Background
In the midst of worsening social, economic, political, and other indicators that signal systemic collapse in Nigeria, the Ugep People’s Consultative Assembly (UPCA) was established on 11 July 2024 as an organic, homegrown community-built solution to a simmering crisis of governance that had threatened to engulf the entire community in confusion. The Ugep people, therefore, created UPCA themselves, as a forum of associations, body of bodies (or, in the indigenous Lokurr language, lekpala j’akpala, trans. “nest of nests”).
UPCA builds synergies among traditional institutional structures, interweaving these with modern competencies to foster community-led local governance in Ugep, Cross River State, Nigeria. Driven by visions of a coalition of interests and inspired by the common aims of unity, service, and prosperity, UPCA is enhancing its capacity to mediate and advise on a broad and evolving range of cultural, humanitarian, and developmental issues affecting Ugep town and its environs.
Its modus operandi transcends the exclusivist age-based patriarchal theocracies that are proving inadequate for system maintenance and the navigation of modernity in a fluid community, rapidly growing, complex, and immensely heterogeneous. Since its emergence, UPCA has mediated on several protracted crises, which previously defied conventional engagement, or even liaison, including royal conflicts, town-gown industrial disputes, and inter-communal disagreements over foundational ritual observances. Its methodology is to convene major voluntary and statutory bodies in Ugep, each represented on the UPCA Executive Committee, which serves as an all-inclusive de facto microcosm of Ugep, enabling the efficacious resolution of polarising issues within the polity and promoting a culture of peace.
