Follow Us on Google
In Igbo folklore, vultures opined that elders should not die off so that young people will not take them as edible meat. I considered the foregoing in the context of the hasty, uncritical, exuberant and self-serving motion for the creation of Orlu State at the floor of the House of Representatives recently by the Imo State-born Ikenga Ugochinyere Ikeagwuonu, the member representing Ideato North/Ideato South federal constituency. He abrasively went solo on an issue that all hands should be on deck. Igbo elders have been deftly persuading other sections of Nigeria to see it as an inclusive national project, and not just political balancing. Three LGAs in the North-West alone have almost the same number of LGAs in the entire five states of the South-East.
The return to civil rule in 1999 gave vent to the agitation, from the Oputa Panel to Obasanjo’s constitution amendment in 2006, and the 2014 constitutional conference under Goodluck Jonathan’s presidency. Grapevine holds it that Obasanjo was willing to give another state to the South-East if he was given support for the proposed constitutional amendment to extend his tenure. Some Igbo leaders, led by Senator Uche Chukwumerije (of blessed memory!) turned it down as a poisoned chalice that would destroy the pillars of Nigeria’s constitutional democracy. The agitation continued with different requests like, Aba State from the present Abia State, Adada State from the present Enugu State, Njaba/Orashi State from the present Imo State and some parts of Anambra State, as well as Equity State, with some component parts of all the five states in the South-East.
By Ugochinyere’s official age, he was less than 20 years old as of 1999 when these efforts took off in earnest. And like a smart young man on a high speed lane, he wants to be seen populist and ahead of the elders’ quiet networking. No consultation. No consensus-building. No alliance-formation around the cause. No diplomatic back-channel. No vertical and horizontal linkages. History is really self-reinforcing! But conversely, Anthony Enahoro’s premature motion for self-dependence in 1953 had the backing of some fiery southern nationalists. Ugochinyere does not have the support of his colleagues in the same chamber whose part of their constituencies are included with a fiat of a ballpoint pen in the proposed Orlu State. Hon. Peter Ifeanyi Uzokwe, the member representing Nnewi North/Nnewi South/Ekwusigo federal constituency, whose hometown, Ozubulu, was included in the proposed Orlu State, was not carried along.
He declared that he was bamboozled and baffled by Ugochinyere’s ambush. Ozubulu people have since sent a disclaimer to the vexed motion. The inclusion of Umuaku, a boundary community in Isuochi, Abia State, in Ugochinyere’s hurriedly-packaged state is without the buy-in of the community. Umuaku is an enlightened community that produced the likes of D.N. Achara, the then Supervisor of Schools in the old Eastern Region. His younger brother, S.O. Achara, later was a member of the Eastern Region House of Assembly. The octogenarian traditional ruler of the community, Professor S.I. Nwankwo, whose scientific inventions at a critical time in Nigeria’s history could have been deployed to jumpstart our national technological advancement, served in the committee that defended Equity State’s creation before a Committee of the National Assembly, Abuja.
Umuaku has no geographical contiguity with Orlu. The most laughable thing is that the adjoining communities between Umuaku and Umunze (Ogbunka, Umuchukwu and Owerre-Ezukala) are nowhere in the picture. The map would have been a new wonder. Besides, the motion has no support of Hon. Amaobi Ogah, the member representing Isuikwuato/Umunneochi constituency where Umuaku belongs. The umbrella body of Isuochi’s nine communities, Isuochi Development Union (IDU), has formally notified the public that no part of Isuochi will be ceded to the proposed Orlu State and that Equity State is their choice. Come to think of it, nobody is against Orlu people getting a state. But can it fly in the face of these protests? Even the Berlin Conference of 1884, where colonized territories of the third world were allotted, was done in agreement between and among the powers on global expansionism.
Why Equity State? It appears as the most acceptable of all the proposals. The 2014 national confab harmonized all the proposals and opted for it. It was a result of painstaking study, robust engagements and combined networking of Igbo leaders like Professor Joe Irukwu (of blessed memory!), Senator Ike Nwachukwu, and Professor I.C. Madubuike, among others, at the conference. There are four strong points that count in favour of the proposed Equity State. First, the component units suffer marginalization in their existing states. Second, each state in the South-East volunteered a federal constituency: Abia – Isuikwuato/Umunneochi; Anambra – Orumba North and Orumba South; Ebonyi – Ivo/Ohaozara/Onicha; Enugu – Aninri/Awgu/Oji River; and Imo – Okigwe North, comprising Okigwe, Onuimo and Isiala Mbano. Third, the constituent areas have close access to Enugu-Port Harcourt Expressway, where the proposed capital territory lies. Four, the leaders of these federal constituencies gave their consent and signed all the necessary documents.
The initial name – Etiti was stood down because of its similarity with the existing Ekiti State; only an alphabet difference. On the other hand, Equity has no Igbo word but remains the ideology. Insider sources indicate that the present leadership of Ohanaeze may be at home with Equity State. But beyond the media razzmatazz, it has been discovered that the process of state creation is tedious and cumbersome. Section 8 of the 1999 Constitution (amended) provides daunting steps it must undergo. It does not automatically lead to delimitation of constituencies and creation of new LGAs, as insinuated by some people. And, for political correctness, Ndigbo cannot pull through such a strategic project with a lawmaker in the opposition political party. It could entail a tradeoff in a serious national political power bargaining.
The younger generation in the corridors of power should show a high sense of responsibility by learning the ropes from the elders who are like seasoned wine tappers. Ugochinyere should stop stoking tension and dissension with his professional alarmist grandstanding. The proposed Equity State is of sterner stuff. Period!
