Relocation of Delta State Capital: Anioma, Ndokwa and the Niger Delta Region

It is not only sad but mistaking and unprecedented that our Urhobo brothers with whom we share one state could advocate for the relocation of Delta state capital from Asaba to Warri, Ugheli or any one “true Delta” town as they put it, a development they further claim the Delta state House of Assembly can handle in order to make it peaceful one in so far the Aniomas decide to dialogue it.

This idea is still unwarranted and laughable because it suggests that Asaba is not a geographically located within the Delta of River Niger or that the Aniomas are not part of Niger Delta region. We leave this particular question to Geographers to answer. If today Edo state, Akwa Ibom state, Cross River state, Abia State amongst others all form part of Niger Delta we wonder why areas such as Ibusa, Asaba, Oko, Okpanam, Ndokwa towns and villages all located few square miles away and lying at the Delta of this river cannot be part of the Niger Delta. Will “Niger Delta” not now amount to mere nomenclature only in existence for the description of Urhobo, Ijaw, Isoko and Itsekiri and the possession of oil?

Perhaps we forget too easily that at that time there were two states in agitation namely Delta state and Anioma and the then Military president, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida decided to make something out of the two states in proposal and the best he could arrive at was creating Delta state and situating the capital at Asaba. He might have tried hard to please these two blocs. One Urhobo indigene was to later describe this act as a “creation of Delta state from Babangida personal bedroom” Will it not have pleased the Aniomas if Anioma state had been created with the capital at Asaba? Is the Delta south more dissatisfied that their agitation was not met? If the Aniomas are so pleased with this development why has the agitation for the creation Anioma state continued even till this day? Today history is fast establishing that there is nothing wrong with the situation of Delta state capital at Asaba because the town has met all the criteria necessary.

The Anioma people have distinctiveness having been westernized any historian of whatever origin can tell that common language is one value which holds Aniomas together, a unique bond that has united the people of this area from time immemorial. Granted that the various Anioma towns and villages have diverse history of origin and development but they all have something in common.

Some people have argued that the Ndokwas should not be referred to as part of Anioma. In fact a particular school of thought went further to state that the Ndokwas formed part of the defunct old Delta province. It is an incontrovertible fact that the Ndokwas have had more cordial relationship with their Anioma brothers from time immemorial and share similar historical values, customs, culture, tradition and linguistics. The Ekwumekwu movement is a well known resistance carried out against the British imperialists within the Anioma region and the contributions of the Ndokwa people along side their brothers in this region is well known and recorded. We also know that it was the loss of these wars that led the British in their typical imposing manners to divide the Anioma region and place them under different provinces. This they hoped would weaken wherever they derived their sources of strength from which they viewed as togetherness. It is unnecessary to state here that one bad effect of this movement was the permanent loss of Onitsha, Obosi, Oguta and environs to the South-East geo-political zone as presently constituted. Even the Nigerian Government has failed to address this sad development several years after independence.

Was it not chief Obafemi Awolowo who pointed out that in creating states cultural as well as linguistic affinities should first be considered above other factors? I refuse to accept that tribally the Ndokwas are closer to the Urhobos, Ijaws, Itsekiris, and Isokos because I know that mere communication cannot take place between these “true Delta states” and the Ndokwas.

Something derivable from all these challenges being faced by the Aniomas within the enclave called Delta state is that the creation of Delta state is still necessary and relevant for the growth and development of these two blocs and this is what all of the past 11 governors of the state have implicitly told us through the policies they have so far implemented in the state usually to the favour of the “true Delta towns”