Oko Town is an
Igbo speaking town in south eastern
Nigeria
Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...
. It is one of the 16 towns that make up the geopolitical area called
Orumba North
Orumba North is a Local Government Area in Anambra State, East-central Nigeria.
Towns
The 16 major towns that make up the local government are as follows;
*Awa,
* Awgbu,
*Omogho,
*Ndiokpalaeze,
*Ndiokolo,
*Amaetiti,
*Ndiokpalaeke,
* Oko ...
Local Government Area of
Anambra state
Anambra State is a Nigerian state, located in the southeastern region of the country. The state was created on August 27, 1991. Anambra state is bounded by Delta State to the west, Imo State to the south, Enugu State to the east and Kogi State ...
. It is the major economic town of the local government largely dependent on a very large student community and staff strength of the Federal Polytechnic, Oko.
Oko (spelt locally as okoh) is regarded as a
citadel
A citadel is the core fortified area of a town or city. It may be a castle, fortress, or fortified center. The term is a diminutive of "city", meaning "little city", because it is a smaller part of the city of which it is the defensive core.
In ...
of learning due to the start of western educations and establishment of first polytechnic in the old Anambra (present Anambra, Enugu and part of Ebonyi) State in the town. It is also widely recognized because of its
erosion
Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as water flow or wind) that removes soil, rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust, and then transports it to another location where it is deposited. Erosion is distin ...
site which has baffled geologists for many years and records have it that it is supposedly deeper than the
Grand Canyon
The Grand Canyon (, yuf-x-yav, Wi:kaʼi:la, , Southern Paiute language: Paxa’uipi, ) is a steep-sided canyon carved by the Colorado River in Arizona, United States. The Grand Canyon is long, up to wide and attains a depth of over a m ...
.
Origin
Oko in Anambra State originally migrated from Oko in Delta state when there was a conflict between them (then young sons and daughter) and the elders in the village. They defy the instruction of the elderly and went for a ceremony which the then Cabinet instructed they should not attend, and in returning from the ceremony they were banish from entering Oko village in Delta state.
Around the early 12th century, a farmer was known to have founded Oko. He was known to be a good hunter and was engaged in hunting mostly after planting season and before crops were ready for harvest. During these periods, food was usually scarce and there was always need to look for other food sources beside farm crops.
Oko is famous for a few reasons;
* The first executive vice president of Nigeria in the person of His Excellency Chief (Dr.)
Alex Ifeanyichukwu Ekwueme
Alexander Ifeanyichukwu Ekwueme (21 October 1932 – 19 November 2017) was the first elected Vice President of Nigeria from 1979 to 1983 during the Second Nigerian Republic serving under President Shehu Shagari as a member of the National Pe ...
was born here.
* The first mechanized
palm oil
Palm oil is an edible vegetable oil derived from the mesocarp (reddish pulp) of the fruit of the oil palms. The oil is used in food manufacturing, in beauty products, and as biofuel. Palm oil accounted for about 33% of global oils produced from ...
processing factory in Aguata District was established in Oko in 1927 by Chief John Ifeakor, behind the present St Peter’s Catholic Church.
Politics
The first executive vice
president of Nigeria
The president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is the head of state and head of government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the Niger ...
, Chief (Dr) Alex. I. Ekwueme was the vice president to
Alhaji Shehu Shagari
Shehu Usman Aliyu Shagari (25 February 1925 – 28 December 2018), titled Turakin Sokoto from 1962, was the first democratically elected President of Nigeria, after the transfer of power by Military Head of State of Nigeria, military head of ...
under the auspices of
National Party of Nigeria
The National Party of Nigeria (NPN) was the dominant political party in Nigeria during the Second Republic (1979–1983).
History Formation
The party's beginning could be traced to private and sometimes secret meetings among key Northern Nigerian ...
(NPN) from 1 October 1979 to 31 December 1983. Ekwueme and Shagari won the presidential election for a second term that was to run from 1983 to 1987, but their administration was toppled in a
military coup
A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare
War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such ...
and replaced by Major-General
Muhammad Buhari
Muhammadu Buhari (born 17 December 1942) is a Nigerian politician and current president of Nigeria since 2015.
Buhari is a retired Nigerian Army major general who served as the country's military head of state from 31 December 1983 to 27 Au ...
.
Oko has produced many other prominent politicians, businessmen, and captains of Industries.
Health
There are many
health clinic
A clinic (or outpatient clinic or ambulatory care clinic) is a health facility that is primarily focused on the care of outpatients. Clinics can be privately operated or publicly managed and funded. They typically cover the primary care needs ...
s and
hospital
A hospital is a health care institution providing patient treatment with specialized health science and auxiliary healthcare staff and medical equipment. The best-known type of hospital is the general hospital, which typically has an emerge ...
s in Oko that serve the
health needs of the people, along with those of neighbouring communities. In the early 1970s and 1980s, Oko Community Hospital was a
specialist hospital
A hospital is a health care institution providing patient treatment with specialized health science and auxiliary healthcare staff and medical equipment. The best-known type of hospital is the general hospital, which typically has an emerge ...
which served the town and various communities. There are many
nurse
Nursing is a profession within the health care sector focused on the care of individuals, families, and communities so they may attain, maintain, or recover optimal health and quality of life. Nurses may be differentiated from other health c ...
s and
medical technologist
A medical laboratory scientist (MLS) or clinical laboratory scientist (CLS) or medical technologist (MT) performs diagnostic testing of blood and body fluids in clinical laboratories. The scope of a medical laboratory scientist's work begins wit ...
s who work in the hospitals.
