By Emma Udeagha
Willie Obiano is from Aguleri in Anambra State but he loves Abakaliki, a Town in Ebonyi state much, as a person would love his native land.
The man, who governed Anambra state from March 2013 to March 2022, did something for which many thought that he had an unusual interest in the Town.
Before he became governor, a thoroughfare around Anambra State’s Executive Business District, was named ‘Abakaliki Street’ after Abakaliki, the Capital of Ebonyi state.
The Street, with a row of buildings , with shops, equipped with discothèques and open halls that formed a guard of honour, is connected to the Enugu – Onitsha express road through a tributary of roads distinctively linked in a complex correlation of the spider’s web.
With the passage of time, the area became one of the busiest playgrounds for fun seekers in Anambra state and indeed swallowed every other such facility around, with the ease with which the shark swallowed, ‘Jonah’ in the Bible.
Unfortunately, It gained notoriety along the line.
Some alleged lurid happenings in the place have continued to be the subject of local gossips everywhere.
The arena is said to be the headquarters for prostitution and sex is also allegedly freely traded by sex workers who visit there every night.
It is believed that no excess was too monstrous for some of the street’s evil minded visitors to commit, including kidnapping, carjacking and armed robbery, hence some people have described it as a reincarnation of the Biblical ‘Sodom and Gomorrah.
These shuddery and strange tales seemingly account for why the area is dreaded by many first time visitors to Awka, while the more daring preferred to see things for themselves, perhaps to confirm the many mysteries that were ascribed to the place.
Notwithstanding, to many Abakaliki street is just a city of night crawlers, a playground for fun seekers, and nothing more.
A trip to Abakaliki street is usually an overnight trip as a typical day starts around 11- 12 pm.
At this period every night, the street comes alive.
From the Nwoke udi bar, which attracts a large number of guests, because it offers delicious local cuisines, to the over 30 other bars and night clubs of various shapes and sizes in the enclave, activities peak.
Nightlife there is beauty at its colourful best.
The illuminating beam of street lights, alluring music bursting out of the discothèques, and sometimes musical life performances, all give colour to the network of well decorated buildings, that a lover of aesthetics cannot but find irresistible.
Oddly, behind this stately picture lies the sleazy and seamy image of ‘Abakaliki street’; the increasing number of prostitutes, destitutes and the unemployed, which has upped the crime rates. Last year alone, no fewer than 10 persons were allegedly kidnapped, while a couple of person were killed in cult related clashes, apart from the many robberies that reportedly took place around the area.
What actually makes the ‘Street’ tick is the number of girls who stream in daily to transact ‘business’.
The vicinity appears to be the home of ladies. pretty, elegant, fashionable, single, free and very much available, many of them undergraduates of neighbourhood schools and colleges, who have made the area their homes.
They swoop on every corner of the ‘Street’ like a swarm of bees, walking with the unhurried swagger of the praying mantis, with their blouses provocatively cut, as to make a man’s imagination to run riot.
Under the cool breeze of the night, they troop out, often holding hands, while taking endless stroll to nowhere.
The beauty of these girls charms and disarms and the sweetness of their voice, and the friendliness of their smiles, are enough to make anyone, no matter how gospelled to lust for them.
This is what greets you at the approach of the busy ‘Street’ every night.
There, women struggle to be picked up by any good ‘Samaritan’ and they are also into one- night stands, the reason for the deluge of condoms and smell of cohabitation that the cleaners had to deal with every new morning.
Abakaliki street is very much an off the shell shop and the girls who visit the place have no jobs but pay their bills and feed.
The clientele of the girls include the single, young and old men but ‘young’ at heart, who find that ‘business’ is more profitable there than perhaps anywhere around town, since it is away from prying eyes and where some of them live.
A first timer at the place would lose whatever initial faith he had in womanhood by the time he observes the way the ‘girls’ go after men they want against the societal training that women should wait for men to want them.
Naturally, the greed for pleasure and sex provide a breeding ground for criminal activities and for the many reported cases of drug abuse, gambling, racketeering and cult related activities in the area.
Herein lies the wisdom in Obiano’s earlier decision to change the ‘Street’s name, sullied by the street’s many vices, to provide ‘Abakaliki natives’ with a good public image , given that a public image is as fragile as Humpty Dumpty.
Unfortunately, many ‘Ebonyians’, including then governor Dave Umahi failed to understand the sense in Obiano’s intentions, hence they responded with needless spat with his administration on the matter. And the rest is history.
The society, especially parents, cannot be left out of blame for what Abakaliki street has become. They prepared the crime that the criminals are committing there, from the robberies to the kidnappings, and the prostitution because they failed to wield the big stick at the critical foundational stage.
Luckily, for ndi Anambra, remarkable progress has been made against criminal elements in a very short time, because of strict enforcement of the recent Anambra State Inland Security Law. The bad elements have virtually been run out of town.
However, in addition to hitting criminals hard , there should be close and constant surveillance of the the rendezvous day and night while the appropriate institution should help young girls who are into prostitution to get out of the trade, although, for many, the only way to leave the business is in a coffin.
Nonetheless, with its oddities, Abakaliki street remains a place worth visiting, If for nothing else, for its nightly beauty and the sweet loveliness of their ‘babies’.
