By Akporhobo Tataunu
LAGOS JANUARY 12TH (URHOBOTODAY)-“My belief is that every being born into the world has a duty to perform to people either in the village he belongs to or to the town or community as a whole. Any of you who should fail to play his /her part for the upliftment of our dear Urhobo nation , it were better that she or he had not been born.’’ ¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬–¬¬¬–Chief Mukoro Mowoe.
These were the words of Chief Mukoro Mowoe, giving impetus to the Urhobo umbrella body, URHOBO PROGRESS UNION, UPU. Late Chief Mukoro Mowoe was a foremost Urhobo nationalist and former president general of Urhobo Progress Union, U.P.U, and it would be necessary to remind ourselves of our renegade attitude, while it is too early for the Urhobo leadership and elites to have forgot the avowed ingredients of socio-political development of Urhobo nation.
In very clear terms, while speaking during the 2012 Urhobo National Day celebration, our respectable and erudite Professor of African Oral Literature, Godini G.Darah, stated, ‘’the problem of a divided and weak leadership which faced us from the 1980s has been overcome‘’. Alas, the rhetorician was wrong, though the professors’ position was not a decoy, the erudite Scholar and promoter of Urhobo unity, socio-cultural and political steadfastness, made this avowal in the belief that the ‘’greed and selfishness trait’’ in the leadership of Urhobo nation has been surgically removed. He was wrong. The problem of corrupt, divided and inexperienced leadership at the UPU is still with us and perhaps, no amount of reproach will put these men of mean integrity into upholding the tenets of wholesome leadership as it affects the original position of the Urhobo apex organization. At the time of this write up, no Urhobo is appointed into the President Muhammadu Buhari administration as a Minister of the federal republic of Nigeria. It is not because there are no ably qualified persons from the ethnic group. Indeed, Urhobo is the fifth largest ethnic group in Nigeria and there is no argument of the quality of men and women from this large size group of people in Nigeria. Perhaps they are treated like a conquered people in a democratic setting in Nigeria as a result of lack of unity and unity of purpose. Perhaps, it is all due to the issue of greed, selfishness, corruption and inept leadership of the apex organization. While claiming to be the oldest socio-cultural organization still existing in Nigeria, the body cannot justify its existence since the demise of Chief Mukoro Mowoe. All other presidents general had wobbled and fobbled in their regimes. Any respite for the Urhobo Progress Union?
The reports of the breakdown of law and order and the resort to break away and the impeachment of the Chief Joe O. Omene’s administration has been the Achilles of the organization in recent times and Urhobo can no longer be the same. Things had simply fallen apart and the centre cannot hold. The alleged disgraceful act of the Chief Omene’s regime in collecting bride and forsaking the spirit of the Uvwiamuge Declaration is the reincarnation of what Prof. Darah speculated to have been removed from the leadership circle of the UPU. This betrayal associated with the Chief Omene’s faction of the UPU is an affront on the spirit of Late Chief Newton Aziza, whose death created the opportunity for Omene to occupy the most exalted position in Urhobo nation. The rest is history. The Urhobo people has this axiom “ebe ‘ agbeta yan grimeti” but the reverse has been the case with the people and that is the bane of growth of the Urhobo people in the 21st century Nigeria. Atamu has vacated Urhobo through the window and everyone is on his own and nobody is for us.
We are now left with men and women of politics of the stomach and how long does it take a people with conscience to correct the anomalies of the past and take strategic decisions aimed at the speed growth and development of the area. According to Prof. Darah, “igho shemusua” was the word he used while describing the Urhobo elites in his 2012 treatise against social political growth of the people. But this “Uvwiamuge Declaration of 2014” is an aberration. Tongues are still being wagged why the Chief Omene’s group reneged on a common agreement reached by the whole executive.
For instance, does the ‘’Uvwiamuge Declaration’’ cover every political party in the land? Has Chief Joe Omene and his co-travellers forgot that they have cursed some Urhobo political elites in order to make sacrosanct the position of the ‘’Uvwiamuge Declaration’’? Again, perhaps, it was all political gimmicks. Those who voided the sacrosanct position of the ‘’Uvwiamuge Declaration‘’ should walk in shame and nothing less than a political malfeance to descried their ignoble actions.
At this point in time, Chief Joe Omene and his cohorts should revoke the ‘’Urhobo’’ curse placed on the ‘’stomach politicians’’ of Urhobo extraction, even as Chief Omene is alleged to have been deposed by the Urhobo Monarchs and the president generals of the kingdoms in Urhobo land. In principle, the Uvwiamuge Declaration does not give any form of protection to the Labour party nor its Governorship candidate, Chief Great Ovedje Ogboru. It was not done in error. As a result, Chief Joe Omene cannot hide under any guise to pronounce Chief Ogboru as the Urhobo candidate for the Governorship election on April 11,2015 when his trusted allies in the P.D.P disappointed him. Could it be that it was due to amnesia that Chief Omene suddenly remembered that Chief Great Ogboru was contesting the governorship position in the less fancied Labour Party?
The ‘’Uvwiamuge Declaration’’ would have been the very beginning of political redirection and force to drive the spirit of Urhobo in the comity of nations. The disaster visited on the Urhobo apex organization and indeed the Urhobo nation due to the vitiation of the ‘’Uvwiamuge Declaration’’ had set the Urhobo nation down beyond abyss of despondence. The negative effects of that error can simply be imagined. Chief omene has unknowingly made the Urhobo nation a laughing stock of other ethnic groups in Nigeria. The deposed PG should have taken a study of the ideologies behind taking and making of such solemn ‘’Declarations’’ in other climes and ethnic groups. An Ogoni leader would not bother if he spills his blood over maintaining the status of the ‘’Ogoni Declaration’’. What about our neighbours, the Ijaws? The ‘’kayaima Declaration’’ of the Ijaws stands sacrosanct. You may ask why? It is tantamount to a code, such as ‘’The Hammurabi Codes’’ of these ethnic groups. The codes remain sacrosanct no matter whose ox is gored. No billions of naira shared will compel the leadership to usurp peoples’ rights and deviate from the tenets of the Code.
As it is, the Urhobo people and the generality of Nigerians should ignore the rantings of Chief Omene and his cohorts after the kingdoms presidents general and royal fathers had thrown him out with as the president general of the UPU with ignominy. The royal fathers acted in good faith, using the doctrine of necessity in order to save Urhobo nation from the impending burial. Furthermore, all Urhobos at home and in Diaspora should rally round the monarchs in their bid to resuscitate the U.P.U and indeed the spirit of Urhobo. This is moreso, as the Chief Onoge’s faction has already queued behind the monarchs. The Urhobo nation deserves her natural place in the comity of nations.