Ukwa-West (Asa People), Getting The Short End Of The Stick In Labour Party Government Of Abia State.
Wednesday (Afor) 11-02-2026.
The nomenclature, Ukwa-West Local Government Area, is a political cum administrative name given to a clan of people culturally and historically known as Asa People in Abia-South Senatorial District of Abia State.
Though Asa people are also indigenously found outside Ukwa-West Local Government Area, such as in Ukwa-East Local Government Area, Aba-North Local Government Area, Aba-South Local Government Area, Osisioma-Ngwa Local Government Area, and even in Oyigbo Local Government Area of Rivers State where Obigbo people, as originally known and called, are indigenous Asa People but were annexed to Rivers State in 1976 via Justice Mamman Nasir Boundary Adjustment Committee, Ukwa-West Local Government Area represents the majority demographics of Asa People in Nigeria.
Asa People and their closest historically and administratively-tied neighbours of Ndoki, now Ukwa-East Local Government Area of Abia State, had found themselves in a precariously suffocating political quagmire in the early 1950s. They, like many other Minorities in defunct Eastern Region of Nigeria, felt badly marginalized by their Igbo majority neighbours, and once the British Colonial Government of Nigeria opened up a window for expression of bottled grievances in 1957 through the setting up of Sir Willink’s Commission of Enquiry On the Fears of The Minorities of Eastern Region, Leaders of Asa and Ndoki Peoples, championed by Chiefs O. C. Ememe, J. E. Adiele, and Olujie, wasted no time at grabbing that opportunity. They wrote petitions to the Commission and also physically appeared before Sir Henry Willink to highlight their fears of marginalization.
The British Colonial Government saw reasons in their fears and protest and granted their request. Their efforts translated to the creation of Aba-South Federal Constituency for Asa and Ndoki Peoples in 1958. Chief O. C. Ememe represented that Constituency in Nigeria’s House of Representatives in 1959, and was reelected in 1964 before parliamentary representation was abruptly truncated on 15th January, 1966 as a result of Nigeria’s First military putsch.
It was, therefore, evident that even the British Colonial Government, as alien as it was, was sensitive to the plight of Asa and Ndoki Peoples.
It has to be pointed out that the presence of Ukwa-West in Abia State is what made it possible for Abia State to qualify as an Oil and Gas-Producing State in Nigeria, as it is the only Local Government Area that is both Oil-bearing and Oil-Producing in Abia State. If fairness were a considerable factor in Abia State, no Government in the State would treat Ukwa-West Local Government Area as a mere toy, as the present Labour Party Government has clearly reduced it to.
Fast track to Nigeria’s Third Republic, Abia State has had three Governments before the present Labour Party Government. There was none that openly made a caricature of the People of Ukwa-West by telling them that out of their four brilliant Sons who are Senior Directors in the Civil Service of the State that none of them was able to pass in the ‘qualifying examination’ that was purportedly conducted for promotion to the post of a Permanent-Secretary.
The irony of that deliberate attempt to ridicule the Asa Man by the Labour Party Government of Abia State is that while a particular Local Government got five slots of Permanent-Secretaries, another four, a retired Director who did not sit for any qualifying examination because he had already left the Service on retirement, was called back to Service and appointed a Permanent-Secretary in Abia State Civil Service.
Yet, Ukwa-West was completely shut out in the consideration of appointment of Permanent-Secretaries, positions the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended, stipulate shall reflect Federal or State Character.
Of course, the Labour Party Government in Abia State feels that the People of Ukwa-West are timid and subservient and, so, do not know and can not demand for their rights. Even if that could be true, nature has made it possible that there must be, at least, ‘a lonely voice in their wilderness’.
Between 1999 and 2007, apart from the fact that Governor Orji Uzor Kalu constructed Owaza-Azumini long stretch of road, the Secretary to the Government of Abia State, SSG, and Permanent-Secretary in the State’s Ministry of Finance were Asa indigenes from Ukwa-West Local Government Area. Even at that, the State Accountant-General was from Ukwa-East that also had the Hon Commissioner for Works, and also had a Permanent-Secretary. Yet, Ukwa-West also had a Commissioner in the Executive Council of the State.
The present Labour Party Government of Abia State has been consistent in treating Ukwa-West with disdain. The White Elephant Abia Industrial Innovation Park, AIIP, for which many indigenes were ‘robbed of their land without adequate compensation’ has become abandoned and overgrown with weeds. The spurious and ridiculous promise of constructing a Seaport at Owaza, instead of Obeaku-Ndoki that has a long standing feasibility and viability study, simply became dead on arrival.
Asa People are yet to witness transparency and accountability in the affairs of Abia State Oil-Producing Areas Development Commission, ASOPADEC, an Interventionist Agency created by law to enhance development in the Oil and Gas-Producing Area of the State.
It is unfortunate and disgusting that despite the contributions of Ukwa-West and her People, they have been forced to only get the short end of the stick in the present Government of the State.
As a law-abiding Nigerian Citizen and Civil Society Activist, who is also an Asa Man, I will continue to arouse the conscience of Abia State Government on areas that demand her attention. Even though a Lawyer, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, who I am not sure holds any office in the current Abia State Government but claims to be so close to the Government that he can threaten Citizens on behalf of the Government, called me a few days ago and boasted that Abia State Government will always sue me outside Abia State Judicial Jurisdiction in order to create financial difficulties for me, unbeknownst to him that he was only advertising the sadistic and vindictive nature of the operators of the Government which, by so doing, has no regards for the Abia State Judiciary, I will not fail or be deterred to draw the attention of the State Government to issues that require being looked into.
Sir Don Ubani is a former Commissioner for Information and Strategy in Abia State, currently Executive Director, Centre For Equity And Eradication Of Rural Poverty, Publisher of Equity Global Reporters Ltd, and President-General Asa Improvement Association, Asa.
