ALI-OGBA :LEGEND OF ORIGIN, INDIGENOUS POLITICAL STRUCTURE, AND ECONOMY *

Introduction:

    Ali-Ogba, located in the central Orashi-Sombreiro plains of Rivers State, Nigeria, is one of the major producers of the oil that fuels Nigeria’s economic development in recent decades. In his book, Ali-Ogba, Ellah posits that “according to current oil company records, no local government in Nigeria produces as much crude oil and gas as the Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni (ONELGA) local government (Ellah 1995) 

   As a result of the oil industry, Ali-Ogba has undergone significant political, social, economic and environmental changes during the past several decades. However, despite its image as one of the main contributors to the wealth of Nigeria, there is a lot of poverty in many communities resulting from unemployment, under-employment, low wage jobs and deterioration of the natural resource base.

   At the same time that Ali-Ogba makes very significant contributions to the country’s economy, this oil producing area has remained economically marginalized and left in the backwaters of the country’s socio-economic and political development. This poses dilemmas for Ali-Ogba people. For example, while the oil industry in Ali-Ogba creates jobs and wealth, these benefits are not equally accessible to many Ogba people and many other Rivers state communities, compared to other Nigerians. This state of affairs in the oil producing communities of Rivers state prompted the Governor, Dr. Odili to speak out this past February urging oil firms to stop giving employment to non-natives at the expense of the indigenes of the areas of their operation. In the Governor’s own words:

“It is difficult to explain to a petroleum engineer from Rivers State who has been out of  the university for five years and out of work, that sees his contemporaries during the youth service years, fly in from other parts of the country where there is no oil, coming to man the PHRC for him. It is equally difficult to explain to him that the industry that is behind his house, is being dominated by people who are less qualified than him (the Rivers man)”(Daniel, 2004)

    In addition to environmental degradation and a rapidly depleting natural resource base that contribute to   poverty, the area is witnessing social disorganization caused by competing value _________________________

1  Ellah, F.J. (1995) Ali-Ogba: A History of Ogba People Enugu, Fourth Dimension Publishers, p4

2. Daniel, Soni (2004) The Punch, Port Harcourt, Nigeria, Feb. 19, 2004 (Reporting on Dr. Odili’s comments during the visit Dr. Sola Ayan-gbile, Managing Director of  PH Refining Company to his office. 

* Professor C.V.Izeogu, Ph.D. Abridged and partly up-dated  version of paper prepared for presentation at the  First Annual Convention of UmuogbaUSA at Wellesley Airport Hotel, Atlanta, GA. USA May  24-26, 2003, systems. A related dilemma is that although some oil producing communities have benefited from oil company jobs and contracts, many of these economic benefits have not been widely spread. As a result, these communities are lacking in many indicators of local economic development.

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the challenges that Ali Ogba faces that must be addressed if it is to benefit from the economic resources produced from its land and achieve sustainable development. The objectives are to draw attention to:

-  the common heritage and destiny as well as resource potentials of Ali-Ogba,

-  the role of Ali-Ogba in fuelling the Nigerian economy,

-  the forces robbing the communities of their capacity to strive for meaningful development, and to

-  challenge Ali-Ogba communities to demonstrate awareness of its assets and threats, a high level of political consciousness and a sense of community unity,  forge the necessary alliances and engage all stake-holders in the area so as to  benefit from the oil resources produced from its land and achieve sustainable development.

11.        Historic and Geographic Context

Ali-Ogba people have some socio-cultural and political legacies that reinforce their common origin and bind them together as a people with common heritage and destiny. These include: geographic location, migration routes, language and political structure.

Geographic Location and Natural Environment:     

Geographically, Ali-Ogba stretches from about 4 50 N to 5 30’N and extends from about 6 25 E to about 6 40’ E. Spatially, it covers an area of 920 sq. km in the northern part of the Niger Delta region located within the River Niger flood plains.. It is bordered on the west by the Orashi river and on the east by the Sombreiro river. In addition to the main drainage systems, there are the Omoku river and many back swamps, cut offs and interconnecting streams which form a maze of drainage channels superimposed on the area. At the peak of the rainy season, these interconnected waterways are a prominent feature of the landscape.

  Its location in the Sombreiro-Warri deltaic plains, which consists of coastal plains sands and other tertiary deposits – marine, mixed, and continental deposits typical of deltaic environments situates it in the rain forest zone of southern Nigeria.  .

The area can be divided into four ecological zones:

·         The Sombreiro river plains (eastwards)

·         The Orashi river flood plains (westwards)

·         The central well drained lowlands and farm mosaic (between the Orashi and Sombreiro rivers

·         The non-tidal freshwater swamps basin.

The highest part of  Ali-Ogba is the well drained lowland and farm mosaic with altitude ranging from 15m to22 m. In general, the land is characterized by a gentle sloping topography of less than 10 degrees in many areas. This relatively low altitude gives the area its characteristics flat and monotonous low relief interspersed by many wetland (swamp /creek basins), which crisscross the central low lands and empty into the two main river systems (Sombreiro and Orashi)

            As a result of its geographic location, Ali-Ogba enjoys all year round high temperatures averaging 80 degrees Farenheit in the day with over night lows ranging from 65 to 70 degrees. Also, the area has at least ten months of rainfall totaling over 80 inches per year with very high humidity in the summer months. The climatic conditions and topography support a wide variety of plant and animal life. The flora consists of economic trees especially oil palm trees and a variety of  plants species of great  pharmacological value as human elixir.

Legends of Origin

Ali-Ogba communities  constitute one of the minority ethnic groups of Nigeria and share common ancestry, socio-cultural elements and heritage. Oral history and folklore have it that Ali-Ogba people migrated to what is now called Ali-Ogba from the area of the then Benin Empire across the Niger about the 16^th century. In his book on the history of Ogba published in the1950s, Ewo stated that two Ali-Ogba and Ekpeye communities __________