| Urhobo
Historical Society |
A Reaction to a Book Launch of J. O. S. Ayomike's WARRI: A Focus on the Itsekiri
(As reported in Vanguard, July 8, 2010)
By Alice Ukoko
Excerpts
(from Vanguard, July 8, 2010):
WARRI:
A Focus on the Itsekiri, edited by renowned Itsekiri historian and
chairman
Itsekiri leaders of thought, Mr J.O.S Ayomike.
"Speaking in his capacity as the chairman of the occasion, former Head
of
State, General Yakubu Gowon, urged Nigerians to imbibe the spirit
of
living together as one and to live in peace for the good of the people,
society
and the country.
"General Gowon who has been in the vanguard of oneness specifically
asked the Itsekiris and Urhobos to put their differences aside in the
interest
of the nation, just as he lamented that the present Nigeria is
not the
one he wished for.
He however charged Nigerians to think about what they could do to
correct what
was wrong with the country rather than harp on it.
Gen Gowon, while reacting to a question posed by one
of the
book reviewers, Mr. Agbeigbe, said, �Certainly this is not the Nigeria
I want.
But the fellow, who asked this question should ask himself what he has
contributed to make Nigeria better, if we are all committed we would
have the
Nigeria we want.� He said.
On the focus on the Itsekiris, Gen, Gowon said �History must
not be left
in the hands of people who have no sense of history. If we make the
mistake of
allowing just anyone to tell a story, all that we shall get in the end
would be
inaccuracies, deliberate distortions and outright falsehood that can
only help
spread ignorance. In this kind of situation, we shall have a case
of what
a leading Nigerian writer would correctly describe as �combative
ignorance
trumpeting its own values.� This, we must not allow this to happen.�
The former General also argued that , �I believe that the
writing of this book arose out of the intuitive need to correct
the
history of a people for posterity, especially in the light of events of
the
past decade that have occasioned widespread misinformation about the
Itsekiri
following the spate of upheavals in Warri and its environs. This book
should
help a great deal to clarifying all areas of misinformation and help
restore
trust and confidence amongst all the people in the area who have lived
and
intermarried overtime.�
In his comments, the Editor and chairman Itsekiri leaders of thought
Mr
J.O.S Ayomike in an emotionally laden voice stated that �the book
is part
of the crowning of our experience and we have written things that we
saw and
participated in, things that were accomplished here in Warri�.�
Continuing he added that �today, after two generations , I can proudly
say as
St Paul said to Timothy that my generation has fought a good fight,
they have
finished the race and kept the faith and like Simeon who at the sight
of baby
Jesus, just 8 days old in the temple realized that he had actually seen
the
long awaited Messiah.�
The book launch became a land mark event having produced the highest
number of
reviewers as six scholars in the persons of Professor Tony Afejuku of
University of Benin, Professor Itse Sagay, Barr. Bright Omorogie, Barr.
Sam S.
Obaro, Prof. J.N. Omatseye and Barr. Fred Agbeyegbe reviewed the book.
Professor Afejuku in his review described the book as an excellent work
of
history and culture about the Itsekiri who have gone into diverse
history books
written by European and non-European scholars, historians and travelers
alike
as a highly civilised people.
According
to Afejuku �generally, the forthrightness of the writers of this book
is
courageous, unsentimental and unsubjective, even though they are
Itsekiri men
who might be expected to write history from the biased stand-point of
Itsekiri,
they wrote the book without romanticizing, without exaggerating,
without
fanaticizing, simply put, they profoundly objectify and objectivize.�
He
further stated that, �the Prologue of the book contains an account of
how Warri
came into being and the breakaway from Benin, it focuses on the
Itsekiri and
their early settlements, ownership of Itsekiri homeland, their Ijaw
neighbours,
the establishment of the Itsekiri kingdom of Warri; Itsekiri links with
European and their Yoruba neighbours adding that it contains a graphic
description of Itsekiri homeland and focuses on the interregnum in
Itsekiri
land�.
