Faith That Will Not Shrink: The Lives and Legacy of Aaron W. and Mary T. Izeogu

By Chukudi V Izeogu

This book on Faith That Will Not Shrink chronicles the lives of Aaron W. Izeogu and Mary T. Izeogu—two of the pioneers of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church in Ogba, the former Ahoada Division and the former eastern Nigeria. They were a God-fearing couple raised in non-Christian families in a rural village in southeastern Nigeria but accepted the gospel of Jesus Christ and became a beacon of light far beyond their community. He was known as faithful follower of Jesus Christ and a friend to many, and she was known in her community as a mother of all.

Organized into eight chapters, the book describes the ancestral roots of A. W. Izeogu and Mary T. Izeogu; their parental background; the historic period and society in which they grew up in Ede, a rural community in southeastern Nigeria; and the various life challenges they faced growing up and lived to raise their eight children, some of who are in Nigeria and others in the United States of America.

After a description of A. W. and M. T. Izeogu’s preparation for life of work and service for humanity and their faith walk with God, the book focuses on the family that raised their eight children (three men and five women). It further describes their love for God and humanity and giving back to their communities a positive influence even where and when they did not receive such goodwill and support to survive in their youthful years.

Other subjects presented are forgiveness of those who hated and wronged them multiple times, their dependence on God to fight the battle for them, and their legacy of faith and trust in God in times of trouble.

Chukudi V. Izeogu, Professor Emeritus at Alabama A&M University, Huntsville, Alabama, USA, is the second son of A. W. and M. T. Izeogu.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Page Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Jun 9, 2021
• ISBN: 9781662422669

Book preview

Chapter 1

The Setting and Ancestral Roots of A. W. and M. T. Izeogu

For I know the plans I have for you…plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.

—Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV)

If it had not been that the Lord is on my side, tell me where I would be.

—Helen Baylor

If it had not been the Lord who was on our side…

When men rose up against us…

When their wrath was kindled against us…

Our help is in the name of the Lord

Who made heaven and earth

—Psalms 124:1–8 (NKJV)

This chapter presents a brief description of the geographic setting in which A. W. Izeogu and M. T. Izeogu lived, raised their children, and made their marks in and outside their Ede community in Ali-Ogba and beyond. This setting is in Ede, which, over several hundreds of years ago, was a rural village in southeastern Nigeria. In the Ede village community, Aaron W. Izeogu paternally belongs to the Umuohali group of extended families, while Mary T. Izeogu paternally belonged to the Agwolo group of extended families of Ede in the Ogba clan of Rivers State, Nigeria. These family systems constitute their ancestral roots as well as the roots of their offsprings.

I. The Ogba Clan, ONELGA, Rivers State, Nigeria

Ogba people are people of Ali-Ogba clan located in Rivers State, Nigeria. It is a distant place from Lagos but closer to Port Harcourt, Owerri, and even Oguta. But it was very significant in economy of Nigeria during the trade in oil palm produce of the late-nineteenth-century Nigeria. More recently, since the 1960s, it has become very significant in the country’s petroleum economy.

In the context of Nigerian communities, Ogba clan constitutes one of the minority ethnic community groups of the present Rivers State of Nigeria. Geographically, the region occupied by Ogba clan, also known as Ali-Ogba, is located in the northern part of the Orashi-Sombreiro plains in the upper Niger delta environment between Ahoada and Oguta. The geographic location stretches from 4, 50'N to 5, 30'N and 6, 25'E to 6, 40' E, covering an area of about 920 sq. km. in the northern part of the Niger delta region.

Ali-Ogba communities trace their root to the once-famous Benin Kingdom or Empire many centuries before Nigeria, as we know it today, came into existence and became a British colony at the turn of the twentieth century. According to F. J. Ellah (1995), the migration streams from the Aboh area of the erstwhile Benin Kingdom west of the Niger must have taken place between the fourteenth and seventeenth centuries AD.

