In the olden days, the days of yore, some Igbo nationalities were
migrating to this part of the country from their original abode
somewhere within Uli area of present day Anambra State. On
getting to the Imo River, having observed that the heavens would
soon open up, some of the people hurried up and crossed over the
river while others remained to roast yam to eat having became
tired and hungry.”
He continued: “Immediately after, as if the people that had crossed
the river knew, it started to rain heavily and those who stayed
behind were unable to cross as the river overflew its banks. The
people who stayed behind to roast yam referred to those who
crossed over as ndi ome ngwa ngwa (people in a hurry) from
where the name Ngwa was derived, on the other hand, those who
hurried and crossed over the river called their brothers and sisters
on the other side, umu ohuhu (those who roast yam). These
people are said to be found in Mbaise in present day Imo State.
“Those whom we left our original abode with are the Mbaise
people of Imo State, we are of the same parents, but as they were
roasting yam, we left them and crossed the Imo River and they
called us Ngwa (ome ngwa ngwa) translated to mean those in a
hurry and we called them umu ohuhu translated to mean those
that roast yam”.
Eze Ikonne disclosed that when the Ngwa people crossed the Imo
River, they journeyed to a place called Okpuala in the present day
Isiala Ngwa North Local Government of Abia State, where they
cleared the adjourning bushes and settled there.
After a while, the need for expansion of frontier arose. As some of
the people settled at Okpuala, others itched to find a new
settlement.
Methodology, according to Eze Ikonne, had it that the people’s
quest to leave Isiala Ngwa and inhabit another place increased by
the day, but they were frustrated by the lack of knowledge of where
to go to.
The divine elephant and Enyimba city
His Royal Majesty revealed that the “urge of finding a new
settlement among some of the people continued and one day an
elephant emerged from nowhere and began an eastward
movement.
“The elephant led the people towards the direction of what is today
known as Aba and the people followed it as it cleared the bush for
them for a journey of over 30 kilometres. On getting to a point, the
elephant stopped and disappeared and the people who had
marched all through from Isiala Ngwa with it also stopped and
decided to settle there. By then there was nothing like Aba, as the
people who settled in the area were the Osusus, Eziukwus and
Ohazus.
“Osusu is the head of Ngwaland and the most populous, there is
no part of Ngwaland you will not get a village called Osusu, all are
one and the people do not inter-marry. Osusu people throughout
Ngwaland do not eat monkey and we are the custodians of the
Harmathan ‘pot’, each time we want harmathan to come, we open
it. We are also the custodians of Ngwaland.
“The place where the elephant that led the Ngwa people stopped
and disappeared is today known as Ehi (Elephant) Road, one of the
most popular in the city. Our people see the elephant as an
instrument God used to show His people the way because after
getting to Ehi road, nobody can tell what happened to the elephant
later.”
The mystic Uha tree
When the people finally settled in the area, an Uha tree grew up in
what today is the centre of the city, precisely at Azikiwe Road/Asa
Road, exactly the point where the Yoruba have their Mosque in
Aba presently.
“The Uha tree was there for so many years until when development
started coming to the city and government wanted who would
uproot it. One young man volunteered himself to do the job and
government officials agreed to pay him British Pounds equivalent
of N10, 000. The man did the job, but he did not go home alive as
he died instantly. Nobody killed him, it was the work of God, the
Uha tree was not planted by anybody in Ngwaland. That spot is
the meeting point of Aba people in the olden days, it was a place
they had their deity, when they want to consult with their gods
they go there. The day we poured libation in that place, Aba
shook. It was the meeting point of the Eze and elders of the
community. Each hamlet then had their different deities and the
places where they were worshipped, but the one at the present day
Azikiwe Road/Asa Road which hosts the Uha tree and where the
Yoruba Mosque is presently located, was where the deity of the
whole people was and it served as the central place where all the
people converge when there was need to consult their deity.”
British colonial administration and the name, Aba
When the British colonial masters came to Nigeria, they were said
to have posted one Mr Faulks as the first British colonial
administrator for Aba.
Mr Faulks settled down and had his office in what today is housing
the National Museum of Colonial History and Antiquities located
on Ikot Ekpene Road.
Faulks had his residence within the Osusu area that tells why
today most of Osusu land is in the Government Reserved Area
(GRA) in Aba.
