Kukuruku !

Copyright 

Abu Oshuks Jude.

Wed January 22, 2025.

We have   landmass, we have the population, we have the mineral resources and we have tourism.

If the government does not address these pressing issues, we will not threaten to join Ondo state like Imeri has done,  I suggest that we, the kukuruku people go back up the rocks because living in the stone age may be better than this.

People who agitate for freedom from their perceived oppressors are not like us.

We are tired of talking without action, I hereby on behalf of my kukuruku people advocate for Kukuruku state as reparations for decades of locusts. We don't even want Local Government again, we want a state of our own.

In Akoko-Edo LGA

Government presence is absent. We are worse than second class citizens in our country. 

Imeri used to be part of Akoko-Edo they joined Ondo State years ago and since then they have seen the light.

This marginalization did not start today. In the 1970s there was some agitation that we should join Ondo state, that was how Ojirami dam was built as compensation.

Storeyed buildings are very common here most were built in the 40s -70s. Because our ancestors were used to living uphill, when they were forced down,  the next best thing was to leave upstairs.

Even as we spoke a bike crossed with some young girls and as they struggled through I feared gravely for their safety.

I know lots of people who have migrated and forgotten these ancient hills that was once our sanctuary.

When we finally crossed we were all muddy and had to clean our clothes. As we were doing that the bike man pointed to the abandoned relics of an attempted bridge and said.

"Barrister see, they award the contract they chop the money, they run." 

The jungles of Vietnam are mere bushes compared to what we passed through.

My saving grace was that my rider was demon on two wheels.

At a point we had to wade through a fast flowing river dragging the bike with us.

Underdeveloped and blatantly ignored by successive governments we have become used to being abused.

I wanted to attend a burial in Atte which is in Akoko-Edo. I was told I would have to go through Auchi and Iyukhu, it did not make sense to me. I decided to use a bike through Egbigere, it was an adventure.

If you climb those rocks you can still find mud houses and ancient pottery there. We should get some archaeologists up there to do some work, we might discover that the mummies of Egypt are young.

Echi.  

We have descended into  Bondage. 

When the Northern and Southern Regions were amalgamated to form Nigeria pax Brittanica was declared and our ancestors was forced to come down from the rocks by the colonial government.

The white man assured them that the days of slavery were over. This was in 1914. My maternal grand mother was born that year. Hence her name was "Echi." The descent.

My Mother is Igarra, when I meet an Ebira man I tell him we are brothers and we would have been together if not for their love for gorigo which made them settle in Okene.

If he is versed in his culture he will reply that it was also the love of akikori,  (snails) that made Igarra people to continue further south.

It is said that the Ebiras and Etunos  migrated from the far North, the Ebiras settled mostly in Okene, because of their love for gorigo, (Beniseed) while some went further south and settled in what is now Igarra.

So there is this brotherly camaraderie between the Igarra and Ebira people. The Language is similar as well.

This was a pre-arranged warning sign which told everyone to run up the hills where the equestrian Nupes could not follow with their war horses.

We have people in the North who were taken away a long time ago. They are plenty in Niger state and they are still known as the Kukuruku people.