Alice
Ukoko Re-Acts as Follows:-
Firstly,
I want to point out that the book launched as stated above, for me is
an
interpretation of historical events as told by the Itsekiri; their
early
settlements; ownership of their homeland and establishment of the
Itsekiri
Kingdom amongst others. It is therefore difficult for me to comment on
their
perception and understanding of these events which they see as shaping
the
history of Itsekiri people of Delta State.
We
are all free to recount our history as we are told it by others and
expand it
by contributing our understanding and our place in it on a continuous
basis,
this way we are all co-creators of our history. I therefore fail to see
the
point made by Gen, Gowon when he said:
�History must
not be left in the hands of people who have no sense of history. If
we make the mistake of allowing just anyone to tell a story, all that
we shall
get in the end would be inaccuracies, deliberate distortions and
outright
falsehood that can only help spread ignorance�.
I
find the position taken by the General very unhelpful in his position
as the
chairman of an important event and one which goes to the very heart of
a matter
which many would say borders on Facts rather than just history. He
ought to
know that depending on whose event he was chairing the facts as
presented would
change.
At
worse, the General�s remark is insensitive, provocative and unreliable
at a
time when the country he once took to WAR is fighting for survival.
Hear him
further:
�I
believe that the writing of this book arose out of the intuitive need
to
correct the history of a people for posterity, especially in the
light of
events of the past decade that have occasioned widespread
misinformation about
the Itsekiri following the spate of upheavals in Warri and its
environs. This
book should help a great deal to clarifying all areas of misinformation
and
help restore trust and confidence amongst all the people in the area
who have
lived and intermarried overtime.�
From
the above, one would think that General Yakubu Gowon is the founder of
Warri
and so has accurate facts on the subject of who owns Warri.
I
wonder what the General would say if invited by the Urhobo to chair the
launching of the book WARRI
CITY
and British Colonial Rule in the Western Niger Delta� edited by
Professor Peter P. Ekeh. One is tempted to guess that General Gowon�s
remarks
would be the same. This show of insincerity is one reason the General
did not
achieve the Nigeria of his dreams although by taking Nigeria into a
civil war
he led to a loss of almost one million Nigerian lives.
It
is helpful to know that the matter of which ethnic nationality in Delta
State
owns WARRI has been addressed in a book review titled �WARRI CITY and
British
Colonial Rule in the Western Niger Delta� edited by Professor Peter P.
Ekeh.
(Please visit www.waado.org/Warri/book/WARRICITY_Review.html).
Professor
F.M.A. Ukoli, F.A.S., Oboiroro of Ogor Kingdom and retired
Professor of
Zoology, University of Ibadan, now deceased, presented his paper on the
subject
titled �I can See Clearly Now� at the Fifth Annual Conference
of Urhobo
Historical Society held on 29th October 2004 at the
Petroleum
Training Institute, Effurun, Delta State.
Excerpts
from the Paper I Can See
Clearly Now by Professor Frank Ukoli
...�The opening
pages of the Preface dealt telling blows to the veracity of the
frequently
touted reasons for what has now come to be known as the Warri Crisis.
The first
of the assumptions, one can even say myths, to be exploded is this: it
is not
true that the minority Itsekiri are being oppressed by the mighty
Urhobo
majority. On the contrary, it is the Agbassa and Okere Urhobo who,
though are
in the majority, suffer humiliation and injustice at the hands of the
Itsekiri
who dominate the politics of the area.
Next to be
debunked is the assertion that there was a case between Agbassa people
and the
Itsekiri in the 1920s which the Itsekiri won. There was no such case at
all;
the Agbassa sued Chief Dore Numa, not as an Itsekiri man or as their
representative, but as a Political Agent of the British. Furthermore,
the
verdict of that case was based on �bare-faced fraud� given by a corrupt
colonial court invoking the doctrine of overlordship of Itsekiri King
over
Itsekiri lands which clearly did not extent to Agbassa lands. It did
not apply
to Ugborodo land either. This is an Itsekiri community who successfully
prosecuted their case in court. In any case, there had been no Itsekiri
king
for 78 years before the case. Dore Numa was no king!
