Dr Fred Latimore
LAGOS DECEMBER 27TH (URHOBOTODAY)-I begin by thanking our highly respected royal fathers who are the authentic custodians of our customs and tradition for taking proactive and timely decision of dissolving the two factions of the Urhobo Progress Union (UPU).
By their collective wisdom and intervention the entire Urhobo Nation opened a new page of peace, oneness, inter-communal unity and greater cooperation in facing the future as one indivisible ethnic nationality.
I am a humble and lovable Urhobo man but hates any atom of greed, self contentedness, deceitful tendencies and double dealing in the handling of Urhobo Nation’s affairs.
As an astute supporter of the Urhobo project after I was seriously threatened by my kinsmen to abandon the then Delta North Governorship project for which I worked so hard as Sir Tony Obuh’s publicist, I expected that the initiators of the then famous but now dead UVWIAMUGE DECLARATION meant well for the Urhobo ethnic nationality but alas it turned out to be a huge political game.
Mid-way into the Presidential and Governorship elections it became obvious that UVWIAMUGE DECLARATION was a mere PDP smokescreen crafted by Chief Joe Omene and some PDP political tacticians to divide Urhobo votes in a crooked political agenda.
The good people of Delta Central and the State at large got confused and the rest is now history. Chief Joe Omene and his co-conspirators against the Urhobo Nation quickly reunited with the PDP to strategize again for future elections. God will not make it happen.
THE WAY FORWARD:
1. Our kings and vibrant Urhobo Youths should give the necessary support to the Chief Godwin Ofotokun led UPU caretaker committee so as to enable their terms of reference come to fruition. We hear that Chief Omene and his co-conspirators against the progress of Urhobo Nation are back to the drawing board pulling huge financial resources together to fight our royal fathers and the new UPU caretaker committee.
2. The committee must abstain from soliciting or taking money directly or indirectly from politicians and Delta State government so as not to sell their consciences and at the same time soil their hands in the corruption and deceitful leadership style that ruined the era of the former UPU PG, Chief Joe Omene. Funds for their operations must be sourced from the UPU purse and other credible sources not linked to politics and politicians.
3. Urhobo Nation intelligentsia and the wealthy class of our ethnic nationality not involved in partisan politics must form a formidable alliance to project Urhobo Nation agenda at both state and federal levels without necessarily relying on the political class to dictate the speed and pace of events.
4. The Urhobo Nation political class must henceforth submit themselves to the central control of the electorates by going about canvassing and marketing their political and electoral manifestos without begging or bribing the people for endorsements. The field must be open for them to test their political popularity and at the end winners get congratulated.
5. It is also my candid advise that prominent political figures like Olorogun Otega Emerhor, Chief Great Ogboru, Obaise Omo Agege, Chief Ede Dafinone and host of others should unit themselves and form a formidable political synergy now and in the future so that the power at the centre will restore the integrity and the right place of the Urhobo Nation in national politics and in political appointments.
This is the reason Urhobo did not get a ministerial slot in the present political dispensation but that will soon be corrected as we make progress by working closely with political king makers in national government. We must cement relationship with our Itsekiri, Ijaw, Isoko and Anioma folks.
6. The political class, Urhobo Monarchs, the Youths and the rest of us must of a necessity commence a process of cultivating a wealthy socioeconomic and political synergy with our brothers and sisters in Delta South and North by engaging in what I call “Watertight political intercourse of extreme cooperation” built on absolute trust and spirit of give and take.
By this concept it is meant that the average Itsekiri man or politician will have no atom of difficulty in feeling very free to relate without fear of betrayal with his Urhobo political soul-mate or associates to define and redefine political strategies that promotes inter-ethnic robust relationships and sense of oneness.
7. UPU leadership must never again be dragged into using derogatory words or unpleasant innuendos to play down on the rights, obligations, integrity and pride of the minority tribes that also greatly constitute the essential integral parts of Delta State.
Viewed from a broader perspective, I am saying that in every Urhobo family there is an Itsekiri, Ijaw, Isoko and Anioma blood flowing within occasioned by inter-tribal marriages or other credible divine relationships or super connections.
I want to see an Urhobo Nation that will cross fertilize socioeconomic and political ideas with other ethnic nationalities in the state and the nation at large without any atom of pride, selfishness and arrogance by way of claiming to be the most densely populated tribe in Delta State.
It is a truism that it has pleased God Almighty to fuse all of us together; North, Central and South as one indivisible people and we must remain as such. We must strive to share and enjoy the resources of the state as one united people devoid of selfishness, greed and envy.
I wish to humbly and respectfully commend the huge efforts and high level of integrity exhibited by the Chief Tuesday Onoge led faction of the UPU while the struggle to free Urhobo Nation from political deception lasted.
Onoge and his exco have been vindicated by the highly commendable actions of our royal fathers. They (Onege group) have etched their names in the golden books of Urhobo history. His defunct faction and members should now join hands with the caretaker committee to succeed in their assignment for the good of Urhobo Nation.
Finally, the new UPU must not involve itself in crooked political equations but must at all times be neutral and apply basic principles of equity, good conscience and brotherly love towards other ethnic nationalities that constitutes our great Delta State.
The Author; Dr Fred Latimore Oghensivbe is the President of the Movement for the Protection and Sustenance of Urhobo Nation Integrity. He writes from Asaba in Delta State.