76 Oil Wells & Cross River State’s Attempt to Bribe the Yoruba’s Abiku

76 Oil Wells & Cross River State’s Attempt to Bribe the Yoruba’s Abiku
_________________
Thomas Thomas
_________________

In vain your bangles cast
Charmed circles at my feet;
I am Abiku, calling for the first
And the repeated time.

Must I weep for goats and cowries
For palm oil and the sprinkled ash?
__ Wole Soyinka

________________________
The recent press release by the Cross River State Government, dated July 24, 2025, is yet another demonstration of a long-standing bitterness rooted not in justice but in envy, misinformation, and a desire to revive a case that has long been settled by the highest court in Nigeria. This attempt to reopen an issue resolved by the Supreme Court in 2012, which rightfully affirmed Akwa Ibom State’s ownership of the 76 oil wells, is both unfortunate and disingenuous.

If these oil wells had been awarded to any other state or ceded to Cameroon—as was the case with the Bakassi Peninsula—Cross River State would not have raised a finger. Their continued silence on the Bakassi matter, which involved the actual loss of land and people to another country, is a telling contradiction. It appears that what truly irks them is not the oil wells per se, but that they were awarded to Akwa Ibom State. This is not about justice; this is about jealousy.

The Cross River State Government’s sudden reawakening of interest in these wells, after thirteen years of silence and legal finality, is an abuse of process and a disrespect to Nigeria’s judicial system. The matter was litigated, argued, and finally determined. The Supreme Court’s verdict is binding, and no amount of political maneuvering or public posturing can overturn it.

Furthermore, invoking the Yoruba Abiku mythology to describe this issue is both culturally misplaced and politically suspicious. This is not merely an attempt to evoke sympathy or mystify a settled matter—it is a veiled effort to curry favour from the Yoruba-controlled central government. But even if we entertain the Abiku metaphor, we align with Wole Soyinka’s vision of the Abiku—a stubborn spirit that returns again and again not because of weakness, but out of strength and defiance.

To that end, Akwa Ibom State stands firm like Soyinka’s Abiku: undeterred, unshaken, and unwilling to be silenced by rituals, threats, or emotional blackmail.

We urge the people of Cross River State to focus on building their state rather than channeling misplaced hostility toward a neighbour that has only pursued what is rightfully hers through legal and constitutional means. As far as Akwa Ibom State is concerned, this case is rested—both in law and in truth.

Let it be known: we shall not be drawn into a mud fight over bones already buried. And no amount of cultural mythology or political spin can resurrect what has been rightfully laid to rest.
_____________________________________
THOMAS THOMAS, Personal Assistant to the Governor of Akwa Ibom State on Local Media, writes from Tuskers Republic.