“Oro people are Ibibios?” By Edet Ating

Whoever said or is saying that “Oro people are Ibibios”, is either not very knowledgeable about the history of West Africa and Africa at large; or the person is saying this for cheap and myopic political reason. On the other hand, he or she is saying it out of inferiority complex, to deliberately spite on the Oro people. No human being would have known the past if there was no genius, sincere and dynamic manner or method of chronological account of past events about a people, institution, country, and so on. Even human evolution is relayed to us based on this manner or method.
We are all aware of the ‘big bang theory’, which scientists had proved to us to have started the entire universe, comprises the earth, the sun and the stars over fourteen billion years ago. It is the same method or manner we learnt how Christianity and Islam started in the world and in this part of the world in particular. If there was no history we would not have heard the great pyramids and Pharaohs, the Egyptian mummies. It is equally based on history that we know and believe that science and technology and democracy began in Greece. It is also a dynamic and historical fact that the English Literature written by Williams Shakespeare such as Othello, King Lear, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar and many others are based on Roman history.
It was a scientific account that further convincingly proved that the sun rises in the morning, crosses the sky during the day and then sets in the night; that one year which is normally three hundred and sixty five days is a one trip of the earth travelling around the sun. It is on the same account that it is proved empirically that a peculiar specie of food such as ewe-ekpang, culture such as afikayid, eyakpe, dialect and behavioural attitudes particularly in wrestling bouts emphasized the fact that the origin of Oro has nothing to do with another ethnic tribe in the southern Nigeria of West Africa.
The ancestral origin of the Oro people is genuinely traced from the Bantu stock of Usahadit in the Cameroon. Their migration expedition took the Oro people to settle with another tribe, the Efiks. In Nsedun, where the Oro people on their last migration expedition settled with the Efiks, they inter-married and expanded and were obviously included in one of the eight clans of the Efiks kingdom before they finally migrated across the Cross River to the other side where they finally settled. In the course of their expansion westward to the hinterland from the coastline, the Oro people then interacted with the Ibibios who were very dutiful and helpful to the Oro people particularly in most labourious services. In the course of this interaction, they inter-married and started sharing cultural ties and heritage.
It is authentically proved that as early as 1890, the Oro people, having patterned their migration along the seacoast all the way from the Cameroon, have detached themselves from further migration exploits and stiffly willing to carve a niche for themselves as a distinct group of people. Being small in number, the Oro people were able to knit themselves together in order to protect and safeguard their rare and unique characteristics and possessions. They continue to forge ahead in classic and eternal unity.
Following the trend of these people, the entire world was not then surprised at the emergence of Oron Union in 1925, the first of its kind in the South Eastern part of Nigeria. In this sequence therefore, it is absolutely difficult to establish that Oro and Ibibio people share the same ancestry. Inasmuch as it is scripturally believed that all human beings are descended from a common ancestor, Adam and Eve, but it is scientifically proved, too, that there is theory of evolution by natural selection, where human beings evolved and changed over time. That is an indisputable reason for differences in various human beings.
It boils down to the fact that Oro people evolved over time with their genetic traits and within the span of time adopted different and unique identity for themselves. There is no trace that Oro ancestral origin is shared with any ethnic group in Akwa Ibom State. If any person is not satisfied with this raw fact, the person is challenged by this columnist to call for genomic (genetic) mapping across the three major ethnic tribes in Akwa Ibom State, so that this issue of Oro people being Ibibios will be given a final rest or death by the protagonists. To me, it is not necessary at all.
For only Almighty God’s divine reasons, Oro people are located in this part of the world; and for political convenience, Oro people are found in Akwa Ibom State. They are therefore bonafide progenitors of Akwa Ibom State and they do have a share and a stake in the management and governance of the State, like the other two major ethnic tribes of Ibibio and the Annang. Coming from a distinct ancestry or source does not make Oro people foreigners in Akwa Ibom State.
The columnist is always an advocate of peace and unity among the three major tribes in order to bring even economic, political and social development to Akwa Ibom State. I do not intend at this time to join issues with whoever belched that garbage “Oro people are Ibibios” for complex and political reason at this material time, when Oro people are genuinely looking at their ripe and rightful governorship bid in 2015. It is not true, therefore, that Oro people are Ibibios. It is genetically faulty to say that Oro people are Ibibios.