Oro Nation, the third largest ethnic nationality in Akwa Ibom state has disagreed with the government over the name-change and relocation of the age-long Ibaka deep seaport.
The people insisted that they won’t concede to positions averse to their interest, especially as it relates to the seaport.
Speaking at the Oron civic centre on Tuesday during a stakeholders’ engagement with the state government’s technical committee on the implementation of the seaport, the President-General of Oron Union, Bishop Etim Ante, stated that the enduring history of Ibaka seaport cannot be dismissed.
He stated that the government of Arch. Obong Victor Attah initiated the project with site and name favouring Ibaka which prompted a lot of Oro natives and beyond to purchase landed properties in Ibaka, in preparation for business opportunities at the port.
Ante disclosed that Oro will not accept a seaport which does not properly accommodate and integrate the interest of the Oron people, whom he said have suffered undue marginalisation, even with being the “goose that lays the golden egg”.
Presenting a copy of the petition of the Oron people to the Chairperson of the implementation committee, Barr Mfon Usoro, the President General (PG) told the committee to take time and study the petition because discussion must be done line-by-line in the next meeting.
The PG who thanked the governor for his commitment and passion in making sure the seaport comes alive, added that the said petition was recently sent to the State Governor on the matter, to afford Oro the opportunity to interface with government to ensure that their agitations are addressed.
In his address, the Chairman of Oro Think Tank (OTT)CrownPrince Chris Abasi Eyo reiterated the resolve of the Oron people to resist every plot to remove the seaport from its long known site.
He traced the history of Ibaka Bay and its popularity to 600BC, revealing how the first European female explorer, Mary Henrietta Kingsley had since 1897, recommended to the British Colonial masters to site a replica of the Port of Liverpool in Ibaka.
The OTT Chairman believed the water transportation by Elder Dempster in 1920 and the emergence of Oron Terminal “as a major hub and one of the busiest in the country with highest tonnages”, during the establishment of the Inland Waterways Department in the 1950s, also made Ibaka standout as the site for the seaport in the 1970s which was rather taken to Calabar for political reasons.
Chris Abasi Eyo recalled how the governor of the then South-Eastern state, Brig. Gen. U. J. Esuene, denied Ibaka the natural right of hosting the operational base of Mobil and how “politics played out in the early 1980s, when Ibaka was chosen out of the lots, as the best location for the first export oriented refinery in Nigeria.
“History won’t repeat itself in this instant case. Ibaka Bay is the most suitable natural harbour for Nigeria. Obong Victor Attah, knew this very well, which is why he renewed the vision to have Ibaka Bay, host a modern deep seaport in its truest sense in Nigeria.
“Notwithstanding the skimble-scamble to deprive Oro of the benefits of its attractive location on the Gulf of Guinea, as long as God is the one who led our ancestors here, it is not over yet.
“Despite being treated as political pariahs, we are a happy people; not even the broken political dreams nor the noisy confusion of this life, can put out the Oro man’s light and happiness, because even those who betray her, mourn for her in their closet-reflections.”
