Akwa Ibom State

Akwa Ibom State State nickname: Land of Promise
Location
Statistics
Governor (List)	Godswill Akpabio (PDP)
Date Created	23 September, 1987
Capital	Uyo
Area	7,081 km² Ranked 30th
Population 1991 Census 2005 est.	Ranked 9th 2,359736 4,805,451
Dialling code	??
ISO 3166-2	NG-AK
Website	akwaibomstategov.com

Akwa Ibom is a state in Nigeria. It is located in the south-east of the country, lying between latitudes 4°321 and 5°331 North, and longitudes 7°251 and 8°251 East. The State is bordered on the east by Cross River State, on the west by Rivers State and Abia State, and on the South by the Atlantic Ocean.

Akwa Ibom is one of Nigeria’s 36 states with a population of 3.9 million people. It was created in 1987 from the former Cross River State and is a major oil-producing area in the country. The state’s capital is Uyo, home to some 300,000 people and a prominent academic centre (University of Uyo) Akwa Ibom has two major ports on the Atlantic Ocean Along with English, the main languages spoken here are Ibibio, Annang, Eket, Ibeno and others.

• Languages: Ibibio, Annang, Oro, Ibeno, Eket

Important Cities

Uyo is the capital of Akwa Ibom State. Ikot Ekpene, Abak, Oron, Eket, Ibeno, Ikot Abasi, Mkpat Enen are a few of many prominent cities.

Ikot Ekpene, also called Rafia City or IK, is a very famous small town in Nigeria. It is located at an important junction in the south of the country, joining Calabar, the eastern port, with Port Harcourt, the southern port, Uyo, the capital of Akwa Ibom State, and Eket, a major Oil producing town.

History

Akwa Ibom State was created out of Cross River State on September 23, 1987. Akwa Ibom was created by combining the Ikot Abasi ,Uyo (State Capital), Ikot Ekpene, Eket and Abak divisions of old Calabar province.

Administrative Divisions

Akwa Ibom is divided into 31 Local Government Areas, or LGAs:

• Abak
• Eastern-Obolo
• Eket
• Esit-Eket
• Essien-Udim
• Etim-Ekpo
• Etinan
• Ibeno
• Ibesikpo-Asutan
• Ibiono-Ibom
• Ika
• Ikono
• Ikot Abasi http://www.fallingrain.com/world/NI/0/Ikot_Abasi.html
• Ikot-Ekpene
• Ini
• Itu
• Mbo
• Mkpat-Enin
• Nsit-Atai
• Nsit-Ibom
• Nsit-Ubium
• Obot-Akara
• Okobo
• Onna
• Oron
• Oruk-Anam
• Ukanafun
• Udung-Uko
• Uruan
• Urue-Offong/Oruko
• Uyo

Local Government Areas

Akwa lbom State has 31 Local Government Areas: Abak, Eket, Ibiono Ibom,Ika, Etinan, Nsit Atai, Essien-Udim, Ikono, Ikot Abasi, Ikot Ekpene, Itu, Mkpat-Enin, Mbo, Nsit-Ubium, Oron, Esit Eket, Okobo, Nsit Ibom, Etim Ekpo, Onna, Oruk-Anam, Ukanafun, Uyo, Uquo-Ibeno,Uruan, Obot Akara, Ibesikpo Asutan, Uruan, Urue Offong/Oruko and others.

People

Akwa Ibom State is made up of different groups of people believed to have originated from a single ancestral group. The languages spoken in the state are some what related. The Oron language has highly distinctive features, while Eket and Ibeno languages are closely related to each other. The Eket language is closely related to the Annang and is suggestive of an affinity between the two groups. Some historians believed that the Eket and the Annang groups are closely related.

The people are predominantly of the Christian faith although some native African religions are practised.

The inhabitants of the state are primarially:

• Ibibio
• Annang
• Igbo
• Oron
• Ibeno
• Eket
• Efik

The Ibibio are the largest group, whilst the Annang, which form the second largest group, speak a language very similar to the Ibibio Language. Oro lays claim to a distinct ethnic nationality and has its people in 5 out of the State's 31 Local Government Areas [LGAs]. Ibeno and Eket [3 LGAs] speak a similar language, and are located at the ocean, contiguous to Oron. The Ibibio language belongs to the Benue-Congo language family, which forms part of the Niger-Congo group of languages.

Despite the claim of homogeinity, no central government existed among the people of what is now Akwa Ibom State prior to the British invasion in 1904. Instead, each group Annang, Eket, Efik, Ibibio Oron, Ibeno were all autonomous groups. The Efiks were the first to establish contact with the outside world, trading with the Europeans as early as the 17th century. The Scottish missionaries arrived in Calabar in 1848. The British did not firmly establish control until 1904. By that year the British forced all in what is now Akwa Ibom into a single unit when they created the Enyong Division. Ikot Ekpene, an Annang town described by the noted Africanist Kaanan Nair, as the cultural and political capital of Annang and Ibibio was made the head quarters of the new division. The creation of Enyong Division, for the first time allowed the numerous ethnic groups to come together. This further provided a venue for the creation of the Ibibio Welfare Union, later renamed Ibibio State Union. Though the social organization was first organized as an improvement union and a forum for the educated groups who were shut out from the colonial administration in 1929, some historians have wrongly pointed to the union to buttress their argument on the homogeinity of the groups in the area.

The creation of Akwa Ibom State in 1987 ignored the historical importance of Ikot Ekpene and have further created the impression among the Annang that they have been marginalized when Uyo was made the state capital. The Annang suffered genocide during the Nigeria Civil War between 1967 and 1970 and have used this as another example of their ill treatment. The people of Akwa Ibom State have not fared better in what is now Nigeria. Though the state is an oil rich area, poverty is rampant. The utilization of the state structure to share the oil wealth means that the Ibibio/Annang/Eket axis with just a single state receives a single share while other ethnic groups in the state with four, five and more states receive larger shares of the oil wealth according to the number of states created for them. The argument from the citizens of Akwa Ibom state has been to either abolish using the state structure to share the oil wealth or create more states from the area for reasons of justice.

Politics

Politics in Akwa Ibom state is played on a tripod, representing the three dominant ethnic groups comprising the Ibibio, Annang and Oron.

Of these three, the Ibibio remains the dominant and has held sway in the state power equation since its creation. This scenario has led to expressions of marginalisation by the Annangs and Oro people who would want a democratisation of power [or "power shift"] from the dominant Ibibio group. But the most consistent in this quest for power are the Annangs who are in the fore-front of this quest for a change of guard. The dominant political party in the State, the PDP, has fielded an Annang person, Godswill Akpabio, for the 2007 Governorship election. Recently it has been announced that Godswill Akpabio has won 2007 elections held on April 14 and will be sworn-in on the 29th of May, 2007.

External links

• Akwa Ibom News Online: one-stop website for Akwa Ibom State news
• akwaibomstate.com: maintained by expatriates from the region, contains various information about the state and its people
• akwaibomstategov.com: official site of the state government
• [1]
• akwaibomstateusa.org: official site of Akwa Ibom state USA Organization