The plight of Indigenous Igbos in Benue State. Why Nnamdi Kanu wants lower Benue carved into Biafra

The plight of Indigenous Igbos in Benue State

Nnamdi Kanu recently requested for indigenous Igbos in lower Benue to be drafted into Biafran map

Igbo Plight: Agony and Neglect of Igbos in Benue State

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 North central. That is not all. In Benue, where they are quartered, more for political considerations than for cultural reasons, 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 cover..

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The plight of Indigenous Igbos in Benue State

We’ve been abandoned, Igbos in Benue cry out 

BY EMMANUEL UZOR (Sun)

There are over one million of them spread across four local government areas of Benue State. You can find them in Ado, Oju, Okpoku and Obi, all in Benue State. They are ethnic Igbos. Before the Nigerian civil war, they lived a happy and meaningful life, mingling freely with their kith and kin in the state. But today, things have fallen apart. Instead of the joyful songs, they were used to, they now sing dirges.

The Benue Igbos who are called by the name Umuezeokoha are not happy that they have been neglected for a long time now by successive governments, federal, state or local, and they are blaming this on their ethnic origin and the fact that they are in the wrong state. Interestingly, the people share the same Benue South Senatorial Constituency with Senate President, David Mark. Though Igbos , the Umuezeokoha Community, due perhaps to accident of history, are found in Benue State instead of Ebonyi State , being the closest Igbo state where their kinsmen, the Ezza Ezekuna kindred are found.

According to the President, Benue Igbo Union, Mr. Nweke Cedrick Ifeanyi, his people are wallowing in poverty and neglect and are often denied democracy dividends, including obtaining local government identification letters for employment in and outside the state.

Historical background of Igbos in Benue

Mr. Nweke said the Igbos in Benue State, particularly those in Ado, Oju, Okpoku and Obi Local Government Areas were in existence before the advent of Christianity in Nigeria. But since then, he lamented, they have not been recognized by successive governments both at the state and federal levels in both Ebonyi and Benue states.

“Although before the independence and the Nigerian civil war, which lasted for about three years, we used to experience government attention to the extent that the missionaries then established one local primary school at Umuezeokoha community which comprises over 300 villages of Igbo speaking areas that time. The school was generally accepted by our elders then and we did witness medical attention.

“But since after the civil war, we in the entire 300 Igbo-speaking villages in Benue State have been dumped by the Nigerian government. It is worse for those in Benue South Senatorial District. We have never experienced any government attention, let alone a project from the local, state and federal governments up till date.”

The Igbo Union President also disclosed that a place with a population of over one million people has no designated political ward, no councillorship representative at the local government level nor at the state government level despite their voting population. He said even Senator David Mark and Governor Gabriel Suswan have been winning all their elections in the area.

Mr. Nweke also narrated how their children die in their large numbers because of lack of immunization, which he said they have never witnessed since the return of democracy. He also painted a gory picture of how they were swindled of N6,000 each for insecticide treated mosquito nets, which were given free to neighbouring communities by the federal government.

“We are lacking so many things, including a health centre, political ward, good roads, good water, electricity. There is no salary earner in our place to the extent that the mosquito treated insecticide nets given freely by the federal government was sold to us at the rate of N6,000 each, some even paid without claiming it till date,” Nweke said.

“All our roads are narrow; we do not have any motorable road in our area at all, last time when we visited the local government chairmen and complained about the issue of selling mosquito nets to us, what they said was that the era of mosquito nets had come and gone. This attracted exchange of gazes, and the question weather we are still a part of this country. Imagine as we are in this dry season, we hardly see water to drink, wash and cook, talk less of taking bath. Before we see water to do something, one has to trek up to 30 kilometres to a place where there is an unpurified dam water, but in this place, you must queue up in a line before it will get to your turn,” he said.

Another member of the community, Chief John Nwali also narrated the ordeal of the people in the hands of successive governments in the state, adding, “sometimes we do lament whether we are different from other human beings created by God. Some of them that claim to be natives of the state mock us by telling us to wait to benefit from government only when the Biafran nation which we fought for comes into reality.”

“At times we nurse the idea of belonging to another country. In fact, if we are close to another country, we could have declared our intention to become their citizens, but this one we are in the midst of Nigeria, we speak Nigerian language, practice Nigerian culture and religion, in every election we vote and still we are treated with great scorn and neglect as if we are not existing. Yet, we have somebody like the Senate President, living in Abuja with our mandate.

“Even in the last 2011 general election, I was the PDP Campaign Coordinator for Benue Igbo branch, but since that time till now, we are still in the same condition. We have been regarded as slaves in the country of our own. Even the only primary school that was built by the missionary before Independence is no more attracting government attention. The school is now in a sorry state. The only secondary school we have as of now is one at Saint Charles Catholic Church at Apa Ogbozu community, which was initiated by one Reverend Father.”

“We do not have anybody in the Benue State Government cabinet both in the local, state and in federal levels. We are all confused on what to do and where to go because we do not know when this indefinite discrimination will come to an end because even to the extent that the local government identification letters are no more being given to us any longer as Nigerian citizens.”

Chief Nwali also said that during rainy season, their people get drowned in water and disclosed that none of the streams, rivers and lakes has any bridge and lamented that during the last flood incident, they lost almost all their farm lands and every other thing they had laboured for.

“The political oppression which we have been subjected to is very serious. Even one of the biggest rivers we have has not attracted government attention, just to build a bridge across it. Last year, more than 20 people died while trying to cross the river for their normal daily business. We have made so many efforts to visit our Governor, Gabriel Suswan and our Senator, David Mark, to table our problem before them, but all to no avail.”

An octogenarian, Pa Nwankwo Alo said: “Our children have not been immunized over the years, let alone polio eradication programme. Our women do not even know what is hospital when they are pregnant because there are no hospitals to attend and yet we have up to 32 polling units. We have even called for more polling units because we are more than the present one but the government refused even as this national confab draws nearer, there is nobody to speak for us.”