In the penultimate week, I shared with you the details of the 18 states created by the National Conference convened by President Goodluck Jonathan (as he then was) in 2014. One of the 18 states was Anioma. It was to have nine local governments (the confab set a limit of 10 local governments for every state) consisting of Aniocha North, Aniocha South, Ika North East, Ika South, Ndokwa East, Ndokwa West, Oshimili North, Oshimili South, Ukwuani, with the state capital at Asaba. The government after Jonathan refused to consider the logical arguments developed to support the creation of new states. However, it is now interesting that Prince Chinedu Munir Nwoko, now better known as Senator Ned Nwoko, who between 1999 and 2003 represented Aniocha/Oshimili Federal Constituency at the House of Representatives, and now representing Delta North in the Senate of the Federal Republic, has picked the gauntlet and resurrected the quest for the actualisation of an Anioma State.
Beside Senator Ned, there are several other equally strong nationalist voices raised in support of the unbundling of the present Nigerian state structure in favour of the creation of Anioma State.
It is more interesting that the quest this time is not just to actualize the state but to get it created, via an act of the parliament, and also listed as the sixth state of the South East geopolitical zone. That makes a whole lot of logical sense. It is rational because Delta State, as presently constituted, is already part of Ohanaeze Ndigbo and had led the zonal socio-political group through the late Amb. Ralph Uwechue. It is in line to lead the regional body again when the rotational presidency structure of the group gets to its turn. This is even though the state is an admixture of several ethnic nationalities, including the predominant Urhobo, Itshekiri, Isoko, Ogoni and Ijaw who have closer cultural affinities. The undeniable fact is that Delta became, and is, a member of Ohanaeze Ndigbo because of the Anioma people who are Igbo and belong to the Igbo ethnolinguistic group as historically recorded. Delta State is also a member of the most prominent South East Think Tank, Aka Ikenga, which it had also led, among several other South East professional and socio-cultural bodies, courtesy of the Igbo-speaking Anioma.
It ought to be noted that one of the strongest arguments that justified the restructuring of states by the National Conference of 2014, was the need to align Nigerian states along their ethnographical and ethnolinguistic paths. The majority of the delegates who voted for the new states agreed with this proposition. They said it made rational sense. This is because almost all the delegates agreed that in creating states, the military regimes literally drew lines across the map of Nigeria, balkanized and lobbed people of different ethnographic and ethnolinguistic realities together without proper consideration of their political fate in the new entities. It was further argued, by the delegates, that it was the fact of ignoring these ethnographic and ethnolinguistic realities that a part of the Yoruba ethnic group was dumped in Kogi alongside ethnic groups with whom they share neither cultural nor traditional similarities. And, this has been at the background of agitation for redrawing of the map to relocate all the Yoruba states in the southwest. For this reason, many delegates at the conference, whose ethnolinguistic and ethnographic spaces were swallowed by the larger ethnic groups within the states where they were carved into, also raised their voices for some sort of realignment, or restructuring, that would bring them into new geographical entities where they would be more ethnographically and ethnolinguistically aligned. This one fact, made the majority of the delegates to vote for the 18 states. Central
This is why I consider the call for Anioma state to be carved out of the present Delta state and realigned with the Southeast geopolitical zone, as the sixth state of the region, to be the most appropriate call which should elicit the support of all patriotic and progressive Nigerians. If achieved, this will immediately create a sense of balance and fairness in the Southeast region as it will have six states just like the Northeast, North, South-South and Southwest. The next phase of the call would then be for all five equally aligned zones to join voices to achieve equality of states with the northwest which currently has seven states.
In approving the creation of an additional state for the southeast, the 2014 conference held that the action would “foster the spirit of reconciliation, equity, fair play and justice.” Majority of Nigerians are agreed that the southeast region has suffered, and is still suffering, injustice on several fronts, including equality of states. Besides, the confab also listed the criteria for the creation of any state in Nigeria. According to the conference, any new state to be created “must be viable.” The criteria as captured in the final report of the conference stated that such a state “should be economically viable; It should have human, natural and material resources; It should have a minimum land mass/water mass; The viability of the existing state(s) should be taken into consideration as well, so as not to create a situation where the new state(s) would leave the existing state(s) unviable; and, state creation should be on the basis of parity between the geo-political zones to ensure equality of zones.”
Rationally and patriotically considered, Anioma state meets all the criteria set out by the 2014 conference. Those criteria are still relevant to this day. Anioma state will be economically viable. It is already properly positioned for this. It is naturally blessed with water mass and land mass. Its exit will not in any way imperil the economic fortunes or put the development of Delta State in jeopardy as the economic capital of the state will not be affected by the exit. It also has human and material resources to grow at the youngest Nigerian state. The entire area that constitutes Anioma is also blessed with natural resources, like other parts of Delta state, to exploit for its growth and also contribute to national economic development. Finally, Anioma will become the answer to the need for parity between the geopolitical zones as it will become the sixth state of the southeast.
Therefore, aligning an Anioma state with the Southeast would achieve the desire of the Anioma people, who are Igbo, to be linked politically with their kith and kin across the River Niger as well as expand the landmass of the region. It will also enhance the region’s political bargain. This will ensure that the Southeast region also gets 18 seats in the Senate of the Federal Republic as well as an enhanced presence in the House of Representatives. Simply put, it will serve the demand by the region, for justice in the equitable distribution of Nigeria’s cake through political representation via geopolitical numerals.
As presently constituted, the southeast remains marginalised as far as the equality of states is concerned. Details of this may not be easily understood. However, the reality bares itself when staked against fiscal allocations, especially, based on local governments. This is a major injustice that realigning the Igbo of Delta state with the southeast region, through the creation of Anioma state, would immediately resolve.