26/09/2026
POV🤷🤷...READ......OLD EFFIUM. DEFUNCT EFFIUM. ......WHAT EXACTLY ARE YOU TRYING TO CHANGE? 🤷
These expressions may sound like ordinary descriptions, but to many people in Effium, they are provocative. They suggest that something fundamental about Effium has ceased to exist.
But dear brothers and sisters of Effium, there is no need to be angry. Let us remain calm and understand the issues. No administrative arrangement can simply erase the historical identity and existence of a people like Effium.
Let me remind our Ezza brothers of something important: when you repeatedly describe Effium as “Defunct Effium,” what exactly do you mean? Does it mean the traditional identity of Effium has disappeared?
Does it mean the political structure of Effium has ceased to exist? Or does it mean that the name Effium itself should eventually disappear? These are serious questions that deserve serious answers.
THE REAL CONTRADICTION🤷
If Effium is supposedly “defunct,” why are its existing political structures still being recognised? Why are electoral wards associated with Effium still relevant? That is because Effium is not Defunct.
Why do people continue to participate politically under structures carrying the Effium identity? You cannot simultaneously describe Effium as “defunct” when it is convenient and recognise its existing political structures when it is necessary.
So, what exactly does “Defunct Effium” mean? That question must be answered.
2027 WILL TEST THE POLITICAL REALITY
If the existing electoral structures remain the legally recognised structures for elections, then Effium and anyone else should vote under those structures, not under names or communities that have not been legally established for electoral purposes. Remember this: Ndi Alioma, Ekerigwe and Ejem Autonomous Communities.
My position is simple:đź’Ş
Ndi Effium, do not allow political language or speech to create confusion. If Alioma or Alioma Ezekuna has not been legally established as an electoral constituency or ward, people should not be encouraged to assume that merely giving a structure a new name automatically creates a new electoral structure.
Your electoral jurisdictions exist only in Effium. Not Alioma, not Ekerigwe and not Ejem Autonomous Communities.
WHERE I DISAGREE WITH THE EBONYI STATE GOVERNMENTâś…
This is where I believe the Ebonyi State Government under Governor Francis Nwifuru made a fundamental mistake in its approach.
First, the Ebonyi State Government should not have attempted to interfere with or try to dismantle the traditional structure of Effium when it should be concerned about the fundamental questions of the resettlement blueprint.
The immediate priority should have been a practical resettlement framework, including addressing the proposed settlement of Ezza people in the northwestern part of Effium, before embarking on highly sensitive questions concerning autonomous communities. But no, you want to write everything on paper đź“ś
Autonomous-community status is a serious traditional and Historical matter, and it must follow the traditional and Historical process. It should not be treated as though it were merely an extension of political electoral ward arrangements in Effium.
As if the electoral wards were the remote or immediate cause of the war.
Second, political structures should not simply be substituted for traditional structures. Even if an electoral ward has no clearly defined traditional boundaries, the community itself does not cease to exist.
This is why I question the approach of using electoral wards as the foundation for creating autonomous communities.
THE FIVE-WARD QUESTION
Remember, before the war, Hon. Awo Chinedu had repeatedly argued that the electoral wards in Effium did not have clearly defined boundaries. If that argument is correct, then an obvious question arises:
How can the same wards suddenly become the foundation for creating autonomous communities whose boundaries are themselves not clearly established? Alioma Ezekuna, Ejem and Ekerigwe do not exist in Effium or within the five electoral wards.
Where is the solution? 🤷
If five electoral wards allegedly have no clearly defined boundaries, and those same five wards are transformed into autonomous communities without first resolving the boundaries, then what has actually been solved?
Instead of one problem, we may simply have created another Monster. Five electoral wards without clearly settled boundaries. Five autonomous communities without clearly settled boundaries.
That is not a sustainable peace initiative worth celebrating. That is a recipe for future conflict.
PEACE CANNOT EXIST ONLY ON PAPER
This is why I have decided to focus more on the practical steps required to end the cycle of conflict in Effium. We have applauded enough paperwork. We have celebrated enough announcements.
We have listened to enough speeches.
But the people of Effium need to see practical peace; they need to see reconstruction. They need to see resettlement. They need to see clearly defined boundaries where boundaries are required. They need to see people returning to normal life. 🙏
And they need a political and traditional arrangement that does not simply postpone today's war into tomorrow's conflicts.
If we are still discussing the absence of meaningful rebuilding in Effium in 2026, then something is fundamentally wrong with the Peace initiative. Not because someone stopped it, but because it is not sustainable.
Peace written on paper inside the Governor's office cannot by itself rebuild Effium. Peace must be visible on the ground.
LET US STOP PURSUING SHADOWS
The danger in creating autonomous communities without first resolving resettlements is obvious, and you risk creating a more complicated dispute than the one you were trying to solve.
And if the argument is that the five electoral wards already have boundaries and therefore can serve as the basis for autonomous communities, then those boundaries should be clearly demonstrated, documented and accepted before the arrangement is imposed.
Otherwise, we are creating structures whose existence may be clear on paper but whose physical boundaries remain disputed on the ground. That is not sustainable peace.
TO THE PEOPLE OF EFFIUM
Do not allow words like “Old Effium” or “Defunct Effium” to provoke you into anger.
1. Respond with facts.
2. Respond with history.
3. Respond with lawful civic participation.
4. Respond with peace.
And above all, insist that every peace initiative must be practical, transparent and capable of preventing another generation from inheriting today's wars.
My concern is not about defeating anybody.
My concern is about preventing today's mistakes from becoming tomorrow's conflicts
Let us stop pursuing shadows.
Let us stop celebrating peace on paper.
Let us establish peace on the ground.
Effium needs practical peace, not political terminology.
Stop threatening the victims of the war and focus on establishing practical steps towards peace that both Effium and Ezza residents can relate to.
Edene Chinatu
The Truth Advocate
