WHEN A PEOPLE’S NATURAL INCLINATION TO HOSPITALITY IS THREATENED TO BE BETRAYED. SCRIPTED BY CHIEF (SIR) DON UBANI.

Any writer that is worth his salt is expected to be knowledgeable and versatile. The writer’s versatility serves as impetus with which he could delve into areas that non-writers may consider to be strange environments. On the strength of this postulation, it is necessary to reiterate the fact that the Ngwa sub-ethnic Nationalityis the most populous geo-historical group within the Igbo ethnic Nation of the Nigerian state. Administratively divided into seven distinct local government areas, the Ngwas have two local government areas that are fully urbanized and three others that are partly urbanized. These local government areas are; Aba-North andAba-South that are fully urbanised and Obingwa, Osisioma and Ugwunagbo that are partly urbanized. Let it be stated for the umpteenth time that Aba, courtesy of the wisdom of the British Colonial Administration, became both a district administrative centre and a major trading post in 1903, following the relocation of the Sub-district office from Akwete which had earlier been established in 1896.
Right from 1903, Aba became one of the two major commercial cosmopolitan centres in the defunct Eastern Nigeria, the other being Onitsha. The ease with which people who had started business just with little or even nothing emerged successful wealthy captains of industries and enterprises became so magnetic that just in twenty-six years of its existence; that was in 1929, Aba had become a socio-econo-political melting-point, not only for the Igbos but equally for the entire people of the former Eastern Region of Nigeria and also extended to the West African Sub-region. Aba became so central in the calculation of the people of the then Eastern Region that any single threat to the Aba Community was adjudged an unacceptable threat to the whole region.
In 1929, for instance, a warrant Chief; Chief Okugo of Oloko had, out of naivety, misinterpreted Assistant District Officer; Capt. J. Cook’s instruction on enumeration for tax payment. This miscomprehension which took place in BendeDivision ended up translating into a large scale women riot in Aba. This was simply because of the high sensitivity that hovered around Aba as a melting-point.
The cosmopolitan status of Aba had made it exceptionally unique as long as 1959,to the extent that out of the four Federal single-member constituencies that the Federal Government had allotted to the old Aba Division out of a total of seventy-three single-member constituencies allotted to the former Eastern Region, a non-indigene; chief Felix Okoronkwo, was seamlessly elected to represent AbaUrban in the Federal Parliament. Chief Felix Okoronkwo was re-elected in the same manner in 1964.
One of the great political amazons that conspicuously and consistently made her mark in the politics of the former Eastern Region of Nigeria was produced by thecosmopolitan engineering of Aba. Chief (Mrs) Margaret Ekpo; a Calabarian, cut her political teeth in Aba and, through a dent of hard work, was elected into the defunct Eastern House of Assembly in 1961, on the platform of the defunct National Council of Nigerian Citizens; N.C.N.C.
As at 1959 and 1961, it was only in Aba, out of all the townships in the defunct Eastern Region that a non-indigene had the privileged of being elected either into the House of Representatives or Eastern House of Assembly. Many non-indigenes had held sway as Executive Chairman in Aba; including Aba-North and Aba-South.
Presently, the two local government areas of Aba-North and Aba-South are presided over by non-indigenes of old Aba division as Transition committee chairmen. Not too long ago in the political history of Aba, the likes of Chief NgoziAnyaehie, Dr. Iboko Imo Iboko, Chief Eme Abali Mba, Chief Godwin Duru,Messrs Eleke, Ikwueche and many others, almost too numerous to be counted, had presided over the political and, therefore, economic fortunes of Aba.
In analysing this very uncommon poli-economic scenario, many persons who, mayat best be described as rabble-rousers, had tried to impute that Aba is ‘no man’s land.’ Some mischief-makers amongst them go to the very ridiculous extremity of claiming that Aba is a ‘conquered territory’.
