Akwa Ibom State

Akwa Ibom State is a state in the South-South geopolitical zone of Nigeria on the east by Cross River State for about 114 km (71 miles) mostly across Cross River, on the west by Rivers State for 52 km (32 miles) mostly across the Imo River and Abia State to the west and north for 151 km (94 miles), and on the south by the Atlantic Ocean. The state takes its name from the Qua Iboe River which bisects the state before flowing into the Bight of Bonny. Akwa Ibom was split from Cross River State in 1987 with its capital as Uyo and 31other local government areas.

Akwa Ibom State
Nicknames: 
Location of Akwa Ibom in Nigeria
Coordinates: 05°00′N 07°50′E
Country Nigeria
Date created23 September 1987
CapitalUyo
Government
  BodyGovernment of Akwa Ibom State
  GovernorPastor Umo Eno (PDP)
  Deputy GovernorAkon Eyakenyi
  LegislatureAkwa Ibom State House of Assembly
  SenatorsNE: Aniekan Bassey (PDP)
NW: Godswill Akpabio (APC)
S: Ekong Sampson (PDP)
  RepresentativesList
Area
  Total7,081 km2 (2,734 sq mi)
  Rank30 of 36
Population
 (2016)
  Total5,450,758
  Rank15 of 36
  Density770/km2 (2,000/sq mi)
DemonymAkwa Ibomite
GDP (PPP)
  Year2021
  Total$50.30 billion
3rd of 36
  Per capita$7,739
4th of 36
Time zoneUTC+01 (WAT)
Dialing Code+234
ISO 3166 codeNG-AK
HDI (2021)0.608
medium · 17th of 37
Websiteakwaibomstate.gov.ng

Of the 36 states of Nigeria, Akwa Ibom is the 30th largest in area and fifteenth most populous with an estimated population of nearly 5.5 million as of 2016. Geographically, the state is divided between the Central African mangroves in the coastal far south and the Cross–Niger transition forests in the rest of the state. Other important geographical features are the Imo and Cross rivers which flow along Akwa Ibom's eastern and western borders, respectively while the Qua Iboe River bisects the state before flowing into the Bight of Bonny. In the southeast corner of the state is the Stubb's Creek Forest Reserve, a heavily threatened wildlife reserve that contains declining crocodile, putty-nosed monkey, red-capped mangabey, and Sclater's guenon populations along with potentially extirpated populations of African leopard and Nigeria-Cameroon chimpanzee. Offshore, the state is also biodiverse as there are large fish populations along with various cetacean species including bottlenose dolphins, pantropical spotted dolphins, humpback whales, and killer whales.

Modern-day Akwa Ibom State has been inhabited by various ethnic groups for hundreds of years, primarily the closely related Ibibio, Anaang, Oron and Obolo peoples in the North-East, North-West, and Southern zones of the state, respectively. In the pre-colonial period, what is now Akwa Ibom State was divided into various city-states like the Ibom Kingdom and Akwa Akpa before the latter become a British protectorate in 1884 as a part of the Oil Rivers Protectorate. In the early 1900s, the British actually gained formal control of the area before incorporating the protectorate (now renamed the Niger Coast Protectorate) into the Southern Nigeria Protectorate which later merged into British Nigeria; after the merger, much of modern-day Akwa-Ibom became a centre of anti-colonial resistance during the Women's War and political activism through the Ibibio State Union.

After independence in 1960, the area of the present day Akwa-Ibom was part of the post-independence Eastern Region until 1967 when the region was split and the area became part of the South-Eastern State. Less than two months afterwards, the Igbo-majority former Eastern Region attempted to secede as the state of Biafra; in the three-year long Nigerian Civil War, now-Akwa Ibom was hard-fought over in the prelude to the Invasion of Port Harcourt while people from Akwa Ibom were persecuted by Biafran forces as they were mainly non-Igbo. At the war's end and the reunification of Nigeria, the South-Eastern State was reformed until 1976 when it was renamed Cross River State. Eleven years later, Cross River State was divided with western Cross River being broken off to form the new Akwa-Ibom State.

Economically, Akwa-Ibom State is based around the production of crude oil and natural gas as highest oil-producing state in the country, the following are the oil- producing Local Government Areas that we have, such as Ibeno, Mbo and Eastern Obolo. Key minor industries involve agriculture as the state has substantial cocoyam, yam, and plantain crops along with fishing and heliciculture. Despite its vast oil revenues, Akwa Ibom has the seventeenth highest Human Development Index in the country in large part due to years of systemic corruption.

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.