I have listened to the sickly diatribes against His Royal Majesty Agbogidi Obi Nduka Ezeagwuna II of Issele-Uku Kingdom by some morons from the Southeast supported by some nincompoops from Anioma for stating his Benin ancestry through Ezechime in a video clip; and I have come to the conclusion that that Senator Nwoko’s fraudulent scheme of lumping Anioma with Southeast will never work.
I need not repeat the unprintable words being employed against His Majesty for recounting the traditions of origin bequeathed to him by his forefathers because, as our people say, he who delivers a message of insult to the king insults him.
But in this case, the man who should be held accountable for all the invectives, aspersions and outright insults our people and our revered traditional rulers are receiving from our Southeast kinsmen, is Senator Ned Munir Abdullahi Nwoko— the man who comically and insultingly declared his plan to lump our people into the Southeast without consulting us.
I make this statement in my capacity, first as a bona fide citizen of Anioma; second, as a prescribed First-class Traditional Chief; and third, as a member of Otu-Mmuta Anioma—the apex Association of Anioma intellectuals in higher institutions of learning. We respect our royal fathers; we honor them with exceptional humility; and we are proud of the time-honored elevated institution they represent in our land. We will resist any attempt by outsiders to denigrate them through a Judas Iscariot among our people called Senator Ned Nwoko.
His Royal Majesty Agbogidi Obi Nduka Ezeagwuna II of Issele-Uku Kingdom stated emphatically that his ancestors were of noble ancestry of Benin Kingdom. Thereafter an array of madness set in among some addle-brained political morons and historical lepers among our Southeast kinsmen cursing and abusing His Royal Majesty for what they stupidly perceived as denying his Igbo identity. By the way let me ask, is it by force that one must claim Igbo identity?
What did His Royal Majesty Agbogidi Obi Nduka Ezeagwuna II say that successive Obi of Onitsha in Anambra State did not say as members of the same Ezechime Clan? What did His Royal Majesty Agbogidi Obi Nduka Ezeagwuna II say that the mighty Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe did not say in his book, “My Odyssey” in which he traced his ancestry to the same Benin through Ezechime? What did His Royal Majesty Agbogidi Obi Nduka Ezeagwuna II say that Prof Ikenna Nzimiro of Oguta did not say in his book, “Studies in Igbo Political Systems”, when he claimed that his town Oguta was founded by a Benin prince named Echimeukwu who migrated from Benin Kingdom?
The point has to be made that our Southeast kinsmen do not understand our history outside our common Igbo language; they do not understand the fact that many people of Edo, Urhobo, Isokoc, Ijaw, Igala, and Yoruba origins among us have lost their original languages and ethnic identities as a result of centuries of interactions and proximity with the dominant Igbo ethnic group; they do not understand the fact that the old Benin Empire, nay the present Benin Kingdom is multi-ethnic with the Bini, Igbo, Urhobo, Ijaw and Yoruba as constituent ethnic groups; they do not understand our values outside our common Igbo language; they do not understand our passion with our customs and traditions outside our common Igbo language; and above all, they do not understand our principles and customary gallantry outside our common Igbo language. Those southeast kinsmen of ours who lived or still live in our land know these facts.
We have made it known to our Southeast kinsmen that even though we—Anioma people speak Igbo as our major language, we are not all Igbo. This is the case with Anambra, Abia, Enugu, Ebonyi and Imo States of the Southeast. Not all the people bragging today as Ndigbo are of original Igbo descent. There had been migrations and counter-migrations over the centuries as a result wars, slave trade, and other circumstances.
Let’s take Arochukwu as an instance. The colonial anthropologist G.I Jones wrote in 1937:
“The Aro themselves say, and always have said, that their clan originated from a revolt of an Igbo slave or group of slaves who called in Akpa mercenaries from further up the Cross river. The revolt was successful and the Igbo, the Akpa and what remained of the Ibibio amalgamated to found the present clan. Today this consist of 19 villages, 6 of which Claim an Akpa, 5 were descended from Igbo elements who came in later either freely or as captives. The seniority was originally with the Akpa, but almost immediately passed to the ancestor of an Igbo village, a certain Okenachi and from that time the clan appears to have become an Igbo one.”
In a petition to the District Officer dated September 4, 1945, in which they questioned the traditional right of the Eze-Aro, Chief Oji to claim the headship of Arochukwu, the people of Amanagwu Village in Arochukwu stated:
“It is contented by your humble petitioners, and by the Ibom-Isis, that the three Aro elements, viz: Ezeagwu, Okenachi and Ibom Isi are separate, distinct and equal in status.”
