• Untold stories of Aba, where Nnamdi Kanu, IPOB, began their campaign for Biafra
• Aba Made: the Ola Balogun, Davis Offor (Clarus), Osita Iheme (Pawpaw), Nkeiru Sylvanus, Benita Nzeribe’s connection

By CHIKA ABANOBI and OKEY SAMPSON

A local wisecrack says, “Aba ma ndi Aba”, meaning, Aba knows those who truly belong to Aba. Popularly known as the Enyimba (Elephant) city, the town is, in every respect, a cosmopolitan one located in the Igbo heartland state of Abia, east of the Niger. Situated on a table landscape of about 100 metres below sea level, it has equidistance of 64 kilometres to most cities in the South East and South South such as Owerri in Imo State, Port Harcourt, Rivers State; Umuahia, Abia State and Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.

Stories of how Aba got its name

According to chroniclers of Ngwa history, the city derived her name from its plain panorama.  In the words of foremost traditional ruler in the city, His Royal Majesty (Eze) Isaac Ikonne, the name, Aba, was given to the then expanding city by Mr. Faulks, the first British colonial master to arrive and live in the area.

After beholding her beautiful plain landscape, he reportedly demanded to know from the natives what they call plain area in their native Ngwa language. The native word, baraa, which the people gave in response to his question sounded to the white man like Aba and he pronounced it that way. Instantly, that became the name of the city.

Another version of the story has it that what we know today as Aba used to be a large expanse of forestland belonging to an Ngwa son known by the same name, Aba. Ngwa, one of the homogenous and dialectal clans, among the Igbos of Nigeria, occupies an area of 1328 square kilometers that share common boundaries with Ikot Ekpene and Ikot Abasi, in Akwa Ibom State, Port Harcourt in Rivers State, Ngor Okpala in Imo State and Umuahia.

In those days, the areas that make up what we call Aba today was a virgin thick forest which Ngwa people, the original owners of Aba used to call ukata. It was used to refer to a virgin forest, a no-man’s land, so to say, where those who have the physical strength and are willing, could carve out for themselves, large expanse of farmlands and even build living quarters, made of thatched mud houses in those days by just walking into the place with their cutlasses and clearing as much space as they could. The place so cleared became theirs forever.

It was through that “clear-and-claim” way that the Ngwa son, Aba, inherited the place we know today as Eziukwu, Aba. There, he not only built homesteads for his extraordinary large family made up of many wives, sons and daughters, he also developed the area into a large expanse of farmlands known as baraa where food crops like yam, cocoyam, cassava and vegetables and cash crops like palm trees, raffia palms, and bamboo were grown.

In a particular part of the large farmland, a river creek ran through. According to oral history, one day, some white men who were engaged in territorial/trade explorations from either Calabar or Ikot Ekpene area, found themselves on the portion of the farmlands belonging to Aba. They were said to have arrived the place through the mouth of river creek that Aba residents know today as Waterside, located at the part of the city called Ogbor Hill. Aided by a local interpreter from Ndoni, Rivers State, who could speak passable English, the white men who were said to be interested in trading in oil palm produce, wanted to know who owns that portion of land, full of palm trees and they replied that it was Aba. And, that was how the place and its surroundings were entered into the Whiteman’s historical record as Aba. “Aba is the first Ngwa man to receive the Whiteman,” the source said. “Hence, the city is known today as Aba Ngwa.” 

How it got the name Enyimba City

If the white men gave the city the name, Aba, its popular name Enyimba is beclouded in legend. History has it that some Isiala Ngwa people were itching for a new settlement. One day, an elephant emerged from nowhere and began an eastward march. The people were said to have followed it as it cleared the bush for over 30 kilometres towards the direction of what is today known as Aba. On getting to a point, the elephant disappeared and the people who had followed it, all the way from Isiala Ngwa decided to settle at the point where the mystery elephant disappeared. The area where the mysterious disappearance took place is known today as Ehi (Elephant) Road. By then the name “Aba” had not evolved.

The road to the city’s greatness

You must have read how men and officers of Operation Egwu Eke (Python Dance) set up a military outpost in Aba, during their one month or so internal security operation in South East, leading to dusk-to-dawn curfew imposed on the city by the Governor of the State, Chief Okezie Ikpeazu. Truth is, Aba, has, from time to time, over the years, attracted military presence. In 1901, the British colonial authorities set up a military outpost in the city while a railway was constructed in 1915 to link it to Port Harcourt, to transport the agricultural goods like palm oil and palm kernel, produced in the place.

But Aba began her match to greatness in November-December, 1929, when a mass protest led by women in the provinces of Calabar and Owerri in South eastern Nigeria later dubbed Aba Women Riot put the city on the world map for what the colonial masters may have termed the wrong reason.