To all intents and purposes, these claims of ‘no man’s land’ and ‘conquered territory’ are spurious in their entirety. The truth of the matter is that the people ofAba and her environs are people that are naturally given to reception, accommodation and hospitality. Ofcourse, it would be necessary to state that the disposition of a people towards others is influenced by many factors among which are;
1.
Natural environment
2.
Agricultural potentials and
3.
Belief system.
On natural environment, it has to be reiterated that no town in the whole of the South-east of Nigeria enjoys as much stability of topography as Aba and her environs enjoy. Nature so blessed the people of Aba that what it costs a man fromNjikoka in Anambra state or Udi in Enugu state to build a six bed-room bungalow could be used to start and complete a six bed-room duplex in Aba or her environ.Aba, as at date, has the best water in the whole of the South-East. It is only in Abathat someone can drill a bore-hole with less than one hundred thousand naira.
Aba, incontrovertibly speaking, has the most arable and naturally fertilized land for agriculture. The land in Aba and her environs has a range of soil texture that is loamy and, therefore, allows for good water penetration, good water retention and effective retention of soil nutrients. These natural qualities of the soil in Aba and its environs encourage farming with ease and facilitate good agro yield, which ends up enhancing the people’s economy. Thirdly and equally importantly, the averageAba indigene has a time-held and time-honoured philosophy of ‘live and let live’ which, literally translated into the Ngwa dialect, means ‘Onye egbula onye nbiarakeya’. This belief of the Ngwa man has been the main reason why Aba quickly grew in leaps and bounds. The Ngwa man had no qualms dispensing with his landon receipt of a mere stipend, just to accommodate his visitors. It has to be recollected that there are many groups in Igbo land that are averse to disposing their land to stranger elements. These factors listed above have consistently combined to tailor the indigenous people of Aba towards hospitality and tolerance which many myopic observers have unfortunately and irresponsibly misconstruedfor weakness to assert effective ownership and authority over their land and its affairs.
It is, however, a very sad commentary to hear some non-indigenes in Aba openly talk ill of the Governorship candidate of the People’s Democratic Party for the 2015 general election; Dr Victor Okezie Ikpeazu. None of these non-indigenes inAba who are busy disseminating propaganda of calumny and falsehood against the P.D.P. governorship candidate has been able to point out any flaw in his character or personality. The only thing they claim to hold against him is that he was brought out by the incumbent governor and, by their uninformed thinking, would beteleguided by the governor if elected.
This speculation stands debunked as it is neither here nor there. This is because any person elected as an executive governor who allows himself to be externally influenced to the extent of not achieving required democracy dividends for those who elected him should not hold any person to blame because what he has is executive power. Besides, the incumbent governor has said it for the umpteenth time that he would not interfere in the administration of whoever that will succeed him.
Non-indigenes in Aba, a good number of whom arrived Aba very penurious but have accumulated enormous wealth because of the natural hospitality of the indigenous people of Aba, should realize that Dr Okezie Victor Ikpeazu’scandidacy poses a moral burden on them as his aspiration symbolizes a pay-back time.
Besides, no indigene of old Aba Division had been a governor in Nigeria, be it democratic or civil, since Nigerian’s one hundred and one years of existence. It is also on record that Abia-North had ruled Abia State for eight years, in the person of Chief Orji Uzor Kalu; 1999 – 2007 while Abia-Central will complete her own eight years on 29th May, 2015 through Chief T.A. Orji. A vote for Dr. OkezieIkpeazu is a vote for equity, justice, good conscience and fairness
Any non-indigene in Aba who canvasses support for Dr Alex Otti, who hails fromAtani in Arochukwu of Abia-North, is not only being wicked and sadistic but isinhumanly betraying the natural hospitality of the indigenous people of Aba. The natural law of reciprocity must, of necessity, play out in Dr Okezie Victor Ikpeazu election.


Chief (Sir) Don Ubani; KSC, JP
(Okwubunka of Asa)