With its unique position as a major food producing community, one would expect Uwheru kingdom in Ughelli North Local Government Area of Delta State to have certain facilities to support its business of feeding millions in the state and beyond.
A survey of the community, however clearly shows a picture of neglect and abandonment, with very little development when compared with the important role the place plays in feeding the teeming populace in the region and elsewhere.
Founded centuries ago at about 1102 AD, Uwheru kingdom is made up of different communities and villages which include Orhoro, Erovie, Agadama, Urede, Egbo, Owarovwo, Ogode, Oreba, Avwon, Iwhouvbe, Iwhodja, Ode, Oguname, Owarie, Iwhegbo and Iwherhe.
“Our ancestors came from Edo State; they passed through a creek and got here,” Chief Leader Uwre, the Secretary-General of the kingdom disclosed. “On arriving here, the first crop they planted was ground nut; it grew well and gave great yield so that was how the business of groundnut production began and it’s been going on for centuries. The first system of governance practised by our ancestors was ‘Odion’ (Elder rulership) before we had a king. Uwheru town is the capital and it has five quarters,” he added.
As capitals go, Uwheru doesn’t look much like one. A major road that veers off the East-West highway runs through the middle of the town, neatly dividing it into two parts. It’s fairly large and well populated with most residents involved either in farming, fishing or trading business. To serve its residents however, are very few amenities and it is something the people of Uwheru are very unhappy about.
One of such residents is Christmas Joseph, a village voluntary health worker, this correspondent met at the town’s sole Primary Health Centre/Maternity. He had a long shopping list of the infrastructure and basic amenities needed in Uwheru and the kingdom generally. He was particularly displeased about the state of the health centre, the only one serving different communities in the area.
“We lack many things here- this health centre serves all the 20 something communities in the kingdom; not just that, people come from outside the kingdom for treatment here, yet there’s no standard equipment here. We need more medical personnel as well to take care of the health of our people,” he said.
Gloria Ozuzu, a Community Health worker, speaking on the condition of the centre, stated that the place lacked many things including drugs, equipment, beds and other basic requirements needed for it to function properly and serve the community well. Besides all that, she noted, was the issue of flooding. “During the rainy season, the centre gets flooded; patients and workers find it difficult to enter this place. We need the government to come to our aid, to give us more facilities and provide drainage so the flooding can stop,” she said.
While there were several educational institutions in the community particularly at the primary and secondary level, the state of some of them was quite bad. One of them, Udu Primary School, situated within the Anglican church premises, was in such a terrible condition, it wore the look of a place that had been abandoned for years. The ceilings, both on the verandah and inside the classrooms, had rotted and looked as if they would collapse any minute. The classrooms were unkempt with dirty walls, not a place that seemed conducive for learning.
To Christmas, Uwheru was overdue for a higher institution, considering its contribution to the nation in terms of agricultural produce. “Our people here love education and we have a lot of educated elites in many sectors to prove it. We need a higher institution like a polytechnic or a university in our town; that will contribute to the development of our community as it will enhance economic activities and human resources development.”
Uwre concurred with him, noting: “Uwheru is an agricultural hub in the state, so it won’t be out of order if we can get a higher institution like a College of Agriculture which can be affiliated to one of the universities in the region. There’s a vacant block of classrooms in one of our primary schools that can be coverted for that purpose.”
He further harped on the need to site factories in the town to process some of the agricultural produce like the ground nuts produced in abundance in the community. “We produce lots of food here especially ground nuts and ikpekpeduke (sweet potatoes). We will be happy if the government or private investors can come and establish factories here to process the ground nuts into ground nut oil for local consumption and export. That will save the country a lot of money in foreign exchange and also provide employment for our people especially the youths.”
“I want to call on the government to provide better amenities for our community such as electricity- the lihjt is not stable- pipe borne water; our people make use of well water as source of drinking and cooking water which is not too healthy, better medical and health facilities, security, good roads, schools etc. All these will help in improving the quality of life of our people- we contribute a lot to the economy of the state and country so we deserve better from the authorities than we are getting,” he said.
