Even the best English language teacher will find it extremely inexplicable to find a single word to describe the present situation of Anioma which I consider very egregious. There seems no better way to correctly describe this situation than to state that Anioma is a land that flows with milk and honey, abundant human and natural resources, but developmental values are strange to the land and its people. Only an admixture of trepidation, deep sense of commitment and responsibility on the part of Anioma religious, community and political leaders will lead to path to Promised Land of development of the region.
The Anioma professionals are diversely represented in all human endeavours with wealthy businessmen, top politicians, professors, who are contributors to the business of the development of the nation at large, yet their home, Anioma is lacking in virtually every indices that should set the Land to development. The state is headquartered in Asaba from where the governance of the state emanate, yet there is nothing to show for it in Anioma.
Ibusa is one of the largest towns in the region with quite an enormous number of technocrats known the world over, Anwai and Ogwashi-Uku house campuses of tertiary institutions in the state yet development remains only a matter of hope to the people of this region. The Anioma region cannot boast of a socio-cultural organization, a situation that has left the region in want of identity, causing diversity to speak for the region when it is necessary.
Blames for lack of the development of this region particularly points to the political leaders of Anioma, those appointed and elected to speak and lead the region. Pundits say the voices of political representatives of Anioma are never heard as it concerns development even though personalities of Anioma enjoy political positions in Delta State and beyond. The current Chairman of People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Delta State chapter, the speaker of Delta State House of Assembly, the Minority Leader of Delta state House of Assembly, Secretary to the State Government of Delta State and several other commissioners in this present dispensation are all Anioma.
In the past, Anioma enjoined prominent positions chiefly the Deputy Governorship of the state, yet development remains far from the region. The major problem confronting the entire region is lack of roads accessible to the vast towns and communities of the region. It is sad to recall that many communities of the region do not have roads at all. Only paths exist in these communities, thus the name “Anioma” sounds very high with little or no development at all. Even Asaba, the state capital is only famous for the single road, Nnebisi Road which it has. Ibusa s also another Anioma town with only one Road called Umejei Road; this Umejei Road house all the three Banks the town can boast of, there are no dual carriage roads in Ibusa. Umejei Road now under construction can hardly contain two vehicles, initially expectations were high that the narrow road would be transformed to a dual carriage but as work on the road commenced it turned out that the narrowness of the road was to be maintained by the government. The people of the town therefore had no option than accept it the way it is. Half bread they say is better than none. At least we thank the initiators for the resurfacing of the road, and indeed every sons and daughters who contributed to the resurfacing of the road while hoping that the dream of making the busiest road in the town a dual carriage will be realized.
Recently, I visited some Anioma communities in Delta state only to discover that there are some communities in the region not accessible with vehicles except motorcycles. Any first time visitor to Ubulu-Unor will definitely be appalled with the path linking the town with another community called Ashama. This road is so terrible that people in that town would need to have a rethink on whether to purchase vehicles or not for personal use, at Ashama, you may need to ask yourself whether the town falls within any of the Local Governments existing in Delta State or not and if the community is represented in the affairs of the state. I inquired from my Guide whether any political bigwig has ever traveled to the town, and his answer was in the affirmative. He further told me that road work equipment are often abandoned on the path called road whenever it is time for elections.
A journey further inward was too terrible to contemplate, I received a warning that we could not travel by car to Asaba-Ubulu, we quickly disembarked and mounted a commercial motorcycle, at Asaba-Ubulu-Unor, I discovered that the presence of the government is never felt but they only hear of it from radio sets. I was extremely frightened and shocked to discover that there could be a community without a road no matter how small that very community is.
Another socio-political problem confronting the Anioma region is the inactivity of Anioma public office holders soon after they leave office. When an Anioma political officer holder leaves office, inactivity takes over, in this way, the political and economic affairs of the region are abandoned, and their voices from the political scene are never heard again, this cause Anioma to remain static. Anioma then is overshadowed by her other ethnic counterparts.
You will sometimes be left wondering what message Anioma leaders often carry to the nation’s president, when they pay him courtesy calls because nothing is ever heard of such visits again either no actions seen from the nation’s leader that will usher in development. Many at times, we are glad on seeing our leaders photographed with the nation’s president on courtesy calls, but no sooner we rejoice than our hopes fade out because no actions come from such visits.
The much cherished agitation for the creation of Anioma State which the region’s fathers began are never mentioned or at least in public statements. Senator David Mark is still expecting Anioma leaders to carry officially the message of creation of Anioma state to him. Other regions agitating for the creation of their own states have paid the senate leader visits to register their ambitions. Only yesterday, Group agitating for the creation of Ijebu State became the latest group to join the train. We still await similar action from our Anioma Group.
We do not hear our Anioma representatives move motions in our legislative houses for the benefit of developing the Anioma region.. Many Ukwani and Ndokwa communities are hidden to development because they are strategically cut-off. Sadly certain of Anioma Local Government are headquarters are won through political influence rather than consideration for natural and overwhelming indices, hidden and smaller less vibrant villages are made to house the headquarters of several Local Government Areas of Anioma region, while natural and more viable towns are relegated to the background. Naturally, investors shun these so called Local Government Headquarters with profound interest for already developing communities.
Anioma leaders need to wake up from their slumbering attitude towards the issues of the development of the region. The people of the region have experienced marginalization long enough to experience another, first in the hands of the Iduu (Benin), the British during the Ekumeku wars which led the British to balkanize the region, the inclusion of Anioma in the once Midwestern region carried no significant benefits, back to the inclusion of the region in the former Bendel State where the region experienced so much stagnancy. We cannot this time, marginalize ourselves in the face of plenty, it is on this basis that I call on our leaders go for the development of this area.
