If Anioma State must be created, it must not be done to correct an “imbalance” in the South-East. To do that would be treacherous, wicked and unjust. We are not Igbo; and states are not created on the basis of ethnicity in Nigeria. Geographically and politically, we have always been in the West
By Dumbi Osani
In an earlier article titled, “State Creation, Political Frivolities and the Anioma Question”, I debunked Senator Ned Nwoko’s assertion that the people of Delta North Senatorial District are Igbo. I categorically affirmed, based on linguistic and cultural facts, that the Ukwuani are not Igbo. I also questioned why the Senator is particular about Igbo ethnic grouping when ethnicity is not a criterion for state creation in Nigeria.
Many other people have also disagreed with the Senator on the identity of the people of the Delta North region. But he would not listen. Instead, he ran to Channels Television where, in an interview aired on Sunday, October 26, 2025, all he did was a demonstration of ethnic bigotry. He said that the indigenes of Delta North have been at various periods called “Western Igbo”, “Midwestern Igbo”, “Bendel Igbo” and so on, and that Ika has been called “Ika Igbo”. This is not true. He deliberately used the word “Igbo” instead of “Ibo” to create the impression that the word “Igbo” has been used from the beginning. The truth is that the educated class has generally been using the word “Ibo” to refer to the people. This is evidenced by the title of Elizabeth Isichei’s book *The Ibo People and the Europeans* (Faber and Faber, 1973). The classifications have been “Western Ibo”, “Midwestern Ibo”, “Bendel Ibo”, “Delta Ibo”, and then “Ika Ibo”.
However, it does not matter whether it has been “Western Ibo” or “Western Igbo”, “Ika Ibo” or “Ika Igbo”. What matters is that the classifications are meaningless political labels. There is no ethnic group in Nigeria called “Ibo”, so there cannot be Western something that does not exist. In addition, Igbo is not the ancestral cultural name by which the people know and call themselves; so, to call them “Western Igbo” or “Ika Igbo” is to impose an artificial label on them. A child should be known and called by the name his parents gave him. In the same way, an ethnic group should be known, called and addressed by its indigenous, ancestral name, not by an invented label. One of the worrisome attitudinal flaws in our part of the world is, often, the reckless disregard for specificity. It is an attitude that is unscientific, primitive and dangerous. Instead of artificial labels, the people in Delta North should be known and called by their original ancestral names: Enuani, Ika, and Ukwuani.
The boundaries of a true Anioma State must lie within the South-South geopolitical zone. We reject historical distortion. We reject geographical distortion. We reject geopolitital distortion. We reject annexation. We reject assimilation because we must preserve our heritage
Quite rightly, the Yoruboid ethnic group in Delta South is known and called by its traditional name, Itsekiri, not Yoruba. The Edoid groups in Delta Central, the Isoko and the Urhobo, are also known and called by their specific traditional names, not Edo. The question is: why is it that it is only the Igboid units that are lumped together and called “Ibo” or “Igbo”? The anomaly is traceable to the European colonizers, the indigenous people of the area, successive regional governments, and the political class in the Delta North District.
The Europeans did not understand the indigenous languages they heard people speak on both sides of the southern area of the River Niger. They only noticed similarities in the sound of many of the words they heard. Since they were neither linguists nor ethnologists, everybody became “Ibo”, a corruption of Igbo. Since the people may not have rejected the colonial label outright, their individual ethnic names were overshadowed by the European umbrella name.
Successive regional governments have not bothered to know and respect the names by which the people call themselves. For that reason, people across the country, even political leaders, have come to accept the “Ibo” appellation, particularly because it sounds Western, to the extent that Ika is sometimes referred to as “Ika-Ibo”. Even when global experts have provided authentic classifications, some Nigerian people still grope in the dark. Another problem is that, unlike the Edo and the Yoruba, some people across the Niger seem to manifest assimilationist and expansionist tendencies. For them, any person that speaks a language that has some similarities with Igbo is, automatically, Igbo. That is a wrong attitude that must change in the light of global standards.
