When the Ikwerres begged Ohanaeze Ndigbo To Save them From Ijaw Domination; Abacha Favors Igbo: ALTHOUGH there were varied positions on the matter, in the end the General Sani Abacha administration created Bayelsa out of Rivers State in 1996” The circumstances behind my joining a delegation for the burial of His Royal Majesty, Sunday Nnanta Woluchem, the Epara Rebisi XI of Port Harcourt on Saturday, April 21, 2012 is encapsulated in the above quote taken from his burial programme. As the author of his yet to be published biography, former Chief of General Staff, retired Commodore Okoh Ebitu Ukiwe, asked me to join his delegation to bury a royal father who, along with Ukiwe and others, played leading roles in the creation of today’s Rivers and Bayelsa states between 1993 and 1996. When the civil war started in 1967 and Biafra lost control of Port Harcourt to the Federal forces, the newly created Rivers State was handed over to the Ijaw. Ijaw leaders continued to maintain that Rivers State, with Port Harcourt as its capital, was created for them as reward for ceding their coastal terrain to the Federal side, thus making the sea blockade of Biafra possible. The Ijaw groups claimed to constitute the majority and continued to dominate the state both during military and civilian dispensations. With time, however, the Igbo speaking people of the state, particularly the Ikwerre nationality, decided they wanted a state of their own where they would be able to assert their own political and economic interests. This was what led to the quest for the creation of Port Harcourt State. However, the Ijaws felt if such a state was created they would become estranged in a city they have been part and parcel of since it was founded by the colonialists. In fact, they had even started portraying Port Harcourt as the capital of a future Ijaw state. Thus was born a great rivalry between the Ijaw-speaking and Igbo-speaking groups for the control of Rivers and between what was termed the “Okrika-Ijaw” and “Ikwerre-Igbo” over the “ownership” of Port Harcourt. The gruesome murder of Dr Obi Wali, the leader of the Ikwerre political front by yet-to-be ascertained assassins in 1992, owed to this tussle, which often led to street battles between Okrikans and Ikwerres. Meanwhile, the late father of Nigeria’s nationalism, Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, had discussed the best strategies for reducing the animosity between the Igbos and their Minority neighbours as well as dousing the ethnic tension between Ikwerres and their riverine co-indigenes of Rivers State. It was agreed that as the touted largest Minority group, the Ijaw needed a state of their own. But with their emotional attachment to Port Harcourt, how would Rivers State be split without creating a permanent ethnic war front in Nigeria’s premier oil city? With the Ijaw groups obviously being favoured by the Northern-led Federal Government, Eze Woluchem, a lawyer who was installed paramount ruler of Port Harcourt in 1977 turned to Dr Azikiwe, appealing for him to support the aspirations of his Igbo kinsmen in the struggle. An ageing “Zik” referred the Eze’s delegation to Commodore Ukiwe, who had become Zik’s close political confidant. The Eze’s delegation of four, which included the late Chief Okogbule Wonodi and Chief Andrew Uchendu, met with Ukiwe in his office in Victoria Island. Their proposal was that Port Harcourt State should only be for Igbo-speaking Rivers people, while the Ijaw-speaking part would be named New Rivers State. On the other hand, the Kalabaris did not want to be parted with Rivers State, neither did the Okrikas, and Ukiwe advised that it would be “unstrategic” to cut out Bonny, Opobo, Kalabari and Okrika, apart from the fact that the Head of State, General Abacha, who was pro-Ijaw, might be pushed not to create any new state at all. Between Ukiwe and the Ikwerre delegation, and taking into account the expressed needs of others, the maps of the present Rivers State and Bayelsa State were drawn and presented to Abacha, who found it acceptable. On October 1, 1996, General Abacha included Bayelsa as one of the six new states approved by the Provisional Ruling Council, PRC. The postulations put together by Ukiwe and the Rebisi’s delegates worked like magic. Today the Ijaws have a state of their own with a capital (Yenagoa) which is being styled the “Jerusalem of the Ijaw Nation”. The Igbo-speaking groups in Rivers State also have a state in which they constitute a comfortable majority and have led since 1999. The issue of “ownership” of Port Harcourt has also been (partially) resolved, as Governor Chibuike Amaechi has retrieved the Crown Lands being claimed by the Ikwerres and Okrikans into government custody. In fact, he has pressed on with the establishment of New Port Harcourt in virgin land within Ikwerre heartland. The ethnic tension is still there somewhat, but it is no longer at the level of street battles and assassinations. Indeed, there were “varied positions on the matter”, but all is well that ends well. Rebisi Woluchem has returned to his Creator satisfied that he played a central role in giving his people the ground on which to stand and, along with other stakeholders within the Rivers state, chart a future devoid of rancour but full of promise for fast-tracked development for its many dwellers, both indigenes and non-indigenes. Let me note a sour irony of it all. A supposed beneficiary of Eze Woluchem’s struggles, Governor Chibuike Amaechi, was nowhere to be found during the funeral! He was reported to have travelled to the US during the burial. Funny, the Governor was also absent when the king’s wife died a few months before he followed her. I gathered that the Governor and the king had not managed to patch up their differences, as Eze Woluchem was solidly behind former Governor Peter Odili when he and Amaechi fought. As soon as he secured his second term of office, Amaechi voluntarily made up with his estranged godfather, Odili. Useful lesson: Be careful how you follow a politician into an enmity. You won’t know when they will make up and leave you in the lurch! via Vanguard News
Posted on: Wed, 02 Apr 2014 11:23:34 +0000
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