'What Did Your Age Grade Build?' Udefi Challenges Anam Age Grades to Embrace Development (By Our Reporter). The age-grade system in Anam must move beyond social gatherings and become a major driver of community development, welfare and economic empowerment, Engr. Samuel Onyewelu Udefi has said. Udefi, President-General of Igwebuike Anam Age Grade and Chairman of the Umuoba Anam Development Council (UADC), Awka Branch, made the call on Sunday, September 6, 2026, at the 2026 Oote Anam celebration hosted by Mmekoka Age Grade, Umuoba Anam, Awka Branch, at Royal Paradise Hotel, Awka.
The Head of Department, Works, Awka South LGA, said the traditional Otu Ogbo system was once a powerful instrument of community administration, welfare and development: "Our fathers built basic infrastructure through age grades - they cleared roads, built markets, settled disputes and buried the dead through Otu Ogbo. The age grade was government, welfare, security and family all in one.
Today, many of our age grades have become social clubs only - we meet, we dance, we pay levies, and we go home." IGWEBUIKE MODEL: Udefi pointed to Igwebuike Anam as evidence that an age grade can become a development institution when it operates with vision, structure and accountability - the group introduced scholarship programmes and distributed writing materials to primary school pupils across Anam's eight communities; through "Operation Light Up Anam 2023" it provided solar-powered streetlights; and it announced plans for the "Water Is Life 2026" project under which boreholes are to be installed across the eight communities by December.
The age grade also provides members with soft loans, empowerment assistance and hospital-bill support, and uses a unified WhatsApp platform to bring Anam's eight communities under one development umbrella. FOUR CHANGES ANAM NEEDS: 1. "From social to strategic" - age grades should prepare three-year development plans with at least one flagship project covering education, healthcare, empowerment or infrastructure; 2.
"From dues to development fund" - transparent accounts with a 60:40 development-to-welfare allocation and published financial statements ("Trust brings more money"); 3. "From village to global" - engage Anam indigenes in Lagos, Abuja, the UK, US through WhatsApp, Zoom and diaspora chapters; 4. "From individuals to institution" - work with town unions, churches and government agencies: "Age grade should not compete with the community - it should drive it."
CHALLENGE TO MMEKOKA: "You are in Awka - the seat of power. When Awka Branch leads, the home Branch will follow. Oote Anam is not just a festival - it is a homecoming, a renewal of our bond of unity and brotherhood. The age-grade system is not old-fashioned - it is timeless. What is old-fashioned is using it only for aso-ebi and birthdays. In the end, our children will not ask how much we spent on clothes - they will ask: What did your age grade build in Anam?
Ike di na mmadu - there is strength in unity." The celebration featured the unveiling of Mmekoka's official muffler, performances by the Mmekoka Age Grade and Umuoba Anam Ogene Music Group, and dignitaries including former Anambra East LGA Chairman Chief Fidel Okafor. [2 photos attached]
