It was a black Sunday in Anambra as Governor Chukwuma Charles Soludo mourned Master Success Ezenwafor, the little schoolboy of Nnamdi Azikiwe University Primary School, Awka, who was swept away by flood while on his way to school.
Recall we had earlier reported that Success was inside a school bus with 9 other occupants – 7 pupils and 2 adults – when the vehicle was trapped and overturned by a ravaging flood along Nibo–Isiagu Road, Awka South LGA on Tuesday, September 22, following two days of heavy downpour.
While 9 were rescued alive by the Anambra Police Safe School Operatives in collaboration with locals and rushed to Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University Teaching Hospital, Amaku, Success was swept away. His remains were later recovered on Wednesday morning.
Soludo, speaking at the Cathedral Church of St. Faith, Awka, during the interdenominational thanksgiving service to mark Nigeria’s 66th Independence Anniversary, said the loss has touched everyone:
> “The profound loss has deeply touched the Ezenwafor family, the entire Nnamdi Azikiwe University Primary School, the good people of Ekwulobia community in Aguata LGA, and the entire state.”
He prayed: “Almighty God grants the family, the school, and the community the fortitude to bear this irreplaceable separation.”
Soludo’s Warning to Ndi Anambra
The Governor used the Independence service to issue a strong environmental warning:
1. Contain rainwater in your compound – don’t push it to the road.
2. Stop blocking drainages with refuse.
3. Plant trees to hold soil.
4. Clean your gutters and drainage systems regularly.
> “Everyone has a critical role to play in safeguarding our communities, so as to prevent future occurrence of this sad development,” Soludo said.
Also in a Facebook post after the service attended by his wife Nonye Soludo, Deputy *Dr Onyekachukwu Ibezim, Speaker Somtochukwu Udeze, and others, Soludo said nation-building needs personal sacrifice:
> “True freedom, as Archbishop Alexander Ibezim reminded us in his sermon ‘From Bondage to Freedom, God’s Purpose for Nigeria’, is beyond the raising of flags. It is about a people determining their own destiny.”
Master Success Ezenwafor has now become a symbol of Anambra’s worsening flood crisis – a crisis the government says can only be stopped if citizens stop seeing environment as government’s job alone.