Today, not only have the Jukun and Ibibio ethnic groups in Arochukwu lost their languages and ethnic identities, all their present descendants bear Igbo names and claim Igbo ethnicity; yet without losing their ancestral origins.
My friend Uduma Kalu, formally of the Vanguard newspaper, recently wrote on the origins, migrations and settlement of his town Isiugwu Ohafia in Abia State. His submission in this respect is instructive:
“A cursory look at the history of Isiugwu Ohafia shows that the community is an assemblage of people from diverse places from far and near. Reports indicate that some came from the Ohafia towns, Abam, Okposi, Ihechiowa, bibio and Efik etc.”
It is therefore only an intellectual moron that thinks, because Anioma people speak Igbo language, they must not all be Igbo in origin but, must as a matter of political conspiracy be forced into Southeast geopolitical zone. This is absurd by every historical and ethnographical sense,
In Anioma, we have the Igbo group which I proudly belong. We have the Edo group comprising Bini, Ishan (Esan), Isoko and Urhobo. We have the Igala group. Down southwards to our boundary with Bayelsa State at Asaba-Ase, we have the Ijaw among us. And we have the Yoruba group comprising six towns in Nwed Nwoko’s Aniocha North Local Government Area, the same Local Government Area His Royal Majesty Agbogidi Obi Nduka Ezeagwuna II comes from. Language is as mutative as it is learned; as such cannot be a definitive means of defining a people’s ethnicity.
As a professional historian, one of my earlier international research engagements was on the Ngoni ethnic group of Malawi, who migrated from South Africa during the Mfecane of the 19th century and subsequently lost their Nguni language, while retaining their Nguni ethnic identity. See: Nwankwo T. Nwaezeigwe, Ngoni (An Historical Survey of the Ngoni People of Malawi) (1997) New York: The Rosen Publishing Inc.
We have many Ika-speaking people in the present Edo State up to Ugoneki but by ethnic identity they are Bini; the same way we have Yoruba, Isoko and Igala-speaking people in Anioma who are identified as Ndigbo. Orogun, the hometown of former Senate President Olorogun Omo-Agege is Igbo-speaking but an Urhobo town in Ughelli North Local Government Area.
We have made it clear to our Southeast kinsmen but the pig-headed half-literate among them still believe that their putrid diatribes against our traditional rulers and our people will change the course of our history. Anioma land is not among IPOB-infested States where dogmatic madness reigns supreme, the fear of violent intimidation forms the vile mechanism of social control and, the value of a kinsman’s life is not worth that of a goat.
I want to make it known to those who care to understand and accept that, even though we know that the present fraudulent Federal Government lacks both the political will and economic capacity to create additional States in the Federation but, are rather merely using it in connivance with the legislators to distract the people from their hardship, Anioma people are not in mad quest for a State of their own out of the present Delta State to demand such inundation of ridiculous supporters from the Southeast.
Politically, historically, economically, socially, religiously, culturally and, linguistically, Anioma people are very comfortable in the present Delta State. We are not at war with any of our non-Igbo ethnic kinsmen. We have a common historical, political, cultural and economic bond with our Edo kinsmen which our association with Southeast cannot match. From Midwest Region through Bendel State, to Delta State, that bond is what kept us united with one common historical nationalism.
What our Southeast kinsmen who have fixated delusions about an Anioma State for Southeast fail to comprehend is that the Igbo of the South-South are the key to the Southeast political relevance not only in the South-South geopolitical zone but the Southwest. Before and after Nigerian independence, Hon. Chike Nwafor Ekwuyasi from the present Southeast represented Benin Constituency—the heart of Benin Kingdom in the Western House of Assembly without any ethnic tincture involved.
This was a clear expression of the power of the historic relationship between the present Anioma people and their Edo kinsmen. Through Chief D. C. Osadebay who was then Chairman of the Western Region House Committee on Scholarships, many people from the present Southeast enjoyed Western Region scholarships. Many of them were employed in the civil and public services of Midwest Region, Bendel State, and the present Delta State.
We know how to manage our mutual relationships with our non-Igbo kinsmen from centuries past to present. Therefore we don’t want people from outside to come at this point of our existence to educate us on how we are very close to them in terms of common Igbo language and, how we are far apart from our Yoruba, Igala, Bini, Esan, Ijaw, Isoko, Urhobo, Itsekiri kinsmen because of differences in ethnicity.
To those having sleepless nights over their quest to join Anioma to Southeast, we wish to remind them that in the last 2023 Presidential election Anioma people were informed by the Igbo of Southeast that they are not true Igbo and as such were not qualified to contest the Presidency of Nigeria under the platform of Ndigbo. From original demand for an Igbo President to Southeast Igbo President; and they want us to believe that we are one people with equal ethnic rights as Ndigbo.
