By Dr. Vitus Ozoke
I have watched colorful images coming out of Anambra, Enugu, and Abia States of Nigeria, celebrating 32 years of their statehoods. I am surprised there are no similar images coming out of Imo state. For obvious reasons, I do not expect any such images out of Ebonyi State. I guess my question for Anambra State is: what’s going on? Who told Gov. Chukwuma Soludo that Anambra State was 32? How is a state that was created February 3rd, 1976 just turning 32 on August 27, 2023? Whose math was that? Anambra and Imo States were created out of East Central State by the regime of Late General Murtala Muhammed on February 3rd, 1976. Didn’t they teach Gov. Chukwuma Soludo that history?
Yes, Enugu State was carved out of Anambra State on August 27, 1991 under the regime of General Ibrahim Babangida. But that did not make Anambra State a brand new State, born on August 27, 1991. What became brand new states in southeast Igboland on August 27, 1991 were Enugu and Abia. Abia was carved out of Imo state on that same August day in 1991. It was only proper that Anambra State retained the name Anambra even though a new administrative capital was set up in Agụ Awka. The name Anambra is an Anglicized version of Omambala, a river that runs through the State. So, the only states in southeast Igbo land that should have been marking, not celebrating (there’s nothing to celebrate) the 32-year anniversary of their statehoods on August 27, 2023, were Enugu and Abia. Anambra and Imo States have to have committed serious math crime to have marked their 32-year statehood anniversary on August 27, 2023.
A mother who gives birth to a child can never be the same age as that child. Anambra is the mother that gave birth to Enugu, the same way Imo birthed Abia. There is no way Anambra and Enugu States (mother and child, so to speak) are the same age. That goes against nature. It is an anathema (alụ)! Do we not think anymore? Where went the elders when the she-goat suffered the excruciating pang of parturition tethered? In roughly 4 weeks, the nation of Nigeria will be marking her 63 years of nationhood. Nigeria, the country that contains the five southeast Igbo states, will be marking her 63 years of nationhood, and the oldest Igbo States and their clueless governors are happy popping champagnes in celebration of a completely misconceived 32 years of being constituent parts of a 63-year old nation. I know we have sat at home for too long, but did we sit on our brains?
Have we so soon and so easily forgotten the real reason post-Civil War Nigeria hacked up old East Central State, carving Anambra and Imo States therefrom? It is funny how, today, people clamor for, and celebrate, the creation of new states and their membership of those new states. If only people knew the real intentions behind those political contraptions. The Igbo presented a formidable challenge to the rest of Nigeria in the 30-month Nigeria-Biafra Civil War of the late sixties. The Igbo were able to do that because the East Central State (a.k.a Biafra) was one united and cohesive force. To destroy that formidable fraternal cohesion, the Murtala Muhammed administration saw a good strategy in splitting up East Central State. That was how Anambra and Imo States came into being in February of 1976. Anambra and Imo States were not created out of Murtala Muhammed’s love of the Igbo. No, they were created out of Murtala Muhammed’s fear of a united and cohesive Igbo.
The thinking then, which has continued till today, was that splitting up a centralized East Central State into smaller units of Igbo States would also serve to decentralize Igbo power – call it the de-Ojukwunization policy. Post-war Nigeria feared (and loathed) the thought and idea of another Igbo strongman. That was the thinking behind post-Civil War creation of states in Igbo land in 1976. General Babangida would take it even further in 1991 with the creation of Enugu out of Anambra State, and Abia out of Imo State. General Sani Abacha further stitched Ebonyi State out of parts of Abia and Enugu States on October 1, 1996. However, unlike General Murtala Muhammed who was driven by his immediate post-Civil War mortal apprehension of the Igbo, Generals Babangida and Abacha used gerrymandering as a carrot of ally political settlement and a stick of regime survival.
Did Gov. Chukwuma Soludo and the Agụ Awka boys not know this? If they knew, why did they waste Anambra taxpayers’ resources celebrating a 47-year old Anambra State as 32? That should be collectively insulting. To underscore the unsustainable illogicality of the absurdity, Enugu and Abia States, if Anambra at 32 logic were allowed to stand, should be marking the 27th anniversary of their statehoods on October 1, 2023. Remember, Ebonyi State was grafted out of Enugu and Abia States on October 1, 1996. There’s a clamor for a new Adada State to be carved out of existing Enugu and Ebonyi. If that comes to fruition, will Enugu and Ebonyi States start counting their statehoods from the date the new state is birthed? That is the natural and logical consequence of a mother State springing forward to take the same age as her (youngest) offspring State. Absurd does not even begin to describe it.
Look, the great people of Anambra should resist the foolishness of age devaluation of their great State. Anambra is 47, and so is Imo State. Both States have a 47-year established history, not 32. Those (mis)celebrating Anambra at 32 are a confused bunch who should be set straight. They should be ordered to cease and desist from that foolishness. And if Anambra taxpayer resources have been wasted in this misadventure, any persons, including the governor, involved in such waste, must be made to refund and restore such resources to their last value.
Dr. Vitus Ozoke is a lawyer, a civil and human rights activist, and a public commentator based in the United States.