In Europe, there is a group of languages called the Romance languages and they include French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and Romanian. They are called Romance languages because they all developed from Latin in Rome. In spite of the similarities in these languages, the countries where they are spoken remain separate sovereign states, and the people retain their cultural autonomy. Nobody compels all of them to become Romans. For the political class in Delta North and elsewhere, the belief has been that a politician will be relevant only when he aligns with a large ethnic group. And, since in Nigeria, politics is synonymous with material wealth, some young politicians publicly deny their small “miserable” ethnic origins in order “to belong” and “make it”. Some others, even older ones, do the same in their pursuit of high political offices. In my region of the country, accepting one’s small, true ethnic identity is, unfortunately, considered “self-denial”.
This situation partly explains why the distinct ethnic groups in that region are unknown. All ethnic groups in Nigeria, both big and small, have equal status as autonomous cultural units. There are no sub-ethnic groups, or inferior groups or superior ethnic groups. The difference is only in population. In a civilized society, someone can aspire to occupy the highest office in his country irrespective of his social, ethnic or racial background. It is not so in my country because we vigorously practise primitive ethnic and religious politics.
In the Channels Television appearance earlier mentioned, Senator Prince Ned Nwoko again stated that Ika and Ukwuani are Igbo; and that their languages are dialects of Igbo; erroneously comparing the situation to that of dialects in Yoruba language. What I found very funny was his saying that the people eat Igbo food and bear Igbo names. He even claimed to understand the Ukwuani language.
I will focus on the Ukwuani aspect. First, saying that Ukwuani is Igbo is a fallacy. Something cannot be one thing and, at the same time, another. Ukwuani is a globally recognised language on its own; therefore it is illogical and, indeed, meaningless, to say that the language is yet another language. Turning round to say that Ukwuani is a dialect of Igbo, shows why, in my earlier article, I said many people use the word “dialect” without knowing its meaning.
Yes, dialects of the Yoruba language are REGIONAL varieties of the standard Yoruba. Native speakers of any of the Yoruba dialects can switch effortlessly from the dialect to the standard Yoruba. That is, all Yoruba people, no matter their dialects, understand and speak the standard Yoruba fluently because it is their language. All Yoruba literatures, including the Bible, are written in standard Yoruba, and all literate Yoruba people can read and understand them. The situation of the relationship between Ukwuani and Igbo is totally different. Linguistically, Ukwuani is not a REGIONAL variety of Igbo. It is a separate language. It is also not the language of a social class within the Igbo language community. Ukwuaniland is geographically in the West, well outside the Igbo speech community. The Igbo people do not understand Ukwuani, and the Ukwuani cannot speak Igbo “functionally”. No literate Ukwuani person can read and understand the Igbo Bible, written in what they call central Igbo. The claim that Senator Nwoko made that he can speak Ukwuani is false; unless he learnt the language somewhere. No doubt, because Ukwuani is an Igboid language, he can pick some words here and there when he hears the people speak; but understanding a language, which includes speaking it idiomatically, is much more than that. The Ukwuani language has three main dialects; but they are dialects of Ukwuani, not dialects of any other language, just as Yoruba dialects are not of any other language but Yoruba. The Aboh people speak Aboh, not Igbo. That is what an average Aboh man or woman would say, but Aboh is not a dialect of Igbo.
What I am doing in this article is not about personal opinion, it is not about pseudo-history; it is also not about mean tribal politics nor ignorant social media vulgarities in Nigeria. It is about Linguistics and language classifications. The explanations I am making are based on the scholarly works of leading linguists in the world.
To show how desperate and mean some people can be, a false and fraudulent entry in an online source is quoted below: “Igbo has many dialects, including major ones like Owerri, Onitsha, and Nsukka, with over 30 recognized dialects spoken across Southeastern Nigeria. Examples include Ukwuani, Ngwa, Ogba, and Ikwerre, which differ in pronunciation, spelling and grammar.”
