At NUIS Uniben Isoko Cultural Day, Dr Ogaga Ifowodo asks: Will the Isoko People Sell their Birthright (Again) in 2015? Or, “Wouldst they have a serpent sting them twice?” — to slightly adapt the famous words Shakespeare had Shylock say in The Merchant of Venice while Shylock duelled (verbally) with Bassanio over his insistence on collecting a pound of flesh from Antonio according to the cold letter of their money-lending contract. The Isokos have a proverb that comes very close: ogha ure nọ a rue no re du họ owho ẹro ho: the eye is not blinded by the protruding tree branch it has already seen. I know you have heard this from me before, in a similar Facebook post too. Call it my stump speech whenever I have the privilege of a podium to speak to any section of the Isoko people these days. So I wrote the speech entitled “Have the Isoko People Sold their Birthright?” for the November 2013 Isoko youth conference in Olomoro, organised by the online advocacy group Umeh Need Road. And then I published an abridged version of it in Isoko Eye. I made it my theme when speaking to the National Union of Isoko Students (NUIS), Delta State Polytechnic, Ozoro, at their Isoko Cultural Day event in August; reprised it at the NUIS Delta State University, Oleh Campus, Isoko Day event three weeks ago. Yesterday, 1 November 2014, it was my pleasure again to return to this theme. For with the 2015 elections—forget about the charade, the sick joke, of the local government elections of 25 October 2014—around the corner, it ought to be a mantra that every Isoko person of voting age must repeat to him or herself; even those who have never voted, or who would never sell their vote. Oh, did I mention that it was also my speech—delivered on my behalf as I was unavoidably absent—to the APC youth leaders roundtable that took place in Oleh recently. I had welcomed my invitation by Josiah Omenuwoma, president of the NUIS Uniben chapter, with both hands. It gave me a perfect excuse to make a detour from current engagements elsewhere to return to my alma mater, the crucible in which I was forged as a radical thinker and humanist, as a human rights and democracy activist, and, yes, as a writer! And then NUIS pitched its tents for the event in the parking lot of Hall I, known as Solidarity Park in those halcyon days of student unionism. Where we assembled twice daily in the three days of the Great Anti-SAP protests of 1989, before marching to town and on our return to review the march, salute the courage of the Great Uniben students, and remind all to be ready for the next day. Have the Isoko people sold their birthright? Will they accept the half-kobo (even if the actual bribe money is N1,000, N5,000, N10,000 or more) of the visionless politician with no manifesto or track record other than self-enrichment as the worth of their vote? Will they let the protruding tree branch of rigging-through-monetary inducement blind them in both eyes even when they have seen the danger a mile away—not once, not twice, not thrice? The answer I got at the NUIS Uniben gathering, that I have heard at the two other NUIS Isoko Day events, that I got at the UNR youth conference in Olomoro, and at the APC youth leaders roundtable, is a resounding NO. But then, it was a very conscious and conscientious audience on each of those occasions. The task is to take this message to the ordinary citizens stamped into the dust by poverty and suffering. Those for whom a N3,000 bribe appears to be an act of recognition by the politician who, it is sad to say, invariably stole the money with which he buys votes from the people in the first place! And who will then vote for the unworthy politician out of a mistaken sense of the said politician’s kindness and generosity—never mind that he or she is only “generous” in four-year cycles! I am happy to report also that it was indeed a splendid Saturday with NUIS Uniben. The attires, the dances, the balancing and fire-eating tricks of Showman, an Isoko youngman who has taken his act from Ozoro to Benin and beyond (as I was told when I enquired, having missed the opportunity to speak to him), to the one-to-one conversations and photos I had with students and guests alike, all spoke of the vibrancy and deep yearning of the Isoko people. They only need equally vibrant and visionary leaders. If they don’t sell their birthright in 2015, they will get such leaders. May it be so. Ise! Here are a few images of the NUIS Uniben Isoko Day.
Posted on: Sun, 02 Nov 2014 20:14:54 +0000
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