| Urhobo Historical Society |
Memoir
of Urhobo Youth
By Arierhie
Patrick Okuneh, LLB,
BL
Legislative
Practitioner/Advocate
Oghene biko
is the prayer of every Urhobo Youth
The reason is from
every good thing our land
stands aloof
Oghene biko
he wails and prays
Hoping
that things will
become good one
day.
What really can
bring good fortune? He thinks
When all we see
around us stinks.
Our land for
example is either polluted or
dejected
Just as our people
are either mourning or at
war.
Yet our leaders
are there
As they have no words to spare.
All they hold is,
the Nigerian society is
corrupt; what a
mindset
Forgetting that a
people deserves the kind of
government they
get.
The leaders we get
are products of the larger
society,
Because,
they like us are the land's
properties.
As our nation
grows, it breeds young ones
whom
from their
leaders learn to be volatile and corrupt.
Come to think of
it, what is this?
You can call it a
vicious circle,
At Warri, it is
all worries.
Go to Effurun,
it�s rife with arson.
From Sapele, Okpara
to Abraka what we see is abandonment.
These to my
opinion are still not grave.
But wasting our
minds is what I think most
will send us to
the grave.
A proper anatomy
of the Urhobo youth will
show that Great
minds are wasted daily.
What a blow to the
society.
No jobs
No opportunities
No hope
What do we do?
Mope.
Our larger brother
ethnic groups do say we
are
not educated
that�s why our children are not employed in the oil companies situated
on our
land.
That we are not
educated is not true.
It is ours to say
the truth.
But our leaders
are there
With no words to spare.
If you can�t beat
them you join them they say,
Letting their very
land and people to fail.
Today we celebrate
Chief Mukoro Mowoe one of
the greatest
Urhobo heroes,
He laid down his
life to fight the UPU fight
with all his power,
From which we all
draw like water.
After Chief Mukoro
Mowoe and our late heroes,
what next, who
next?
How come no
determined leader like Mukoro
Mowoe has ever
emerged?
Must our reward
from any particular
leadership be regrets?
What we want is
leadership much more than
brotherhood.
Leaders whose wit
has no peers.
Leaders who can
take the bull by the balls.
And so I pray
That in God�s
Hands we lay
With faith I pray
my ALPHABET Prayer that,
Although things
are not perfect
Because of trials
or pain
Continue in
thanksgiving
Do not begin to
blame
Even when the
times are hard
Fierce winds are
bond to blow
God is forever
able
Hold on to what
you know
Imagine life
without His love
Joy would cease to
be
Keep thanking Him
for all the things
Love imparts to
thee
Move out of �camp
complaining�
No weapon that is
known
On earth can yield
the power
Praises do alone
Quit looking at
the future
Redeem the time at
hand
Start every day
with worship
To �thank� is a
command
Until we see Him
coming
Victorious in the
sky
We�ll run the race
with gratitude
eXalting
God most high
Yes, there will be
good times and some will
be bad but
�
(Alphabet Prayer
by: Pecoraro EthnoGraphers)
Prayer works, yes
Yet the hands
that help are holier than
the lips that
pray.
And what they tell
you is heaven helps those
who help
themselves,
Even when we know
the youths cannot teach
themselves except
by experience.
As typical of
Nigerian society, the young
is not allowed
to aspire as the old never retires.
Even those who are
endowed with
knowledge are far
away, some of whom are in diaspora.
A lot of our
elders get so embarrassed
each time you
greet them miguo.
A lot more
consider miguo
disgraceful and an insult.
Disgrace is what
you get when you fall out of
God�s grace.
Let not our great
Urhobo nation fall out of
grace we pray.
If actions speak
louder than words,
When then will our
leaders meet words with
action?
Let's not be
hearers only
We also have to be
doers.
The fight for a
greater Urhobo nation is one
of action not
words
And this is not a
call to recruit Urhobo
youths as thugs.
This is a fight of
the intellect
Not the indolent.
What the youths
need include but not
limited to:
True leadership,
Good example,
Selflessness,
Commitment,
Love,
And to sing.
Sing, because out
of the thorns come
the roses.
Hoping, because
where there is life there is
hope.
And happy, because
where there is a will
there is a way.
And
grateful, because at
least URHOBO
HISTORICAL SOCIETY is come to correct these anomalies, and for
www.waado.org,
if not some of us may never even dare to
wonder into
the history of our great Urhobo nation.
As the next
meeting holds in the U.K knowing
that �Unity is
Strength.�
True leadership in
all matters, then, should
be the crux.
July 2003