By Eddie Onuzuruike
The creation of Abia State on August 27th, 1991, was not an accident. It was out of genuine need coupled with the love of freedom, equity, justice and good conscience that the founding fathers met in secret and public, committee sessions and plenary, until their dreams became reality. It was not a journey of one hour or one day, they assembled their best from all walks of life including technocrats, scientists, clergy, warlike and peaceable, professionals and artisans, public and private personalities, strong and infirm, old and young. In fact, it was a movement that started in 1977. For instance, it got to a point when confusion arose over the genuineness of signatures in the application sent to the Federal House. It took so many years before this dream came true.
A committee was set up by the Federal House of Assembly to verify the authenticity of signatures appended to the application for creation of state documents. The committee led by Hon. Y.A.Folarunso, toured all sections of the state and transversed Aba and Umuahia Areas on the 21stof August, 1981. It was in this occasion that Dr. M.I Okpara made one of his best presentations among all, explaining the motive, motto and mission of the yet to be created state, which encapsulates the spirit of oneness, fairness and equity. This is symbolized in the Onye Aghala Nwanneya’ phrase.
As he explained, ‘It is well Known that no nation shall be great unless its constituent communities are happy and there is balanced development…this is to reassure friends and opponents that everyone matter, that every community matters, that no part will be neglected, that there will be no domination of any group in the state by others, that there will be even development of the state. This is what is reflected in the motto of the State ‘Onye Aghala NwanneYa’.
They didn’t just stop there; they assembled their scientists and historians to craft an economic blue print which certified that Abia has enough to make for an egalitarian society, economically viable enough to survive not relying slavishly on handouts from the Federal Government.
These studies are available and could be sighted in the Abia charter of equity page 42. Already, markets existed and made waves in commerce where there was balance of trade. They sold their wares and products for which they were gainfully rewarded and were able to go into exchange with European traders and navigators. Such pioneer markets are Agbagwu (uzuakoli); Ogo-bende (Bende); Uburu (Ohaozara); Nkwo-Egwu (Okahiuga); Orie-Ntigha (Ngwa) and Orie-Ndu (isiukwuato), to name but a few.
As narrated by Prof S N Nwagbara, ‘the importance attracted the attention of European commercial adventurers as early as 16thcentury when, through the medium of these markets they exchange copper, cowries, fire-arms, gun powder, tobacco and clothes for slaves and later, palm produce. By the turn of the 20th century, following the penetration and colonization of Igbo land and building of the rail way from Port-Harcourt to Enugu, European stations were established along the railway lines, resulting in the growth of markets and towns as Aba, Umuahia and Afikpo Road.
The land of Abia is richly blessed with mineral deposits to exportable quantity. These are in the oil palm belt of the former Eastern Nigeria. The oil palm, like the present oil industry, earned foreign exchange for Nigeria. In addition, there are lime stone deposit in Arochukwu, Ohofia, Ozuitem and perhaps gold at IshiegbuOzuitem; mineral and natural gas in Ukwa and Isiala Ngwa; clay deposits in Umuahia, Isiukwuato and Afikpo; lead and zinc in Ishiagu, and Ohaozara; iron in Isikwuato, glass making and building sands in Aba. The state also abounds in vegetable resources and foods.’ Most importantly, Abia state has the manpower for harnessing above resources, it is without exaggeration to say that hardly any other state in the federation has at its disposal more manpower resources than Abia, all that is required now is the meaningful utilization of this human capital.’
The practice of politics is fraught with danger and acrimony but studies and experience have shown that peaceful understanding can always be reached. Instructively, segments of society that are cheated out or dominated have been assuaged with different healing and palliative policies in United States, Europe and South Africa.Instructively, racial segregation which shook the world to its foundations, has been abolished and the blacks who are victims have been comfortably integrated.
For millions of the under privileged women, the affirmative action has lifted them and still working assiduously to lift the glass ceiling that has stopped women from assuming particular positions.It is with the same spirit that our fathers pledged equity in all things, stating clearly that no section will retain two important positions like governor, deputy and speaker of the house.
Today the trend in Nigeria is to rotate power based on the senatorial zones as there are 3 in each of the 36 States of the federation.
Based on that, the most reasonable thing is to shift power round the three zones. This makes for equity to the extent that nobody will be left out. It squelches political acrimony, reduces fatalities associate with power struggle.
It somewhat checks the abuse of money bags who falsely assume that they can buy everybody off.When a good candidate is not financially up to date, resources can be pooled by the zone to sponsor the candidate. We can recall the era of education consciousness when communities pooled resource to sponsor brilliant children abroad for educational pursuits. It brings democracy to the fore when consultations are made and thus reduce money politics.
As somebody argued,‘unnecessary tussles will be laid to rest. On the second note, it would give the potential senatorial zone time to prepare, putting their best foot forward in terms of candidates. Having planned and executed well, court cases would be less, thuggery and thuggism would be on its way to extinction with little attention paid to settlement and extortions by law enforcement agencies.
The incoming governor would spend less on election bills and would have valuable time for the electorate. Having gone through an impartial selection process among peaceful coexistence, the stakeholders and electorate will have much say in the government of the day, distancing the killer we-and-they feelings.’
We salute the leadership of PDP in Abia for taking this auspicious decision and abiding by the PDP constitution which states in the preamble page, no 2 (d)as follows,‘to conform with the principles of power shift and power sharing by rotating key political offices amongst the diverse peoples and the country.’
History will not forget Chief T A Orji who has among all odds insisted that power must shift, based on the senatorial zones. Now that the political puzzle has been solved, let us concentrate on turning Abia into the industrial hub by exploiting the mineral deposits listed above that are still buried in our soils.