There is a fundamental difference between correcting a historical injustice and engineering a fresh one.
That distinction is what many people are deliberately ignoring in the present debate over ANIOMA State and the proposed ANIM State. One speaks to restoration. The other increasingly smells like an opportunistic rearrangement. One seeks to return a severed Igbo limb to its civilisational body. The other appears to carve from an existing Igbo state, strip Imo state of its strategic economic base, and present that subtraction as progress.
ANIOMA represents something deeper:
The reconnection of Western Igbo with Eastern Igbo
The healing of colonial fragmentation
The strengthening of economic and cultural synergy
Experts have argued that integrating Anioma into the South-East would:
Boost development
Enhance unity
Unlock agricultural and human capital potential
This is not just about Delta North.
This is about redefining the future of the entire Igbo nation.
Let us be clear from the beginning: the South East deserves a sixth state. That is not in dispute. Nigeria’s current geopolitical arrangement leaves the South East with only five states while other zones have six or seven, a structural imbalance repeatedly cited in the state creation debate.
Nigeria claims federal balance.
But the South-East remains structurally disadvantaged:
Fewer senators
Fewer federal allocations
Less political leverage
Creating ANIOMA State in the South East is not favoritism, it is correction of imbalance.
The Senate bill for a new South East state, reportedly pushed by Senator Osita Izunaso, passed second reading in June 2025 and moved to constitutional review.
But equity for the South-East does not mean Imo State must be dismembered.
That is where the ANIM proposal becomes troubling.
If ANIM State is carved largely from existing Imo and Anambra territories, with Ohaji/Egbema, Oguta and other Imo areas reportedly inside the conversation, then what exactly has the South-East gained? No new historical territory is restored. No lost Igbo landmass is recovered. No colonial wound is healed. It simply rearranges the existing South East map while potentially removing Imo’s oil and gas heartland.
That is not expansion.
That is internal amputation.
It smells of opportunistic rearrangement.
By contrast, ANIOMA State offers a timely deeper historical, cultural and geopolitical correction. Senator Ned Nwoko has argued for ANIOMA as a South East state composed of the nine Delta North local government areas and possibly the Igbanke Igbos in edo state, noting that the six delta LGAs are oil and gas bearing and that the area has strong human capital and viability. Commendable and remarkable also is the fact that the Guardian reported in April 2026 that Sen. Ned Nwoko was again rallying Igbo and South East stakeholders behind ANIOMA as the sixth state of the zone.
ANIOMA is not an invention. It is not a political slogan hurriedly assembled for Abuja lobbying. It is a living Igbo civilisation west of the Niger, historically, culturally and linguistically tied to the wider Igbo nation. Its story carries the memory of colonial boundary manipulation, the severing of West Niger Igbo communities, and the long shadow of a federation that has often used administrative lines to confuse cultural truth.
Even before Nigeria became a country, ANIOMA traditional rulers were already petitioning to be reunited with their Igbo kin as far back as the 1930s.
So let us be clear:
ANIOMA is not a political convenience, it is a historical continuity interrupted by colonial cartography.
This is not a new agitation.
It did not start yesterday.
It is one of the oldest state creation demands in Nigeria, dating back to the 1950s.
Decade after decade, generation after generation, the same cry has echoed:
“Recognize us. Restore us. Give us our place.”
And today, even Nigeria’s political leadership acknowledges it as:
A “historical necessity”.
That is why ANIOMA matters.
ANIOMA does not merely add another governor, another set of commissioners, another bureaucracy and another feeding bottle for professional politicians. It offers the South East something strategic: landmass, population, oil and gas assets, Asaba’s existing infrastructure, an airport, and the already vibrant Asaba Onitsha commercial corridor. This is how serious regions think. This is how serious visionary politicians think. They do not merely count offices and benefits; they count geography, logistics, energy, markets and future bargaining power.
ANIM, as presently marketed, does not appear to offer that same enlargement. It appears to take from Imo, mix with parts of Anambra, and call the result a new South East state. But if the same South East landmass is merely being reshuffled, and if Imo’s economic spine is removed in the process, then Ndi Imo must ask: who truly benefits?
This question becomes even more urgent because Ohaji/Egbema is not ordinary land. It is part of Imo’s strategic energy future. The ANOH gas project in the Ohaji axis has been described as a major gas processing development, with reports of substantial processing capacity and associated infrastructure. To detach such territory from Imo is not a cosmetic boundary adjustment. It is a major economic surgery.
And the people are not silent. Reports and community statements have shown serious resistance from Ohaji/Egbema interests to being included in Orlu or ANIM State arrangements. When host communities vehemently reject inclusion, politicians must listen. Communities are not livestock to be moved from one administrative ranch to another.
This is why Senator Ifeanyi Okowa must be cautioned. He is entitled to play politics. He is entitled to protect his relevance. He was Atiku Abubakar’s running mate in 2023, and as a former Delta governor his clout is visibly rooted in the South South political ecosystem. But he must not play politics at the expense of genuine long standing and timely Igbo unification efforts. If his fear is that Anioma entering the South East will reduce his clout and standing, then he should overcome that fear. A man of his stature should not be afraid of being swallowed by his own brothers. Leadership is not merely about where one’s influence is most comfortable; it is about where history places one’s people.
To Senator Ned Nwoko, credit must be given where it is due. His ANIOMA advocacy is visionary because it looks beyond immediate office sharing. It speaks to history, equity, viability and the unfinished business of Igbo reunification. Politicians who think in civilisational terms are rare in Nigeria. When one does, the idea should not be dismissed simply because it threatens smaller ambitions.
To Senator Hope Uzodinma, this is also a defining moment. His rise in national politics is remarkable, commendable and unmistakable, and he has spent almost eight years as governor of Imo State. That legacy must not be stained by any project that appears to strip the same state he governed of its economic base. Ndi Imo are already gossiping, loudly, that Imo funds have been used to covertly develop a full fledged state of the art Government House in Orlu in anticipation of a future state capital, without full consultation with Imolites. The political optics are dangerous. A leader who wants history to remember him kindly must not leave office under the shadow of having prepared the dismemberment of his own state.
The wiser path is clear: drop ANIM, support ANIOMA.
ANIOMA corrects history.
ANIM complicates history.
ANIOMA expands the South-East.
ANIM appears to rearrange it.
ANIOMA restores a severed Igbo territory.
ANIM risks stripping Imo of its oil and gas lungs.
The South-East does not need a sixth state that creates new bitterness among brothers. It needs one that heals an old wound, strengthens regional bargaining power, and restores a people whose cultural identity has survived despite colonial cartography and Nigerian political engineering.
The Igbo intelligentsia, governors, senators, traditional rulers and civic leaders must therefore understand the times. This is not the hour for “give us this day our daily bread” politics. This is not the hour for new governorship calculations, new senatorial ambitions, new contracts, new state capitals and fresh patronage structures. This is the hour to think of unborn generations.
If Nigeria is serious about justice, ANIOMA deserves consideration.
If the South-East is serious about strategic survival, ANIOMA deserves support.
If Ndi Igbo are serious about reversing the balkanisation of their civilisation, ANIOMA is the more compelling case.
The verdict is simple:
Create ANIOMA State as the sixth South-East state. Drop ANIM. Do not correct one injustice by manufacturing another.
By Hon. Chima Oblong Nnadi-Oforgu
Duruebube Uzii na Abosi
OBLONG MEDIA GLOBAL INTELLIGENCE 
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