Ebonyi State

Ebonyi State
—  State  —
Nickname(s): Salt of the Nation
Location of Ebonyi State in Nigeria
Coordinates: 6°15′N 8°05′E / 6.25°N 8.083°E / 6.25; 8.083Coordinates: 6°15′N 8°05′E / 6.25°N 8.083°E / 6.25; 8.083
Country	Nigeria
Date created	1 October 1996
Capital	Abakaliki
Government
– Governor (List)	Martin Elechi (PDP)
– Senators
– Representatives
Area
– Total	5,530 km2 (2,135.1 sq mi)
Area rank	33rd of 36
Population
– Estimate (2005)	1,739,136
– Rank	N/A of 36
GDP (PPP)
– Year	2007
– Total	$2.73 billion[1]
– Per capita	$1,232[1]
Time zone	WAT (UTC+01)
ISO 3166 code	NG-EB

Ebonyi State is a mainland south-eastern state of Nigeria, inhabited and populated primarily by Igbo of south eastern Nigeria.^[2] Its capital and largest city is Abakaliki. Afikpo is the second largest city. Other major towns are EDDA, Mgbo, Onueke, Ezzamgbo, Nkalagu, Uburu, Onicha, Ishiagu (location of the Federal College of Agriculture), Ukawu, Amasiri and Okposi. It is one of the six new states in Nigeria created in 1996 by the Abacha government,Ebonyi was created from the old Abakaliki division of Enugu State and old Afikpo division of Abia State.

The state is governed by Chief Martin Elechi, who was elected State Governor in 2007. The current Deputy Governor is Prof. Chigozie N. Ogbu.Dr.Sam Egwu was the first executive governor. The state also has large deposits of crude oil and natural gas untapped.

Ebonyi is primarily an agricultural producing region. It is a leading producer of rice, yams, potatoes, maize, beans, and cassava. Rice and Yams are predominantly cultivated in EDDA. Ebonyi also has several solid mineral resources, but little large-scale commercial mining. The state government has however given several incentives to investors in the agro-allied sector. Ebonyi is called "the salt of the nation" for its huge salt deposit at the Okposi and Uburu Salt Lakes.

There are nine major first languages (Igbo Languages) spoken in Ebonyi State: Afikpo, Mgbo, Izzi, Ezaa, Ikwo, Kukele, Legbo, Mbembe, and Oring. These languages are all subgroups of the "Igbo language" like Ikwere, Abakaliki, Etche etc spoken by all Igbo people of south eastern nigeria.

Local Government Areas

Ebonyi is divided into 13 LGAs:

• Abakaliki
• Afikpo North
• Afikpo South
• Ebonyi
• Ezza North
• Ezza South
• Ikwo
• Ishielu
• Ivo
• Izzi
• Ohaozara
• Ohaukwu
• Onicha

References

1. ^ ^{a b} "C-GIDD (Canback Global Income Distribution Database)". Canback Dangel. http://www.cgidd.com. Retrieved 2008-08-20. 
2. ^ http://www.igbofocus.co.uk/html/enugu_state.html

External links

• Official Web Site of Ebonyi State
• For All Things Ebonyi State