The riot which involved thousands of Igbo women was against the alleged plan by the British colonial authorities to impose levies and taxes on women in Southeastern Nigeria. On learning of that through rumours, women, half-dressed, with their upper parts exposed, and carrying in their hands, cassava leaves which they waved in the air, during procession, marched round the colonial quarters in Aba. But the march later snowballed into riot when the police tried to stop them by force. By the time it was quelled, several days later, Aba was already in the global news. Hundreds of women were said to have been injured, some very seriously, by the baton-wielding riot police who were called in to break their ranks.

Aba and the Nigeria Police insignia connection

This account was corroborated by the traditional ruler of Ehere autonomous community in Ogbor Hill, Aba, HRH (Eze) Young Nwangwa who provided some insights into the matter when he linked it with the insignia on the batons and uniforms of Nigeria Police Force. “From inception, Aba has been a great city but the Aba Women Riot of 1929, made the city great and popular,” he said. “Today, you see the Nigeria police emblem where there is an elephant on which is placed two batons crossing each other at an intersection. The colonial masters used that to indicate that the police which was the only security outfit in Nigeria at that time used baton to quell the Aba women riot which shook the country then. They were trying to demonstrate that the police baton was able to subdue the women. That was how the colonial masters came about the police emblem which is still in use till today. That riot attracted so much attention to the city.”

But findings from other sources show that, apart from the Aba Women Riot, which ended up being the most popular, there were other protests by women. One was against perceived cheating, through low pricing, by local dealers in cassava tubers, used to make starch for the uniforms of British soldiers fighting in world wars in those days. The second was on account of scarcity of table salt. So, when Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the outlawed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) chose Aba to be the starting point of his alleged violent campaign/agitations for Biafra’s independence, and when IPOB members marched out from there, on Tuesday morning, September 12, 2017, to go show solidarity with him at his family house at Afaraukwu, Umuahia, under military siege by men and officers of Operation Python Dance – a disastrous adventure which ended up in the manhandling/humiliation and killing of many of them at Isiala Ngwa and Osisioma junctions, on the Enugu – Port Harcourt Expressway – you should understand: Aba has always been a city of protests against perceived acts of injustice.    

Expansion, growth and development

Before expansion to its present state covering Aba North with its headquarters at Eziukwu and Aba South Local Governments with its headquarters at Aba Town Hall, it was the original white settlers that planned out the city and assigned roads and streets to it, The first road to be created was the Aba – Owerri said to be lined on both sides with oil bean trees, to provide shelter to pedestrians during sweltering heat periods.

But sources say frequent cases of fatal automobile accidents resulting from reckless drivers running into the stationary oil bean trees, prompted a government order to have the trees hewn down as part of its traffic safety campaigns. In those colonial days, you dared not urinate anywhere within the vicinity of the white men quarters, except in designated places. Otherwise, you stood the risk of being apprehended by the local colonial law enforcement officers known as “Kotma” (court messengers), and taken to court where you would be heavily fined or jailed, depending onthe gravity of the offence. 

Abia Polytechnic, Aba, today sits on what used to be the starting point of Government Residential Area (GRA) of those days. From there, it extends to the portion of land today occupied by Aba Sports Club, up to Railway lines and even beyond it. They were all part of the GRA. Economic trees planted in those days can still be seen standing on both sides of the roads,  But residents like Davis Offor, alias “Clarus” of Nigeria’s popular soap, The New Masquerade, insists that there is nothing like GRA anymore in Aba as every space has been taken over by market stalls, hotels and other business outfits. “Aba people have no time to leave their businesses and begin to think of where to plant trees and flowers,” he said.

Emerging from the colonial times, Aba City was to later expand from Aba – Oweri Road where today you have relics of colonial buildings like John Holt, BYC, G.B. Ollivant, CFAO, Mandillas, P.Z. Cussons, Dunlop that belonged to white colonial masters, still standing, Factory Road, Milverton Avenue, Hospital Road, Faulks Road, Tenant Road and other adjoining streets up till today showcase the old colonial architectural type of buildings such as you find in some parts of Yaba, Ebute Metta, Tinubu Square, Ijora, Isale Eko and Idumota in Lagos. All these have since come to be joined with other city layouts made up of popular streets like Nnamdi Azikiwe, Asa Road, Clifford Road, Okigwe Road, Cameroon Road, Eziukwu Road, Ngwa Road, St. Michael’s and Uratta Road, showcasing architectural buildings. But many of the roads are in terrible state of disrepairs and collapse. We can say therefore that in Aba, the old co-exists with the new.

In 1969, at the height of the Nigerian Civil War, Aba became the temporary capital of the short-lived secessionist state of Biafra after the fall of Enugu. Today, the city has current population estimate of four million inhabitants, (made up of Abriba people who are said to dominate the commercial activities of Aba, and who, through the introduction of importation helped to turn the city into an international business district), Efiks, Ibibios, Annangs,  Hausas, Yorubas, and peoples from other parts of Igbo land and Nigeria.

