|
Listen to article
|
The United Igbo Elders Council, UNIEC Worldwide, has described the creation of Anioma State as a historical necessity and not a political convenience.
It also said that it is a litmus test of Nigeria’s sincerity about justice, equity, and true federalism, adding that the creation of Anioma State is a test of justice and will be a moment for history.
UNIEC in a statement by its Director General, His Lordship, Justice Alpha Ikpeama, National Director, Media and Publicity, Prof. Obasi Igwe, titled “Anioma State is a test of justice, a moment for history”, said that Nigeria stands once again at the threshold of a defining national decision with the creation of Anioma State.
The Igbo elders said that the renewed legislative momentum for the creation of Anioma State publicly affirmed under the leadership of by Godswill Akpabio and driven with uncommon clarity by Senator Ned Nwoko, is not just another constitutional exercise.
“The creation of Anioma State is a litmus test of Nigeria’s sincerity about justice, equity, and true federalism. Let us be clear: the Anioma State creation question is not a political convenience. It is a historical necessity.
Read Also: Otti Unveils Plan To Sever Abia’s National Grid Dependence
“For decades, the Anioma people culturally, linguistically, and historically aligned with the Igbo nation, have lived within a structural arrangement that has neither fully reflected their identity nor adequately served their developmental aspirations.
“Their call for a distinct federating unit is not rooted in division, but in dignity. Not in exclusion, but in inclusion. To ignore this demand any longer is to perpetuate a quiet injustice.
UNIEC said that beyond political and moral imperative, the endorsement of Anioma State by the National Assembly, with reported overwhelming senatorial backing, signals something deeper than legislative consensus, adding that it signals a national awakening.
Anioma State creation will affirms that Nigeria, despite its many perceived contradictions, still possesses the capacity to correct structural imbalances.
“The administration of Bola Ahmed Tinubu, must now rise to the weight of this moment. History will not remember procedural delays. It will remember courage or the lack of it.
“If Nigeria truly seeks stability, then it must embrace fairness. If it desires unity, then it must institutionalize equity. Anioma State is one such opportunity.”
According to UNIEC, the proposed designation of Asaba as the capital of Anioma State, and Warri as the capital of a restructured Delta State, is both strategic and symbolic. Warri and Asaba will therefore be symbols of balance not division.
“Asaba represents identity’s cultural and political heartbeat long recognized by its people. Warri represents capacity and industrial and economic hub with the infrastructure to sustain administrative leadership.
“This is not a zero-sum arrangement. It is a model of balance Nigeria desperately needs, where identity and efficiency coexist, not compete.”
On what it described as the danger of delay in creating Anioma State, UNIEC said that Nigeria has a troubling history of acknowledging legitimate demands, only to suffocate them in endless committees, political hesitation, and bureaucratic inertia.
*This must not be another such story.
The constitutional process must be followed, yes, but it must not be weaponized as a tool of delay. Transparency, consultation, and legality are essential. But so too is urgency.
“Every delay deepens distrust. Every hesitation reinforces the perception that some regions must perpetually negotiate for recognition, while others take it for granted.
“Creation of Anioma State is therefore a defining choice for Nigeria.The creation of Anioma State, is bigger than Delta State. Bigger than the South-South. Bigger, even, than the South-East.
“It is about whether Nigeria is prepared to evolve into a federation that works for all its people, or remain trapped in a structure that serves only a few. This is a moment of reckoning. The National Assembly has taken a bold step. The Nigerian people are watching. The world is observing.
“Nigeria must now decide if it will act with justice or retreat into familiar hesitation. Anioma State is not a favor to a people. It is a right long overdue. To deny it is to deny the very principles upon which a just federation stands.
“To grant it is to send a powerful message that Nigeria, despite its challenges, is still capable of fairness, courage, and historic redemption. The time is not tomorrow. The time is now.”
Abia State Governor Alex Otti has set out a plan to sever his state entirely from Nigeria’s chronically unstable national electricity grid, disclosing Friday that his administration is already in active negotiations in the Netherlands to secure the energy deals that would make that break possible.
The announcement positions Abia as one of the most ambitious states in Nigeria’s slowly fragmenting energy landscape — a federation in which the centre is losing its grip on power delivery and states are increasingly being forced to find their own solutions to a problem the federal government has repeatedly failed to solve.
Otti said the state’s commercial hub, Aba, has already been taken off the national grid entirely, running on independent power supply that the state has been building out for some time. The remaining task is to extend that energy independence to Umuahia, the state capital, and to the communities spread across Abia’s 17 local government areas. The key variable is capacity: Otti said the state needs an additional 125 megawatts to make full grid independence viable, and it is that target that is driving the current negotiations abroad.
“My honourable commissioner for Power and Public Utilities is in the Netherlands negotiating that,” Otti said. “Even though it’s a private enterprise, we are interested in supporting them to grow because it’s all for us.”
The formulation — backing private enterprise as a vehicle for public benefit — reflects the broader governing philosophy Otti has brought to Abia since his election, one that treats state government less as a direct service provider and more as a facilitator of private-sector activity that serves the public interest. The electricity push fits that pattern, with the state using diplomatic and financial leverage to attract investment rather than attempting to build or own the infrastructure itself.
“So if we have another 125 megawatts, we will just channel it straight to Umuahia and detach the entire state from the national grid. That’s our vision,” Otti said.
Read also: Otti: Abia Healthcare Facilities Meet WHO Global Standards
The timing of the disclosure is hardly coincidental. Nigeria’s national grid has suffered multiple, cascading collapses since the start of the year, plunging homes, hospitals, businesses and schools across the country into extended darkness with a frequency and unpredictability that has made sustained economic activity extremely difficult. The Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, has publicly apologised for the situation while simultaneously arguing that the scale of the dysfunction lies beyond the federal government’s capacity to fix — an acknowledgement that offered aggrieved Nigerians accountability without remedy.
For states watching that admission from Abuja, the message has been clear: help is not coming in any form that will matter within a planning horizon that businesses and citizens can actually act on. Abia’s response is to exit the system rather than wait for it to improve.
The implications, if Otti’s plan succeeds, extend beyond Abia’s borders. A state that achieves genuine grid independence at scale would demonstrate something that Nigeria’s energy discourse has long debated in theory but rarely tested in practice — that subnational governments, given sufficient political will and access to private capital, can deliver reliable electricity where the federal infrastructure has failed. The demonstration effect could accelerate similar efforts in other states, deepening the fragmentation of national energy governance in ways that may be economically rational for individual states while raising longer-term questions about the coherence of national energy policy.
Aba’s existing experience off the grid provides Otti with a proof of concept that most governors lack. The commercial city’s businesses and residents have been living the independent power experiment long enough for the model’s strengths and limitations to be visible. That the governor is now pushing to replicate and expand it to the rest of the state — backed by foreign investment being negotiated at the commissioner level in Europe — suggests the Aba experience has been sufficiently positive to justify the ambition.