In terms of present-day local political administration after the Nigerian-Biafran War, Ogba clan was a part of the former Ahoada Local Government Area but is currently in the Ogba-Ndoni-Egbema Local Government Area (ONELGA) situated at the extreme northwestern fringe of Rivers State. It is bound on the north by the Ogbaru Local Government Area (LGA) of Anambra State, on the northeast by Oguta and Ohaji-Egbema Local Government Area of Imo State, on the west by Sagbama/Yenagoa LGA of Bayelsa State, and Ndokwa East LGA of Delta State on the south by Ahoada West LGA, and Emohua LGA of Rivers State on the east.

The location of Ogba¹ within the northern part of the Niger delta region gives it topography of flat plains sandwiched between two rivers: the Sombreiro/Nkisi River system in the east and the Orashi River and its tributaries in the west. Consequently, the ecology of Ali-Ogba or the Ogba area of Nigeria consists of three zones: Sombreiro and Orashi Rivers plains, lowland farm mosaic, and nontidal freshwater swamp basins.

The natural environment supports an economic base consisting of the following:

Well-drained and rich farmlands that support crop farming

Freshwater rivers, wetlands, and swamp basins that support fishing activities

Primary and secondary forests dotted with oil palm trees

All-year rainfall and sunshine

Minerals (oil and gas)

Although Ali-Ogba is small in geographic extent, it is nevertheless heterogeneous with respect to locational characteristics, dialects, and a few cultural activities or festivals. It consists of three main community groups:

Egi community consisting of sixteen towns and villages, which are centrally located in the region

Igburu community consisting of fifteen towns and villages along the Sombreiro and Nkisi Rivers eastward of the area.

Usomini consisting of Omoku urban area and seven villages located westward along the Orashi River

It is pertinent to observe that in past centuries, there were seventeen autonomous natural communities in the Egi area of Ali-Ogba. Ubike, the seventeenth village, was wiped out by smallpox epidemics many decades ago, leaving the currently existing sixteen autonomous communities of which Ede is one of them. These sixteen communities are made up of the following:

Egi-Etiti: Ede, Obite, Ogbogu, and Akabuka

Egi-Umuobo: Obagi, Oboburu, Obigbo, and Ohalielu

Egi-Ahiahu: Erema, Obukegi, Obiyebe, and Ibewa

Egi-Uso-osimini: Akabuta, Obiosimini, Itu, and Egita

Figure 1.1: Location Map of Ali Ogba in Rivers State, Nigeria

Figure 1.2. Map of Ali-Ogba communities

Ali-Ogba Settlement Size and Population

Analysis of the 1953 population by size of the villages shows that Ali-Ogba as a whole consisted of small village settlements. About 65% of the villages had population sizes that ranged from less than 250 to 500. Village communities in this class included Obigwe, Akabuta, Ibewa, and Elehia, among others. Less than 20% had population sizes of over 1000 as shown in column 4 of the table below. Ede community on which this study is based fell within the 501–750 population category in 1953.

Table 1. 1953 population of Ogba by number of villages

In the Nigerian census of 1953, the population of Ali-Ogba was given as 51,249. It increased to 53,056 in 1963 as shown in table 2 below. This number gave it an annual growth rate of 2.84%, making it one of the largest in the former Ahoada Local Government Area (ALGA). The 1963 population of Ali-Ogba represented 3.6% and 0.11% of the population of Rivers State and Nigeria, respectively. In 1984, it comprised 94,961 people out of the projected 105,512 population of the former Ogba-Egbema LGA. As Ellah indicated, Ali-Ogba’s population was estimated at 100,000 in 1995, representing 0.1% of the Nigerian population (Ellah 1995). The population of Ogba-Egbema-Ndoni LGA as of December 2010 was estimated at 319,656 people. Using the 2010 population of 310,000, the population of Ali-Ogba has grown by 97.2% since 2000, from 157,000, or an average of about 10% per year, which makes it one of the fastest growth areas in Rivers State and Nigeria. However, using the current high growth rate of 10%, the Ali-Ogba population can be projected to be about 515,809 by 2015. This growth has been fueled by migration into Ali-Ogba from other parts of the country because of employment prospects from the oil companies.