More
importantly, the Itsekiri establishment continues to cite this
judgement to
support their claim of ownership of Warri even though several
subsequent
judgements have repudiated the validity of the doctrine of
overlordship. Whatever
the case may be, it is expected that the Land Use Decree (now Act)
which is
enshrined in the Nigerian Constitution should have put paid to this
disgraceful
chapter of the legal history of the western Niger Delta.
But most
damaging to the case of the Itsekiri establishment are two significant
revelations from a close examination of the so-called Protection
Treaties which
the British signed with the �Chiefs and Peoples� of the Niger Delta
(and
elsewhere in Nigeria) in the 1880s and 1890s. First, in the treaties
with the
Itsekiri, the full extent of Itsekiri country was defined to include
the lands
and waters of Benin River and both banks of the Escravos River. Nowhere
did the
Itsekiri lay claim to Warri nor was Warri mentioned, either in the 1884
or the
1894 treaty.
On the other
hand, the treaty with the Agbassa (Sobo) of Warri District of 1893
shows quite
clearly that the British recognised Warri as belonging to the
indigenous people
of the area, the Agbassa people. Also of great significance, as will
become
evident later in this review, nowhere in the treaties with the Itsekiri
was the
word �king� used; the treaties were with the �Chiefs� of Jekeri.�
Thank you Professor
Peter P. Ekeh for your service to the Urhobo people of western
Niger Delta.
As someone born
in Agbassa Warri, I want to stress that I grew up knowing Warri as an
Urhobo
homeland with prominent names such as: Chief Essi of Igbudu amongst
others.
I have
reproduced a section of Professor Sagays� presentation to enable
clarity and knowledge
as to who owns Warri.
"Reviewing
the book from legal angle, Professor Itse Sagay stated that, �Warri: A
focus on
the Itsekiri� is about some political, business and intellectual elites
obsession with Warri and the Itsekiri response to this obsession is not
borne
out of love for Warri but out of pathological pleasure in denying the
Itsekiri
their entitlement to the city founded by them and named after them.
"In
addition he added that, �If we look at the Warri land cases, all
conclusively confirm Itsekiri�s ownership of Warri and some of these
cases have
been reproduced at the back of the book as Appendices A, B, C, and D.
They are
in order: Ogegede v Dore Numa (High Court), Ometa v Chief Dore Numa at
the
Divisional Court (High Court), and the Privy Council, the Chief
Commissioner,
Western Provinces v Ginuwa 11, the Olu of Itsekiri and two others.�
It
is important to note from the above that Professor Itse Sagay is
drawing on
land case decisions to back the Itsekiri claim for the ownership of
Warri.
Are these the same land cases analysed by the Urhobo Professors?
It would
appear that the credibility of these cases have been dealt with in the
Urhobo
claim so that it is pointless to repeat these arguments. For example,
Prof.
F.M.A. Ukoki in his presentation has this to say:
Most importantly, the
Itsekiri establishment continues to cite this judgement to support
their claim
of ownership of Warri even though several subsequent judgements
have repudiated the validity of the doctrine of overlordship.
Whatever
the case may be, it is expected that the Land Use Decree (now Act)
which is enshrined in the Nigerian Constitution should have put paid to
this
disgraceful chapter of the legal history of the western Niger Delta.
I
hope that the review by Professor F.M.A Ukoki puts the claims at the
recent
launch of the book Warri from the Itsekiri it�s factual (historical)
perceptive. Please contact Professor Peter P. Ekeh or visit the Urhobo
Waado
website.
I
am particularly anxious to say that the argument of which ethnic
nationality of
Delta State owns Warri is important for posterity and as such, it is
important
that we know the facts as presented by each nationality.
However,
I am offended by the position taken by General Yakubu Gowon at the
latest book
launch and therefore want to seize this opportunity to express my
anxiety over
the aspect of Nigeria�s history of which the General was a major player.
