In the meanwhile, Azumini to the Opobo coasts along the Imo River basin is 20 to 30 klms; Igweocha port/Abonnema wharf to Ubani/Bonny coast is about 30 klms. Both are deep and only need further deepening beyond flat-bottoms and widening, and are contiguous Igbo territories to the Atlantic ocean, opened, owned, used and developed by the Igbo up till 1967 when the blockades and ethnic-cleansings code-named Abandoned Property kicked off.
Before the present reign of undeserved heightened “hatred” and terror countless opportunities opened for several Igbo elites in government (Shagari/Ekwueme, Sani Abacha/his several Igbo supporters, Obasanjo/Igbo elites, Jonathan/Igbo allies) to make the necessary moves and reopen these great contiguous Igbo coastal ports and their multi-modal (road, rail, river, air, cyber, cultural, socioeconomic) re-linkage with the interior to re-trigger the industrial revolution, prosperity and security of the Igbo/East, with positive spillover effects down to the Middle Belt and Maiduguri – but, Ekwueme and clique, in selfish, myopic self- interest, conspired with whomsoever in 1994 to organize a cruel concoction labelled “Southeast,” an only “zone” in the South denied her coastal ports, so he/they could be “President,” facilitated from a “secure” “political base” under their tutelage. Some of us suspected that monies or blackmails may have been involved too. Now, everybody goes to Lagos to buy or sell even a pin and you blame them for asking the Igbo to go home? Did they eventually become President after conspiring to divide the Igbo and transform them into a “dot,” at a time others work hard to unite their own peoples?
Henceforth, all manner of interests and allies have through series of federal governments and their armies and secret services, been making sure that whatever Ohanaeze “leadership” emerges, including the present one, governors, etc subscribe into this enslavement, sponsoring write-ups and teleguided clowning newspaper “interviews” extolling the virtues of the suicide, with deceits ranging from Onitsha “River Port” to the latest deceit called Oguta Lake-Orashi River “dredging” to Degema!
Meanwhile, a nearby Onne port has been “concessioned” to someone else, and functioning through the same “bad” Bonny channel while the original gold, the Port Harcourt port is lying almost dormant, littered with ship relics.
Oguta Lake-Degema is 205 klms approx, Degema to Rio Real or Bonny-Kalabari joint estuary adds another 30 klms approx to reach the coast, making almost 240 klms of deceitful circumnavigation just to ensure the Igbo remain divided, impoverished, and no longer have access to their God-given ports.
The latest imposed Ohanaeze P-G is also the latest deceitful arrangement for the Igbo to have coastal “ports;” openly enlisting British “support,” to enable Igbo have “seaport” – the same British they know too well advised Gowon on Igbo blockade and “land-locking.” In effect, consorting with the British to help them keep his people chained to slavery!
If they are honest why not distance from the deceits and simply ask, enlist, persuade or plead to the same British to instruct their Nigerian stooges to lift the blockades and enable the Igbo resume their ports access and maritime traditions? We have nothing against the British; we only plead as weaker people for them not to continue siding with our destruction. In addition, he will promote sports among Igbo youths, and to garner some legitimacy invoked the “release Nnamdi Kanu” ritual. When Kanu is released and football kicks off, Innoson and other Igbo will then start exporting to Africa and our traders no more threatened elsewhere over ports access?
Oguta-Orashi to Degema is undreadgeable with present technology and economics. With all Nigeria’s love for the Igbo it will take not less than 30 years to reach Bonny – through non-Igbo “unfriendly” territory.
Everybody laughs at the Igbo, their Ohanaeze, politicians and intellectuals in particular! After a minor distance Orashi terminates in marshes, muds, tiny streams, dry lands and rivulets and, unlike Suez canal not bordered by two oceans/water bodies (Mediterranean sea, Indian ocean) or Panama (Atlantic, Pacific oceans) that jointly provide the waters.
By the way, you want to avoid Rivers Igbo having anything to do with hinterland Igbo – but, is Degema not in the same Rivers state? Where are the Igbo intelligentsia, especially intellectuals?
Those who ought not be deceived, but capable of standing strong and thinking through the implications of policy, and the treacheries and betrayals that enslave nations and peoples? Are the Igbo charmed and under a spell; is one who bribed you to sell your people incapable of withdrawing the ill-acquired largesse, knowing you have no trust or legitimacy left? Where in the world are betrayers of their peoples respected?
- Obasi Igwe.
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