Igboland Is Not Landlocked

A THREAD by #AloyEjimakor

It’s often said that LIES told many times may - in the course of time - begin to pass for the truth. One of such is this terrible LIE told since end of the Civil War that Igboland is LANDLOCKED or has no access to sea. 1/26

The purpose of this essay, therefore, is to debunk this lie with some simple historical and topographical evidence that are even in plain view, if you care to dig or do some physical explorations of your own. 2/26

Suffice it to say that it is a profound tragedy that entire generations of the immediate post-War Igbos never bordered to check but seemingly accepted this brazen institutional falsehood, largely intended to taunt the Igbo & put them down. 3/26

A few that knew that #IgboIsNotLandlocked just didn’t care anymore. That History was banned since end of the War made it worse, plus the fact that most people don’t take physical Geography that serious anymore. 4/26

If anybody had tried just a little, they would discovered the plain fact that Abia, Imo & Anambra States have varying short-distance paths to the Atlantic through Imo, Azumiri & Niger Rivers. 5/26

It’s not really rocket science, as you can easily confirm this if you know how to read Google Earth or conquer your fear of swamp snakes and walk through these areas on foot, tracing their waterways and tributaries all the way to the Atlantic. 6/26

This includes the remote reaches of Oguta Lake & Oseakwa River in Ihiala that meandered through Igbo-delta wetlands to the Southeastern ends of the Atlantic waterfront in varying lengths of short navigational paths to the sea. 7/26

In some cases, these Rivers are nautically shorter nautically than the Portharcourt, Calabar & Ibaka seaports are to their side of the Atlantic. The various pathways, particularly the ones from the outer reaches of Imo & Azumiri Rivers terminate at the Atlantic. 8/26

At 15 to 30 nautical miles to the Atlantic beachhead, the contiguity of Southeast Rivers (not even the greater Igboland) to the Atlantic is LESS nautical miles than ALL the existing ports in Nigeria. 9/26

Portharcourt seaport was dredged up to 50 miles to the Atlantic waterfront through the Bonny River. Onne seaport was dredged up to 60 miles to the Atlantic & Calabar seaport was dredged some 45 nautical miles to the Atlantic. 10/26

Ibaka seaport is 30 nautical miles to the Atlantic & the Lagos seaports are dredged 50 nautical miles to the Atlantic. Compare all these to Obuaku in Abia State, which is only 25 nautical miles to the Atlantic from the confluence of Imo and Azumiri Rivers. 11/26

Azumiri, on its own merits, lies not more than 30 nautical miles to the Atlantic beachfront. The less obvious is the little-known Oseakwa River in Ihiala (Anambra State) which is mere 18 nauticals to the Atlantic, all with its 65 feet of natural depth. 12/26

What is geopolitically known as Igboland today is far smaller than what it was. In 1856, Baikie, one of the earliest Geographers of Nigeria, published that ‘Igbo homeland extends east & west from the Old Kalabar river to the banks of the Kwora & Niger Rivers’. 13/26

Baikie states further that Igboland ‘possesses territory at Aboh, an Igbo clan, to the westward of the latter stream. On the north, it borders Igara, Igala & A'kpoto, & is separated from (the Atlantic) by petty tribes that trace their origin to this great race’. 14/26

But with the infamous abandoned property policy & the egregious institutional injustices in boundary adjustments coupled with widespread anti-Igbo gerrymandering, Igbos physically & psychologically lost hold of their vested ancestral lands. 1526

This loss was so psychological, to the point of Ndigbo, especially those in Southeast, now seemingly complacent of their historical & geographical contiguity to the Atlantic, which their ancestors beheld with their eyes & called ‘Oshimiri’ -The Great Sea. 16/26

The psychological beat-down and gang-up got so bad that some of the descendants of these Igbo ancestors (nearest to the Atlantic and now lying outside Southeast) are no longer sure whether they are Igbo or not. 17/26

The worst injustice was in 1976 when the Justice Nasir Boundary Adjustment made a serious & targeted agenda of carving out core Igboland territories into some neighboring States of the SouthSouth. But they didn’t quite make an absolute success of it. 18/26

They missed the southernmost lands that possess Rivers that sliced through Igbo-friendly SouthSouth territories & washed into the Atlantic, thus unwittingly placing Igboland & its right of access to the sea under the canons of customary International Law. 19/26

International Law of the Sea guarantees Igboland (whether it remains Nigerian territory or not) unhindered access to the nearest sea (in this case: the Atlantic) peacefully by any of the rivers, waterways & tributaries that originated from Igboland. 20/26

For avoidance of doubt, there’s particularly the Obuaku confluence in Ukwa West (Abia State) that flows through Ikot Abasi in Akwa Ibom State before expanding out and washing into the near-reaches of the Atlantic. 21/26

This includes the River Niger which ultimately joined the Atlantic through a vast network of hardly explored creeks and mangrove swamps that abut the Bight of #Biafra (corrupted to Bight of Bonny), now lying in the so-called SouthSouth. 22/26

Nigeria is subject to the International Law of the Sea & therefore bound to abide by its pertinent provisions, if need arises in a scenario of targeted sovereign oppression of Ndigbo as a recognized indigenous group within Nigeria. 23/26

Others are the United Nations Treaty of the Sea & the African Union Treaties and Conventions on the Sea, including particularly the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights, which Nigeria ratified and domesticated in 1983. 24/26

These Treaties made provisions for the protection of the collective economic & commercial rights of indigenous peoples lying within Treaty nations. Without more, these protections become vested by the force of their ratification. 25/26

Ndigbo are undoubtedly an indigenous people presently lying within Nigeria. So, international law will come into play if a conflict arises out of Nigeria’s persistent institutional resistance to granting a seaport to Igboland. 26/26. END.

#IgboIsNotLandlocked.