So many Asa in many places in Nigeria. But in this outing, focus will be on the Asa people of Abia State. They are found in the Ukwa West Local Government Area of the state. If a group can own a local government, it would then be right to say Asa people own Ukwa West. They are the dominant population in the local government area.
Wikipedia describes where one can find them this way: «It has an area of 271 km2 and a population of 88,555 at the 2006 census. The postal code of the area is 452.
Ukwa West is bounded to the north by Osisioma Local Government Area, to the north-east by Ugwunagbo LGA and to the east by Ukwa East LGA, all in Abia State. It is also bounded to the west by Omuma LGA, to the south-west by Etche LGA, and to the south by Oyigbo LGA, all in Rivers State.
The debate is on as to how they came to domicile in the location where we find them today. A lot has been written but none is very authoritative. It has been a case of those by outsiders with diverse interests involved. When told by scholars from the Atlantic coast, they are said to have migrated from the south coastal region and when told by Ngwa scholars, Asa people are portrayed as part of the Ngwa clan which is not correct, when all major indices of cultural affinity are taken into account.
Asa people are distinct. They have had various kinds of collaborations with equally very industrious groups in various times. They are a bit of a very passive people, termed by an environment that is very rich in natural endowments including huge crude oil deposits. Their passive disposition and accommodating nature has been taken advantage of by forces who wanted to conquer and dominate. A lot has been made out of the latest branding of “Ukwa Ngwa” that people who go into the area or pass through it hardly know it is Asa land they are into or passing through. When you remind them they scream, and say “we thought you are Ngwa. Asa is not Ngwa. This is the plain truth. Their visibility and progress became stalled by the rough treatment the Nigerian state has meted out to the people in various ways. Subjugation, balkanization and marginalization. The people have seen the worst going into the worst. Colonial administration gave them a place and a voice but independent Nigeria took that away from them and rendered a people without identity and strength. They took them away from people they shared similar temperament and in taking them into new zones the system manipulators were audacious enough to balkanise the people and area in such a way that their sense of worth became decimated. Asa people shared commonality mainly with people in the coastal lines than people of the upper land. The Ogoni, Etche, Ikwerre and Ekpeye. Many still feel the angle would have served them better. It is a conjecture. This is the thinking. The colonial masters flowed along this line but the post-Independence Nigeria reversed the trend. The people think this act has created a challenge to to identity as already observed.
It has also thrown up big issues politically,economically and socially too. Politically, the redrawing of political map has become a kind of an albatross that is sure to remain for generations to come. Asa lost large communities to areas in Aba and its environs like Osisioma, Ugwunagbo and Ukwa East LGAs in Abia. All these locations have significant Asa settlements in them. Big loss. The ones in Aba, Ugwunagbo and Osisioma have been swallowed up by Ngwa population and what that has done is to produce a kind of acculturation that has left the Asa people totally transformed from who they originally were. They act differently and speak the Ngwa dialect of Igbo language. The Mamman Nasir Boundary Adjustment Commission gave the Asa people of Abia State what could be described as the most devastating blows. The very bloody Civil War ended just a few years before then and consolidation efforts were high. The north desired to break the centre of power of the Igbo and so border areas became pawns in the chess game, especially those with huge crude deposits. The rampaging came up with the innocuous idea that language and cultural factors won’t be part of administrative set up any longer, natural landmarks would replace them. So the river became a basis for delineating entities.
Asa people who hitherto had a huge population was cut into pieces once again. Nigeria system manipulators took away from Asa people Obigbo, renamed it Oyigbo and placed them in Rivers State. Hegemonists added insult to injury by picking a few people in the conquered territory, lifted them and made them turn against their kith and kins on the Igbo side. The near frosty relationship has remained till today.
Those on the side of the core have been decimated and left as a minority that relies on sympathy, common sense and compassion to stay alive. The Federal Government doesn›t see the area and people as Niger Delta even when geography would tell you they belong there. This is in spite of the fact that the area produces oil and in fact is on record to habour one of the best brands of oil in the world. Once the Federal Government deals with the “core Niger Delta” as is popular to say, the rest can go to hell.
Asa people are very peaceful and in their dealings have refused to take to violence but as it would seem, we have leaders and a system that rewards bad behavior. The patient dog has been left very dry and very hungry, nothing drops from the master’s table at all.
The successive state governments rather than step in with correctional and succour-inducing measures chose to toe the line of the federal powers. The area is hardly remembered in policies and programmes. There is hardly a mention in budgetary provisions, year in and year out. The infrastructural decay in the area remains at the point where the Civil War ended in 1970. Communication is cut off virtually, no good road network. They saw light more than 10 years ago. The education system in the area is in such a bad state the only secondary school in the area built with communal funds was taken over by the state government and converted to a military camp.
Apart from dilapidated schools buildings and inadequate teaching staff, none of the schools has internet facilities meaning the products are lacking behind in knowledge compared to their contemporaries all over the world. If a farmer in a depressed economy can’t sell his goods definitely the motivation to continue to engage would diminish and that is the reality. Interventionist agencies would have made sense but the governors won›t allow them to have capable managers and a degree of independence required. They often would choose those that can «work» with them and this relationship throws far more terrible consequences. We hear of huge funds but hardly can find corresponding evidence of performance and achievements on the ground. We all know nothing can be more devastating like the phenomenon of «in house slave». It does not only stall progress, it is a destroyer. Agitation is a good tool for reinvention for the individual and for the society. The people are getting agitated and want a quick reversal in their fortune. They say what has happened isn›t in their stars but man-made and therefore reversible. Knowledge precedes preparation and quality action. On November 16, 2024, Asa people of all stations will gather at Chivic School Hall in Obehie to discuss their destiny and aspirations.
It promises to be knowledge driven and explosive. They will tell themselves the plain truth and thereafter proceed to fashion a vision. The plain truth is that the hope of freedom is not dashed, those who know the importance and want it, must rise to demand it. Asa people have lived in the shadows and it would seem they are saying time has come to revise fate. Nigeria and Abia State need to listen to them.