A brief history of Ngor Okpala by Obasi Kelechi

 

NGOR OKPALA IMO STATE

A brief history by Obasi Kelechi

Palm plantation, Ngor Okpala.

Ngor Okpala.

A brief sketchy history.

Ngor Okpala is a settlement with its geographical location at the eastern part of Nigeria, West Africa. A local government area in Imo State, with its headquarters in umuneke.

Ngor Okpala is the largest local government area in Imo State and one of the largest in the country, with an area of 561 km², and a population of 217,400 (2016) census. It consists of several communities and villages.

History is a collective memory, a remembering, it is it that shapes the identity, its the foundation of all reflection on its future. It is in this context that I offer a brief sketch of the history of Ngor Okpala.

Ngor-Okpala is a political unit evolving from the effort made at the turn of the century but especially in the early fifties by the colonial power and later regional and federal government to implement a policy of local government. Such local government units were based as much as possible on the principle of cultural affinity and contiguity and the exercise had been preceded by extensive anthropological research into the indigenous culture.

After the Native Court Proclamation of 1901, Owerri District was constituted in 1902 with the appointment of Warrant Chiefs and the establishment of Native Courts which became the first organ of justice and administration in Colonial rule. The six courts of Owerri division were: Owerri, Ngor, (which then included Obube, that is Ngwoma, Egbelu, and Ulakwo), Okpala, Oguta, Umuapu, and Nguru (Mbaise).

Following the 1929 Women’s Riots, new reforms based on extended families and aiming at centralization initiated a proliferation of Courts and Owerri Division had 51 out of 132 courts in the Owerri Province by 1936.

Each Court was a Native Authority (N.A.). In the 1940’s there were, in reaction, further reforms, this time creating Federal Councils by the merging of many Courts into fewer Clan Councils, and Owerri Division consisted of Mbaise, Mbieri/Ikeduru, Oguta, Oratta, Ohaba, and Ngor-Okpala itself consisted then of Etche, Okpala-Eziama, Okwe, Umuaro Imerienwe and Obike Court areas or towns groups while Oratta Clan then included Obube, Obibi, and Agbala.

Then retreating from the Colonial policy of indirect rule and embracing direct elections into people empowered local governments, the Eastern Region Local Government ordinance of 1950 introduced a three tier system of County, District, and Local Councils.

In 1977, the new Imo State created 21 Local Governments merging Oratta and Ngor-Okpala under the name of Owerri with headquarters at Umuneke. Situated at a very strategic triangular position, it connects two other states (Abia and Rivers State) and also a shorter route to various destinations.

Richly blessed with agriculture and various natural resources, a perfect soil composition that grows basically anything; I can boldly say that because I have seen my grandfather growing various exotic plants that are not grown indigenously.

Ngor Okpala consists of several communities, namely :-

• Amala (Obiogu)

• Umuowa

• Ohekelem

• Obiangwu

• Ntu

• Alulu

• Oburu

• Eziama

• Obokwe

• Elelem

• Nnorie

• Ihite-okwe

• Umuohiagu

• Imerienwe

• Nguru- umuaro

• Orishieze

• Obike

• Umuekwune

• Upe

• Logara

• Okpala

• Umukabia-ogodo

• Umulu

• Ikem

• Alatia

To mention but a few.

This axis is the traditional home of Mbari art, the home, the dance and music genres – Ogbom nwangelenge, Nwokorobo, Alija, Nkwa Igbugbo, Ubo, Eshe and Ikom;It is the great food basket that has for years, long before the fertilizer revolution, grown the surpluses that fed Mbaise’s teeming populations. It is the basin of the big weekly-Eight Day-markets: Ekeukwu Nnorie, Afor Umuohiagu, Eke Isu, Nkwoala Umuebi, Eke Uhie and Orie Obibi.

Yet within the relative homogeneity of the original culture, there is a lot of variety and difference, encouraged by the multitude of independent towns and their relatively low population density, sparsely scattered over a very vast land area. Nothing shows this more easily to the curious observer than the great variety of dialects of the Owerri Igbo spoken within our borders. Distinct from Ngwa, distinct from Mbaise and distinct from Etche Igbo, the Ngor Okpala dialects, while being recognizable as belonging to one family, are nevertheless often unlike each other.

“

A political awakening, divine intervention, and a liberal mindset geared towards agricultural development/investment might be what Ngor Okpala needs.

-Obasi Kelechi.

”

The Reality.

Abandoned projects.

Unfortunately with Ngor Okpala, growth and progress in nearly all these areas has been stunted. I will spare you the depressing litany of underdevelopment, from the roads that are no more than chains of intermittent pools for half the year, through the near-total absence of pipe borne water and electricity, to the insecurity.

If we were to search seriously for the reasons for this perennial backwardness, we will no doubt have to concede that the area has consistently suffered from administrative neglect.

Ngor-Okpala people have lacked sustained cohesion, the type that would oblige them to feel and see themselves always as one people. The sparse population was isolated in pockets scattered over a vast, sprawling territory, linked by a poor road network and surrounded on all sides by significant centrifugal forces attracting people away from their center. Eziama interacted and intermarried rather with Ngwa, the Westerners with Etche, the Easterners with Mbaise.

The galvanizing, unifying influence of shared Church and School did not quite play in favor of Ngor Okpala unity and cohesion. Despite the frequent shifts in its composition, the many alliances,  allegiances, and centrifugal forces surrounding it, Ngor-Okpala never completely disintegrated but in fact has shown a remarkable resilience. Some of this resilience if of course due to the already mentioned cultural homogeneity of the group, the same farmers farming the same crop or frequenting the same market. But there is also a sense of shared recent history—politically fighting off marginalization by hegemony of its stronger neighbors—rallying around its own sons as they fight for political power in the central or regional governments.

Ngor Okpala.

''SUPPOSED LANDMARKS''

IMO state official airport is located in Ngor Okpala; the Sam Mbakwe International Cargo Airport; with its busy junction at Umuowa, along owerri-aba road.

Another supposedly landmark was/is supposed to be the Imo State University extension of the faculty of Agriculture and Vetenary Science, a project that has been approved since ''1982'' - buildings were erected and  contracts/projects approved, but nothing has been commissioned in Ohekelem/Ogbor till date. Governor Hope Uzodinma, chose to move a structurally completed infrastructure to a different location outside Ngor Okpala, and left a majority of the underdeveloped part of Ngor Okpala hopeless.

Ngor Okpala, though having some ''proposed projects'' that are yet to be completed or in most cases abandoned or inactive, like the Ministry of Agriculture situated at Okpala junction (Eziama) that has been completed structurally but left abandoned, beside it is the ''almost completed'' State Government Hospital; another abandoned project, around Umuowa is the ''Nneoma Okorocha Skills Acquisition Centre''.

Finally, the experience of being left out in the recent political schema and of remaining relatively underdeveloped amidst thriving neighbors has helped to reinforce a consciousness of identity and togetherness even if it is borne out of a sense of victimhood.

This is Ngor Okpala, a people as ancient as its fertile forests and religious shrines and markets but eagerly awaiting its change into modernity.

A positive and effective delve into the Agricultural industry with Ngor Okpala as a case study will not only improve the economy but also alleviate poverty, as there would be automatic job creations in the agricultural sector and the opportunity for skills acquisition, the value of real estate would appreciate in the area and small businesses would sprout from every corner. There would be better opportunities for the lower-class and less privileged, security would improve and crime would be less.

Let us all have a positive mindset towards the development of our dear local government and make Ngor Okpala great again.