₦airaland Forum

The Vice President,
Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Your Excellency,

SUBMISSION ON THE PLIGHT OF OIL-PRODUCING PEOPLE OF ASA (UKWA –WEST LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA) IN ABIA STATE
Observing protocol and courtesy, I write on behalf of the Centre For Equity & Eradication of Rural Poverty. On behalf of our organization, I join the tens of thousands that are here to welcome you, Sir.
This meeting today in Umuahia could be compared to when our late Leader; Chief O .C Ememe, led Asa people to Lancaster House in London to present our fears of marginalization before the Sir Harry Willinks Commission of Enquiry on the fears of the Minorities of Nigeria in 1957.
Ukwa West is the political cum administrative name of Asa people. Ukwa West Local Government Area is, for now, the only oil and gas producing area in our dear State of Abia. After oil was discovered in Olobiri in Bayelsa State in 1956, the next place oil was discovered was in Owaza Asa in 1957. While oil has since dried up in Olobiri, many more oil wells have been discovered and remain functional in Owaza, Uzuaku, Umuorie, Umuahala and Isimanu communities in Asa.
Fifty-nine years of oil exploitation in Asa land have instead of bringing development and succor to the people of Asa land (ukwa west), brought environmental degradation and devastation of our agricultural potentials and chances.
For these number of years, the people of the oil –producing area of Asa completely have nothing to show for all her contributions to our national economic development.
There is no federal institution in Asa land, except a police force division. The youths of Asa land are not found in federal civil service. Roads in Asa land are the most dilapidated and inaccessible in south-east.
Despite the very devastating conditions the people have found themselves in youths of Asa land have been incomparably calm and peaceful.
The Centre Of Equity And Eradication of Rural Poverty humbly but vehemently recommends that the Federal Government declares a state of Emergency in Asa Land with emphasis on development and employment. There is no Higher Institution of learning in the whole Asa land. Yet their children deserve education. The patience of the people, we pray, should not be taken for granted.
So far, scholarship slots given to Indigenes of Abia State by the Niger Delta Development Commission have continued to elude our youths on flimsy grounds of unacceptable quota on merit.
As at now, Abia State has no representative on the Board of the Niger Delta Development Commission. The Niger Delta Development Commission was established by an Act of the National Assembly. The Act emphatically stipulates that an oil-production state shall be represented on the Board of the Commission by a person who hails from an oil-producing area. Like we have established, Asa is the only oil-producing area of Abia state. It is passionately recommended that an indigene of Asa be appointed on the Board of NDDC in accordance with the Act establishing the Board.
A lot of projects abandoned by both Niger Delta Development Commission and the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs litter Asa land. Owaza-Azumini road by Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs, Umuiku-Ukor to Ariaria road, Ugwati-Obokwe-Uratta road, Igwurula-Owaza roads are amongst the roads abandoned by NDDC.
One stanza in our National Anthem admonishes us not to allow the labours of our heroes past to be in vain. Mr Vice President, Sir, the founding fathers of Asa land, a good number of who were not only illiterate but were stark illiterate, tasked themselves in the late fifties and built the first secondary school in Asa land and named it Asa Grammar school. During the Nigerian/Biafran War, the school was occupied by 167 Bomber Battalion of the Nigerian Army.
At the end of the war, returning students and fresh ones shared the school compound with the soldiers, with its attendant consequences. But in 1972, reason had to prevail when General Yakubu Gowon compassionately ordered that the soldiers be removed from Asa Grammer School in order not to allow the labours of the heroes of Asa land to be in vain. Asa Grammar school, which the Government of defunct East-Central State, under late Mr. Ukpabia Asika as Sole Administrator, renamed it as Asa High School, regained its status as an all students’ secondary school.
Between 2009 and 2010, a good number of youths of Asa, strictly out of disgust over marginalization and total deprivation, became armed militant agitators. The aggression inherent in the agitation was so much that the Federal Government had to bring in a battalion of the Nigerian Army to quell the situation. 144 battalion of the Nigerian Army took over Asa High School and remain there till date.
The people of Asa want their school back. If the Federal government is sympathetic with our plight, Asa High School could serve as a University instead of its abrupt confiscation as an Army camp. Luckily enough, a large expanse of land has been earmarked for the Army barrack, stretching from Ogwe, Ugwati to Obokwe, all in Asa land. If this request is granted, it will go a long way to save Asa people from their present bottled psychological trauma.
Finally, Sir, the Nigerian federation is made up of more than two hundred and fifty ethnic nationalities that were coerced into one entity by the British Colonial Government. There is too much concentration of power at the Center at the moment. There is need for devolution of power to the federating units. This means there is need for fiscal federalism as was the case under the Republican Constitution of 1963.
Okwubunka of Asa

This is annoying,this is very very annoying. The Nigeria government and the NDDC will pay someday.

as an ASA man from obigbo local gov area of river state I can categorically say that ASA land has been deprived,marginalised balkanized and undermined. can you believe that my family has farmland in the current Abia state. The political division of ASA people has made it possible for the government to deprive our brothers of their share of development. last time I went to ukwa east and ukwa west local government I wept for my brothers who are under the oppression of the Nigerian army,poverty and infrastructure decadence. can you believe that every morning convoy of cars carrying workers surrounded by armed soldiers and policemen conveys the oil workers to their rigs and conveys them back to rivers state in the evening. these companies don't give anything to the community youths or build any infrastructure to compensate them neither do they pay tax to abia state government.


