Sir: Over the years, the people of the South-East geo-political zone have been clamouring for an additional state to bring them at par with the other five geo-political zones in the country. The North-East, North Central, South-South and South-West have six states each. The North-West has seven.
Unfortunately, we have only five states in the South-East. In alphabetical order, they are Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo states. Although the zone is predominantly populated by Igbo ethnic group, it has very minute Igala population in parts of Anambra and Enugu states.
Hence, being a South-Easterner, you could imagine how ecstatic I felt when I read in the media a few days ago that the House of Representatives has moved to create an additional state in the South-East. However, my initial joy was cut short when I discovered that the principal sponsor of the bill for the creation of the additional state, Hon. Ikenga Imo Ugochinyere, proposed the creation of Orlu State, to comprise 28 local government areas, to be drawn from Imo, Abia and Anambra states.
Ugochinyere also recommended his Orlu senatorial zone to host the capital city of his Orlu State. He equally suggested that the establishment of Orlu State could result in the formation of a senatorial district from Ideato, the area he represents in the House.
While I fully support the agitation for an additional state in the South-East, I think that the choice of the location should be made by mutual agreement and not legislative braggadocio. In a democratic setting, a state cannot be created by unilaterally lumping some areas together under whatsoever name.
Certainly, I am sure that even in the wildest imagination of our people in Ozubulu, they will not like to be associated with the so called Orlu State. So, from where did Ugochinyere get the mandate to include Ozubulu and other mentioned local governments in Anambra State in his Orlu State?
In fact, I remember vividly that our people totally rejected the attempt by Senator Arthur Nzeribe (now late) to include them in Urashi State during the public hearing for the 2006 Constitutional Amendment bill. Nzeribe had proposed his hometown, Oguta, as the capital of Urashi State. In the said Constitutional Amendment bill, state creation was tied together with the Third Term agenda of the then President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo. Regrettably, the baby was thrown away with the bath water.
A saying goes that those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it. The hope of the South-East for an additional state may once be dashed by the selfishness and egocentrism of people like Ugochinyere. A matter as serious as state creation ought to have been subjected to wider consultation in the region and not for one individual to take advantage of his privileged membership of the Green Chamber to push for the creation of a state, with his senatorial zone as the host of the state capital and the federal constituency he represents, as senatorial district.
•Chekwube Nzomiwu wrote from Awka, Anambra State.
