Before senatorial zones, before zoning bargains, before military shortcuts, oil calculations and administrative gymnastics, territorial identity in Eastern Nigeria followed a clear and logical order. That order was colonial administration with all its known and understandable imperfections. Under that system, Ohaji, Egbema and Oguta sat firmly within the Owerri administrative universe, alongside territories that extended as far as Port Harcourt.
This is not sentiment.
It is structure.
It is record.
It is history.
Owerri Division and Owerri Province explained plainly.
Much of todays confusion flows from a basic failure to separate Owerri Division from Owerri Province.
Owerri Division was a local administrative unit used for courts, taxation and native authority control. Owerri Province was a much larger colonial formation made up of several divisions, one of which was Owerri Division.
During the 1920s and 1930s, Owerri Division functioned fully within Owerri Province. In the mid 1920s, for reasons of logistics, port access and administrative efficiency, the headquarters of Owerri Province was relocated to Port Harcourt.
That single historical fact collapses many modern myths.
Port Harcourt itself once operated under the administrative authority of Owerri Province.
So when people describe Owerri as small, inland or isolated, they are not engaging history. They are displaying unfamiliarity with colonial geography.
Where Ohaji, Egbema and Oguta stood.
Within this Owerri centred provincial framework, Ohaji, Egbema and Oguta formed the southern riverine belt of the old Owerri Division. They linked the inland Owerri heartland to the lower Niger and coastal trade corridors.
Administratively, the record is consistent.
They were governed from Owerri.
Their courts and tax systems answered to Owerri.
Their missionary and commercial routes passed through Owerri toward Port Harcourt.
At no point were they administered from Orlu. No colonial document treats them as culturally derived from Orlu or administratively dependent on it.
What the old Owerri Division actually covered in the 1930s
Colonial administration did not operate with LGAs as we know them today. Space was organised by clans, districts and native court areas. When those records are carefully reconstructed, the old Owerri Division consisted of four broad zones.
First was the core Owerri and Oratta bloc, comprising Owerri town and the Oratta clan settlements that later became Owerri North.
Second was the greater Owerri hinterland, including Mbaitoli, Ikeduru, Ngor, Nguru and Okpala areas, which later evolved into Mbaitoli, Ikeduru and Ngor Okpala local governments.
Third was the Mbaise axis, notably the Ahiara and Ekwerazu clan blocks. At that time, Mbaise administration flowed through Owerri structures before later reorganisation.
Fourth was the southern riverine belt made up of Ohaji towns, Egbema towns and Oguta with its lake communities.
This riverine belt was not peripheral. It was strategic. It connected inland administration to coastal commerce, which is why colonial authorities treated it as integral.
Port Harcourt in the Owerri story
At the provincial level, Port Harcourt functioned as part of Owerri Province. For a period, it even served as the provincial headquarters. Rail, port and trade administration linked Port Harcourt back to Owerri as its inland anchor.
The administrative chain was simple and logical.
Owerri Division, including core, hinterland and riverine belt, sat inside Owerri Province.
Owerri Province extended to Port Harcourt, which functioned as port and provincial hub.
Against this backdrop, it becomes historically incoherent to argue that Ohaji, Egbema or Oguta were too distant or too different to belong to the Owerri space when Port Harcourt itself once did.
How the Orlu attachment happened
The present attachment of Ohaji, Egbema and Oguta to Orlu did not arise from language, culture, migration, colonial governance or social memory. It emerged from military era restructuring driven by numbers and oil.
Before 1976, these communities sat firmly under Owerri Division and Owerri Province. Orlu existed as a separate upland bloc with its own historical trajectory. There was no Owerri Orlu administrative fusion involving the riverine south.
The disruption began with the creation of Imo State in 1976 under military rule. Boundaries were drawn for manageability rather than historical accuracy. Even then, Ohaji, Egbema and Oguta still retained clear administrative identity within the Owerri space.
The decisive shift came between 1987 and 1991 during successive military restructurings. Local governments multiplied rapidly. Senatorial zones were introduced as entirely new constructs. Numerical balance replaced historical continuity.
Power, numbers and the oil factor
The excision of Ohaji, Egbema and Oguta cannot be understood without acknowledging oil.
By the late 1980s, hydrocarbon presence had become political currency. Oil influenced bargaining power, federal attention and strategic relevance. The southern Owerri riverine belt sat directly on proven and prospective oil fields.
Commercial activity in the Ohaji Egbema axis had long been established, extending into Oguta and adjoining communities. Federal planners understood that administrative placement would determine who controlled the political value attached to oil bearing status.
Oil changed the arithmetic.
Oil bearing territory attracted leverage.
It strengthened negotiating power within a state.
Administrative ownership mattered more than cultural truth.
This is where Ohaji Egbema and Oguta became strategic assets rather than just communities.
Why the riverine belt was vulnerable
At the time these decisions were taken, the riverine Owerri belt had limited elite presence at the federal military centre. Their historical alignment with Owerri was administrative rather than aggressively defended politically. Their geography made them easier to redraw on paper.
In contrast, Orlu elites were organised, numerically dense and politically assertive.
Pulling the southern riverine belt into Orlu achieved two outcomes. It strengthened Orlu numerically and associated the zone with oil producing territory.
This was not culture.
It was consolidation.
The Arthur Nzeribe factor
Within this environment operated Arthur Nzeribe, a dominant Orlu political figure with exceptional access to the military centre during the Babangida era.
Nzeribe represented Orlu interests during a period of intense administrative restructuring. He operated in a system where elite negotiation replaced historical inquiry, and where oil location quietly influenced outcomes.
Oil was not debated publicly in zoning documents. That is how oil politics usually works in Nigeria. Through silence, placement and alignment.
How the arrangement was locked in
Once Ohaji, Egbema and Oguta were grouped administratively with Orlu, oil bearing status followed the zone on paper. Subsequent representation reflected that alignment. When civilian rule returned in 1999, the constitution froze the arrangement without revisiting its logic.
Legal permanence was achieved.
Historical legitimacy was not.
Why this still matters
Ohaji, Egbema and Oguta did not drift away from Owerri. They were reassigned by decree.
Recognising this truth is not an invitation to conflict. It is a call for honesty. Any serious discussion about future restructuring, state creation, zoning equity, political rotation, representation or identity must begin with how these boundaries were actually formed.
Ultimately
The record is consistent.
Ohaji, Egbema and Oguta were southern pillars of the old Owerri Division.
Owerri Division operated within Owerri Province.
Owerri Province once extended administratively to Port Harcourt.
The Orlu linkage is modern, political and ahistorical.
Boundaries can be redrawn by power.
Identity is not manufactured by zoning committees.
If equity and justice are to mean anything in Imo State, the conversation must begin where history begins.
Written and researched by Hon. Chima Nnadi-Oforgu
Duruebube Uzii na Abosi
OBLONG MEDIA UNLIMITED 
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