SECESSION:EBIRA NATION FIRST TO SECEDE FROM NIGERIA IN 1916

SECESSION:EBIRA NATION FIRST TO SECEDE FROM NIGERIA IN 1916

BY ABDULMUMINI ADEKU

FROM IHIMA,KOGI STATE.

THE SPLENDOR OF AZAD PALACE IN OKENE,KOGI STATE

Paedia Express can now confirm via a world exclusive  investigations that Ebira people are actually he first group to declare a secession in 1916 from Nigeria.

The News Office Desk of Paedia Express Multimedia in Ihima in Kogi State,Nigeria through the literary works of Professor Sunday Enesi Ododo on Ebira culture titled:Facequerade Theatre :a performance model from Ebira Ekuechi which was published only in 2015.

Checks showed that on page 68 of the university don’s landmark literary masterpiece on the history of Ebira geneology ,he noted that the people of Ohizeny and Eganyi had declared themselves independent of British rule in 1916 ,at least 13 years after British occupation of Ebiraland and two years of Nigeria’s amalgamation.

It was gathered through his works that it took a brutal crackdown by a certain  British police officer of the rank of an Assistant Commissioner of Police,Major Ellias to suppress what was an insurgency even at the time.

What became Nigeria today started in 1914 when the Northern and Southern Protectorates were amalgamated ,just two years shy of Ebira revolt.

The don did not however mention the folk heroes in the insurgency  in 1916.

It was previously thought that Major Adaka Boro  and his band of Niger Deltan Volunteer militants who declared a rebellion against Nigeria for some few days in 1968 and the 30 months civil war which pitched Nigeria against the Igbos in an offensive launched by now late Dim Chukwuemeka  Odimegwu Ojukwu  of the Biafra fame were the first sets of attempts by a group to secede from Nigeria .

Professor Ododo in his landmark work pointed out that the Ebira speaking people of the Middle Belt  region in Nigeria were a peculiar group of people who used the mountainous regions around them ass shields in the ancient times  thus making themselves invincible to their enemies especially the Fulani jihadists who could  not conquer Ebira nation despite their  Boko Haram stunts.

The don said that in 1892 Ebira warriors hid themselves  behind the walls of the mountainous ranges to fight of slave raiders and this is how no known true born Ebira indigene will ever submit to the culture of slavery.

Ebira people have projected themselves as a strong cultural force in Nigeria and easily identified are six major Ebira groups comprising of Ebira Panda,Ebira Oje, both in  Toto and Umaisha in Nassarawa State ,Ebira Agatu in Benue State and Kogi State,Ebira Igu in Kogi State,Ebira Etuno in Igarra in Edo State and Ebira Tao in Kogi Central area of Kogi  State.

It is strongly  believed that Ebira Tao holds not less than 85 percent of every sea of Ebira men seen anywhere on planet earth.

Ebira Tao are to be found in villages ,towns and farm settlements like Okene,OKengwen,Obehira,Adavi,Ogaminana,Obangede,Ihima,Kuroko,Eika,Itakpe,Ebiya,Eganyi,Ajaokuta,Ohuepe,Adogo,Achoze,Oguda,Osara all in KOgi state.

In a related issue, Dr Onukaba Adinoyi-Ojo,himself another Ebira cultural activist while paying tributes to his kinsmen described the Ebira in a lucid perspective using some very interesting grammatical syntax.

His words:”toughness ,bravery, physical strength, unpredictability and stubbornness ”,an attribute they have displayed for centuries.

During the colonial period ,for example,Ebira’s resisted the low pricing of their cottons by the British Cotton Growers Association in 1922 and 1923 respectively.

They also resisted the imposition of taxation with violent protests and out rightly refused to pay.

In 1908 for example, clans from the Okehi area only paid tax after an escort of soldiers led by an expatriate ,Mr Lang destroyed their settlements.

It is on account of their positive bearing to world view that the cause of justice is usually  vigorously pusued,as a result a true Ebira free born is conscious of his conduct at all times.

It is therefore not a matter of coincidence that the people are known as Ebira which means character,conduct,beahavior and deed or action.