Visit the Ibusa
web site 
Visit the Ibusa
web site
Until we the Anioma People recognize the incontrovertible
fact that we are indivisible group of people with one destiny concentrated in
Delta and Edo States (Igbankes) we may continue to wallow in ignorance and
ultimately end up giving our victory to our opponents or still, end up as what
Prof. Ola Rotimi, the late Literary Guru called “A Butterfly that thinks
himself a Bird”. In the instance, our opponents are the Igbos (of the
South-East) If oral history in its own usual business continue to claim that
some of us originated from the Igbos are we still Igbos? We have our own
distinctiveness whether cultural and linguistic unique to us. We are united in
Anioma and on “Enu-Ani we stand.
At least we have a place in the 250 ethnicities in
If the Igbos see us as “Delta Igbos” the same way we were seen as “Bendel
Igbos” in the past how do we see ourselves? We do not even need history in
assisting us know that the Igbos are largely failures in the theatre of Nigerian
politics for the reason we cannot rely on them rather we must understand the
simple truth that an individual in this Land cannot belong to two different
ethnic nationalities. We cannot be Aniomas and at the same time Igbos. Anioma is
our own and our home. We have been deceived for too long by the Igbos.
Ohaneze will do us no good or can anybody pointedly tell me what we have
achieved from this organization over the years? Instead we await Ohaneze to help
us actualize the creation of Anioma state,the oldest state in agitation in
If the Governor of Imo state, Chief Ikedi Ohakim has declared the readiness of
the governor and people of the state to give necessary backing to the growing
call for the creation of Njaba state from the present Imo and Anambra states
(see the Punch newspaper, Monday, March 31 2008) We have no place amongst the
people of Imo sate.
Is the proposed Njaba state more viable economically than Anioma? It is sad that
48 years after the independence of Nigeria, the Igbos have not yet familiarized
themselves with the gimmicks of political competitions in Nigeria such that we
begin to wonder if the politicians from this geo-political zone ever consult
their Academics, Historians and other political scientists before formulating
their “wash-wash” policies.
It is equally very wonderful that the Igbos would prefer to remain as they
presently or even shrink in the name for the purpose of creating one additional
state for the zone rather than extend and claim their either lost Anioma or
Rivers state group. How unimaginable it would appear for the Igbos to carve out
one more tiny state out of any of the present existing tiny states of the east.
The Anioma ethnicity has in the past sacrificed quite a lot for the Igbos but
our rewards remain nothing but denial for separate existence or even to join
them as our believed kiths and kin. During the civil war, almost all the
Biafrian commanders were Aniomas. Even the Biafrians invaded the Mid-western
region which at that time included the Aniomas. Series of massacres were also
carried out in Asaba, Ogwashi-uku, Ibusa and other towns and villages though by
the federal troops all of these we had to suffer for the Igbos.
Today, the Igbos would look the Aniomas in the eyes and boldly tell us they the
prefer the creation of any out of mushroom names and not states of Urashi, Orlu,
Njaba and other villages.
I hope the Aniomas have leant a lesson at least we now know we never for once
belonged to the Igbos and that the Igbos do not see us as one of their own. We
have discovered our root since 1951 and this can be found in Anioma. We have no
inheritance in Ohaneze Ndigbo. The earlier we seek our own ethno-national
umbrella the better for us.
Anioma “Ofu-obi kanyi jie je!
By
Emeka Esogbue