We, Ndi Anioma of Nigeria, the umbrella organization of Anioma people at home and in Diaspora have followed with raptness, preparedness and supreme alertness, the patriotic desire and activities of the people of Igbanke community in Orhiomhwon Local Government Area of Edo State to join their kith and kin in the proposed Anioma State. Not only have we watched the Igbanke people take self-actions, exercise their inalienable rights and reach collective decision to join the proposed Anioma State, but have worked in partnership with them to bring these efforts to realization since we believe that the Nigerian state endows a people with the right to decide their own destiny.
The unpalatable history of how Igbanke people found themselves in Edo State having been detached from their Anioma people is fowl-tasting. Igbanke, oddly and curiously situated in Edo State today by means other than the will of the people, is an Ika community. The community is purely of Ika heritage and has been historically associative with the general Ika nation of Anioma since foundation.
From existence, Igbanke has related with other Ika people and have always viewed them as their brothers and sisters. The Igbanke-Agbor War as far back as 1895 well documented in history, chiefly testifies to one aspect of relationship between Igbanke and other Ika communities.
We are also aware of the court established in the colonial history of Igbanke, where all other Ika nations gathered for judicial decisions. This court continued to serve the judicial needs of the people of the Ika people until it was relocated to Agbor by the same colonial government. The implications that followed this action is well-known by historians.
The people of Igbanke have related more with their Ika kinsmen. The sad policies of the colonial government aligned the greater parts of Anioma (including Igbanke/except Ndokwa/Ukwuani and Aboh) to Benin after the Anioma people lost the Ekumeku war. However, the entire Anioma region (including Ndokwa/Ukwuani/Aboh/Igbanke became reunited in the Midwest State and Bendel State. Igbanke finally became separated from the rest of Anioma following the creation of Delta State in 1991.
The case of Igbanke’s situation in Edo State expresses sympathy, sadness, regret, sorrow and sense of loss for the simple reason that the community is further situated within a local government in Edo State in which no other people or community speaks or understands their own language. Suffice it to say that Igbanke is the only community in Orhiomwon Local Government Area that speaks Ika, a dialect of Anioma. What the architects of this act have achieved is to completely deny them apposite sense of belonging within Edo State and the Nigeria. Through inherent nature, Igbanke is surrounded by Ika communities but by egocentricity and undue influence and power play, Igbanke was artificially made to sit in Edo State where it does not easily belong.
Consequences of this action:
The direct consequences of this unpopular decision to site Igbanke in Edo State are not only tasteless but induce ugly corollaries for the community and its people. These consequences include
?Near loss of ancestry, inability to understand Edoid language, danger of losing their language as Edo language is now compulsorily foisted on them,
?Ostracisation in the internal affairs of the state, marginalization and neglect of the community in federal and state affairs. Consider that since the days of Dr Samuel Ogbemudia as the governor of Bendel State, subsequent governments have neglected Igbanke until Governor Adams Oshiomhole remembered the community through construction of roads decades after the last administration with the sense of Igbanke passed.
?With the odds against Igbanke, it is difficult for any Igbanke indigene to aspire to attain the highest position of leadership in Edo State.
?Inability to understand Edoid language means that when attending traditional rulers council meeting at the palace of the Oba of Benin, Igbanke traditional rulers do not understand an iota of what transpires at the meeting. Edo interpreters will be needed to explain to the traditional rulers the business of the day.
?Deep neglect of the community means that the Igbanke people despite their situation in Edo State, heavily depend on nearby Delta State unofficial budgetary consideration for shouldering of their basic needs like the use of health centres in neighbouring Ika communities.
?Instances abound where Igbanke adults and youths alike, complain of unfair treatment in Edo State civil service, institutions of learning and other state parastatals. Discrimination against their Anioma ethnicity is the major challenge. These actions put together have led to the underdevelopment of the community.
Efforts to remedy the situation
?Igbanke people have in recent times began to agitate for reunion with their Anioma kith and kin. Few years back, a protest carried out by the youths of the community, calling for the transfer of the community to Delta State was reported though hurriedly tendered to be carpeted by the Benin ruling house.
?The desire for the return of Igbanke to Anioma formed one of the principal objectives of the Igbanke Nationals Progressive Association, a registered socio-cultural organization of the Igbanke people. The Association which has exhibited boldness in actualizing this where others have shied away for fear of harassment and intimidation has emerged as the voice of the community having in its membership, thousands of Igbanke natives at home and in Diaspora.
?In 2011, the group organized the first ever All Igbanke People’s Summit in Lagos, in which major stakeholders called on the government of the day to work towards reuniting the community with their Anioma kinsmen.
?On Saturday, December 12, 2012, the group organized another conference in Igbanke where the people of the town in attendance, once again called on the government of Edo State to end the ostracization of the community by re-aligning them with their Anioma kinsmen in Delta State.
As awareness on why the community should rejoin their kit and kin is growing, the Igbanke Nationals Progressive Association has provided the needed platform for its actualization.
?In 2013, Igbanke Nationals Progressive Association issued an online press release in which they called on relevant authorities in the country to reunite the community without further delay with Anioma, where they rightly belong.
?As the just ended National confab sitting opened, the group sent in its own memorandum calling on the delegates to consider their demand of joining the proposed Anioma States. The news from the conference that ethnic groups could join the desired states of their choice greatly elated Association.
Igbanke and Anioma have more than ever become united as the Igbanke now regularly sends its dance troupe to the Organization For the Advancement of Anioma Culture’s annual Anioma Festival at Asaba. Nonetheless, only little efforts have been seen from the Edo State Government and the studied but unfriendly silence maintained by the government in this regard is worrisome.
Efforts of the Anioma people
The Igbanke Nationals Progressive Association is not alone in their efforts in ensuring that the will of the people is heeded. The bid to reunite Igbanke transfer Igbanke to where it rightly belongs was first strengthened and supported by Anioma people through different Anioma socio cultural and political organisations. The members of these groups voiced their yearnings to have Igbanke rejoin Anioma at the Igbanke conference organised in Lagos and later at Igbanke.
We, Ndi Anioma of Nigeria, have also been working in this direction, and is willing to continue to press for Igbanke to rejoin their Anioma kith and kin in the proposed Anioma State.
Our demands
Ndi Anioma of Nigeria now demand that Edo and Delta States work hand in gloves to ensure that Igbanke now transferred outside its ancestral land returns to take its place in the proposed Anioma State. The ordinary Igbanke people, who have expressed their desire to join the proposed Anioma State, should be accorded their desire.
We demand an end to the ostracization of Igbanke and call on both the Edo and Delta States lawmakers and the upper and lower houses of the Federal republic of Nigeria to respect the will of the people on both sides by carving Igbanke into the proposed Anioma State.
Once approved, the National Boundary Commission (NBC) should delineate the community to the proposed state. We warn that failure to cede Igbanke to the proposed Anioma State will continually result in the agitation of our people in future as we can no longer stand the meaningless and deliberate transfer of our people outside their ancestral land.
Long live Igbanke!
Long live Ika!
Long live Anioma!
Long live Nigeria!
Lauretta Onochie
Gloria Adagbon
Emeka Esogbue
Emmanuel Nwaokolo
Kristy Ifeoma Inez-Ikanih:Source: elombah.
