Akwa Ibom State

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Location
Akwa Ibom State State nickname: Land of Promise

Statistics
Governor (List)	Godswill Akpabio (PDP)
Date Created	23 September, 1987
Capital	Uyo
Area	7,081 km² Ranked 30th
Population 1991 Census 2005 est.	Ranked 9th 2,359736 4,805,451
Dialling code	??
ISO 3166-2	NG-AK
Website	akwaibomstategov.com

Akwa Ibom is a state in Nigeria. It is located in the south-east of the country, lying between latitudes 4°321 and 5°331 North, and longitudes 7°251 and 8°251 East. The State is bordered on the east by Cross River State, on the west by Rivers State and Abia State, and on the South by the Atlantic Ocean.

Akwa Ibom is one of Nigeria’s 36 states with a population of over 5 million people. It was created in 1987 from the former Cross River State and is a major oil-producing area in the country. The state’s capital is Uyo, home to some 300,000 people and a prominent academic centre (University of Uyo) Akwa Ibom has two major ports on the Atlantic Ocean. Along with English, the main languages spoken here are Ibibio, Annang, Oro, Ibeno, and Eket.

1 Important Cities
2 History
3 Administrative Divisions
4 Demography
5 Politics
6 External links

[edit] Important Cities

Uyo is the capital of Akwa Ibom State. Ikot Ekpene, Abak, Oron, Eket, Ibeno, Ikot Abasi, Mkpat Enen, Ukanafun, Ekemini are a few of many prominent cities.

Ikot Ekpene, also called Rafia City or IK, is a very famous small town in Nigeria. It is located at an important junction in the south of the country, joining Calabar, the eastern port, with Port Harcourt, the southern port, Uyo, the capital of Akwa Ibom State, and Eket, a major Oil producing town.

[edit] History

Akwa Ibom State was created out of Cross River State on September 23, 1987. Akwa Ibom was created by combining the Ikot Abasi ,Uyo (State Capital), Ikot Ekpene, Eket and Abak divisions of old Calabar province.

[edit] Administrative Divisions

Akwa Ibom is divided into 31 Local Government Areas:

Abak
Eastern-Obolo
Eket
Esit-Eket
Essien-Udim
Etim-Ekpo
Etinan
Ibeno
Ibesikpo-Asutan
Ibiono-Ibom
Ika
Ikono
Ikot Abasi
Ikot-Ekpene
Ini
Itu
Mbo
Mkpat-Enin
Nsit-Atai
Nsit-Ibom
Nsit-Ubium
Obot-Akara
Okobo
Onna
Oron
Oruk-Anam
Ukanafun
Udung-Uko
Uruan
Urue-Offong/Oruko
Uyo

[edit] Demography

The people are predominantly of the Christian faith although some native African religions are practised. The main ethnic groups of the state are:

Ibibio
Annang
Oron
Ibeno
Eket
Efik

The Ibibio are the largest group, whilst the Annang, which form the second largest group, speak a language very similar to the Ibibio Language. The Oro are a distinct ethnic group found in five of the state's Local Government Areas. Ibeno and Eket speak a similar language, and are located at the ocean, contiguous to Oron. The Ibibio language belongs to the Benue-Congo language family, which forms part of the Niger-Congo group of languages.

Despite the claim of homogeneity, no central government existed among the people of what is now Akwa Ibom State prior to the British invasion in 1904. Instead, the Annang, Eket, Efik, Ibibio Oron, Ibeno were all autonomous groups. The Efiks were the first to establish contact with the outside world, trading with the Europeans as early as the 17th century. Scottish missionaries arrived in Calabar in 1848. The British did not firmly establish control until 1904. In that year, the Enyong Division was created encompassing the area of the current state of Akwa Ibom, with the headquarters at Ikot Ekpene, an Annang town described by the noted Africanist Kaanan Nair, as the cultural and political capital of Annang and Ibibio. The creation of Enyong Division, for the first time allowed the numerous ethnic groups to come together. This further provided a venue for the creation of the Ibibio Welfare Union, later renamed Ibibio State Union. Though the social organization was first organized as an improvement union and a forum for the educated groups who were shut out from the colonial administration in 1929, some historians have wrongly pointed to the union to buttress their argument on the homogeneity of the groups in the area.^{[citation needed]}

Despite Ikot Ekpene being bigger and more developed, when Akwa Ibom state was created in 1987, Uyo was chosen as the state capital in order to spread development as much as possible.

The people of Akwa Ibom State have not fared better in what is now Nigeria. Though the state is an oil rich area, poverty is rampant. The utilization of the state structure to share the oil wealth means that the Ibibio/Annang/Eket block with just a single state receives a single share while other ethnic groups in the nation with four, five and more states receive larger shares of the oil wealth according to the number of states created for them. The argument from the citizens of Akwa Ibom state has been to abolish using the state structure to share the oil wealth. There has also been the thinking that the state should be divided into two or more states to capitalize on the current revenue sharing formula.

[edit] Politics

Politics in Akwa Ibom state is dominated by the three main ethnic groups, the Ibibio, Annang and Oron. Of these three, the Ibibio remains the dominant and has held sway in the state since its creation. This has led to fear of marginalisation of the Annang and Oron. Ibibio elders of the PDP, the dominant political party in the State, fielded an Annang, Godswill Akpabio, for the April 14 2007 Governorship elections, which he comfortably won. He was sworn-in on the 29th of May, 2007. There is currently a petition filed by Mr. James Iniama, a governorship candidate for AC, another political party, which is still being deliberated in the Appeal court, the case having first been ruled in the Election Tribunal in December 2007.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] External links

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