Abagworo:

opinion
To the larger Nigerian polity, the appointment of Chief Chukwuemeka [b]Wogu [/b]as the new Minister of Labour and Productivity is the elevation of a good technocrat to a befitting position. But, to the people of Aba Union, the umbrella socio-political body of the people of the old Aba Province in Abia State, the appointment comes with more meaning, and more message. In an advertorial last week, the Union described the appointment as "the breaking of a jinx". Sounding poetic, they further described it as a glimmer of light after 45 years of long nights and days.


Indeed, not many people did realize the deep message and the deep feelings from the heart of the people of the Aba Union. Beyond being an expression of an easement for a people, it was by far a loud call for equity and fairness to the Nigerian establishment. It was a disguised reaffirmation of equity as the only sine quo non for our collective existence as one Nigeria.

As a form of fulfillment, the publication captured the collective happiness of the people in being recognized by President Goodluck Jonathan after 45 years of deliberate neglect. Within this period, the area has suffered an orchestrated political marginalization under the successive administrations that had held sway both in the military and civilian era. Since the First Republic when Jaja Wachuku of blessed memory held sway as the Minister of Foreign Affairs, no indigene of the area has ever been appointed to a strategic position until the emergence of Wogu a couple of weeks ago. Thus, the political history of the old Aba area, comprising the Ngwas, Ukwas, Ndokis and residents of Aba metropolis, has been that of struggle and agitation.


Even as there is no prominent Ibo person that does not have a root to Aba, the area is only remembered when it comes to sacrificing of Igbo rights. And this dates back to the First Republic when Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe brought an Efik woman, Margaret Ekpo, to represent Aba Province in the Eastern Region House ,of Assembly as a way of demonstrating Ibo disposition for the accommodation of other groups. Elders of the Aba Province especially the late Barrister Ubani Ukoma, objected and protested against the short-changing of the people. But, the old Ibo Union sanctioned the Ukwa-Ngwa people for daring to raise a voice against the use of their rights to court goodwill for the rest of Ndi-Igbo. This was the genesis of what became an entrenched mentality of disregard by the neigbouring Igbo groups against the Ukwa-Ngwa people.

Thus, for a period of forty-five years, the area was unarguably condemned for another dark age. The following records will startle any man of good conscience. Within the period under review, the neigbouring old Bende area of the same Abia State has produced the following officers: Dr. Micheal Okpara, Premier of Eastern Region, Dr. Akanu Ibiam, Governor of Eastern Nigeria, General Aguiyi Ironsi, former Head of State, Commander Ndubuisi Kanu, Military Administrator(MILAD) of the old Imo State, Brigadier Ike Nwachukwu, former MILAD of old Imo State, Amadi Ikwecheghi, former MILAD of old Imo State, Emeka Omeruah, former Minister, Kalu Idika Kalu, former Minister, Rear Admiral ChijIoke Kaja, Member of the Provisional Ruling Council, Uche Chukwumerije, former Minister.


Though at a point, in the Fourth Republic, former President Olusegun Obasanjo pretended to sympathize with the plight of the Ukwa Ngwa People, his actions in terms of appointments also followed the same pattern of neglect of the Aba area. His six federal appointments to Abia State only favoured the old Bende Division. His three Ministers - Ojo Maduekwe, Vincent Ogbulafor and Onyema Ugochukwu( Chairman of the NDDC), were all from the old Bende, ditto for his three ambassadorial appointments - Ogbonnaya Maduka, Gaius Nwachukwu and Kalu Idika Kalu.

Within the state, despite the Charter of Equity endorsed to by the founding fathers of the state which prescribed for rotation of elective offices among the three geo-political zones, the power brokers have continued to sideline the area when it comes to the governorship position of the state. Since the creation of the state in 1991, all the civilian governors who have ruled the state emerged from the same old Bende bloc, right from Ogbonnaya Onu, through Orji Uzor Kalu to the present T. A Orji. The experience is that due to this prolonged domination, the area suffers severe underdevelopment both in infrastructure, social amenities and human capital development. Yet, the Ukwa Ngwa area constitutes the only justification for Abia State being a legitimate member of the defunct OMPADEC group of states, and now Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).



Indeed, facts abound to justify the claim that successive regimes treated the zone as an abandoned and forgotten area. Neither from the Federal Government, nor from the successive regional or state governments has the area merited anything close to the attention which its population, size and commercial and industrial importance entitle it to. Apart from controlling nine of the seventeen local councils of the state, Aba city is the fabled home of indigenous creativity which culminates in what has been globally acclaimed as Aba Made goods. The Ukwa area brims with oil, and is the cash-cow that brings into the state the oil derivative money.

With this unhealthy political imbalance, the greater part of the social and political life of the people has remained that of struggle and agitation. Chief Enyinnaya Abaribe, former Deputy Governor, and now a distinguished senator representing the Abia South Senatorial District, has put his entire political life into raising the bar as it relates to the marginalization of the Ukwa Ngwa, same with other prominent politicians from the area. Through his Otu Onu Movement, the political machinery with which he contested for the gubernatorial election of 2003 under the ANPP, Abaribe brought the issues of the neglect of the Aba area to the front burner of national discourse. The agitation has continued ever since with the people only asking for the upholding of the Abia Charter of Equity which is a memorandum of understanding upon which the state was founded.

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From this standpoint, one can now appreciate the joy of the Aba Union over the appointment of Wogu as a minister. One can appreciate why it is indeed a breaking of a jinx for the people. For the Aba Union, the appointment is a pedestal for other great things to come. It is the symbolic rewinding of the hand of the clock, the spiritual binding of the forces of darkness. It is a harbinger to a new dawn, a glimmer of hope over the climate of despair and despondency. It is the renaissance, the light at the end of the tunnel after 45 years of dark ages.

But, more importantly, the case of the Ukwa Ngwa is a signpost towards the trend of domination by groups and ethnic configurations against other groups in matters of political positions and allocation of resources. The heat in the Nigerian polity can only subside when there is a concerted effort to redress the anomalies of the past as has been demonstrated by Jonathan in the appointment of Wogu.

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