The first colonial administrator was said to have built the first road
in Aba, Faulks road, named after him and it is incidentally the road
that leads to Ariaria International Market.
He built that road from Aba to connect Ebiri Omuma in Rivers
State. And because of his good deeds, Oriental News learnt that
despite pressure from some quarters, the people refused that the
name of the road should be changed.
Since the original inhabitants (the Osusus, Eziukwus and Ohazus)
came in, the place had no general name it was known for, then
how did the name Aba come into being?
The traditional ruler provided an answer, “The name, Aba, was
given to the then expanding city by Mr Faulks, the first British
colonial master who on arriving at the place saw how plain its
landscape was and then asked the people what they called the
plain area in their native language and the people said, it is ‘baraa’
and the white man coined Aba from the Igbo word ‘baraa’ and said
the city should be known as Aba”.
The 85-year-old traditional ruler was not yet born when his
people migrated to Aba and this he agreed with when he said, “As
a matter of fact, I do not know the exact time my people came to
this place that is now called Aba, I was not yet born, but what I am
telling you now was handed over to me by my late father when he
was alive who also said his father and grandfather told him”.
Coming of warrant chiefs
With the coming of the colonial masters came the introduction of
warrant chiefs in the area just in most other parts of Igbo land. The
first warrant chief of Aba (as traditional rulers were then known),
according to Eze Ikonne, “was Chief Ogbonna Oguikpe Nkwogu. I
was not born by then. My own father, Chief Ikonne Nwachukwu,
Chief Enwereji Nwogu and Chief Emejiaka were among the chiefs
then who worked with the warrant chief. There were no courts then
in Aba, the warrant chief and his other chiefs were the judges and
whatever judgment they passed must be carried out to the letter.
Then there was no robbery, no bribery, those who committed
offences were tried according to the law. Aba people are the most
accommodating in the whole Nigeria.
“As people from other areas started to come and live in Aba,
expansion began and the first market was built in Aba. The market
located on Asa Road, was called Ekeoha (market for all) and the
name emanated from the fact that people from far and near
including Lagos, Calabar, Port Harcourt and Cameroon came there
to buy goods. Due to constant fire outbreaks, the market was in
1977 move to Ariaria although the original market was rebuilt and
re-named Ekeoha Shopping Centre. During the slave trade era, the
market also played major role. The second market in Aba was the
Market Road market popularly known as Ahia Ohuru (New
Market).
Talking about other firsts, the first church to be built in Aba,
according to the royal father, was the Saint Michaels and All
Angels Anglican Church St. Michael’s Road and Christ the King
Catholic Church (CKC) on Asa Road.
Outside Ehi Road where the elephant that led the people into Aba
stopped and disappeared and Faulks road which was named after
the first colonial administrator, other roads in the city with some
historic importance are the Howell Crescent equally named after
another colonial administrator; Azikiwe Road named after the first
President of Nigeria, Dr. Nnamdi Benjamin Azikiwe; and the
popular and densely populated Ngwa Road.
After the people of Osusu and Eziukwu had settled in the places,
the remaining people moved towards the area that is known as
Ngwa Road today from where some people migrated further to the
Ugwunagbo areas. So, when a major road was constructed in the
city in the late 60s, it was named Ngwa Road. The royal father
said the first primary school to be built in the city is the
Constitution Crescent located within the area formerly known as
European quarters, followed by that built by the Anglican Church
on St. Michael’s Road where Nigeria and Africa’s iconic writer, the
late Prof Chinua Achebe attended.
Aba today is a cosmopolitan city inhabited by people with different
ethnic backgrounds who greatly out-number the original
inhabitants. There are also some Ngwa people who live in Aba
today but are said not to be part of those that were brought to the
area by what has come to be known as the divine elephant and
that is the Ogbor people.
According to Eze Ikonne, Ogbor village though now part of Aba,
her people were not among the original Ngwa people that settled in
the place through the direction of the elephant.
“The Ogbor people as history made us understand have no
relations in any other part of Ngwaland like the Osusus’ and
others”, Eze Ikonne said.
Eze Ikonne, the former chairman of Abia State Council of
Traditional Rulers who is the oldest and longest serving traditional
ruler in Aba had earlier in the year, having been born on January 1,
1929, celebrated his 85th birthday anniversary and 41 years on
the throne as the monarch of Eziama community, one of the Osusu
people that were the first to settle in Aba.
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