An Untapped State

I am an Igbo girl from Abia State. My father is from Amaeke and my mother from Uru both in Lokpanta in Umunneochi Local Government Area, Abia State. These make me a full Abian, pure and unadulterated and I do not have any regrets whatsoever. 

Lokpanta until recently was an unknown Igbo community, a village where almost everyone knows everyone.

A wu m ezigbo nwa afo Lokpanta, nwa afo Abia State, Ada Igbo ka m wu.

Abia Igbo dialect is unique and not very common; some men have confessed that the dialect made them woo their ladies better and also some women have been able to hold down their men because of their mastery of the Abia Igbo dialect. I particularly find this type of Igbo very sexy and I call it the French of the Igbo language!

I am struggling so hard to remember notable persons from Abia state that I am proud of but it’s been so difficult and Google is not helping much. This may be due to the fact that Abia state is one of the youngest states in Nigeria.

Alas! There is Michael Okpara who was a political leader and Premier of Eastern Nigeria during the First Republic. He was also a member of the Royal Academy of Physicians of the Great Britain. 

One remarkable thing about him was that he never owned a private house while he was in government, a lot different from what we see these days; but before he returned from exile in 1979, his close associates and beneficiaries collectively built him a house in his village.

The history of Nigeria will be incomplete without a mention of the infamous Aba Women's riot. That was true feminism, not verbal or written but physical feminism which saw women from all over the eastern part of Nigeria put their lives on the line for a laudable cause.

I can also boast of our rich cultural heritage, the Abriba/Ohafia or Lokpanta war dance is usually a sight to behold and I am yet to see a dance so noble in Igbo land, the men are usually well built and have the skills of moving their chests rhythmically to the sound of the music. 

I am quite proud of my father, HRH. Sir Ferdinand Eke, Udumeze II of Lokpanta, the first lawyer from Lokpanta and the first and only man from Lokpanta to be elected into the Federal House of Assembly in Nigeria. He was also the first black man to head the department of Lands and Legal in Shell BP.  

I am equally proud of my beautiful mother for all the humanitarian work she did in her lifetime; she was also the first person/woman to own a piggery farm in Lokpanta, which must count for something. Right?

Growing up, we made a lot of trips to Lokpanta and those trips made me fall in love with my village. Most of the food we ate came straight from our farm; yam, palm kernel, cassava, coco yam, pumpkin, corn and various fruits. I wouldn’t trade my heritage for anything, it’s rich and loaded. 

While other Igbo communities have to buy plots of land in their own villages to build a house to live in, the expanse of lands in Abia state makes it easy for indigenes to come home and build in peace. It takes just a pointing of the finger and you get your “Ala obi” (bequeathed piece of land) and that’s it, you just build away!

Memories of my ancient Lokpanta village brought out the writing skills I never knew I had and my very talented cousin Chika Unigwe who has some Abia blood in her though an Anambraian sure inspired me to write.

She doesn't know this but she did, when she published her book of poems, It was one of her earliest works and I must have been in primary school then. I was motivated to pen down my thoughts in a book which turned into a compilation of poems but a sister of mine killed that young dream when she burnt the book as litter.

I grew up in the coal city when it was still under Anambra State and so Enugu will forever remain dear to me. My own Igbo dialect is a unique blend of Abia and Anambra.

Along the line I met and married an Onitsha man, so what does that make me? Abia/Enugu/Anambra indigene maybe or a well rounded Igbo.

I must admit that I have a confusing mixture of the Igbo language, I now laa mmili instead of iñu mmiri and I will never understand how chacha(wash) can replace isacha(wash).

When I really want to be different I speak the Lokpanta Igbo which can only be understood by Lokpa people and this brings me to another important factor in Abia state.

There are several tongues spoken by the different tribes in Abia, all inimitable and peculiar only to the tribes that speak them.

I have an advice for the youth of Abia state; Abia wasn’t lucky with producing a lot of great men who helped shape our nation (though I wouldn’t beat myself over that, the nation is yet to find its right shape) but there is a huge opportunity to get some things right and put our state and our names right there on the map of the world.

Abia is an untapped state with its fair share of bad governance and it cries out for help, Aba the China, Dubai, Germany and Italy all in one of Nigeria cries for development, it cries for investment and it cries for justice. 

“The Youth are the leaders of tomorrow” is not just a phrase for the books, it should be lived out fully and so the work is clearly cut out for our young people and those who feel up to it.

Chimamanda Adichie whose write up I have just attempted unsuccessfully to copy is a big inspiration to me and she is one woman that I am so proud of.  She is such a genius that it is almost magical and I hope she gets to read this copy cat article of mine.

My name is Amaka Eke Nwosisi, a true daughter of the Igbo Soil, a true Nigerian and proudly from Abia State.

Kpomkwem!