Nigeria�s Civil War Years
�History must not be left in the hands
of people who have no sense of history. If we make the mistake of
allowing just
anyone to tell a story, all that we shall get in the end would be
inaccuracies,
deliberate distortions and outright falsehood that can only help
spread ignorance�
According to the
General, particularly as a custodian of Nigeria�s war years and hence
experience, how has
the General attempted to present the facts to his fellow Nigerians and
the
world that have a right to know? Can the General open a discussion on
how his
destruction of Nigerians lives using British bullets has unified
Nigeria and
secured British interests please?
It is clear as
he himself pointed out, that history must not be left in the hands of
people
who have no sense of history for if we make the mistake of allowing
just anyone
to tell a story, all that we shall get in the end would be
inaccuracies,
deliberate distortions and outright falsehood that can only help spread
ignorance.
General Yakubu
Gowon is right but, in a country where facts about a war that cost so
many
lives, and that made equally many people homeless and without
food and dignity, to
continue to keep quiet is a disservice to Nigerians and humanity. The
General
needs to open discussion on the true conduct of that WAR. In particular
we need
to know the role of the Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson of Britain
in that
war. No one should be allowed to sweep such facts under the carpet.
Where is
our history of the war?
Should we depend
on the version of events as narrated in the Half of the Yellow Sun? Or,
should
we leave the history of the creation of the Nigerian State in extremely
oppressive circumstances and how the Federal Government of Nigeria
under the
headship of General Yakubu Gowon conspired with the Labour Government
of Harold
Wilson of Britain to kill so many Nigerians and deprive them of freeing
themselves from the strangled hold of Britain during the war years in
the hands
of Mr. Michael Peel a British journalist?
Is
the account of Mr. Michael Peel when he wrote thus correct?
�...The
conflict�s outbreak revealed starkly the internal regional divisions
entrenched
in Nigeria by colonial Britain. It also placed the Labour government of
Harold
Wilson in a position of considerable responsibility. As the former
colonial
ruler and a regular supplier of arms to the Nigerian government,
Britain would
have a strhog influence on the conflict�s outcome.
"From start to
finish, London�s position was one of unequivocal and highly
controversial
support for the Nigerian federal government. Arms continued to flow to
the then
federal capital, Lagos: London argued that it was merely continuing
existing
policy and fulfilling a duty to help defend a fellow Commonwealth
member whose
land had been invaded. No protests from Biafra, or its sympathizers
overseas,
changed what Britain maintained was a principled stance. Nigeria must
remain
whole and alliances must be honoured, London said, much to the Lagos
authorities� relief and the Biafran�s dismay.
What Britain was
more coy about saying in public was that one of its biggest
preoccupations was
protecting its stake in Nigeria�s OIL�
(Page 51 �A
SWAMP
FULL OF DOLLARS Pipelines and Paramilitaries at Nigeria�s Oil Frontier
by
Michael Peel. Published in 2009 by I.B. Tauris & Co. Ltd)
Forty
years on, Nigerians are still waiting for the true account of what
happened
during the war years and the General�s role in the conspiracy of how
British
Labour government of Harold Wilson protecting British oil interest
supplied the
bullets that killed so many Nigerians. The General would say that he
did what he
could to keep Nigeria ONE!!!! But for who?
So,
before extending his crooked vanguard of oneness to the people of Delta
State,
he needs to tell Nigerians the truth of his dealings with the British,
after
all the history he presided over holds the key to enduring
understanding and
progress and oneness in that region of West Africa.
The General is however correct when he
called on Nigerians to think about what they could do to correct what
was wrong
with the country rather than harp on it.
It
is not helpful to say �Oh E never pass? That na old story� In
fact, that is what history is about, past events told correctly to
create the
people that we must become learning from past experiences. It is a
serious
disservice to the many ethnic nationalities that are struggling to free
themselves from the falsehood that Nigeria presently is. Read Michael
Peel�s
account of who we are then you will understand why we need to redeem
ourselves.
Fifty years later, Nigerians need to know how we got here, General
Yakubu Gowon
is not going to live forever, he needs to tell us now his part of our
history.
Nigeria�s Civil War Years (ALICE UKOKO 6.8.10)