Table 2. Ali-Ogba population growth by community groups (1963–2015)

Source: Izeogu (2015)

*Author’s projection based on 2006 and 2010 Population Commission and Rivers State population estimates and 85.1% of ONELGA population accounted for by Ogba communities.

Sources: Nigeria Census (1963), Ellah (1975), and Ogbowu (1972)

*Projected from 1963 population.

+Ogbakingdom.com indicates that by 1991 census, Ogba Kingdom population was 547,822 (http://ogbakingdom.com/ogbaland/html, 3-8-04; Ogbowu, V. O. 1972. The Fundamental Customs and Laws of Ogba Land)

II. Ede Community Extended Families System

Ali-Ogba comprises many extended family systems or units. These extended families are found in all the village/town communities. As stated earlier, the ancestral/historical roots of Aaron W. and Mary T. Izeogu are in Ede community, a small rural village consisting of five extended family systems, namely:

Umuohali (located in western part of the village)

Umuoloko (Umuoboburu) (located in west central part of the village)

Umuegbu (located in eastern part of the village)

Umuelea (Umuezeali) (located in northeast of the village)

Umuohi (Umuorukwo) (located in northeast/west part of the village)

According to oral information obtained from community elders, what appeared to be the sixth group of families called Umuokpa had become extinct since the turn of the nineteenth century and became integrated into other family groups in the community.

Ede Politics and Family/Community Disintegration

As earlier indicated, Ede is a relatively small village community and one of the seventeen that makes up the Egi community or group of villages in Ali-Ogba. Prior to the year 2000, Ede consisted of five distinct, independent autonomous communities with independent farmland/oil palm tree areas, residential areas/playground areas, and fishing ponds.

At present, i.e., since the dawn of the twenty-first century, Ede community is made up of seven extended family groups. These are Umuohali, Umuegbu, Edihuru, Umuezeali, Umuohi, Umuokpara-Egbu, and Umukpa. The split of Umuegbu group of extended families into two splinter groups in 2007, driven by oil politics, resulted in the formation of Umuokpara-Egbu, while Umukpa is the result of splitting Umuohi into two: Umuohi and Umu Akpa.

Table 3: Ede family group branches and contemporary family heads.

As indicated earlier, much of Ogba communities are rural inhabiting a geographic area with a network of interconnected swamps. The complex network of backswamps and marshland constrained settlements expansion. As a result, the settlements, developed in a linear and compact pattern, were generally crowded. Although this pattern of settlement made the spread of diseases easy, it also facilitated social interaction of the family groups. Until recent decades, there was very limited infrastructure for communication between village communities and socioeconomic development.

Before the establishment of British administration, there were no motorized vehicular transportation roads in Ali-Ogba. Footpaths and waterways were the communication routes connecting the village communities and between the villages and their farms. After the establishment of colonial administration, the roads systems still consisted of footpaths until 1905 when the Ahoada-Omoku road was constructed and widened for vehicular traffic. After the World War II (about 1945–1948), other footpaths in the area such as Ahoada-Erema-Obite, Ede-Ama-Ikiri, Omoku-Ikiri, and Akabuka-Oboburu-Idu were widened. The road from Ede to Obagi and Ogbogu to Obagi remained footpaths crossing several fordable swamp basins. It was after the discovery of oil in Obagi, Idu, Oboburu, Ogbogu, and Erema areas that the footpaths serving these communities were found inadequate for the transportation needs of the oil industry. To remedy this situation, the Ogbogu-Obagi-Oboburu-Idu road was reconstructed and paved between 1966 and 1970. Other footpaths reconstructed and paved include Ede-Ama and the new Akabuka-Erema-Ibewa-Obukegi roads.

Prior to the dawn of the twentieth century, Ali-Ogba was essentially made up of rural communities. The natural flora was typically tropical rain forest dotted with tall oil palms. Oil bean trees were prevalent as well as other species of hardwood trees such as iroko and abura. The associated fauna harbored a wide variety of species. The swamp basins provided good spawning grounds for fishes.

As rural communities, many Ogba people depended on the resources available on their land for subsistence. Only a few literate folks sought employment outside the area. The abundance of nature also attracted migrants from other parts of the former eastern