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Urhobo Historical Society |
Editor's Note:
The excerpt below is lifted from
T. E. A. Salubi: Witness to British Colonial Rule in Urhoboland
and Nigeria. It is the foreword to UHS's fourth monographic publication. It
was provided by Dr. Esiri and is notably one of his last activities
in Urhobo public affairs.
Peter P. Ekeh
editor@waado.org
FOREWORD
For My Friend and �Brother� Adogbeji Salubi
By Chief Dr. Frederick O. Esiri
Former President-General, Urhobo Progress Union
We started as friends and ended as brothers. People who knew both
of us thought that we were real blood brothers.
My acquaintance with Adogbeji Salubi started when I was a student at
King�s College, Lagos, 1928-1931. While I was in the football field
one evening, a fellow student came to tell me that some people were
looking for me. They turned out to be two Urhobo men, Adogbeji Salubi
and Joseph Akpolo Ikutegbe. They said that they were informed that an
Urhobo man was in King�s College. We greeted warmly and chatted.
King�s College, Lagos, was the premier Government secondary school in
colonial Nigeria. Gaining admission into it was rare. Before me there
was no Urhobo student in that prestigious secondary school. Ikutegbe
and Salubi came in search of me for the sole purpose of establishing
contact with a pioneering Urhobo student. What was remarkable in that
visit was that it occurred before the pan-Urhobo association, Urhobo
Brotherly Society, was formed in 1931. It clearly established Adogbeji
Salubi and his life-long devoted associate, Mr. Joseph Akpolo
Ikutegbe, as Urhobo patriots before such acts became fashionable under
the aegis of organised associations.
By the time I was admitted into Yaba Higher College Medical School in
1931, Urhobo Brotherly Society had come into existence at its
originating headquarters at Warri. At its inaugural meeting in Lagos
in November 1934, Adogbeji Salubi was elected its Branch Secretary and
I its Assistant Secretary. Because of my academic workload in medical
school, I had concerns on the adequate performance of my duties as
Assistant Secretary. Salubi urged me not to be worried, generously
offering that I should just take minutes of the meetings. He promised
that he would take care of the correspondence to all the branches and
any other assignments demanded of the office.
Adogbeji Salubi and I worked very well together. As he reports in
Appendix I of this volume, a signal achievement of our common
commitment to our work for the new Society was our joint suggestion
that the name of the new association should be changed from Urhobo
Brotherly Society to Urhobo Progressive Union. Our idea was accepted
by the Lagos Branch. The Home Union at Warri also took it seriously.
After due study, our proposal was amended as Urhobo Progress Union,
which is the name that the association still bears up till now.
After the completion of my course at Yaba Higher College in 1937, I
joined the Colonial Civil Service and was posted to Calabar. I came
back to Lagos in 1939. Salubi was still the Secretary of Urhobo
Progress Union, Lagos Branch. He pressed that I should resume my
duties as Assistant Secretary. Later in 1941 I was transferred
to Abeokuta, not far from Lagos. Our friendship waxed strong. I often
came to Lagos to spend the weekends with him.
There were humorous sides to our friendship. One weekend, Adogbeji
Salubi came to Abeokuta to spend sometime with me. While we were
together, I had a call from the office and I rushed there, as medical
men were wont to do. By the time I came back from the office, Salubi
was packing his baggage for return to Lagos. He joked: �Anytime I come
to Abeokuta it is always work, work, work. You should be coming to
Lagos to spend your weekends and run away from this work.�
There were sombre
occasions in our association and common service on Urhobo matters. One
such pungent instance occurred in 1948. I had been transferred to
Bukuru, Jos. I came back to Urhoboland on leave in 1948 and I went to
see Mukoro Mowoe in Warri. There was then a vicious epidemic of liver
disease � a virus of hepatitis -- that swept through the East and the
Delta areas. It affected Mowoe. I went to Warri to see Mowoe on my way
to Abraka, my hometown. When I got to Mowoe�s residence, his
mother-in-law was at the door. I was not allowed to see him, as
everyone else who called to see him was disallowed. So I told my
friend, Adogbeji Salubi, that he should keep me abreast of the Chief�s
situation. The following day, Salubi sent word to me that Mowoe had
passed on.
In a positive sense, Adogbeji Salubi literarily spent his adult life
in the service of Urhobo causes. While he worked in Lagos, he provided
active leadership on Urhobo matters. Even while he was away in England
on Government scholarship during World War II, Salubi was actively
engaged in Urhobo affairs, writing on Urhobo Progress Union from
England. He was therefore the natural choice to become the
President-General of Urhobo Progress Union in 1962, the year of his
retirement from the Nigerian Civil Service.
Salubi�s tenure as President-General of Urhobo Progress Union, from
1962 to the year of his death in 1982, was brilliant. The old spirit
of selfless service to the Urhobo people and to the Union was revived.
He vigorously protected Urhobo interests against those who bore
ill-will towards the Urhobo people. When there was a military putsch
in 1966, most ethnic associations were disbanded by the new military
rulers on the grounds that they were politically active. Urhobo
Progress Union, then under the leadership of Adogbeji Salubi, was
spared because it was largely perceived as a cultural association.
Chief Salubi very wisely then pursued a subdued policy, urging the
Home Union and the branches of Urhobo Progress Union to avoid
celebratory and pompous occasions that might provoke the military.
That policy was in force when I took over the Office of
President-General of Urhobo Progress Union, following the death of my
dear friend, Chief T. E. A. Salubi, in 1982. Among his great
achievements, Chief Salubi built the edifice of Urhobo National Hall
at Okere Road, Warri. He did not complete it before his death. It was
my responsibility to complete it. Salubi visited the UPU branches in
the country and established an effective mode of communications
between the Union�s Headquarters at Warri and its diverse branches
throughout the country. He worked hard to resolve conflicts wherever
they arose, either among Urhobo communities or between Urhobo people
and their neighbours.
Chief T. E. A. Salubi left behind him an indelible footprint in
Urhobo affairs. I am delighted that his heir, Dr. Thomas Edogbeji
Akpomudiare Salubi, has invited me to write this foreword for a book
that celebrates his life. I thank him for his generosity. Furthermore,
on behalf of the Urhobo people, I thank Professor Peter Ekeh and
Urhobo Historical Society for devoting their intellectual resources to
this well-deserved study of one of the most accomplished and important
Urhobo men of the 20th century. I am sure that this study
will reveal that he was also one of the most remarkable Nigerians of
that past century.
Chief Dr. F. O. Esiri
35 Cemetery Road
Warri, Delta State
Nigeria
Saturday, August 2, 2008
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