen to be on a bus travelling through Onitsha, once the bus draws close to Upper Iweka, you are sure to hear from passengers on board: Please hold your bag very tight, we are in Onitsha. Don't open the glasses, all these hawkers are thieves; once you open the glasses they will snatch your bag. If you give them big money, they will run away with your balance. They are all criminals, just using their wares as cover. At night they will go out for their real business, et cetera. It is quite unfortunate what people say about others.
These are young Igbo boys and girls who strive from morning till evening, running around in the heat of the sun and hawking wares to at least feed themselves. If now we brand them thieves, what will we say about many of their mates who idle away at home or who patrol the streets doing nothing, or who even turn themselves into beggars, prostitutes, and other forms of social nuisances? There are no jobs anywhere, and these young people are engaging in the only honest job they can to survive. Rather than encourage them, we condemn them as thieves. Too bad.
On one occasion I had reason to confront one of my co-passengers in a bus who said such terrible things about Onitsha. I asked whether he could verify his assertions, and he told me he was speaking from experience. I prodded on: "Tell us the experience," I said to him. "Why should I?" he queried me. "It's personal." I insisted he should share the experience for everyone to hear. When he saw how serious I was, he began to stammer. Evidently, the man hadn't even spent up to thirty minutes in Onitsha before. He was just retelling a story someone sold to him.
And so, I ask: why would people spread false reports about a city which has done them no harm? Or, is it a case of calling a dog a bad name to hang it? Who are the people spreading the bad gospel, tarnishing the image of the commercial nerve-centre of the South-east and its inhabitants? Who sent them? Who is paying their bills? For God's sake, is there any city in Nigeria where petty crimes do not exist? I've travelled around Nigeria, and there is no big city in Nigeria that Onitsha is worse than. Is it Kano? Or Ibadan? Or Port Harcourt? Or Lagos where touts (a.k.a. Area Boys) take laws into their hands, where prostitution is no longer a crime, and ‘one-chance' drivers and pick-pockets terrorise commuters? Or Abuja, Nigeria's capital city, where prostitution has assumed such an alarming proportion that the FCT Minister, Bala Mohammed, declared a war on prostitution? Human beings everywhere in the world have the basic human vices. So, why should Onitsha be singled out?
Let's even say, for instance, that Onitsha is guilty of the accusations against it, shouldn't Igbo people rise in defence whenever the issue is raised in public? A good mother, when she gets complaints about her errant child from an outsider, does not condemn the child before the outsider, but rather says: "I've heard your complaints; I'll ask the child when he comes back". That, I think, is the attitude that Igbo people should adopt. The negative comments the Igbo person passes about Onitsha, especially in the midst of other ethnic Nigerians, I'm sure a Yoruba person will not pass it about Lagos or Ibadan or Abeokuta, nor will the Hausa person pass it about Kano or Kaduna or Minna.
I'm not exonerating Onitsha and its inhabitants. There is no doubt that there are bad people in Onitsha, just like there are bad people everywhere. But there are also good people in Onitsha. Branding everybody in Onitsha evil is just too bad. It amounts to stereotyping.
Perhaps at a point in history Onitsha did actually assume a certain notoriety for petty crimes, thereby meriting the branding. But that was many years ago. Onitsha has over the years become sanitised, especially with the action taken by the government of Dr Chris Ngige against motor park touts in the state. Mr Peter Obi's government has also been doing a great job. The government has been able to reclaim Upper Iweka, known to be the headquarters of touts in Onitsha, and rid it of its legendary traffic jam. Mr Obi has also relocated all the transport companies which had parks at Upper Iweka. Upper Iweka is wearing a new look, a pointer that sanity has returned to Onitsha.
To Onitsha residents, it is said that there is no smoke without fire. If the whole world says they are bad, then it is their duty to prove their accusers wrong. They have a huge task before you: to tell the world that they are not guilty as charged. They should ask themselves certain pertinent questions, such as why they are given a bad name. I think that will go a long way.
Finally, to Ndigbo in general, Onitsha belongs to all of us. Let us all join hands to save this great city. We do not have many cities in Igboland; there is therefore an urgent need to protect our own. We know that eradication of crime anywhere in the world is an impossibility, but we also know that crime could at least be reduced to the barest minimum. And for those Igbo people who still speak evil about their brethren, remember that there is no anus without some particles of faeces. Every anus smells.
In recent times, however, this very important Igbo city has continued to attract many negative comments. Everywhere you go in Nigeria, people, even those who have never been there, pass the same comments about Onitsha: Onitsha is a terrible place. People who live there are all thieves. They snatch people's bags. They pick people's pockets. They sell fake products, and so on. Some say that even if they are paid a million naira per month, they wouldn't live in Onitsha.
