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By Onyiye Olomu

I want our beloved brethren opposed to the geopolitical annexure of the proposed Anioma State into the South-East Region to actually interrogate this salient inquiry:

* Would Aniomas be better off being placed under a State involving the Binis than they’ll be with that involving the Igbos; especially due to the claim that Aniomas share more consanguinity with the Binis(although as a Sociologist, one knows this is clearly debatable) than they do with the Igbos?

I asked because having lived a substantial part of my life in Benin City, I’m aware of the unending rivalry between the Binis and the Ishans, in spite of the latter obviously bearing more consanguinity and cultural affinity with the former than we the Aniomas, do.

The sustained acrimony is so bad that the saying that one gets to hear from the average Bini folk is this: if you happen to see an Ishan man and a snake at same time, do yourself good to first kill the Ishan brother before the snake. It’s that bad with them.

But conversely, most Igbo fellows live their lives just minding their business. In short, they hardly wait for any government to meet most of their basic needs; a virtue that helps to significantly avert the acrimonious competitions usually witnessed among and within most other tribes and kins incessantly angling for accruals from government oftentimes termed ‘national cake’ or dividends of Democracy.

Following this argument, I’m still left to wonder how the alleged marginalization will befall us in the hands of the Igbos bearing in mind that virtually every State in any Region, enjoys robust independence from the others.

More so, there’s even no records to show how for instance, Enugu State (which possesses some natives that claim to be more Igbo than natives of other South-East States like Ebonyi and Anambra) has attempted or succeeded in subjecting Igbos in other States to any marginalization or mistreatment especially as it pertains to resources of the latter.