An Unacceptable Anticipated Deliberate Insulting Exclusion Of Asa People ( Ukwa-West) From A Proposed Aba State, By Ngwa People.
Wednesday (Orie) 29-10-2025.
In Abia State, there are nine Local Government Areas that, before their creation, their peoples constituted what was known as Aba Administrative Division during the British Colonial Administration.
The nine Local Government Areas are, in their alphabetical order;
(1) Aba-North
(2) Aba-South
(3) Isialangwa-North
(4) Isialangwa-South
(5) Obingwa
(6) Osisioma-Ngwa
(7) Ugwunagbo
(8) Ukwa-East, and
(9) Ukwa-West.
Out of the said nine Local Government Areas, 7 are Ngwa; Aba-North, Aba-South, Isialangwa-North, Isialangwa-South, Obingwa, Osisioma, and Ugwunagbo, 1, Ukwa-East, is of Ndoki Clan, and 1, Ukwa-West, is of Asa Clan. The three Clans are distinct culturally and historically.
For the nine Local Government Areas, there are four Federal Constituencies; (1) Aba-North and Aba-South Federal Constituency, (2) Isialangwa-North and Isialangwa-South Federal Constituency, (3) Obingwa/Osisioma-Ngwa/Ugwunagbo Federal Constituency, and (4) Ukwa-East and Ukwa-West Federal Constituency.
Furthermore, the area is delineated into 12 State Constituencies made up thus;
(1) Aba-North
(2) Abia-Central
(3) Aba-South
(4) Isialangwa-North
(5) Isialangwa-South
(6) Obingwa-East
(7) Obingwa-West
(8) Osisioma-Ngwa-North
(9) Osisioma-Ngwa-South
(10) Ugwunagbo
(11) Ukwa-East, and
(12) Ukwa-West.
In terms of Senatorial delineation, 6 Local Government Areas, Aba-North, Aba-South, Obingwa, Ugwunagbo, Ukwa-East, and Ukwa-West constitute Abia-South Senatorial District of Abia State. The remaining three Local Government Areas of Isialangwa-North, Isialangwa-South, and Osisioma-Ngwa are joined together with three Local Government Areas of Umuahia Group, Ikwuano, Umuahia-North, and Umuahia-South to form Abia-Central Senatorial District.
On many occasions the Agitators for Aba State Creation had made their case, they had relied on availability of Oil and Gas in Ukwa-West Local Government Area as their hope of viability and sustainability for the proposed Aba State.
But Ukwa-West Local Government Area is not merely the most marginalized in the area but the most deliberately despised.
Take for instance, the Senatorial Seat for Abia-South is morally and equitably supposed to rotate among the three Federal Constituencies on an 8-year basis. Senator Adolphus Wabara of Ukwa-East of Ukwa-East and Ukwa-West Federal Constituency took the senatorial slot from 1999-2007. Senator Enyinnah Abaribe took over in 2007 and should, by concept of equitable rotation, have given it up by 2015 to another Federal Constituency, most equitably, Aba-North and Aba-South Federal Constuency, after which by 2023 it should have rotated to Ukwa-East and Ukwa-West Federal Constituency, for the Ukwa-West (Asa) to go from 2023-2031.
But the Ngwa, through Senator Enyinnah Abaribe, have been adamantly insensitive to the political sensibilities of Asa People. They have utterly manifested unprecedented inconsideration towards Asa Sub-ethnic Nationality.
The Ngwa disdain for the Asa Sub-ethnic Nationality is so conspicuously putrid and pungent that even in a matter of life issue, as applying for a State, Aba State, they summoned a meeting(s), discussed, resolved to formally send a Delegation to the Deputy Speaker of the 10th House of Representatives, His Excellency, Rt Hon Benjamin Okezie Kalu, CFR, to make a strong case for the creation of their proposed Aba State and, infact, did go on that delegation but, as always, considered it completely unnecessary asking any indigene of Asa to be part of that Delegation.
Asa People are not even part of the proposal and do not have the least privilege of knowing what constitutes the nitty-gritty of the proposed Aba State. As long as the Ngwa are concerned, Asa People ‘are of no consequence’.
I wish to take this opportunity to draw the collective attention of Asa People to this one insulting disregard, disdain and disrespect, too many.
The Ngwa have, in an unmistakable expression, implied that Ukwa-West (Asa) is not needed in the proposed Aba State. The worst treatment a People can allow to happen to them is to be so naive as not to know and vehemently react when they are overtly told that they are worth nothing.
Over to my good People of Asa. This insult is unbearable. How we handle it will go a long way to define who we are.
Sir Don Ubani; KSC, JP
Okwubunka of Asa and Okeamadi Gburugburu.
A Former Commissioner for Information and Strategy in Abia State.
