Browsing: Culture

Presently, Isheagu is ruled by HRM Lt. Col. Obi Onyema 11 (Rtd), Obi of Isheagu Kingdom.
The Isheagu community is known for its rich cultural heritage; it is widely known with the Nze Festival which has remained exceptionally unique and celebrated annually. This festival appears weird in nature and only the lion hearted can muster the courage to watch it, let alone participating in it. It is one festival that prides in the excessive use of cutlasses to display and demonstrate the act that led to the institutionalisation of the festival. It is also celebrated with the rain; no matter how the weather appears to be bright and scorchy with the sun, as soon it is time for the festival to commence, rain must fall.

The story of NDDC and the issue of the Niger Delta region when placed side by side is very disturbing to those of us in the Niger Delta Region. Yes, the Willinks Commission in 1956 recommended that a special attention should be given to the Niger Delta Region because of the difficulty in developing the area. After the Willinks Report, there was this Niger Delta Basin Authority, saddled with the responsibility of developing the Region. But were those things achieved? The answer is NO, not until the youths of the Region began to agitate, the elites started to agitate for a better deal to the Niger Delta Region and that prompted the emergence of OMPADEC, from 1.5 to 3% OMPADEC; little was achieved but when we had this democratic dispensation under General Olusegun Obasanjo, he created the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) in 2000, with a statutory board to manage the affairs of the commission