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Since the Biafran War of Survival, Ndi ÌGBÒ has been hit with a barrage of lies concerning the access of ÌGBÒ land to the ocean. In a condescending but rather popular phrase, our detractor says: “The South East Is Landlock.”

Umu nnem, but is ani ÌGBÒ landlocked like this generation has been made to believe and sometimes profess? The answer is NO. And in this article, we will sufficiently put all the lies and propaganda to rest.

What Is A Landlocked Country/Region?

To start with, we must first define what a landlocked country is.
A country is considered landlocked when it is surrounded by one or more countries and therefore has no immediate coastline providing access to the oceans. This simply put, means that a landlocked country is a country without access to a sea/ocean; a country that is inside another country or countries.

That being established, I will go ahead to mention and discuss the major ancient ÌGBÒ regions and peoples, showcasing the reach of the ÌGBÒ race, irrespective of the new tyrannical geographic displacement of ÌGBÒ lands by the Nigerian government. This will help us grasp the vastness of the ÌGBÒ landscape, without viewing Ala ÌGBÒ in the light of the recently created 5 South-Eastern states.

The ÌGBÒ People And The Areas They Dominate

Ndi ÌGBÒ can be divided into five geographically based subcultures. We have the northern ÌGBÒ, southern ÌGBÒ, western ÌGBÒ, eastern ÌGBÒ, and northeastern ÌGBÒ. Each of these five can be further divided into subgroups based on specific locations and names. The northern or Onitsha ÌGBÒ are divided into the Nri-Awka of Onitsha and Awka; the Enugu of Nsukka, Udì, Awgu, and Okigwe; and those of the Onitsha town.

The southern or Owerri Igbo are divided into the Isu-Ama of Okigwe, Orlu, and Owerri; the Oratta-Ikwerri of Owerri and Ahoada; the Ohuhu-Ngwa of Aba and Bende; and the Isu-Item of Bende and Okigwe. The western Igbo (Ndi Anioma, as they like to call themselves) are divided into the northern Ika of Ogwashi Ukwu and Agbor; the southern Ika or Kwale of Kwale; and the Riverain of Ogwashi Uku, Onitsha, Owerri, and Ahoada. The eastern or Cross River ÌGBÒ are divided into the Ada (or Edda) of Afikpo, the Abam-Ohaffia of Bende and Okigwe, and the Aro of Aro. The northeastern ÌGBÒ include the Ogu Uku of Abakaliki and Afikpo.

It’s important to note that Ndi ÌGBÒ is located on both sides of the River Niger and occupies most of Old-Eastern Nigeria. Ani ÌGBÒ measures over 41,000 square kilometers and includes the old provinces of Onicha, Owerri, East Rivers, Southeast Benin, West Ogoja, and Northeast Warri.

Now that we have enunciated the far reaches of ani ÌGBÒ, let us get into geography to further provide proof that ani ÌGBÒ is not landlocked.

Ala ÌGBÒ Is Not Landlocked Umu Nnem

The Rivers That Empty Into The Ocean:

Ani Igbo has several navigable rivers that empty into the ocean, and the four most important ones are:

1. Through Onicha, all the way down to the Niger Delta, and into the Atlantic Ocean.
2. Through Igweoocha (Port Harcourt), which is ÌGBÒ land.
3. Through Obehie in Abia State, which empties into the Atlantic Ocean.
4. Through Oguta in Imo state that empties into the Atlantic Ocean.

If our people take geography seriously and publish it as it is on the ground, we will all see that Abia, Imo, and Anambra have varying short-distance tributaries (paths) to the Atlantic Ocean through Azimiri/Azimini, Imo, and Niger Rivers.

There are also many unexplored waterways and tributaries, which honestly are difficult to transverse on foot, because of the swamp snakes and the many hidden dangers found in such unchartered regions. Some of these waterways are the Oguta Lake in Imo State and the Oseakwa River in Ihiala, Anambra State, which meandered through the ÌGBÒ-delta wetlands to the Southeastern ends of the Atlantic Ocean.

These rivers mentioned above have short navigational paths to the Atlantic Ocean. And geographically have far shorter nautical distances than the Calabar, Port Harcourt, and Ibaka seaports to the same ocean. The Azumini (in Abia State) and the Imo River, from their outer reaches, are about 15 to 30 Nautical miles to the beachhead, keeping in mind that One Nautical mile is 1.8 kilometers.

This means that the waters in the current South-Eastern region have fewer Nautical Miles and are closer to the Atlantic Ocean than the seaports in Onne, Calabar, Ibaka, Lagos, and Port Harcourt, respectively.

In an article published in The Guardian, renowned ÌGBÒ Lawyer, Aloy Ejimakor stated that “…Ikwerre land or Igweocha, which bears the greater portions of the Portharcourt seaport, was dredged up to 50 miles to the Atlantic front through the Bonny River. Onne seaport was dredged up to 60 miles to the Atlantic, and Calabar seaport was dredged some 45 nautical miles to the Atlantic. Ibaka seaport is about 30 nautical miles to the Atlantic, and the Lagos seaports are dredged up to about 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, of which Azumiri, on its own merits, lies not more than 30 nautical miles to the Atlantic beachfront. The less obvious one is the little-known Oseakwa River in Ihiala (Anambra State), which is a mere 18 nautical miles to the Atlantic, all with its 65 feet of natural depth, unarguably comparable to no other River in Nigeria.”

