Historically, Ikwerre people, just like Ndoni and similar others in today’s Rivers State and environs are of Igbo origin.

But does the origin of any tribe really matter safe for historical purposes? After all, other tribes and peoples that settle in various parts of Nigeria and elsewhere also have their origin somewhere else.

However, the real issue is not whether these people are of Igbo origin or not, but why they are persistent in dissociating themselves from their Igbo origin.

Have we ever bothered to inquire why their dissociation from Ndigbo of South East Geopolitical Zone are very vehement in some quarters, safe for the bullying by Ndigbo from the present South East Geopolitical Zone?

Part of the reasons for their dissociation, apart from the slave trade and the Osu cast system angles in the core Igbo lands, are probably the same reasons Igbo people in today’s Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Bayelsa, Kogi, Parts of Delta and Benue States just to mention a few, will not want to associate with the Igbos of the present South East Geopolitical Zone.

I think, the core underlying factor here is the FEAR of perennial DOMINATION and/or SUBJUGATION!

Many Ibos domiciled/settled outside the present South East Geopolitical Zone, would rather prefer to be kings, princes and nobles in the hell of other people than to be slaves in the heaven of Igbo making!

The major seed of discord, I want to believe, was sown in 1951 when the Rt. Honourable Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe GCFR, was compelled by circumstance to take over from Professor Eyo Ita, as the leader of the government of Eastern Nigeria; following the “cross carpet” embriglo championed by Chief Obafemi Awolowo, that displaced the great Zik of Africa from being the first leader of government business in the then Western Region of Nigeria.

Somehow, it is like what the Awolowo group did to the Azikiwe group in the old Western Region of Nigeria seems to have been replicated in what the Azikiwe group did to the Eyo Ita’s group in the Eastern Region of Nigeria; thus, breeding some sort of discords in the unity of the peoples of the then Eastern Region of Nigeria.

Hitherto, virtually everyone in the then Eastern Region and particularly, those of Igbo origin had a sense of belonging and the unity of purpose!

The usurpation of Professor Eyo Ita’s leadership of Eastern Region Government was also most probably behind the then glamour for the creation of COR (Cross River, Ogoja and Rivers) Region before the military struck January 15, 1966.

Prior to the military usurpation of power in 1966 and the eventual genocide christened “civil war”, the Ikwerre people and others may have been secretly nursing their bitterness for various reasons including perceived domination of the Igbos of South East.

The military under the headship of General Yakubu Gowon, obviously, took advantage of the situation with the active participation of Chief Obafemi Awolowo, to create the old Rivers State (that comprised today’s Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Rivers and Cross River States) in 1967.

So, it would have been unimaginable and in fact suicidal for the Igbos trapped in the new Rivers State during the so-called civil war from 1967 to 1970 not to align with the then “almighty” Nigerian Federal Military Government, for personal and/or political survival. They had to denounce and dissociate themselves from their core Igbo origin for obvious reasons.

Let’s also recall that the Ibos in the then Midwest Region aligned with the “Biafra” Igbos and paid dearly for that “mistake” which climaxed in the Asaba massacre led by then Major Murtala Ramat Muhammed, who later became the Head of State of Nigeria in 1975.

Therefore, the pertinent question at this juncture should be: what has been done by Ndigbo of South East to win back their kit and kin scattered across the country and indeed the entire world apart from calling them names?

Just mouthing that Ikwerre people and others are of Igbo origin without any concrete steps to show them true love and win them back fully to identify with Ndigbo Worldwide may just be an exercise in futility!

•Professor Onyebeadi, Professor and United Nations Fellow, is the Inegbese of Oligbo Kingdom.