Incidentally Barrister Chidi is my personal attorney, if it becomes necessary I will definitely engage another lawyer to oppose him in the court law on the issue of Okpofe division. TILL THY KINGDOM COME I am oppose to Okpofe division however I sincerely respect his humble opinion.
Some of us who are very passionate about our great community Okpofe knows that a lot has gone wrong. So much that the excitement is no longer there to visit home. Amongst others, it is a big shame that more than a year ago our late Eze died and the traditional mourning period observed yet we are not near to selecting another Eze; Young girls are been raped every now and then at Okpofe secondary school by our younger brothers and cousins. Eddy's violent death in his own bedroom, in his own village, before his kids and wife is the climax of it all and I do not think we should keep quite anymore. On a personal note, I benefited from Eddy's generosity and extreme humility. I cannot recall visiting home without him bringing me a gallon of fuel free to power my little generator in the village and above all he is so humble and dedicated if not fanatical about the welfare of his elder brother- Dee Vita.
I thank all the new comers for their positive contributions especially on the insecurity in Okpofe but should we continue to pay lip service? I was privileged to attend OIU home and abroad meeting on two occasions, of course there is no doubt from my observation that our problem mainly is in the leadership arising from extremely arrogance on the majority of our Chiefs and Elder brothers. This group of people has arrogated total wisdom, knowledge and understanding to themselves alone to the point that they would not take advise nor wise counselling from some of us. It is as a result of this lack of humility in the leadership at home that has caused us the division and other problems we are suffering today in the community. Much as a greater number of us are are irked by the happing yet my humble opinion in conclusion of this article is that we should LET GO OUR GRIVIANCES AND COME TOGETHER TO SAVE OURSELVES AND COMMUNITY. SIDON LOOK OPTION IS NOT THE BEST AT ALL.
I am seriously appealing to OIU in America (sorry ODA) in my personal capacity to let go some of their grievances IF ANY and MOTIVATE THINGS TO HAPPEN, I strongly believe that with the quality of Okpofe sons, daughters and wives in America and some of us down here we can redress urgently our problems. LET US GET OUR SECURITY BACK, LET US GET A NEW EZE, LET US REHABILITATE OKPOFE SECONDRY SCHOOL AND PROTECT THE YOUNG GIRLS ETC.
If we do not act decisively on these ugly issues NOW, tomorrow may be too late. Yesterday it is the young girls been raped in their school premises, Eddy has follow, who knows whose turn tomorrow? MA OBUM MA OBU GI
Every good point made here usually hits home. I guess it is because we are talking about home. Prince Oguegbe makes a lot sense in observing the kind of leadership (or lack of it) we have Okpofe.
Whereas the 'elders' and leaders have chosen to minimize the intelligence and strength of the 'younger' generation, the younger people have really not made serious efforts to dissuade the 'elders'.
If I didn't believe in the power of a virtual community such as this, to bring people together from far and near to form a solid movement, capable of addressing these issues and bring about change, I would not bother to keep it running.
I do not believe however, that only members of one branch of OIU should be charged to change Okpofe. There is something every one us can and should do. It is probably easier to be relevant if one is closer home. People in the USA have no magic wand to make these issues disappear. You can not bite from a distance.
From the contributions that have been made here at the Town Hall, I do believe though, that with the collective effort of all enthusiastic Okpofe men and women, we can begin to reform our community. A lot of ideas have been suggested, can we beging to look at some of them? We are the people we have been waiting for, to make Okpofe better.
History will not forgive us if we fail to try.
The time to start is now...
I couldn't just read this post without responding. I want to point out something very important that the moderator just said which is "WE are the ones we've been waiting for to make Okpofe better" and "The time to start is NOW". This is not going to be a one branch task or effort, everyone needs to get involved. We have tried the "one branch effort" before and it failed because it was exactly that; a one branch effort, with the necesary support needed unavaliable. In this forum, issues are raised, wisdom exposed and knowledge showcased. This all proves one thing, "we have the right equipment for the job", it's time to put it to use. The time is NOW!!!!.
I humbly thank you all for your concerns regarding the aggravating and shameful events (current and past) at our dearly beloved Okpofe. I don't agree with caption/title of the original message, but the contents could move mountains. Jude, kindly accept my special thanks for re-initiating this round of soul searching.
The question now is, how do we go about implementing the numerous solutions we have on hand. I think and believe that a face to face summit of like minded good people of Okpofe is needed (both young and old). You all will agree with me that Okpofe is blessed with wealth, intelligent and the right human resources to solve her problems. It is not too late to salvage our beloved community. Lets keep talking, with our Almighty God on our side, we will be able to pick and implement sustainable poeople oriented programs to keep Okpofe among the progressives.
Thanks Jude, for your thoughtfullness. Yes a lot of anomalies are going in Okpofe. As we may not be able to fight our poor-stricken leaders and authority physically, let's continue to make good use of other opportunities such as provided by Okpofe.com to see if one day they can reason along with us the younger generation.
I want to remind all that it will take our collective responsibility to change things in our town. But that collectivity may not involve every person, rather it may take a little fragment of the society to right the wrongs. As you know, a nahi akwu oha eme nka. Thus let's the few that understand the scenerio continue to 'fight' to revitise the God-given life to Okpofe people. These are all signs of development. It should overwhelm us. But we should brace to face the challenges posed to us. Our efforts will be rewarded one day.