By Tony Okafor
In July 2024, Governor Charles Soludo inaugurated the Special Anambra Anti-Touting Squad (SASA) to sanitize our cities and clamp down on touting, drug abuse, one-chance robbery, handbag snatching, and extortion in our markets.
The mission was noble and the intention commendable. But almost immediately, the outfit earned the nickname Ndi Aka Odo—a reflection of its notorious reliance on crude, bone-cracking pestles to discipline offenders.
This descent into brutality somewhat stained what should have been a celebrated reform.
Yet, as unacceptable as Ndi Aka Odo’s crude methods are in a 21st-century society, there are moments when one is almost tempted to endorse their ways.
This temptation does not arise because their methods are civilized—they are not—but because of the stubborn nature of our people and their seeming addiction to lawlessness.
Take a walk through Eke Awka or Aroma Junction in the evening, and you will encounter chaos that mocks the very idea of order.
Traders spill onto the roads without restraint, shuttle drivers block intersections and keke riders drive against traffic.
The result is disorder that frustrates every attempt at civility. In such moments, the raw, fear-inducing tactics of Ndi Aka Odo begin to appear like the only antidote for a people who respond only when coerced.
No one in good conscience should justify human rights abuses. No society that aspires to greatness should condone pestle-wielding enforcers as a symbol of law.
Yet the bitter truth remains: if our people cannot abandon their obtuse and disorderly way of doing things, they leave little room for civilized enforcement.
And when disorder reigns unchecked, Ndi Aka Odo becomes the devil we despise but cannot do without.
The onus is therefore on Ndi Anambra. We must decide whether to embrace order willingly or persist in a waywardness that leaves room for crude enforcers to thrive.
Civilization demands self-discipline. But where self-discipline fails, barbarity inevitably creeps in to fill the void.
If Ndi Anambra cannot choose order, then Ndi Aka Odo will choose it for them—by force. And that is a future none of us should desire.