Unfortunately for the fraudster, he forgot that Ukwuaniland is not in South-Eastern Nigeria. There is no authoritative source anywhere in the world where Ukwuani is listed as a dialect of Igbo. When I heard the Senator say Ukwuani people eat Igbo food, I saw ethnicity transformed into childishness. What is Igbo food? The Ukwuani people eat African food such as eba, rice, yam, plantain, mpiko (akpu or fufu) pounded yam, amala, starch (usi) egusi soup, okra, isege, banga soup, bitter leaf soup, vegetable soup and so on. If there are kinds of food that are exclusive to the Igbo, the Ukwuani don’t know them.
Names cannot be reasonably used as markers for national, racial or ethnic identity. In Europe, names such as Christopher, Alexander, Francis and Angela are not borne by the English alone, but also by other nationals, even though their spellings and pronunciations may differ. The Ukwuani bear names associated with other ethnic groups because they are sociable lovers of their neighbours. They bear Isoko and Urhobo names such as Umukoro, Ogboru, Ese, Onome, Ufuoma. They bear Bini names or names derived from Bini because of their historical connection with the ancient kingdom. Examples: Osakwe, Eke, Iyesele, Isama, Igwala, Ozegbe. They bear Yoruba names, because many of them live in Yorubaland, a land of receptive and accommodating people. They bear Alabi, Ayo, Idowu, Dele, Olaposi, Omowumi, and so on. The Ukwuani also bear names that are similar to those the Enuani people bear: Ishicheli (Isichei), Opone (Opene) Onyachom (Onyeachonam), Osedeme (Osadebay). They bear some Igbo names: Uche, Onyinye, Obi. The other names which people think are Igbo names are actually Ukwuani names. They are theophanic names, which the Igbo also bear; however, in the Ukwuani version, the names differ in spelling and pronunciation: Chukuma, Chika, Chukudi, Chukuneku. The Ukwuani do not bear typical Igbo names: Okafor, Okeke, Okolie, Okonkwo, Obinna etc.
Why would anybody say the Ukwuani are Igbo just because they bear a few Igbo names? Why are they not called Isoko or Urhobo or Bini or Yoruba since they also bear some of the names which these ethnic nationalities bear? The great nationalist Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe named his first son, Bamidele. He was Chief Chukwuma Bamidele Azikiwe. Did that make him Yoruba? There is something fundamentally wrong in the thinking of many men.
However, for those who don’t know, there are indigenous names which are traditionally Ukwuani, but nothing prevents other people from bearing them: Azonobi, Animam, Elimuya, Enemuwe, Ilome, Ikuni, Njetene, Omoko, Osekene, Uti (male) Anie, Elem, Ekaba, Ifekam, Konum, Mgbocha, Mgbolise, Omude, Ojinika, Uligi (female), etc. A comprehensive list of traditional Ukwuani names will be published on social media for the education of our children and to correct those who ignorantly say we bear Igbo names.
It is disrespectful for Senator Nwoko to go on air and announce an ethnic identity that he has prescribed for the Ukwuani. I consider it a slight on our people. Nobody has the moral right to do that. We know who we are. We are Ukwuani and no one can change that.
Now to state creation. The Anioma people should stand together. We know our history, our culture, and our tongues. While I appreciate the courage that some of our traditional rulers have so far shown, I must say that there is need to be steadfast.
Mischievous politicians are on the prowl. They are eyeing the oil and gas resources in our land. People should not sell their children’s future for monetary inducements. They say a referendum will come soon and it will involve all the five states of eastern Nigeria. Why will it be so? As a matter of fact, who is Senator Nwoko representing?
If Anioma State must be created, it must not be done to correct an “imbalance” in the South-East. To do that would be treacherous, wicked and unjust. We are not Igbo; and states are not created on the basis of ethnicity in Nigeria. Geographically and politically, we have always been in the West. The boundaries of a true Anioma State must lie within the South-South geopolitical zone. We reject historical distortion. We reject geographical distortion. We reject geopolitital distortion. We reject annexation. We reject assimilation because we must preserve our heritage.
God bless Delta State. God Bless Nigeria.
•Dr. Dumbi Osani, a cultural and political activist, wrote from Obiaruku, Delta State.
•Opinions, positions or thoughts expressed here are personal and strictly of the writer/author and do not represent the views of The Daily Crucible.
