The Obuzor of Ibusa, Prof. Louis Nwaobishi, has affirmed that the Anioma people of Delta North are Igbo, citing history, language, and culture as evidence for their Igbo roots.
Nwaobishi was reacting to some recent divergent views, particularly that of the Asagba of Asaba, Prof. Epiphany Azinge, that the Anioma people were not Igbo, and that Asaba people were not migrants from Nteje, in Anambra.
However setting the records straight, the traditional ruler said that Anioma people have “unbreakable” Igbo identity, and traced the boundary error to the 1939 British revenge for Ekumeku resistance.
Linking the past to the present, he said that the current identity crisis in parts of Delta North was a continuation of the same British punishment meted out in 1939., after the Ekumeku War (1898–1914).
“The British never forgave us for the Ekumeku resistance because we fought them harder and longer than any other group west of the Niger.
“So when they drew the regional boundaries in 1939, they deliberately carved all Igbo-speaking communities west of the Niger out of the Eastern Region and dumped us in the Western Region as punishment and to weaken Igbo unity.
“The true East–West boundary was supposed to be far beyond Abudu in present-day Edo. The boundary between North and West is not the River Niger, just as the boundary between North and East is not the River Benue. Yet they used the Niger as a knife to split our people,” he said.
The traditional ruler also said that the agitation for the Anioma people to be returned to their Igbo ancestry started between 1938 and 1939, long before independence.
“I am not the pioneer; I only continue what they started.
“After the war, when Imo, Anambra and other Igbo areas had solidified their identities, we coined the name ‘Anioma’ from Aniocha, Ndokwa, Ika, Oshimili to unite ourselves.
“In 1980, I personally founded a cultural organisation to protect and project that identity,” he added.
Nwaoboshi commended Sen. Ned Nwoko (APC-Delta) and lawmaker representing Delta North Senatorial District for resuming the struggle.
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