If for any reason you happen to be on a bus travelling through Onitsha, once the bus draws close to Upper Iweka, you are sure to hear from passengers on board: Please hold your bag very tight, we are in Onitsha. Don't open the glasses, all these hawkers are thieves; once you open the glasses they will snatch your bag. If you give them big money, they will run away with your balance. They are all criminals, just using their wares as cover. At night they will go out for their real business, et cetera. It is quite unfortunate what people say about others.
These are young Igbo boys and girls who strive from morning till evening, running around in the heat of the sun and hawking wares to at least feed themselves. If now we brand them thieves, what will we say about many of their mates who idle away at home or who patrol the streets doing nothing, or who even turn themselves into beggars, prostitutes, and other forms of social nuisances? There are no jobs anywhere, and these young people are engaging in the only honest job they can to survive. Rather than encourage them, we condemn them as thieves. Too bad.
On one occasion I had reason to confront one of my co-passengers in a bus who said such terrible things about Onitsha. I asked whether he could verify his assertions, and he told me he was speaking from experience. I prodded on: "Tell us the experience," I said to him. "Why should I?" he queried me. "It's personal." I insisted he should share the experience for everyone to hear. When he saw how serious I was, he began to stammer. Evidently, the man hadn't even spent up to thirty minutes in Onitsha before. He was just retelling a story someone sold to him.
And so, I ask: why would people spread false reports about a city which has done them no harm? Or, is it a case of calling a dog a bad name to hang it? Who are the people spreading the bad gospel, tarnishing the image of the commercial nerve-centre of the South-east and its inhabitants? Who sent them? Who is paying their bills? For God's sake, is there any city in Nigeria where petty crimes do not exist? I've travelled around Nigeria, and there is no big city in Nigeria that Onitsha is worse than. Is it Kano? Or Ibadan? Or Port Harcourt? Or Lagos where touts (a.k.a. Area Boys) take laws into their hands, where prostitution is no longer a crime, and ‘one-chance' drivers and pick-pockets terrorise commuters? Or Abuja, Nigeria's capital city, where prostitution has assumed such an alarming proportion that the FCT Minister, Bala Mohammed, declared a war on prostitution? Human beings everywhere in the world have the basic human vices. So, why should Onitsha be singled out?
Let's even say, for instance, that Onitsha is guilty of the accusations against it, shouldn't Igbo people rise in defence whenever the issue is raised in public? A good mother, when she gets complaints about her errant child from an outsider, does not condemn the child before the outsider, but rather says: "I've heard your complaints; I'll ask the child when he comes back". That, I think, is the attitude that Igbo people should adopt. The negative comments the Igbo person passes about Onitsha, especially in the midst of other ethnic Nigerians, I'm sure a Yoruba person will not pass it about Lagos or Ibadan or Abeokuta, nor will the Hausa person pass it about Kano or Kaduna or Minna.
I'm not exonerating Onitsha and its inhabitants. There is no doubt that there are bad people in Onitsha, just like there are bad people everywhere. But there are also good people in Onitsha. Branding everybody in Onitsha evil is just too bad. It amounts to stereotyping.
Perhaps at a point in history Onitsha did actually assume a certain notoriety for petty crimes, thereby meriting the branding. But that was many years ago. Onitsha has over the years become sanitised, especially with the action taken by the government of Dr Chris Ngige against motor park touts in the state. Mr Peter Obi's government has also been doing a great job. The government has been able to reclaim Upper Iweka, known to be the headquarters of touts in Onitsha, and rid it of its legendary traffic jam. Mr Obi has also relocated all the transport companies which had parks at Upper Iweka. Upper Iweka is wearing a new look, a pointer that sanity has returned to Onitsha.
To Onitsha residents, it is said that there is no smoke without fire. If the whole world says they are bad, then it is their duty to prove their accusers wrong. They have a huge task before you: to tell the world that they are not guilty as charged. They should ask themselves certain pertinent questions, such as why they are given a bad name. I think that will go a long way.
Finally, to Ndigbo in general, Onitsha belongs to all of us. Let us all join hands to save this great city. We do not have many cities in Igboland; there is therefore an urgent need to protect our own. We know that eradication of crime anywhere in the world is an impossibility, but we also know that crime could at least be reduced to the barest minimum. And for those Igbo people who still speak evil about their brethren, remember that there is no anus without some particles of faeces. Every anus smells.
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