The Ohiku Egbira Descendants Union, an umbrella physique of your complete Egbira world talking nation, has known as on the federal authorities to finish the deserted Ajaokuta Metal Firm in Kogi State and to additionally begin the proposed port on the River Benue at Umaisha in Toto Native Authorities Space of Nasarawa State.
Nationwide President of OEDU, Musa Ada-Ohinoyi Ahmadu, made the decision on the sixth World Ohiku Egbira Day Conference 2025.
The programme had as its theme: “In the direction of Empowerment And {Economic} Transformation of the Egbira Nation”, held at Umaisha in Toto Native Authorities Space of Nasarawa State.
He mentioned it was worrisome that regardless of the Ajaokuta Metal Firm being 95 p.c full, the metal firm has remained a sleeping large.
Ahmadu requested the federal authorities to rise above the antics of naysayers to finish the mission.
He mentioned the proposed port on River Benue at Umaisha is not only an infrastructural mission however a gateway to commerce, creation of jobs, industrialisation and transformation.
“Allow us to not get swayed by the outdated arguments. The world nonetheless depends on blast furnace know-how for over 70 p.c of its metal production. Why ought to Nigeria be left behind?” he requested.
Based on him, the sixth Ohiku Egbira World Day 2025 conference marked the sixth within the sequence of Ohiku Egbira conventions, which he mentioned had taken place variously in Okene, Kogi State in 2012, in Koton-Karfe, Kogi State in 2021, in Etuno-Igarra, Edo State in 2022, in Abuja in 2023 and once more in Okene in 2024.
He mentioned the mission of the OEDU, which contains each bonafide Egbira son and daughter, was established over 20 years in the past by stakeholders, neighborhood leaders and the royal fathers of your complete Egbira nation, consisting of the Egbira Opete, Miyakan and Egbira Etuno, so as to midwife the reunification of the Egbira nation that had gone adrift for a number of causes.
Ahmadu, nevertheless, said that the sixth nationwide conference of the Ohiku Egbira was to foster unity and cooperation among the many Egbiras from the three arms.
“The Ohiku Egbira Day celebration will allow change of concepts, coverage statements and socio-cultural interactions. This conference is a celebration of who we’re. Our dances, songs, our masquerades, our artifacts, they don’t seem to be relics of the previous however dwelling expressions of our identification,” he mentioned.
Additionally talking on the occasion, Kogi State Governor, Ahmed Usman Ododo, who was chairman of the event, mentioned he felt honoured to be together with his brothers and sisters on the gathering.
Represented by the state commissioner for Strong Minerals, Abubakar Bashir Gegu, Ododo mentioned the celebration of the Ohiku Egbira Day was a collective identification and shared heritage, which he mentioned had an unbroken bond as one Egbira nation.
“There’s a distinctive magnificence in the truth that the Egbira individuals are unfold throughout states and areas, but stay united in spirit, tradition and goal,” he mentioned.