Rationale for the Creation of Anioma State
From the run of points made in this series on Anioma and Anioma peoples, it should be obvious what the basic rationale for the creation of Anioma State is.
This rationale is the need to consolidate the Anioma Identity. We know that the averagely educated Nigerian knows who Aniomans are and where Anioma is located in a Nigerian map. But how about the average Egyptian, the average South African, the average Senegalese, the average Australian and the average Argentinan?
Everyone should know that Aniomans live in the land of Anioma in a country called Nigeria.
Secondly, our write-ups have emphasised that Aniomans are Ibos. Right from the days of Western region of Nigeria, Aniomans were referred to as Western Ibos, then as Mid-western Ibos, with the creation of Mid-western State, then as Bendel Ibos, with the creation of Bendel State. The point is incontestable. With language, culture, traditions and history as indicators of ethnography, it becomes unnecessarily academic to create a crisis of identity over the matter.
But owing to the fact that Anioma has not been created as a state, it has become convenient for mischievous politicians, ambitious military adventurists, and ethnic jingoists to treat Anioma and Aniomans in a clairvoyant manner and trivialise the issue of the creation of Anioma State. Now the time has come for that creation, to implant Anioma in its place of pride.
The creation of Anioma State has become a desideratum in Nigeria's geopolitical design. From 1947 when the Richard's Constitution created a regionalised Nigeria, the tripod of Hausa, Ibo, Yoruba groups, surrounded by satellite, minority groups has changed the geopolitics of Nigeria. With the creation of 36 states, each state is left to fight for its own existence and progress among a volley of competing states. The satellite system has disappeared and aggitations have become ethno-culturally defined.
But perhaps the most potent argument for the creation of Anioma State is the economic argument. Simply put, if created, Anioma State will be a basis for the future development of Anioma land.
Before the last wave of the creation of states, cynics and preachers of doom had raised the argument that the creation of states would not necessarily mean the elevation of the developmental level of the prospective states. Instead , such states would be a burden on the Federal Government, as they would present large bureaucracies that would lead to liabilities on government and social disorder.
Such State, it was postulated, would not survive and would soon disintegrate. They were wrong. They were so myopic that they refused to note that it was only since the centralisation of power by the military and the seizure of economic power and the robbing of the states by the Federal Government through a skewed revenue allocation system that it seemed as if the states would collapse, if created.
But once these states were created, it was a question of these states fighting for their survival.
Then arose a clamor for resource control. Those who produced the wealth which the Federal Government only sat upon to distribute, demanded a higher share of the Commonwealth. Oil-producing states were then given a concession of 13% share of the proceeds of the oil money, in addition to the allocation from the consolidated fund. The new states soon proved economically resilient as they gradually increased their Internally Generated Fund (IGF) through fiscal policies. These states became centres of development overnight. Akwa Ibom, Delta, Cross RIvers, all all built up glittering capitals that threatened the older capitals.
It is on this basis that the argument goes -that the creation of Anioma State is necessary in order to facilitate the economic development of Anioma, especially as it is known that Anioma has great potentials for economic development, if this development is predicated on the platform of state power.
What are these potentials?
Anioma is principally an agricultural area with vast forests for agricultural produce.
Anioma has a vast area of its land in the Delta area -Asaba, Illah, Ebu, Kwale, Aboh in the areas referred to as oshimili and Ndoshimili Local government areas which can sustain a vast fishing industry.
With farm produce, coupled with fishery, Anioma caps its oil with the oil which exists in the Aboh-kwale complex, and the yet-untapped Ubulu-Agbor complex of the Onitsha oil basin. And not to be forgotten is the booming palm oil and palm produce industry of the Anioma Area.
An Anioma State with this agricultural and oil wealth imposes an imperious posture of a solid state when it combines wealth with a budging commercial strength. Asaba, with its propinquity to Onitsha, Agbor with its nearness to Warri and Benin both have become centres of commerce in Anioma, driving nearby towns like Ibusa, Umunede, Ogwashi-Uku, Ubulu-Uku, Issele-Uku, to brace up their acts and seek for a place in the sun.
Arguments for an Anioma State as analysed above can therefore be premised on the followig-
- Geopolitical reason
- Identification reason
- Economic development reason
The last rationale is simply psychological. Obviously, an Anioman will feel elated if a state of his is created for him, simply it will reinforce his loyalty to Nigeria, it will strengthen his will to serve his country, it will make him feel at par with any other Nigerian.
No more Western Ibo, Mid-west Ibo, Bendel Ibo, or Delta Ibo or what one never forgets, Gowon’s reference to the then Mid-western Ibos as “so called Ibos”.
An Anioma State in future Nigeria is assured, and Nigerians can be assured of a continuation of Anioman’s gargantuan contributions to a Nigeria, where- especially if this phrase is emphasised and practicalised "where no man is oppressed".
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