Senator Ned Nwoko Photo: Inshot
By Victory Oghene
Ned Nwoko, a distinguished Senator representing Delta North in the Senate is a household name in Nigeria, as much for his strong views on national issues as it’s for his long standing advocacy for the creation of Anioma State.
His long drawn advocacy for his people culminated in 97 Senators supporting the creation of Anioma out of Delta State.
A successful businessman, exemplary lawyer, in a recent interview with Hit 95.4 FM, Calabar, Nwoko gave a graphic, historical background to the struggle for the creation of Anioma state, noting that the advocacy dates back to 1949 when his grandfather who was the king of his place along with like minds such as king of Agbor made a strong case for inclusion of Anioma people in Igbo Union.
He said ” I must state without equivocation that we are Igbo, Anioma is made up of nine local government areas in Delta state. We are what they call us.
He continued “We are part of Ohaneze. The Ohaneze says they are seven Igbo states including Anioma and Ekwerre. If we pull through, Ekwerre may advocate for its own state. Same way South East have Obis, we have Obis. We are Igbos.
97 senators signed up for the creation of Anioma State. As you know, South East has five states, we need to balance the equation.
On if the Anioma State is self sustainable, Nwoko said “We have nine local governments, we have the resources, we have gas, we have an airport in Asaba, although Warri also have an airport. Delta State is the only State that have two airports. We have people who have good investments. We have Zenith Bank, we have UBA. We also have Arise News, Thusday etc. The Senate President also supported the creation of Anioma State. I never lobbied him to support it. I grew up to know that we were called Western Igbo, later Bendel Igbo and currently Delta Igbo. That is why I like the Ijaws. The say they are Ijaws even though they were scattered across the country.
He noted that “There’s been some misconceptions about who we are, whether we are Igbo or not. I can take you back to 1949 when my grandfather who was the king of my place with the king of Agbor advocated for our people to join the Igbo Union, and since then others like Chief Denis Osadebay have advocated for the creation of a separate Igbo state. This was before I was born. The advocacy is a long drawn historical quest for self determination and inclusion in the Igbo nation; for us there’s just one Igbo nation.
According to him, ” there’s no Anioma person without an Igbo name, at least Igbo as middle name.
He stated that Anioma people have also paid a high price for their Igbo identity as over 3000 Anioma people were massacred by the federal troops during the Biafra war in the infamous Asaba Massacre, saying that “I talk as a witness and as historian, noting that “I was brought up as an Igbo.
He said that when the massacre of Anioma people began, his family moved to Aba thinking that the killings would not reach the heartland of Igbo only to discover that Aba would become one of epicentres of the killings.
He further said that the situation became so bad that after the war many people began to deny their Igbo identity because of the Nigerian factor.
For Nwoko, the Igbo have been shortchanged and oppressed, saying his people have cultural, historical and linguistic sameness with the heartland Igbo, adding that the creation of Anioma is a necessity to right the historic wrong.
Nwoko said “As a member of the National Assembly joint committee on constitutional amendment he was happy that about 97 Senators signed up for the creation of Anioma state.
He averred that ” there’s no people more qualified to take up that offer of one more state for the southeast than Anioma people”, noting that Anioma land is bigger than Bayelsa, Ekiti and some other states.
” We have so many natural resources, and the Igbo in Edo are with us in the quest , so if they join us we can form up to 20 local governments”, he concluded.
” We are part of the Ohaneze , and we have always been part of them.