Agriculture and mineral resources
Oko is well known for
agriculture
Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to ...
. Major food crops include assorted
vegetable
Vegetables are parts of plants that are consumed by humans or other animals as food. The original meaning is still commonly used and is applied to plants collectively to refer to all edible plant matter, including the flowers, fruits, stems, ...
s and
fruit
In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants that is formed from the ovary after flowering.
Fruits are the means by which flowering plants (also known as angiosperms) disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particu ...
s,
yam,
cassava
''Manihot esculenta'', common name, commonly called cassava (), manioc, or yuca (among numerous regional names), is a woody shrub of the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae, native to South America. Although a perennial plant, cassava is extensively ...
,
coco-yam,
plantain
Plantain may refer to:
Plants and fruits
* Cooking banana, banana cultivars in the genus ''Musa'' whose fruits are generally used in cooking
** True plantains, a group of cultivars of the genus ''Musa''
* ''Plantaginaceae'', a family of flowerin ...
,
banana
A banana is an elongated, edible fruit – botanically a berry – produced by several kinds of large herbaceous flowering plants in the genus ''Musa''. In some countries, bananas used for cooking may be called "plantains", distinguis ...
,
orange
Orange most often refers to:
*Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis''
** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower
*Orange (colour), from the color of an orange, occurs between red and yellow in the visible spectrum
* ...
s and
maize
Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. Th ...
. There are several private mechanized fish and
poultry farm
Poultry farming is the form of animal husbandry which raises domesticated birds such as chickens, ducks, turkeys and geese to produce meat or eggs for food. Poultry – mostly chickens – are farmed in great numbers. More than 60 billion chicke ...
s. Oko is also rich in minerals such as
limestone
Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...
s in form of gravels at Ugwudibia in Uhuene axis of Eziabor, and in form of kaolin
chalk
Chalk is a soft, white, porous, sedimentary carbonate rock. It is a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite and originally formed deep under the sea by the compression of microscopic plankton that had settled to the sea floor. Chalk ...
(Nzu) at Iyi-Benji in Ezioko, and Iyi-Agu in Okeani.
Justice
Oko town has produced many
legal practitioner
A lawyer is a person who practices law. The role of a lawyer varies greatly across different legal jurisdictions. A lawyer can be classified as an advocate, attorney, barrister, canon lawyer, civil law notary, counsel, counselor, solic ...
s both at the bar and bench who have made their marks in their chosen fields. These include an Appeal Court Judge; Justice Mrs Angela Otaluka, the first American Lawyer (Litigator) Chukwukwelu Bartholomew Okonkwo both from the Ezioko Village in Oko and many others.
Sports
Oko has produced various sporting individuals who went on to achieve national and international honours. Annual
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
competition among different amateur
football club
A football team is a group of players selected to play together in the various team sports known as football. Such teams could be selected to play in a match against an opposing team, to represent a football club, group, state or nation, an all- ...
s are usually held during the Christmas period. Winners are awarded cups sponsored by prominent indigenes of Oko.
Airports
In terms of proximity, the closest airport is
Asaba International Airport
Asaba International Airport (IATA: ABB, ICAO: DNAS): is the primary the only international airport serving Asaba and the whole of Delta State, Nigeria and other nearby cities. It is located approximately 7.9 kilometres (4.9 mi) east of the ...
which is about 60 km west from Oko. Others are Akanu Ibiam international Airport Enugu, located about 70 km north, Sam Mbakwe Airport Owerri, 71 km east, and
Port Harcourt International Airport
Port Harcourt International Airport is an international airport located in Omagwa, a suburb of Port Harcourt, the capital city of the Rivers State in Nigeria. The airport has two terminals for both international and domestic flights. The new ...
, 120 km south.
See also
*
Nigeria gully erosion crisis
The Nigeria gully erosion crisis has been ongoing since before 1980, and affects communities large and small. It is an ecological, environmental, economic, and humanitarian disaster resulting in land degradation, loss of lives, and properties wo ...
References
{{Reflist
Sources
* Oko Community Constitution, 1990. Oko Town, Orumba North Local Government, Anambra State, Nigeria
* Oko 2008 Ifu-Olu Festival and Conferment of Honorary Chieftaincy Titles, 2008
* Oko Town :
OCAL GOVERNMENT AREAS IN ANAMBRA STATEdated 21 July 2007; accessed 26 January 2011
* Federal Polytechnic Oko
* OKO: Erosion washing away Anambra town By MAURICE ARCHIBONG Thursday, 4 June 200
Towns in Anambra State