Aba is one of the names that originally made up the name, Abia (a name said to be formed from the acronym derived from Aba, Bende, Isikwuato and Afikpo (which is, today, under Ebonyi State).

Factors that made Aba popular

Nwangwa, the monarch attributed the greatness of Aba to her centrality. “Aba is highly centralized just like the city of London”, he said. “No matter where you are coming from within the defunct Eastern region, you must pass through Aba and that made it a great commercial centre. If you are coming from Cross River and Akwa Ibom states to any other place, you must pass through Aba or from Rivers and Bayelsa States to the Northern part of the country, you must pass through the city. Due to its centralization, there is influx of people from different parts of the country which help its commerce to grow. Again, Aba is thickly populated which makes people who produce one thing or the other to come there to sell them.”

Next to its centrality is the open-mindedness of its aborigines, the Ngwa people, to visitors, something that culminated in people from other parts of the country representing Aba at the Federal legislative council in years gone by, Buttressing this point, Eze Nwangwa cited the case of late Chief Margret Ekpo, a known figure in the struggle for women emancipation in Nigeria who he said came from present-day Cross River State but represented Aba at the Federal House in the late ‘50s and early ‘60s. The same thing went for a man called Ekong, from Akwa Ibom State, who was the chairman of Aba County Council within the same period.

Low cost of living

What attracts people to Aba is the low cost of living. Not only the foodstuffs but also the house rents here are cheap. It is for this reason that it will be very difficult to find any family in Igbo land that does not have one or two relations living and doing business in Aba. There is a popular saying that someone could find his way to Aba almost empty-handed, but before the cock crows the following day, becomes a rich man by dint of hard work. 

Fabricators’ haven, home of commerce and industry 

“Aba ma ndi Aba.” That must be businessmen or people with business acumen. You surely need that to survive in Aba. If you don’t have, then you don’t truly belong to Aba, a melting pot of small scale industries like textiles, footwear and electronics, etc. If you don’t have the business savvy to survive in Aba, that means you already have your days numbered. You will not last long there. Take it or leave it.

Aba’s middle name is business. The city which is home to an NNPC depot has over 15 markets, more than 3,000 small and medium scale industries that churn out thousands of tones of finished goods daily, it has an influx of estimated 3, 000 people who visit the city daily to make purchases.

If not for anything, Aba is known, at least, for its products such as dresses, bags and shoes which today are known as “Aba made” Although many people view these products as inferior and cheap, so far it has managed to hold its own against all odds and cynicism. In fact, Aba-made products are getting better by the day, hence traders come from African nations like Cameroon, Gabon, Ghana, Equatorial Guinea, Niger, Chad, Benin Republic and some Nigerian states such as Sokoto, Maiduguri, Oyo, Kwara, Lagos, Kano, not to talk of Rivers, Cross River and Akwa Ibom, to purchase goods of all kinds there.

The uncommon ability of artisans in the city to masterfully fabricate anything under the sun, including human beings, some jokingly say, has earned the city the sobriquet, ‘Japan of Africa’ “Artisans in Aba know how to fabricate things,” Eze Nwangwa agrees. “They look at sample of a thing and you see them producing it to look even better. What they need is government assistance and these people will make Aba greater in the years ahead.”

Ariaria International Market, one of the numerous markets in Aba and about the largest in Africa with over 50, 000 stores and stalls, and over 3,000 industrial outlets, is championing the production and sale of made-in-Nigeria goods. For instance, the market comprising over 20, 000 shoemakers churn out over 800, 000 pairs of various types of shoes including military boots for sale within and outside Nigeria, every week. Because of this feat, the Nigerian military authorities have curtailed its reliance on imported boots and have consistently placed order for their boots from the market.

The other side of ‘Aba-made’ 

Popular Nigerian script-writer and filmmaker, Dr. Ola Balogun was born and bred in Aba as are Nigerian film actors and actresses like Osita Iheme (Pawpaw) of Aki na Ukwa fame, Benita Nzeribe of Street Life fame and Nkeiru Sylvanus, famous for her realistic interpretative role in the popular film, Cry for Help. So also is Davis Offor, alias Clarus and Prof. Olu Oguibe, the world-famous artist-painter.

With the showcasing of their artistic skills, together they have ensured that you don’t give that phrase an inferiority hue or casting any more. Neither in your mind, nor in your mouth, Therefore, in saying “Aba-made,” today, you might need to differentiate between its products and its prodigies. 

Aba used to be tough in time past, observes Davis Offor. “In those days,” he recalled, “you could be watching and a motor park tout would get hold of an inspector of police and beat him to a pulp and break his baton or whatever. Even if you raid their hideouts, before you know it, they are all out of the cell. Whatever transpired at the police station is known only to them and the police.”

