By Obi Nwakanma
Much has been written about the kidnapping situation in Aba; a situation which has basically sacked the city, and made life uninhabitable and brutish. Kidnapping in Aba seems to be the climax of affairs that have brought this great city to its knees.

The principal complaint once about Aba was the inexplicable neglect it has suffered in terms of investments in infrastructural development by the government under whose aegis it exists: from collapsed city roads, to streets submerged by floods to the terrible lack of planning and upgrade of every city infrastructure that could support urban life in a great and growing megalopolis such as Aba.

This complaint reached a crescendo when images of high piles of sludge, domestic and industrial waste threatened to eclipse the Aba city urbanscape, and yet, not much was seen to be done; not by the Abia state government; not by the Aba city government, the Aba Urban Council or whatever it is called these days.

Aba is called Enyimba city – the great elephant city of the East; a giant in all manner of speaking; a giant in innovation, enterprise, diversity, and so on.

It was not for nothing that it was called Nigeria’s Shanghai – a great market and industrial hub, whose economy is larger than many an African country. It is thus a matter of wonder that such a city should suffer the neglect that has rendered it inchoate. When it comes to criticism, many find plenty to go round, from Orji Uzor Kalu’s grand incompetence which joined with his running battle to control Aba’s market against other entrenched interests in the city had led to a terrible attrition.

The neglect Aba suffered under the Kalu administration continues with the current administration of Mr. T.A. Orji, who has talked more than he has worked on the question of Aba.

I think T.A. Orji simply has not much ideas about many things, including how to renew Aba, revive some of its comatose or declining industry; stem the flight of investors and capital from the city, and build upon a distinguished tradition that has taken years to nourish; that transformed Aba from a veterans demobilization town to a great industrial and commercial city.

The government of Abia State alone however should not bear the sole responsibility for Aba. We presume that Aba is run by a city government – a local government authority which carries out municipal functions.

Among these municipal functions which the Aba City Hall conducts, we presume, include public works; waste management; street and lighting upkeep; public parks administration; city transportation; neighborhood security, fair and accessible housing, roads, and so on and so forth.

What am I driving at? Simply this: that very often we, citizens, have consistently focused attention on the inabilities of the federal and state administrations, and have frequently overlooked the responsibilities and failures of local government administrations in the provision of effective municipal government and first class municipal services.

We focus on the federal and the state mandates but, alas, very little on the triadic imperative of Nigeria’s federal government. In other words, we have very conveniently forgotten that the local government, that third zone of Nigeria’s public administration, was created to ensure that municipal authority was grassroots, and that it delivered certain critical services, including security, to tax payers.

We tend to forget that the local government or city or provincial administration is a vital part of the federal trinity, with its own budget, its programs, its own staff, and its own responsibilities, and therefore is not merely to be heard and not seen.

But this sadly is what has happened to the local and city administrations. While we must certainly examine the failures of the federal and state administrations in preventing the current situation in Aba, we must as well ask: what did the Aba City government do to contain crime and kidnapping in the city; provide security, ensure public safety, guarantee the equable continuance of city life?

More importantly, what did the residents of Aba themselves do, beyond run for their dear lives, or hide behind useless wrought iron gates manned by private Maiguards and construct ugly barricades that distort rather than enhance public security and even urban aesthetics? These are vital questions the answers of which should provide us with vital answers in understanding the recent kidnapping incidents in Aba.

First, we must now completely acknowledge that one of the central axioms of city life is that no one can afford to be an island. Ultimately meaningful life in a city is dependent on a self-aware community willing to join hands to build sustainable communities.

Those who think that they can create private security islands, or little, self-contained oases of comfort and pleasure and neglect the public space make great mistakes because the city will collapse right under their noses, and they too will be inevitable victims of the neglect and the death of the public spirit. Two, it is incumbent upon people, threatened as Aba has been threatened to organize a serious counter measure to defend themselves with or without the government.

They could do this by forcing their elected city officials to take certain steps, including organizing a city militia to comb the city, or they could organize neighborhood volunteer groups, arm themselves, and conduct security patrols where their elected governments prove incapable of preventing what has gone on with impunity in Aba. Here again is our teachable moment: government – all government – is a big cooperative organized for the well-being of the highest number of people.

Here are the steps that I therefore think that the citizens of Aba must take forthwith to ensure the return of normalcy, security, and prosperity to this great city. One, the city must convene a public town hall meeting that should bring together the stakeholders of the city – the city investors, bankers, professional bodies – the NBA, the NMA, the Architects, the Teachers, the traders, the landlords, and the tenants association, and they must agree to establish a new city commission – the Aba Urban Renewal commission which would begin to replan, restore and rebuild Aba into a 21st century urban metropolis. They must mobilize and declare a mandate to establish the Aba City Police, recruit about 1000 young university graduates, train them properly, and equip them very adequately with proceeds from the city’s property tax.

I could almost hear the argument, that this would be an usurpation of a federal mandate. I think not. This is one mandate that the Aba city government and its residents, given its current emergency, must be prepared to test in court, for under the federal laws, it does not make sense that public safety is retained under an exclusive list.

But finally, Aba must now be taken seriously. Recently, Rahm Emanuel, the most powerful man in the White House staff resigned to run for the office of the Mayor of Chicago. Chicago is of course a great city. But so is Aba.

Except that Aba needs a few more people who are willing take it more seriously, rebuild it, and transform it, and make it rebound once again as the great city.
of hope; the great Elephant city of the East. This is a moral and historical imperative.