Our reporters
While the dust raised by the controversial amended Akwa Ibom Traditional Rulers Law is yet to settle, some Paramount Rulers gathered and reached an agreement to de-recognise the recently sworn in President-General of the Supreme Council of the State Traditional Rulers.
Consequently, erring royal fathers from Annang, Oron and Obolo ethnic nationalities attending meeting, event, and function with the President-General are reminded that they would face sanction, according a communique.
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‘‘The Converge directs that no member of the Traditional Rulers Council from the Annang, Oron, and Obolo Nationalities shall attend any meeting, event, function of any sort presided over by the Oku Ibom Ibibio as the President General of the Supreme Council of Akwa Ibom State Traditional Rulers,’’ a 26-point Communiqué stated.
Of the 31 Paramount Rulers in Akwa Ibom State, 15 are against the pronouncement and subsequent swearing in of Ntinyin Solomon Etuk, the Oku Ibom Ibibio and Paramount Ruler of Nsit Ubium, as the President General of the recently amended State Traditional Rulers Council.
Paramount rulers, clan, village and family heads, Mbong Iban and politicians across political divide from Annang, Oro and Obolo ethnic nationalities gathered at Ati Annang Secretariat, Ikot Ekpene on Monday, October 16 and expressed their grievances over what they saw as introduction of ‘‘second class citizenship’’ by the state government after 36 years of the state existence.
In the communiqué signed by all participants and stakeholders at the meeting, they warned ‘‘Whoever that flouts this resolution shall be traditionally sanctioned in accordance with our customs and traditions.’’
‘‘That the Traditional Rulers Council and indeed the good people of the Annang, Oron, and Obolo Nationalities both at home and in the Diaspora refuse to recognise and accept the permanency and supremacy of the President General of the Supreme Council of Akwa Ibom State Traditional Rulers as presently constituted with the Oku Ibom Ibibio as the occupant in perpetuity except such is amended to give equal opportunity to all ethnic nationalities and on a rotational two (2) years period as it was before now.
They recalled that ‘‘Sometime in May 2023 towards the eclipse of the administration of Mr Udom Emmanuel, he invited all the Paramount Rulers of the 31 Local Government Areas of the State to Government House for a breakfast meeting whereat he introduced the then Governor-elect, Pastor Umo Eno, now the Executive Governor of the State to them.
‘‘In course of the introduction, he requested for the extension of the same cooperation he had received from the Paramount Rulers to his successor and, in pure passing, also mentioned that there was a proposal to restructure the Akwa Ibom State Council of Chiefs, the details of which Pastor Umo Eno was to provide on his assumption of office in May 2023.
‘‘On 17th September 2023, the Paramount Rulers and indeed some of our socio- cultural groups received individual invitations from the House of Assembly to a Public Hearing on 19th September 2023 on the proposed amendments to the Traditional Rulers Law, Cap. 155, Laws of Akwa Ibom.
”This was the first time, we the Paramount Rulers of Annang, Oron, and Obolo ethnic nationalities saw the proposals to restructure the State Council of Chiefs barely mentioned by former Governor Udom Emmanuel at the meeting of May 2023 aforesaid. And, promptly, we on behalf of our people, raised memoranda vehemently opposing the passage of the then Bill with outlandishly discriminatory provisions against us on account of our ethnicities and in favour of our colleagues of the Ibibio ethnic group which the Bill proposed to make supreme.
”Of greater import to the opposition, the Bill stratified the citizenship of Nigeria in Akwa Ibom State into three broad classes purely on the basis of ethnicity in its provision in Clause 5 for the permanent position of a President-General of the then proposed Supreme Council of Traditional Rulers to be occupied by ‘the Oku Ibom Ibibio, representing the largest ethnic group in the State’ and Vice President I and Vice President II secondarily and permanently reserved for ‘the Akwa Akuku Annang, representing the second largest ethnic group in the State’ and ‘the Ahta Oro, representing the third largest ethnic group in the State’ respectively,” the declared.
In other words, every other Traditional Ruler in the State from any non-Ibibio ethnic group is permanently prohibited and disentitled by statute from ascending to or occupying the position of the President-General of the new Supreme Council of Traditional Rulers, such prohibited Traditional Rulers not being of Ibibio, the purported largest ethnic group in the State.
Despite opposition at the Public Hearing stated above, the House of Assembly hurriedly passed the Bill into Law in the evening of September 22, 2023 and it was quickly assented to by Governor Umo Eno on the night of the same September 22, 2023
In the morning of September 23rd, 2023, Paramount Ruler of Nsit Ubium Local Government Area and the Oku Ibom Ibibio was immediately sworn into office as the first permanent President-General of the Supreme Council of Traditional Rulers.
Before this obnoxious and vexatious law, and for the past 36 years, the Traditional Rulers Law provided for a State Council of Chief with the Chairmanship fairly and equally rotated among the Paramount Rulers of the Local Government Areas of the State, first on yearly basis and, under the tenure of Governor Udom Emmanuel, biennially.
Apart from the infringement of sections 15, 17, 24, 42 of the 1999 Constitution and Articles 3, 19, 22 and 28 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (Ratification & Enforcement) Act, two quick questions, inter alia, arising from the above scenario, and which the general public may wish to take notice of especially given their wider implications are: a. Can the citizenship of Nigeria be stratified into classes on the basis of ethnic origin as the amended Traditional Rulers Laws of Akwa Ibom State seeks to do?
Can the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly competently legislate on the citizenship of Nigeria in infringement of the legislative competence of the National Assembly, citizenship being item 9 in the Exclusive Legislative List?’’ they queried.
The Converge observed that the Law as passed has already caused serious disaffection, disunity, divisions, protests, tensions and lack of trust amongst indigenes of our various ethnic groups and even the Traditional Rulers of the State and has the propensity to further cause more tensions, protests, confrontations and unintended attendant break down of law and order, with the possibility of loss of lives and properties of our citizens in our much beloved peaceful State, and therefore should be repealed immediately.
The Converge observed that the esteemed traditional stools in the country such as the Sultan of Sokoto, the Oni of Ife, the Oba of Benin, the Oba of Lagos, the Emir of Kano to mention but a few which the amended law is seen to equate the Oku Ibom Ibibio with are hereditary and dates back to hundreds of years of self-evolution. They were not legislated into existence by any law. The contraption of Supreme Council President General called Oku Ibom Ibibio belongs to one tribe and has no bearing to our history and traditions.
Further, it is pertinent to state here that the so-called throne of the Oku Ibom Ibibio is only for the Ibibio tribe in the State which is found in 14 Local Government Areas out of the 31 Local Government Areas in the State. Hence the people and the Local Government Areas of the Oron tribe (5 LGAs), Annang tribe (8 LGAs), Ekid tribe (2 LGAs), the Obolo tribe (2 LGAs) were and are NEVER part of the territories under the Oku Ibom stool.’’
According to the communiqué, ‘‘For the continuous peaceful and harmonious coexistence of our people and their brothers in Ibibio and for the greater interest of Akwa Ibom State as witnessed in the last 36 years, the Converge appeals to His Excellency, the Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Pastor Umo Eno to kindly recall this vexatious and obnoxious Law and represent it to the House of Assembly for reconsideration of the areas of complaints highlighted in this Communiqué and various written and verbal representations to him from our people with a view to redressing same.’’
‘‘The Converge acknowledges the invitation of His Excellency, the Governor of Akwa Ibom State of 14th October 2023 to all Paramount Rulers for a meeting to be presided over by him at the Executive Council Chambers in the Governor’s office on Tuesday 17th October 2023,’’ the communiqué added.