We watched with subdued rage while Nnamdi Kanu and his IPOB drew their so-called map of proposed Republic of Biafra including Anioma land and parts of Edo State without consulting the people concerned. Were Anioma people a part of the defunct Republic of Biafra or part of the defunct Eastern Region? Furthermore, was Biafra an exclusive Igbo affair, even though the Igbo were the dominant ethnic group? How can Anioma people be convinced that the mad quest to lump Anioma into Southeast is not guided by that IPOB vile spirit of inclusion without consultations? It doesn’t work that way and, it will never work that way for Anioma people.
Now it is the turn of somebody who claims to be elected by our people to sell us to the Southeast without consultations; and those of us who said it doesn’t work that way for our people are being abused and maligned as enemies of Igbo people? By the way, let me ask: who are those Igbo who are enemies of the Igbo outside the Southeast Igbo themselves?
We wish to remind our Southeast kinsmen claiming to support Anioma agitation that Anioma people have a way of fighting their own cause, which is different from the way of the Southeast; and that their involvement in our agitation for Anioma State will rather divide than unite Anioma people. I implore those who are intelligent and have the power of clairvoyance to read the hand-writings on the wall. Most of us are Igbo by origin but we are different from the Igbo you know in the Southeast.
It is amusing for outsiders to inform us that our agitation for Anioma State is more than seventy years. It is false and unfounded. Both our common Anioma identity construction and the quest for a State of the same named were created during the second republic. The issue then was whether Onitsha and Ogbaru would join the proposed Anioma State, and not whether we would be added to both Anambra and Imo States. So there was no agitation for Anioma State before the second republic.
Indeed the leaders of Anioma State Movement headed by the former Premier of Midwest Region Chief Dennis C. Osadebay rejected the inclusion of Onitsha and Ogbaru in the proposed Anioma State. Thus if our Southeast kinsmen are truly sincere in their so-called support for Anioma State and not driven by selfish agenda, they should be talking of ceding Onitsha North and South, and Ogbaru Local Government Areas to Anioma to make it more viable, and not to agitate for the inclusion of Anioma to Southeast, because these people are willing to join their Anioma kinsmen west of the Niger.
It is instructive to inform our ill-informed Southeast kinsmen that nowhere in the annals of the history of the agitation for the creation of Midwest Region was the agitation of Anioma people for a separate Region or State mentioned. Indeed the people who were actively induced by the Action Group to oppose the creation of Midwest Region were the Yoruba-related Itsekiri of Warri Province and Akoko Edo of Afemai Division in Benin Province.
Anioma people never dreamt of any intention of carving out for themselves a separate agenda outside the Midwest State Movement. This was clearly evident by the content and wordings of the Saturday, July 13 1963 Referendum Ballot Paper, which states as follows:
“Do you agree that the Midwestern Region Act, 1962, shall have effect so as to secure that Benin Province including Akoko Edo District in the Afenmai Division and Delta Province including Warri Division and Warri Urban Township area shall be included in the proposed Mid-Western Region?
It was clear from the above referendum ballot instruction that Anioma State or Region was not in contention. In addition, the people of the present Anioma then constituted into the two Districts of Asaba and Aboh voted overwhelmingly for the creation of Midwest Region without any reservation; as shown by the following results:
“Aboh District: 33,072 Yes Votes/722 No Votes; Afenmai District: 76, 998 Yes Votes/1,260 No Votes; Asaba District: 68, 637 Yes Votes/365 No Votes; Benin District: 130, 562 Yes Votes/2,081 No Votes; Ishan District: 73,088 Yes Votes/563 no Votes; Urhobo District: 150,382 Yes Votes/273 No Votes; Warri District: 30,703 Yes Votes/1,377 No Votes; Western Ijaw District: 15,635 Yes Votes/577 No Votes; all totaling 579,077 Yes Votes against 7, 218 No Votes.”
For those people claiming that the people of Anioma should be part of not only the Southeast geopolitical region but their dream Republic of Biafra, it is a case of political mirage. Lumping the whole Igbo ethnic and associated groups into one officially defined political space is a suicidal political mission Anioma people will not partake with the Southeast. When people like us think of the disintegration of the Nigerian nation, we look at the prospect of the defunct short-lived Benin Republic that followed the Biafran invasion of Midwest in 1968 and, not Nnamdi Kanu’s Biafra.
Chike Ekwuyasi is your neighbour from Ogwashi Ukwu, not from the South East. His Quarters is Ogbe Ishago.