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CALL FOR THE CREATION OF ORLU STATE:
THE NEXUSES

his time it merely changed names, from Njaba to Orlu; and the stage, different: at the National Political Reform Conference at Abuja. And this time it is no longer the people of Orlu alone clamouring for the creation of this state, most of the conference delegates from the Southeast of Nigeria are in full support of creation of Orlu State, at least to attempt to redress the imbalance in our federal structure. These delegates have no doubt Orlu State must turn out as one of the most viable states in Nigeria given the entrepreneural credentials of the people that hail from this area of Nigeria.

Long before the splitting of the old Imo State, the clamour for the creation of Njaba State comprising mainly the local government areas in the present Orlu senatorial zone and a few others outside it reached a crescendo. During the last few years pre-dating the carving out of Abia State from the old Imo state, the members of the Njaba State Movement (NSM) were as ubiquitous and insistent in their demand for Njaba state as who is who in support of the project in the Orlu senatorial zone.

With their banners, logos, uniforms, vests, etc, they pounded the land with their feet singing and drumming up the cause for the creation of Njaba State to any ear that cared to listen. The night President Ibrahim Babangida announced the splitting of the old Imo State, the members of the NSM were all ears waiting to have their dreams realised. But at the end of IBB's broadcast, they were disappointed. Njaba State was never on IBB's list. They quietly went to bed to lick their wounds or rather, as it is now unfolding, to regroup for another day.

The reasons behind the seemingly endless clamour for the creation of Njaba or Orlu State are as old as the Nigerian federation itself. More than 98% of the 2nd generation towns adopted and settled by the then colonial masters as zonal administrative headquarters have today been wittingly or unwittingly converted to State capitals through the various States creation exercises. Among the numerous landmarks lending credence to the status of Orlu as an old colonial zonal administrative headquarter is the huge, near-Romanesque administrative edifice built by the colonial masters at Orlu and then used as zonal administrative offices.

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This building has withstood the test of time and has outrightly outshined many other post-independence public buildings erected decades after it. It is still widely used today. Apart from its obvious lack of restoration and maintainance, it can still be compared to its type you find today in central London, Paris or Rome. In few 2nd generation towns in today's Nigeria did the colonial masters leave such foot-prints.

Apart from having the largest number of local governments in Imo State, Orlu senatorial zone is deemed the most populous senatorial zone in Nigeria. Its outlying rural areas are characterised by high population densities.

While the numerous state creation exercises have split most of the senatorial zones hitherto on the same footing with Orlu into two senatorial zones , Orlu senatorial zone has since Nigeria's independence remained the same.

Before the splitting of the Old Imo State, two towns - Aba and Orlu - were outstanding and recognized as the two industrial hubs of the state. Impliedly, an Orlu State with its numerous industries , big and small, must be among the foremost, economically viable states in Nigeria.

There is no zone in Igbo land that can supersede the people of Orlu zone in realizing self-help projects. Behind this is the complete neglect of this zone by the various governments at the federal and state levels over the years. If the execution of an articulated water supply scheme can be carried out through self-help, the people of Orlu could have done that long ago. But the provision of portable drinking water is the duty of any responsible government to the governed. Historically, no urban town ever developes without a guaranteed water supply scheme. The town of Orlu stands out today among its historical equivalents in Nigeria for not having any form of articulated water supply system close to fortyfive years after Nigeria's independence. This senatorial zone is the Oil producing area in Imo State.

The story of the absence of an articulated water scheme in Orlu inspite of its teeming population is heart-wrenching. During the second Republic government of Imo State led by the Nigerian Peoples Party, many of the state's leading opposition figures of the Natioinal Party of Nigeria were from Orlu zone. The then Imo State government proposed five multimillion (now multi billion) Naira regional water schemes for the then five senatorial zones of the state namely: Aba, Okigwe, Owerri, Orlu and Umuahia. The schemes were meant to supply water round the clock to areas as far apart as 12kilometers from their stations. Four of these water schemes were executed except that for Orlu.

Before the government could finish its endless, deliberately retarded, feasibility studies, the military struck on the new year's eve of 1983. Thereafter, the successive military governments continued to pay lip service to the project. And today, it is questionable if the Imo State government can afford to embark on this project alone given the spiralling inflation and balloning costs for it more than twentyfive years after. The present state government had on numerous occasions called on the federal government to undertake the execution of this project. The call is yet to yield fruits.

The federal road that was supposed to link Owerri, Orlu and Awka and toward the federal capital Abuja was completely asphalted during the 2nd republic, but for a water diverting tunnel at the small Urashi river which was never built, the stretch of the road from Orlu to Uga has remained unusable till date. Since then federal ministers of works have come and gone but none has ever tried to remedy this collosal waste of federal funds till date.

Imo is a one-city state. The population of the state capital, Owerri, is bursting in its seams, and overcrowding in the city has become unbearable with the attendant social vices. Locating all the five state and federal higher institutions of learning in the State at Owerri and its surburbs alone did not help the situation. Therefore, the creation of Orlu State can go a long way to liberate Owerri and reposition it at its one time position of the most beautiful and livable state capital in Nigeria.

Creation of states and subsequent new capitals have gone a long way in Nigeria to make most of the 2nd, and to some extent, 3rd generation towns emerge from their sleepy conditions and transform to modern sprawling cites. Before and after Nigeria's independence but until recently, Orlu had been on the same category or level of development with such towns as Awka, Abakaliki, Akure, Ogbomosho, Asaba, Uyo, Lokoja, Makurdi, Yola, to name but just a few of the latter-day state capitals and living centers.

Today, when compared with the above-mentioned towns, Orlu is left very far behind. Now that there is the renewed call for the creation of Orlu state, the call is borne out of the search for equity and development; we ask the rest of Nigeria to listen and do justice to this legitimate demand. Orlu State is overdue.