It was Dr. Christopher Abebe who posited about Uromi of the 1920, where he spent a substantial part of his childhood in his biography "Abebe:Portrait of a Nigerian Leader" written by Tekena N. Tamuno and Ayodele Aderinwale,this way:
“Uromi, a dusty sprawling town consisting of 19 surrounding villages, with Eguare Uromi serving as its official headquarters. In the mid-1920s, Eguare Uromi was another typical Nigerian village housing the then important structures such as the native court, located in the southern part of the village. Besides, it was the Uromi Government School. On the other side of the town, beside the big central market, were later established the mercantile stores of John Holt and United Africa Company (UAC). Eguare Uromi was also the seat of the traditional ruler of all of Uromi, the Onojie.
An essentially agrarian community, Uromi was peopled by happy-go-lucky individuals. The average Uromi man loved and did not joke with his calabash of palm wine. The inhabitants of Uromi did not need an excuse to celebrate. Christmas was a daily and continuous affair. There was always plenty to drink and eat. Dancing, drinking and general merriment was the vogue. The Onojie, then, behaved like a typical Uromi man. His palace organized dances which extended to the Native Authority barracks, the houses of big chiefs such as Chief Okpere and the market, almost on a daily basis. Such was the prevalent atmosphere of infinite rustic revelry for the Uromis that there was hardly a dull moment. To cap it all, they were incurable litigants. Thus, the native court convened regularly.
The only problem then was caused by the oversight of their forebears who had chosen the plateau as their habitat. There was a serious scarcity of clean water. Brooks were virtually non-existent; where these existed, they were very far from the town. Most school children often had to trek seven miles or more to Ubiaja to fetch clean water. The local ponds constructed to alleviate this problem were often abused by the unhygienic behaviour of most villagers. The children swam 18 and washed their linen there. It was this same water that was collected for drinking and cooking. The constant streaming to the pond made the water so muddy that its usual colour was dark brown. To remedy this, and in a bid to make the water drinkable, the villagers would put red mud in an earthenware pot and stir up the water; when the water had eventually settled down, it was usually clean. Later, they would buy alum from the market and put it into the water. This would then make the muddy particles settle at the bottom of the pot. No one taught them to boil the water to kill the germs before drinking. Consequently, guinea-worm and other water-borne diseases had a field day."
The question before me right now and today, is how far have we progressed beyond what our forefathers laid down for us? Have we been able to solve the fundamental problem which fate has thrust upon us? Do we have any going business concern in Uromi as large as the UAC and John Holt of the days of yore? Do we have a single manufacturing concern in Uromi? What is the competitive advantage of our great town that would make any manufacturing concern want to set up any production business in Uromi? How have we tried as a people to give ourselves that competitive edge? To Be Continued
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