PLS THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT SHOULD EITHER CARVE UKWA EAST AND UKWA WEST LOCAL GOVERNMENT INTO RIVERS STATE OR RETURN US TO ABIA STATE SO THAT WE CAN PURSUE OUR DEVELOPMENTAL AIMS WITH A COMMON FRONT

mecedonia:
The Vice President,
Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Your Excellency,

SUBMISSION ON THE PLIGHT OF OIL-PRODUCING PEOPLE OF ASA (UKWA –WEST LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA) IN ABIA STATE
Observing protocol and courtesy, I write on behalf of the Centre For Equity & Eradication of Rural Poverty. On behalf of our organization, I join the tens of thousands that are here to welcome you, Sir.
This meeting today in Umuahia could be compared to when our late Leader; Chief O .C Ememe, led Asa people to Lancaster House in London to present our fears of marginalization before the Sir Harry Willinks Commission of Enquiry on the fears of the Minorities of Nigeria in 1957.
Ukwa West is the political cum administrative name of Asa people. Ukwa West Local Government Area is, for now, the only oil and gas producing area in our dear State of Abia. After oil was discovered in Olobiri in Bayelsa State in 1956, the next place oil was discovered was in Owaza Asa in 1957. While oil has since dried up in Olobiri, many more oil wells have been discovered and remain functional in Owaza, Uzuaku, Umuorie, Umuahala and Isimanu communities in Asa.
Fifty-nine years of oil exploitation in Asa land have instead of bringing development and succor to the people of Asa land (ukwa west), brought environmental degradation and devastation of our agricultural potentials and chances.
For these number of years, the people of the oil –producing area of Asa completely have nothing to show for all her contributions to our national economic development.
There is no federal institution in Asa land, except a police force division. The youths of Asa land are not found in federal civil service. Roads in Asa land are the most dilapidated and inaccessible in south-east.
Despite the very devastating conditions the people have found themselves in youths of Asa land have been incomparably calm and peaceful.
The Centre Of Equity And Eradication of Rural Poverty humbly but vehemently recommends that the Federal Government declares a state of Emergency in Asa Land with emphasis on development and employment. There is no Higher Institution of learning in the whole Asa land. Yet their children deserve education. The patience of the people, we pray, should not be taken for granted.
So far, scholarship slots given to Indigenes of Abia State by the Niger Delta Development Commission have continued to elude our youths on flimsy grounds of unacceptable quota on merit.
As at now, Abia State has no representative on the Board of the Niger Delta Development Commission. The Niger Delta Development Commission was established by an Act of the National Assembly. The Act emphatically stipulates that an oil-production state shall be represented on the Board of the Commission by a person who hails from an oil-producing area. Like we have established, Asa is the only oil-producing area of Abia state.

.

op pls put the source of this article

ExplorerReturns:
as an ASA man from obigbo local gov area of river state I can categorically say that ASA land has been deprived,marginalised balkanized and undermined. can you believe that my family has farmland in the current Abia state. The political division of ASA people has made it possible for the government to deprive our brothers of their share of development. last time I went to ukwa east and ukwa west local government I wept for my brothers who are under the oppression of the Nigerian army,poverty and infrastructure decadence. can you believe that every morning convoy of cars carrying workers surrounded by armed soldiers and policemen conveys the oil workers to their rigs and conveys them back to rivers state in the evening. these companies don't give anything to the community youths or build any infrastructure to compensate them neither do they pay tax to abia state government.


PLS THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT SHOULD EITHER CARVE UKWA EAST AND UKWA WEST LOCAL GOVERNMENT INTO RIVERS STATE OR RETURN US TO ABIA STATE SO THAT WE CAN PURSUE OUR DEVELOPMENTAL AIMS WITH A COMMON FRONT

Look at what they're doing to people. This is unbelievable!!!!

iSlayer2:
Look at what they're doing to people. This is unbelievable!!!!

when we were ceded into rivers state the fg didn't know that the current ukwa west has large oil deposits. if not the entire ASA people would have been in rivers state as a one united people and this marginalisation wouldn't have been there