By Ebuka Onyekwelu, Ph.D
Anambra State historically has many individuals who turned into gods and operate as if there were no government. They create some form of a state within their own sphere where they enjoy absolute power and control a sizeable amount of criminality within the state. Anambra has a peculiar challenge of audacious lawlessness operating from the shadows of sacred altars. On one hand, there is one sponsored by religious or Church/prayer figures, and on the other hand, there is one hiding under the cover of traditionalism to feed ignorance and fan lawlessness. As a matter of historical fact, Anambra is home to many notorious strong men who have been sponsored or backed by either of these altars, and most of them operated from Onitsha or environs. The vestiges of these atrocious conducts on both sides, which the people themselves have embraced over the years, are still active and the very foundation of today’s insecurity and other threats against both the state and the law-abiding members of the Anambra State community. This is why the war by Governor Soludo on these spiritual merchants must be contextualized because the damage they cause is beyond proving the efficacy of their belief. Anambra needs a foundation built on enlightenment and sound knowledge, for businesses and enterprises to thrive sustainably, not a foundation built on spiritual recklessness, criminality, dogma, and scams.
Onitsha, as a commercial nerve centre of immense repute, somehow also breeds an unimaginable level of ignorance that is often spiritualized, creating fear and bondage. This pattern is not far from what obtains in Nnewi or even Aba, both of which are commercial powerhouses, and where there is a residual dominant thinking that an individual can become so powerful and can do anything and actually get away with it if they have been fortified spiritually. This thinking might offer some explanation for why some of these conmen parading as spiritualists under the cover of a Church or under the mandate of a native doctor grow to become so powerful and influential, destroying every semblance of modernity while the state looks away. Thereby strengthening the assumption that these individuals are powerful and untouchable, and in turn recruiting more followers and causes more public harm.
The last time the government in Anambra State fought a war against these so-called powerful individuals polluting Anambra State was during the Bakasi Boys’ era. Over two decades later, it is still clear that though that was an era of impunity where terror was met with equal or greater terror with the backing of the state, it addressed the root cause of the security challenge at the time. It was then that Eddy Nawgu, a popular Onitsha-based spiritualist operating under the cover of a church/prayer house, was taken out. In Nnewi, Ezennia, son of a legendary native doctor who had become as powerful and notorious as a native doctor himself, was also taken out. Once these were done, several criminals operating under their spiritual coverings were also captured and taken out. Over the years, that same pattern has been the order. Anambra has a complex problem that is rooted in spirituality, either under the cover of a Church or a traditionalist who is elevated to a god-status by numerous people, both rich and poor, and then guided towards living on any terms they deem necessary, with claims that they are untouchable.
Anambra State today is basically dealing with the same old problems of lawlessness and criminality under various guises engineered on spiritual altars masquerading either as a Church/prayer house, or a shrine/traditional/native doctor’s place. Interestingly, by whatever name it goes, the damage to society is the same. The quick money syndrome championed by these spiritualists, who are proponents of money without enterprise and advocates of wealth through rituals and other spiritual means, has constituted a major social disaster for young people, especially those with less strict parental backgrounds. Careless teachings and conduct by these spiritual merchants have caused enormous moral decay. In the past, Anambra had Eddy Nawgu operating from Onitsha, but today, there is Harrison Charles Chukwuneke, now Harrison Charles Anazodo, also operating from Onitsha. He who owns a certain Church called Day Spring Assembly in Awada, where all manner of aberrations are committed under the covering of “Church”. About two and a half decades ago, we had Ezennia Okafor, a native doctor in Nnewi; now we have Akwa Okuku and many others who are purveyors of quick money syndrome under some spiritual covering.
It is therefore crucial to distill Governor Charles Chukwuma Soludo’s recent war against these gods of Anambra State, creating a parallel society unknown to the law and using their spiritual influence to pollute the state and endanger sanity and order in Anambra State, both now and in the future. The government must brace up and go hardest on these individuals who have turned themselves into gods in Anambra State, and who can do anything to brainwash their followers to operate outside the legitimate bounds of society. This war by Soludo is a battle against the foundations of impunity, insecurity, and various gross abuses under the pretense of either the Church or traditional spirituality in Anambra State.
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