Umu nnem, further investigations reveal that Osemoto (Oguta LGA, Imo State) in Imo State and Oseokwa (Ihiala LGA, Anambra State) were designated seaports in 1959, but the project was abandoned, and the admiralty membership was erased for obvious political reasons. Clear light is shed on this by the African Development Bank (ADB) feasibility report, which was/is unambiguous.

As I mentioned above, stating that ani Igbo has the deepest seaports in Nigeria, the report of our investigation showed that the Oseokwa and Osemoto are over 20m deep, and if they are developed would be world standard naval and marine transportation platforms. This seaport at 18 nautical miles to the Atlantic Ocean will be a strategic economic infrastructure, powering an oil industry, and possessing inland dry-docks to promote trade and commerce, thereby boosting the economy of ani Igbo. The Oseokwa and Osemoto seaports alone can handle over 35 percent of the marine business in Nigeria. Umu Igbo, this is what we have been deprived of for years, through malicious Igbo-phobia inherent in the socio-political machinations of Nigeria.

Evidence Of The Igbo Region In History

Many of our detractors will argue about the true extent of the geographic area which we call “ani Igbo’. In an attempt to usurp our land and heritage, they will delist Igbo communities and borders from their original size, and ascribe them to mangled illegal, and mangled South-South.
No matter how much they say that some of the aforementioned mentioned areas are not Igbo (especially Igweocha/Portharcourt), we will rely on archaeology and history to reclaim our lands and heritage, while maintaining that ani Igbo has multiple access to the ocean.

One of the earliest and most credible Geographers, Baikie, who studied Nigeria’s landscape decades before the amalgamation, had this to say in 1856: “Igbo homeland, extends east and west, from the Old Kalabar river to the banks of the Kwora, Niger River, and possesses also some territory at Aboh, an Igbo clan, to the west-ward of the latter stream. On the north, it borders on Igara, Igala, and A’kpoto, and it is separated from the sea only by petty tribes, all of which trace their origin to this great race” (Baikie, William Balfour, published with a sanction of Her Majesty’s Government in 1856).

How Did Ndi Igbo Lose Their Other Lands With Access To The Ocean?

There is no lie in saying that Ndi Igbo have been watered down over the decades, to the point where we are less conscious of our heritage. We are now a people without an original and solid grasp of our lands, cultures, and authority over our territories. It has gotten so bad that when we hear “Igbo land is landlocked”, we summarily believe the statement. Why? Because we don’t know the far reaches of our lands.

Some of the major contributors to this phenomenon were the 1966-1970 Biafran-Nigerian war, which led to the infamous abandoned property policy, and the vindictive adjustment of boundaries, supported by a heightened Igbo-phobia from all corners of the South and North of Nigeria.

In 1976, when General Olusegun was Nigeria’s military president, the Justice Nasir Boundary Adjustment Commission intentionally targeted core Igbo territories and carved them into their newly formed South-South. Umu nnem, it is important to note that Nigeria is the only region in the world where a South-South exists on the geographical map; all this was done to steal our resources, reduce Igbo land mass, and by extension constrict our political bargaining power. In an article on the subject, Aloy Ejimakor said that “… they didn’t quite make an absolute success of it. They missed the southernmost Southeast lands that possess Rivers that meandered through slices of Igbo-friendly South-South territories and ended up at the Atlantic, thus unwittingly placing Igboland and its right of access to the sea under the canons of customary international law.”

Like our ancestors will say: “Ochu nwa okuko nwe ada, nwa okuku nwere nwenwe oso.”

Ani Igbo Has Legal Access And Ancestral Rights To The Atlantic

Umu nnem, when our detractors tell you that we do not have access, remind them of the facts we have stated above. And to solidify our case in the defense of ani Igbo, we must also let you know that the international law makes it legally binding for ani Igbo to have access to the nearest ocean/sea, whether we remain in Nigerian territory or Biafra.

What is the International Law of The Sea?

According to Ocean Service, the law of the sea is a body of customs, treaties, and international agreements by which governments maintain order, productivity, and peaceful relations on the sea. NOAA’s nautical charts provide the baseline that marks the inner limit of the territorial sea and the outer limit of internal waters.

This law gives, as I have mentioned above, gives Ndi Igbo unhindered access to the nearest ocean/sea, which in this case is the Atlantic Ocean. In his article on The Guardian, our renowned legal luminary concluded thus: “For the 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. And the River Niger, which ultimately joined the Atlantic through a vast network of hardly explored creeks and mangrove swamps that abut the Bight of Bonny in the South-South.

Nigeria is subject to the International Law of the Sea and is therefore bound to abide by its provisions, should the need arise in a scenario of persistent sovereign oppression of an identifiable indigenous group within Nigeria.

The others are the United Nations Treaty of the Sea and 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.

The pertinent provisions are mostly embedded in the copious provisions relating to the collective economic and commercial rights of indigenous peoples lying within the Treaty nations. Ndigbo are undoubtedly indigenous people presently living within Nigeria. So, international law will surely come into play if a conflict arises out of Nigeria’s persistent institutional resistance to granting a seaport to Igboland.”

~ Article Written In 2022 By Chuka Nduneseokwu, a Dibia, Igbo Odinala Researcher, African Revolutionary Writer, and Igbo Philosopher