They are torn between two worlds.
Being
of the Igbo stock, their soul is in the Southeast, but their bodies and
homes are in Benue State, in the Northcentral. That is not all. In
Benue, where they are quartered, more for political considerations than
for cultural reaons, they lament their lack: no roads, no water, hardly
any sign of modern life.
They are Igbos of the Ezza, Izzi and
Effium stock. Their kith and kin are in other parts of the Southeast,
particularly Ebonyi State. They claim they are not fewer than one
million scattered in four local governments of Benue State. And for
close to 50 years since they were excised from their kinsmen, they have
been living primitive lives.
Their pathetic plight is that the
authorities in Benue, from the state to the local governments, have not
seen them as part of the state ostensibly because they speak Igbo. On
the other hand, the Ebonyi State government where they should have
rightly belonged is helpless as they are not under its area of
administration and authority.
The people allege that since their
inclusion into Benue State they have not felt any government presence.
None of their people were considered for employment in any of the two
tiers of government. Indeed, in their lamentation, they are not in the
scheme of things as far as government business is concerned in Benue.
“We have been on our own. No roads, no
water, no electricity, no employment. We just wander about to help
ourselves in our own way,” an octogenarian, Pa Nwankwo Aloh said,
clutching a bucket in search of water.
Benue State Governor Gabriel Suswam is
said to have acknowledged their existence and concerns, even promising
to address them, but that was during his first term in office.
Also, Mr Ogbu Igelega, spokesman of Ado
Local Government Area, one of the councils where the Igbos are found in
Benue, told our reporter on the telephone that one of the obstacles to
the development of the Igbo-speaking areas of the state is their
difficult terrain. Igelega said this makes access difficult, adding that
the few places which do not present such challenges get government
attention.
The spokesman cited the example of
Etenyi which has 90 per cent Igbo population, saying the community “is
being electrified at the cost of N17m”. He also said the Igbos occupy
“important offices” in the council, adding that the assistant head of
Revenue Development is Igbo, while the Senior Special Assistant on
Inter-ethnic Relations is also Igbo.
The reporter met with the president,
Benue Igbo Development Union, Nweke Cedrick Ifeanyi who narrated their
ordeal. He said all they want is for the Benue State government to
accept them since fate has lumped them together. He is of the view that
if they can be given a sense of belonging, they would all wholeheartedly
join in the effort to develop the state.
Ifeanyi does not expressly condemn their
inclusion in Benue State, be he said if the other ethnic groups do not
want them in Benue, the Federal Government should set up a machinery
immediately to return them to their kith and kin in the Southeast,
particularly Ebonyi State.
He sent a save-or-soul message to the
Senate president, David Mark and Governor Suswam to come and save them
from “this ignoble plight”, adding: “We are neither here nor there.”
In Nweke’s words: “The Igbos in Benue
State particularly those in Ado, Oju, Obi and Okpoku LGAs of the state
were in existence before the advent of Christian religion in Nigeria.
The Igbo found in Benue are:
Umuezeokoha, Umuezeoka, Oriuzor, Umuoghara, Amaekka and Amaezekwe all in
Ezza communities, Izzi, Ezzamgbo and Effium, these are the people who
would have been in present-day Ebonyi State but due for the fact that
the Nigerian government then carved us into Benue in order to use our
population to suppress our Eastern population. Apart from the
Ezza-speaking clan, particularly the people of Umuezeokoha that has over
300 villages, if you are to calculate the number of Igbo-speaking
villages, you find out that we are more than 600 villages because three
of the biggest markets in our area are all in the Igbo-speaking part.
The markets are as follows: Inikiri Ichari, Iddah, Iduokpe.
”But in all these places, we have been facing a lot of deprivation of our fundamental human rights to the
extent that we do not have any project
attracted by the government, be it local, state or federal. In fact we
have become the rejected part of the country because local government
identification letters are not given to us any longer.
“Before now we used to witness
governmental attention in everything during and after colonial
administration but since after the civil war we were dumped by the
successive governments just because of our language difference.
“We do not have any drinking water, our
source of water here is a dam which Fulani herdsmen do carry their cow
to drink at the same place with us because the water is not covered.
“In the process of stopping them from coming to the water with their cow, it later resulted in the loss of five lives.
“We have no representative in local,
state and federal levels. Mosquito nets that were given free of charge
to roll back malaria have been sold to our people at the sum of N6,000
each. We have become slaves to our brothers because of language
difference. No hospital, let alone health centre, we are seeing hell
here in Benue State because of our language. I do not know whether it is
a curse for someone to have fallen under a particular tribe like Ezza,
Izzi, Ezzamgbo and Effium.
“Our women are dying every day during
labour. Also our children are dying for lack of polio immunisation
programme and other medical treatment needed to be given to a child at a
tender age.
“Our roads are not passable. We have
contributed so much not only to the development of Benue State but
Nigeria at large. At least a place with over one million people in
population has no primary school. We are therefore as a matter of
urgency calling on federal government, our Southeastern brothers and any
other corporate bodies to rush to our aid before water will come to our
neck.
It is obvious that if we are speaking
the same language with them we wouldn’t have found ourselves in this
forbidden and undeserved situation like this one we are now.An area with
over 50 polling units, but we are benefiting nothing even on every of
our market days they do come and sell their ticket (tax). We have been
regarded as slaves in the country of our birth and our fore-fathers, we
are also calling on our able president of the senate David mark to come
to our help because after God we also contributed in making him what he
is today and even Gabriel Suswan.
We can never regret why we are Igbos or deny being Igbo people before we are recognized in the country of our fore-fathers.”
0 comments:
Post a Comment