By Basil Okoh
Early in the year 2025, Ned Nwoko, senator representing Delta North made a public revelation of the fact that Delta state government receives more in federal revenue allocations than the five states of the Southeastern region combined (Anambra, Imo, Enugu, Ebonyi and Abia).
He then posited that the developmental achievements of Delta state does not match up to the big allocations that the state receives from the federal government.
He, unwittingly, made the point that the Southeast are poor neighbours without comparable allocations and incomes that Delta state receives, even though our developmental strides did not match up to the big sums that we get.
So why does Ned Nwoko want the Delta North people to be yoked to the poor neighbours of the Southeast region on the creation of Anioma state, against the counsel and advice of the traditional rulers and opinion leaders of the Delta North, including but not limited to the Dein of Agbor and the Asagba of Asaba?
The answer to that question must lead us to ask for the intents and principles guiding Ned Nwoko’s pursuit to place the prospective Anioma state in the regional grouping of the Southeast against the richer and more cohesive South-South region which shares deeper political, cultural and historical bond with the Anioma people.
It should be more welcome for Ned Nwoko to say he expects Anioma state to rise above the deep government corruption plaguing Delta state.
But he wants us to join poor neighbours in the east with whom we share no consanguinity.
Do we join a group of termagants just because they speak a language that sounds like ours?
Will Portugal subsume into Spain just because they speak similar Latin or romance languages?
Ned Nwoko has not given any other reason for the Delta North to join the Southeast other than his tame argument of using Anioma state to complete the number of states due to the Southeast.
Has the Anioma people become the make up people for Igboland? Is Anioma “jara” for Igboland?
Nwoko has no answer for that question other than to say that in every discussion,
Nwoko reels out names of prominent southeasterners who support his efforts to reign in the Anioma people to the Southeast.
His offhand mention of Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, (recently deceased), the Ohaneze Ndi Igbo, local and worldwide, the governors of the Southeast etc are always on his roll call for supporters of Anioma state creation but no Anioma people in spite of the giant strides that Anioma men, women and children keep making across Nigeria and the world are mentioned.
You will be forgiven to believe that Anioma is going to be “jara” to Igbo people and that another Igbo state is about to be created, for you can never hear Ned Nwoko mention an Anioma person supporting his efforts, prominent or not so prominent.
In his catalogue of persons who back his efforts to yoke Anioma into the Southeast region, there is no Anioma person of any consequence except the scurrying rats who occupy his social media outlets.
During a visit to Senator Ned Nwoko’s office in the National Assembly in 2024, this writer suggested that in order to gain the support of Anioma people for his laudable efforts to create Anioma State, he must cease and desist from tying the creation of Anioma state to the Southeastern region.
I argued that the people of Anioma will not accede to the bonding of Anioma to the Igbo people, that the historical and political experience of Anioma people has never crossed the river Niger or found common grounds with the Igbo and that the River Niger has always been a natural and symbolic divide between us, politically, culturally and historically.
It was then Ned Nwoko acknowledged to me that the Dein of Agbor, who is his friend, was the first to warn him in July 2024 that the people of Agbor will never cohere with Igbo in any regional political grouping.
I added that the extension, the Ika people will also not accept to be grouped with Igbo.
Recently, “Ndokwa neku”, the umbrella body for the NDOKWA and Ukuani people, publicly wrote to reject the very notion of grouping them with the Igbo.
Senator Nwoko was warned that except the Anioma people will have nothing to say or do about their future state and that there will be no referendum before its creation, Anioma will never be created as a state yoked to the Southeast.
An argument followed our discussion in his office, resulting almost to a shouting match. Good judgement prevailed and tempers cooled.
It was then that Senator Nwoko revealed that the Dein Of Agbor has taken the stand against grouping Agbor or Anioma with the Southeast.
I implored him to think and act rationally because Agbor is the oldest and most influential monarchy in Anioma.
Historically, Anioma people have had superior structures and organisations than Igboland.
Agbor, which has had a continuous civilization and ruling structure for well over two thousand years is a far older civilization than anywhere in Igbo land.
This is acknowledged by historians of the university of Nigeria, Nsukka, who stated emphatically that Agbor was one of the four proto-languages that contributed to the formation of the Igbo language.
The others are Nsukka (Wawa) Aro and Nri. Today, the influences of Agbor on Igbo culture and civilization are deep and varied and include the kingship tradition that the Onitsha brought to Igboland.
The kingship culture of Onitsha was brought from Agbor through Kime, descendant of Dein, founder of the reigning dynasty.
Kime and his corps of loyalists who were defeated in a kingship tussle and fled Agbor went through intermittent chase to recover the offor of Agbor.
In the course of his sojourn, he established thirteen communities in Aniocha before finally crossing the River Niger and settling in present day Onitsha.
