The Creation of Kukuruku Division – Aha Idokpesi Okhaishe N’ Avhianwu
The Creation of Kukuruku Division – Aha Idokpesi Okhaishe N’ Avhianwu (a) Fugar is made the Headquarters of Kukuruku Division Until 1904, when, in order to bring the judicial arm of the British colonial government closer to the people under the Northern Provinces, a Native Court was established at Fugar, the Avhianwu Clan Area was administered from Idah, the then Avhianwu Clan Heads, who, prior to 1904 and up to 1914, had to go to Idah or send representatives for political, judicial and administrative matters, were successively Aduku Gbagba, Aduku Keku and Agabi. The Avhianwu Clan leaders and many other Clan rulers had to go to Idah to have a taste of and to demonstrate their loyalty to the British Rule. Further developments soon followed. In 1914, following the amalgamation of Northern and Southern Nigeria by Lord Frederick Lugard, Idah was transferred to the Northern Provinces; and the southern portion of the Etsako (including Avhianwu Clan) was administered from Ubiaja. Kukuruku at that time was an area comprising Okpe, Ibilo, Otuo, Igarra, Usomorika, Imeri, Sabongida-Ora, Warrake, Sebe, Agbede, Ughiagbede, Alegbette, Ewa, Weppa-Wano, all Ekperis, all Ibies, all Inemes, Auchi, Uzairue, Ukpilla, Avhianwu and so on. No doubt, for purpose of effective administration and to bring the government closer to the people, the British Government, in 1918, created the Kukuruku Division with its Headquarters at Fugar. The Divisional Headquarters was thus transferred from Ubiaja (Ishan) to Fugar. Also transferred to Fugar, consequent upon the new development, was the administrative and military headquarters at Iddo (Ukpilla). Thus, the Etsakos and the rest became united in a division with J. C. Walker, Esq. as the first District Officer for the Division. The creation of Kukuruku Division in 1918 had coincided with the end of (lie First World War. The celebrations marking the end of the war were held at Fugar by the whole Kukuruku Division. The people of Kukuruku fought on the side of the British in that war so they celebrated the end of the war with them. In 1919 Avhianwu was placed under the control of the District Head at Auchi who with six other District heads formed a Council, gazetted, the Native Authority for the Kukuruku Division. At the inception of the Headquarters at Fugar, all the associated establishments and infrastructure were located at Ukphabobe. There were the Police Station, Court House, Medical Units, the Prisons and so on. A Government Rest House had been previously built on a landscape overlooking the dale bordering the village stream, Obe, and in the same vicinity with the government quarters then springing up. Monumental to the establishment of the Kukuruku divisional Headquarters at Fugar was the name given to the age-group of 1917, the age-group that immediately preceded and saw the preparations for the takeoff of the autonomous Administrative Area operated from Fugar. The age-group which was fathered by Itsede who hailed from Ulumhoghie in Ivhiunone was called Umoraboghimhe meaning ‘The whole world has come to me’; a strong indication that the Avhianwu community had rejoiced at what was on the way to Avhianwu. (b) Fugar is unmade the Headquarters of Kukuruku Division The joy that greeted the arrival of the headquarters at Fugar soon turned sour. It was short-lived. For the Avhianwu community, the demise of the Headquarters at Fugar was premature. Its short span of life had made it look as it had existed merely in the imagination; it had been a fantasy, an illusion. Though, all along, the mood of the people had been that of euphoria in unhappiness, yet they had not wished its removal. But it was removed. For no apparent reason. At the inception of the Headquarters of Kukuruku division at Fugar, the number of strangers in the midst of the people of Avhianwu had risen. The influx of strangers led to the multiplication of social ills and actions incompatible with the local tradition. All along and following the establishment of a Native Court at Fugar, the natives – mostly the market women – would not accept the British coins as they appeared to them as pieces of broken earthenware. They preferred and wanted cowries (ikpeghotso – real money) which they had known from the beginning. The government personnel would not see with their illiterate hosts but rather forced them against their desires. They would drop on the ground before the poor market women whatever they fell like paying for goods and not what the women had asked for. In most cases they would not pay at all. And Avhianwu, at the time, being a community not given to sexual promiscuity, was not the right place for strangers inclined to amorous pursuits. There were neither free women in Avhianwu nor were the girls ready to marry strangers. To nullify the ban thus placed on indiscreet sex and marriage, the government personnel not only forced sex out of the girls but also abducted them. The Avhianwu traditional rulers could not talk the District Officers into preventing their men from committing acts of aggression, extortion, sexual abuses, and abductions against the people of Avhianwu. After genuine consultations and consolidations have failed, the people of Avhianwu accepted their plight with resignation thus shunning confrontations. Let it be known here that the people of Avhianwu liked the Divisional Headquarters at Fugar but never the very government personnel who caused them physical, mental, emotional and psychological pains. Although there were such internal frictions between the government and the governed, there was no threat however to the administration in any form. Both parties had lived and learnt to accommodate each other. Born detractors and armchair critics of Avhianwu, who probably have been what they are from ignorance of the facts, had attributed the removal of the Headquarters from Fugar to Auchi in 1920 to the intransigence of the Avhianwu community. This cannot be true. How could that have happened when no major clash, if any at all, that could have culminated in dissensions between the two parties, the government and the
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