To further buttress his point on the kind of characters that you had at Aba in those days, he told the story of how one day, a gentle-looking man dressed in three piece suit was walking along one of the streets when a thief suddenly came from behind and snatched the briefcase he was clutching and disappeared into the crowd.

“He started pursuing the man,” Offor recalled. “Somewhere along the line a policeman and others joined in giving the thief a hot chase. But the moment the owner of the briefcase sighted the police, he disappeared from the scene, Eventually, they caught up with the thief somewhere around the Milverton Avenue/Asa Road junction but he claimed to be the owner of the briefcase. They asked him what was inside and he mentioned some items I cannot remember now. They asked him to open the briefcase. Initially, he tried doing so but when he couldn’t, he claimed to have lost the key. Insisting on knowing the content, the policeman aided by the crowd forced open the briefcase and lo, and behold, it contained fresh, bleeding human parts.”

It was then the truth dawned on both the thief and the crowd.”My people, let me tell you the truth and nothing but the truth before you kill me,” he cried out in agony as the crowd descended on him from all sides with blows and cudgels, ready to lynch him. “Some of you here know what I do for a living in this Aba,” he said. “I snatch bags and pick pockets. That’s the kind of crime I commit. But to kill a fellow human being and stuff his body parts in a portmanteau, my people, let me swear to God who made me and you that my criminal activity has not reached this level. Believe me I picked this one (meaning the briefcase) in the course of my usual bag-snatching and pocket-picking business.”

“You could go to Lagos or Abuja and find ladies wearing bum shorts or something worse on the street,” Slyvanus who had her primary and secondary education at Ohabiam Primary and Secndary Sehools located on Port Harcourt Road, Aba, said, “Nobody looks at them. Nobody laughs at them. But in those days, you couldn’t do that in Aba. If you walk in Aba like that, you would see people throwing sachets of pure water or stones at you or making jest of you. In fact, sometimes, you could see boys running after you and trying to pull the bum shots off you, while saying that since you want to go naked, why don’t you pull off everything so that everybody can see what you want them to see. When you think about the embarrassment on the street, nobody would tell you to dress well and cover yourself properly in Aba.”

Sylvanus, from Osisioma, Ngwa, but who used to live with her siblings and her parents, her mum, a nurse and her father, a policeman, on Uratta Road, off Port Harcourt, added that, “knowing that Aba is not a place you can dress anyhow helped to put me under self-control, as far as dressing is concerned.”

Aba and the Enyimba Football Club

“Nzogbu, nzogbu, enyimba enyi, nzogbu, enyimba enyi.” Any time, you hear that war song, look around you. The Enyimba Football Club fans are around. Translated literally, the song says, “treading, treading to death obstacles and oppositions, that’s how the people’s elephant walks.”

Nzogbu, nzogbu used to be the war/victory song of the Igbos in years gone by. Today, it is the welcome and confidence-building song of Enyimba Football Club fans, at home and abroad. With it, they welcome the football boys into the pitch. With it, they buoy their spirits in the midst of play. With it, they celebrate every goal scored against the opposing side. With it, they celebrate the final victory. With it, they dance themselves lame. With it, they drink themselves to stupor.

There is no mistaking the spirit of Nzogbu, Nzogbu where two or three Enyimba Football Club fans are gathered. You are sure to hear the song renting the air, over and over again. Talking about Aba, it is the home of Enyimba International Football Club which broke the 38-year-old jinx by being the first Nigerian football club, to win, under the leadership and support of Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu, then the governor of Abia State, the CAF Champions League of 2003. It did so by beating, under Coach Kadiri Ikhana, assisted by Emmanuel Iorse and Ifeanyi Okeke, as goalkeeper trainer, the Ismaily SC of Egypt in the final match. Enyimba is regarded as the most successful football club in Nigeria, following its triumphs on the continent in 2003 and 2004, as well as in other domestic football tournaments.

Founded in November 1976 by Sir Jerry Amadi Enyeazu, the first Director of Sports in the then newly created Imo State, the club later became the property of Abia State government when the state was carved out of Imo on August 27, 1991. Between 1994 and 1996, Enyimba placed 3rd and 4th positions respectively before posting inconsistent results for the next six years, But its history changed for good in 1999 when Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu emerged the newly elected governor of Abia.

In his inaugural speech, he expressed his personal interest in making sure that Enyimba Football Club became the best club in Nigeria and Africa. The first thing he did was to change the management, and to build the stadium to an enviable international standard, equipped with scoreboards and other international facilities. Enyimba won its first Nigerian professional league crown in 2001 under Coach Godwin Koko Uwa. Nzogbu nzogbu, enyimba enyi.