Agbor had no river crossing craft to continue the chase and in time, the kingdom forgot.
The second big Anioma historical influence on Igboland is Aboh on the Western bank of River Niger at the southern ends.
Aboh mastered the River Niger very early, long before the Igala who founded Asaba.
Aboh created Oguta which the British later used the route on the Orashi River and Oguta lake to penetrate the heartland of Igbo territory.
Egbema still bears the influence of Aboh and the surrounding communities in Igboland and even today, Oguta claims Aboh as homeland.
Aboh remains the least documented and acknowledged imperial power in the history of the coastal areas of the River Niger.
Aboh’s civilizational influences extended to Owerri, Nnewi and connected to Onitsha in Igboland. An offshoot of Aboh people are in Andoni and Elele in upland Rivers state.
Aboh formed and sustained for centuries, the biggest trading conglomerates on the Niger, stretching from Igalaland in the North to Ijaw land and Tshekiri on the coast.
They massively traded on Igbo slaves and later palm oil as their main articles.
Ned Nwoko’s native community is Idumuje Ugboko. Ugboko people migrated from Ottah, part of Igbanke clan and an integral community of the old Agbor Kingdom.
So Ned Nwoko from Idumuje Ugboko is ancestrally Agbor. So how can an organization that he funds be so bloody minded, propagating the falsehood and fabricated lie that Igbanke is a “lost Igbo tribe” when Ned himself is Ottah.
Details of Igbanke disputes and disengagement from Agbor is so recent and well documented?
Ndigbo always make claims of ownership of whatever land they are found in.
The Ahiara Declaration in 1969 during the Civil War was an address by Ojukwu to the encircled Biafrans who were given to material lust, dividing up Lagos and allocating swaths of territory to themselves even when encircled by Nigerian troops.
Ahiara Declaration was the signal point for the end of the Biafra dream. Ojukwu decried the craziness of Biafrans awarding him the whole of Iddo, Otto and Ebute Metta even while hiding in bunkers and dugouts.
Igbo have made claims to land from Kogi to Cross River. The Igbo have made claim that they are the original settlers of Ile Ife in Yorubaland and that Ijebu Igbo belongs to Igbo.
They have claimed Benin belongs to them. They have even made claims of ancestry from the Jews of old Israel.
They claim historical consanguinity with Japan. They recently, just a fortnight ago, attempted to establish a kingdom in the modern nation of Ghana.
Their efforts to claim turf in South Africa are well known. While these efforts are outlandish and laughable, this is the first time Igbo have enrolled a prominent son of the Anioma people, a reigning senator, for their infernal land grab, using the Nigerian constitution as their figurative totem pole.
Ned Nwoko is also funding the activities of a sinister group “Odu Oma” Anioma whose membership is open to the Igbo and people of Aniocha North and South LGA and no other people of Delta North.
This group has been propagating false histories of Anioma people and false narratives of the Anioma Movement.
The quotes below should serve as dire warning to the people of Anioma that Ned Nwoko, his ODU ANIOMA and his Igbo sponsors mean no good for the people of Delta North:
“The negative stance adopted by some Anioma indigenes indicates a fundamental misunderstanding of political autonomy and self-determination.
The on-going debate over South-South vs. South-East affiliation is largely inconsequential. Geo-political zones have no bearing on state governance.
The Bill for Anioma State Creation, which seeks to correct the geo-political imbalance in the South-East, has successfully passed the Public Hearing stage.”
“This declaration affirmed the Anioma people is Igbo identity and was universally embraced across the nation.
Anioma therefore is our tribe, language, culture, way of life and “State”
“The knitted relationship among Igbos in both sides of River Niger manifested in the collaborative efforts of the Ibo Union and the NCNC Political Party in the creation of Mid Western Region in 1963.
“This declaration affirmed the Anioma people is Igbo identity and was universally embraced across the nation. Anioma therefore is our tribe, language, culture, way of life and “State”.
“Anioma State, when created, will become the sixth state in the South-East, correcting a long-standing imbalance.”
The Anioma Movement was created and thrived long before Ned Nwoko became senator.
His manifest collaboration with the Igbo to undermine and betray the people who elected him to office should be noted.
Every community in Anioma should mount guard and be watchful for these people recruited to steal our identity.
While some people of Anioma see these efforts as another Igbo antic and should be ignored as a distraction, we have to be mindful that our elected senator is leading the charge for a hostile takeover of Anioma by the Igbo.
The very existence of Anioma as a free people is under threat by a determined Igbo who are spending hundreds of millions of naira to get their objective accomplished.
Those in doubt of this assertion should ask Senator Ned Nwoko how much was spent to mobilize people in their uniforms and ferry them to Ikot Ekpene and Enugu to dance and hail Igbo Kwenu?
@basilokoh.
