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POLITICAL HISTORY OF IBIONO IBOM PEOPLE IN THE PRE-COLONIAL PERIOD


POLITICAL HISTORY OF IBIONO IBOMPEOPLE IN THE PRE-COLONIAL PERIOD


Abstract
Ibiono Ibom is one of the Local Government Areas in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. It is one of the largest. It is one of the largest Local Government Area blessed with abundant human and natural resources that makes the area very important politically and otherwise.  It is an Ibibio community that shares in all cultural social, economic, political, religious and traditional features, values and norms of Ibibio Nation of located on the Western bank of the Cross River with more than two hundred and sixty villages.  This study is a research work on the political history of Ibiono people in the pre-colonial period. Using analytical historical method, the research work finds out that the people of Ibiono Ibom were politically organized in the pre-colonial era before the adversing colonial administration.

Introduction
Ibiono Ibom is one of the important segments of Ibibio Nation in the present Akwa Ibom State. It is one of the largest Local Government Area with rich resources that makes the area very viable. It is located on the Western Bank of the Cross River and is bounded in the North by Arochuckwu in Abia State and Itu Local Government in the East, in the West by Ikono Local Government Area and in the South by Eniong in Cross River State. The area, Ibiono Ibom is about 6,000 square kilometers and has more than two hundred recognized villages. Various traditional institutions and values in pre-colonial Ibiono Ibom have survived till the post colonial era despite the influence of colonialism. Some of these institutions include Ekpo Nyoho, Idiong, Mbiam, Ekpe, Ayara Ekeng Nkemba, Obon, among others.
Ibiono Ibom in pre-colonial era observes traditional values, customs and totems and the political governance headed by the Okuku Ibiono Ibom is still prevalent till today. The Okuku Ibiono Ibom is the pivot around whom the whole political structure of Ibiono revolves. More so, the traditional leadership in Ibiono Ibom is shared amongst the various clans and village heads,
Perhaps it is right to observe that Ibiono Ibom, like other part of Ibibio nation operated a stateless society with no centralized system of political organization. The basic political unit was the compound. A combination of related compound make up the extended family group (Ekpuk) where a number of Ekpuks make up the village, while a number of villages with common ancestry, recognizing a common deity form a clan. However, the dispersal of population during the various waves of migration, absence of serious external threats and continuous segmentation of the lineages, all militated against the emergence of an overall or paramount leadership in Ibiono Ibom during the pre-colonial periods.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Over the years, Ibiono Ibom has remained an area of interest and importance to scholars. This is basically due to its geopolitics.
In his book, Ibiono Ibom: A synthesis of Ibionology, Etang asserts that the traditional ancestor of Ibiono settled at Obio Ibiono, after migrating from Ikono-Uyo, the ancestral home of the Ibiono Ibom people. Etang also noted that though Obio Ibiono is accepted by Ibiono people to be their first ancestral home, it is also believed that Afaha, which is one of the nine clans in Ibiono Ibom, is the first among all, that as the traditional head (Akpan).
Giving an explanation of what Ibom means, Edet Udo, in his popular treatise, who are the Ibibio’s argues that Ibiono Ibom is a corruption of the name Ubom, signifying largeness or wideness. Ibiono who is noted by scholars as the son of Ibom, is actually the one of the sons of a large and powerful ancestor2. Edet Udo also gives a critical account of the origin, migration and settlement of Ibibio. He also examined Ibibio social and political system in pre-colonial time. There was no difference in the system of administration that existed among the groups in the south eastern region of Nigeria, exception of some part of Calabar who had the Obong of Calabar and operated a semi-centralized system of administration.
In an attempt to establish the traditional structure of Ibiono Ibom people, Okon Ntia gave a brief history about the origin of Ibiono Ibom. He asserts that Ibiono is generally accepted primarily through oral tradition that it was named after Ibiono Akpan Ankit who was the ancestral father of Ibiono Ibom. Ntia went further to stress that Ibiono and his eight children-Afaha, Ibiaku, Ididep, Idoro, Mbiabong, Ntang use and Utit migrated from Ibom in Arochukwu and settled in a place named ‘Obio Ibiono’ after their father .
More important at this, is the political institution of the Okuku Ibiono Ibom, Ina, in his unpublished M. Phil thesis on the institution of the “Okuku Ibiono Ibom from origin to the present” noted that the Okuku institution is unique, not only because of its longetivity but also because of its constitution and operations. Ina argued that the Okuku Ibiono Ibom as traditional political institution is a product of post colonial era of Ibiono Ibom people.
          In his book, Ubiom history; customs and culture, Etim Okoko asserts that Ubiom which is also an Ibibio community, before the colonial administration “was very loose at the centre”, “this looseness and lack of central organization”, “he argues, “was not peculiar to Ubiom; it was a common features in the whole of Ibibioland, so that no such people as the Yorba Obas or the northern Emirs, ruling over every large territories could be found.
Substantiating this view, O. Uya Imbula’s edited history, culture, Diasporas and Nation Building, says  that:
The lack of many groups in pre-colonial Nigerian (including the  Ibibios)… lived in stateless societies… the prevalent Idiom of association was the kinship idiom, either genealogically or territorially defined. The lineage was the basic unit of social and political relations… (and) although there was some degree  of social differentiation, stratification was minimal and deliberations were usually carried out by consultation and consensus. Secret society played a prominent role in some of these societies. Management of theses usually dispersed groups without identifiable chiefs and rulers and their egalitarian principles after their incorporation into the colonial Nigeria state.     
Ekong E. Ekong in his book Sociology of the Ibibio, a study of social organization and change maintains that Ibibio has neither a tribal consciousness nor a tribal government. This according to the author is because of people did not  have a centralized system of political organization with a king, who superintends over every citizens like he Oba of Benin, Asantehene of Ashanti or Kabaka of Buganda.
Writing on the pre-colonial economic practices of Ibiono Ibom, Akra, in her unpublished research project asserts that during the pre-colonial days, the people of Ibiono Ibom presented three forms of economic exchange, namely redistribution, reciprocity and market. By redistributive economic exchange it meant that the control of good and services produced is centralized and the central agency reapportions them to consumers . By reciprocity economic governed by the respective norms and traditional prerogatives of partners in exchnage. This Akra further buttress that market is also another means of exchange pertinent to Ibiono Ibom. It is operated according to the principles of equivalent value of commodities. The trader in the market may employ either barter exchange or money. 


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