Obot Akara@25: Time To Honour A Forgotten Name

 

By Da Daniel Effiong

Thank God it is Silver Jubilee of Obot Akara local Government Area. The word "Jubilee" means blast of the Rams horn or trumpet. It signifies a time of release, freedom and a return to original possession, that is, getting back what was rightfully or originally belonged to oneself. It is a sincere belief that now is the time for what to get what rightly belong to Obot Akara and her people in the spiritual, academic, political and socio-economical spheres.

In a normal circumstance, a 25 years old man or woman is an adult of marriageable age. At 25, a young individual may be a graduate or prepares to graduate from a tertiary educational institution. This age represents a period of one’s maturity and preparedness to shoulder greater responsibilities. It is a ripe age to regain lost grounds. "For it is the jubilee, it shall be holy unto you, ye shall eat the increase thereof out of the field. In the year of this jubilee, you shall return every man unto his possession...  Ye shall not oppress one another." (Lev.25;12-14c.).

As Obot Akara local government Area is celebrating her silver jubilee on the 4th December, 2021, it is a time of release, time to return to her original possession and freedom from oppression.

The geopolitical area known and called Obot Akara Local Government Area today came into existence on 4^th December 1996 as one of the 183 new local government council created by the late Head of State General Sani Abacha as his regime sought to restructure Nigeria federation.

Obot Akara local government area as presently constituted had undergone a lot of political metamorphosis. The clamor for a separate local government by the people of Otoro  had been on for a long time. In the second republic era, the area enjoyed a brief political autonomy as" Otoro" local government area when the erstwhile Cross River State government created new local government councils. It was a development area in the late sixties. Obot Akara local government area was officially carved out of the former Ikot Ekpene local government area in fulfillment of the yearnings and aspirations of the people for a separate political entity. As it is, Obot Akara local government area is made up of  three clans namely: Nto Edino,Ikot Abia, and Obot Akara with about 71 villages with district clan and village heads .Politically it is  demarcated  into 11 wards and each of the wards is adequately represented by an elected counselors. The council had it  headquarters  at Nto Edino with the estimated population of about 250,000 people according to Private Population Research (PPR) 2021.It is located on the fringe of Akwa Ibom state. It is bounded in the north and west by Abia state and south by Essien Udim and east by Ikot Ekpene and Ini local Government Area.

The former Otoro local government area has its root name from “Otoro”, meaning “praise.” It is equivalent in meaning to that of Judah, a tribe in Israel. Judah is the custodian of Abrahamic blessing. Being one of the twelve sons of Abraham, Judah has the scepter, the original kingly oil. This is tribe that produced kings; it is the tribe of the messiah, known as the lion of Judah. From Otoro, the local government area was given yet another spiritual name, Obot Akara. This simply implies that, like Judah, Otoro, which has now be rechristened Obot Akara local government area, has a onerous task to link Akwa Ibom to the glory of God. In fact, there is something in the name of Obot Akara that has a whole lot to do with God, which would be explained here.

It may surprise many that the etymology of where is now referred to as Obot Akara Local Government Area in Akwa Ibom State is Andibot Akara, meaning, who created, rules. This invariably means that it is the Creator who rules and dominates (Gen.1: 1:26-28; Jer.10:12). 

What people should know is that the name of the area was ab initio, Andibot Akara, and not Obot Akara, which might have been deliberately corrupted from the original name. The People of Obot Akara, because of their love for the Almighty God who made the heaven and the earth, named the place after God. As the name changes, it did not occur to them that appellation was no longer meant for the Almighty God (Andibot) but for an individual’s personal spirit (obot or obot emana). It should be noted here that obot emana is a name for a personal spirit which is equivalent to Igbo’s version called chi as mentioned in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. Those that indulged themselves in the traditional religious practices use Obot Emana (which is itself a creation of God) to name a geographical location which has now evolved to become a local government area called Obot Akara.

In the light of the word of God, Obot is not God the maker and the possessor of the heavens and the earth as seen in the word of God, but a creature. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth (Gen.1:1). The Lord made the earth by his power, and by his wisdom he created the world (Jer.10:12 GNB). Therefore it is a proven fact that God is the creator of the heaven and the earth and he alone is worthy of worship. God is not only the Creator but the Ruler of the universe and not obot emana whose name was adopted to describe a location that is now called Obot Akara Local Government Area.

Looking at Obot Akara, the name strongly links to the Garden of Eden even though it is a corruption away from the original term, Andibot Akara. In all, the name is revolving around creation that happened in the Garden of Eden. In this connection, Andibot Akara or the Creator rules, takes origin from what happened in Eden where the first man (Adam) was created by God or the Creator (Andibot). In Annang, Efik, and Ibibio dialects, the word, Andibot, means the same thing as creator; “Andibot Akara”, and not, Obot Akara, means the Creator governs/dominates/rules. 

Da Effiong Daniel

 Again, Andibot Akara can be theorized etymologically towards the creative feat of God, which by extension, portrays that God created the first man and woman and then handed them power to dominate all creatures under the sun.  In Eden, the first man was created by the Creator; it was not a creature (obot emana) that created him (Gen1:27). If Adam was created by God in Eden to dominate and subdue the whole earth, it therefore means that the first man was dominating and subduing everything that God had created.  When God created man in his image and likeness in the Garden of Eden, he mandated him to subdue, dominates and rule the earth and when man sinned against God, at this point obot emana, which supposed to be a guarding spirit to humans, took over the dominance of human affairs, and man started worshiping Obot Emana the creature rather than the Creator (the Almighty God). 

However, God the creator, through his image and likeness, Jesus Christ, still remains the dominant force that subdues and controls all creation according to his words. For the bible says “by him were all things created." Jesus is the redemptive force to recover the power of dominance lost to obot emana through Adam. On September 27, 2011, I saw in a dream a power coming in a human form and dressed in a white garment, and then it bowed. I said in that dream, “Obot, you have finally come to bow to Jesus Christ.” (Phil. 2:10-11; Rom. 14:11). This shows that the power of obot emana that some traditional worshippers in our land usually invoke in their daily religious rites is now under the dominance of Jesus Christ. It could be said here that if the power that governed, dominated and ruled Obot Akara was Obot as the name implies, now obot has surrendered to Jesus Christ. The original idea of the name must manifest having become clear that Obot is not God the creator of the heaven and the earth but the creature. Now it is Andibot Akara: it is the Creator that has taken over the reign. 

Now, the Spirit of God is in Obot Akara Local Government Area to alter all the structures of obot emana and establish the structure of Andibot. We should know that every name has meaning, and as God has revealed to us by his Spirit the real meaning of the name of the local government as Andibot Akara, we should understand that God is the sole ruler. He rules through man he made in his image and likeness to dominate, subdue control other created things including obot emana. 

No doubt about 90 percent of the people believe in Obot as God but kept Obot Emana tables. In the fullness of time, God, in 2004, inspired Elder Monday Ebong Uko, the present state Commissioner for Youths and Sports, to prophetically return the land and the people back to God’s originally approved name, Judah. Though he did it   politically, Uko didn't know that the event had prophetical fervor. The experience was reenacted when Governor Udom Emmanuel made official declaration of the state as AKWA ABASI IBOM STATE on the 19th December, 2015.

As Obot Akara local government area is celebrating the 25^th anniversary of creation, praises should be returned to God Almighty. The people of the local government area should understand that like Judah, they are the chosen vested with the responsibility to position God in his rightly place in a state named after Him.

 

Sponsored by Altar of Virgin Generation Ministry a.k.a. African Holy Land in Abiakpo Ikot Abasi Inyang, Obot Akara Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria.

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