Text of the paper presented by Dr. Otive Igbuzor at the Urhobo People Forum Day held at Ekiugbo-Ughelli on October 4, 2014. IMPACTING URHOBOLAND 1. INTRODUCTION Urhobo land is located in Delta State in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. The oil wealth of Nigeria is located in the Niger Delta region. It has been documented that Nigeria has about 35 billion barrels of proven oil reserve and another 5 billion in development. At the moment, the oil sector accounts for about 95 percent of expert revenues, 76 percent of government revenues and about a third of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product. Unfortunately, despite the enormous resources of Nigeria, it is a poor country. Nigeria is a country of paradox with widespread poverty in the midst of plenty. Long years of military rule and poor policies combined with rent-seeking culture have left the country with high levels of poverty and low access to social services. Nigeria is the largest oil producer in Africa and the seventh largest in the world, yet it has the third largest number of poor people in the world after China and India. Nigeria has very poor social indicators; about 10 million children of school going age are out of school. Nigeria was one of the richest 50 countries in the early 1970s but retrogressed to become one of the 25 poorest countries at the threshold of the twenty first century. Statistics show that the incidence of poverty using the rate of US $1 per day increased from 28.1 percent in 1980 to 46.3 percent in 1985 and declined to 42.7 percent in 1992 but increased again to 65.6 percent in 1996. The incidence increased to 69.2 percent in 1997. The 2004 report by the National Planning Commission indicates that poverty has decreased to 54.4 percent. But by 2010, the poverty rate has increased again to 69.1 percent. Nigeria has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world. In this paper, we discuss how to impact Urhoboland located in Delta State in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. But first, we describe Urhobo land and the challenges facing Urhobo people. 2. URHOBOLAND Urhobo land is found in Delta State in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. It is spread over nine local government areas namely Ethiope East, Ethiope West, Okpe, Ughelli South, Ughelli North, Sapele, Udu, Uvwie and part of Warri South. There are twenty five local government areas of Delta State. There are some seminal written work on Urhobo people including The Urhobo People edited by Onigu Otite (2003) and History of the Urhobo People of the Niger Delta edited by Peter P. Ekeh(2006). It has been pointed out that the earliest mention of the Urhobo in any written work was in 1905 by Pereira, a Portuguese explorer. The Urhobo people are made up of twenty two separate entities/polities that share a common ancestor. All the identities describe themselves as Urhobo people. The table one below shows the twenty two Urhobo polities and their locations in local government areas: Table One: Urhobo Polities and their location in local government areas Nos Polity Headquarters LGA 1. Agbarha-Ame Otovwodo-Agbarha Warri South 2. Agbarha-Otor Agbarha-Otor Ughelli North 3. Agbarho Orho-Agbarho Ughelli North 4. Agbon Isiokoro Ethiope East 5. Arhavwarien Arhavwarien Ughelli South 6. Avwraka Otorho-Avwraka Ethiope East 7. Effurun-Otor Effurun-Otor Ughelli South 8. Evwreni Evwreni Ughelli North 9. Eghwu Otorho-Eghwu Ughelli South 10. Idjerhe Idjerhe Ethiope West 11. Oghara Ogharefe Ethiope West 12. Ogor Otogor Ughelli North 13. Okere-Urhobo Okere Warri South 14. Okparabe Okparabe Ughelli south 15. Okpe Orerokpe Okpe and Sapele 16. Olomu Otorere-Olomu Ughelli South 17. Orogun Orogun Ughelli North 18. Udu Otor-Udu Udu 19. Ughele Otovwodo Ughelli North 20. Ughievwien Otughievwien Ughelli South 21. Ughwerun Otughwerun Ughelli North 22. Uvwie Effurun Uvwie The Urhobo people value education a lot. The first Urhobo university graduate who studied Economics and Social Studies is Olorogun MacNeil Gabriel Ejaife (1912-1972). He attended Fourah Bay College (1944-1946), University of Durham (1946-1948) and the University of Sydney. He later became the founding principal of Urhobo College, Effurun, Delta State. The Urhobo people engage in a wide range of economic activities including farming, fishing, hunting, tapping of rubber, trading and manufacturing. The Urhobos constitute the sixth largest ethnic group in Nigeria. According to the 1963 census, the Urhobos were classified among the ten major ethnic groups in Nigeria. According to Professor Onigu Otite, there are four traditions of the origin of the Urhobo people. The first is that the Urhobos are the original dwellers and owners of their territory who have been living in their territories from time immemorial. The second tradition is that the Urhobos left Edo at the end of the Ogiso dynasty in search of more peaceful locations as a result of “cruelty, animosity and tyranny” which pushed them out of the Benin kingdom. The third tradition is that the Urhobos migrated from Ile-Ife in Yorubaland. The fourth is that the Urhobos migrated from Sudan and Egypt. The political institutions of the Urhobo People describing the relationship which are strategic to the structure and functioning of the Urhobo society especially how politics, marriage, religion, economy and the judicial system is organized can be described at different levels of gerontocracies, plutocracies and political kingdoms. The Urhobos practice gerontocracy, the government of elders based on age-grade organization. The oldest person in the community is the head of government known as Okarorho. The age grades for men and women are organized separately. Plutocracy refers to the government of the rich and wealthy. In some Urhobo kingdoms, the units are headed by Plutocrats e.g. the Osuivie of Agbarho and the Ohworode (literally the “big man”) of Olomu. In some of the kingdoms, there are Kings (known as Ovie) such as in Okpe, Ughelli and Agbon. In most contemporary Urhobo Kingdom today, there is a combination of genrontocracy (Okarorho) and plutocracy (with different Chieftancy titles) and kingship (Ovie). But some kingdoms such as Orogun have no King. The Urhobo people have consistently complained of marginalization in Nigerian politics especially in the appointment of persons to federal positions. Despite being the sixth largest ethnic group in Nigeria, there are many periods in Nigerian history where there are no Ministers of Urhobo extraction in a cabinet of over 40 Ministers. The Urhobos are a religious people. They believe in Almighty God (Oghene). Before the advent of Christianity, they practiced African Traditional Religion. Indeed, the Igbe religious movement, an African Traditional Religion originated in the eighteenth century in Urhoboland. But today the Urhobos are predominantly Christians. Although the entrance of Christianity dates back to the seventeenth century, penetration into the hinterland occurred in the nineteenth century. The Urhobo people have some common identity. They have their own core territory, language, lifestyle and ways of organizing their political institutions, marriage and family. The Urhobos claim descent from one ancestor with similar origin. The culture of the Urhobo people is unique. They are republicans, hardworking and independent with self pride. They place a high value in marital and family life where there is a high emphasis on purity, fidelity and marital trust. The Urhobo people have a common language, the Urhobo language with different dialects. The Urhobo attire is unique. The men wear wrapper, big shirt, hat and walking stick while the women tie two wrappers, blouse and scalf. 3. CHALLENGES OF URHOBO LAND The challenges of the development of the Urhobo nation can be located within the challenges of the political economy of Delta State, the Niger Delta and the Nigerian nation. The reason why the Urhobo nation is poor, marginalized and underdeveloped is because the factors necessary for the development of any society are absent in Delta State, Niger Delta and Nigeria as a whole. The precarious situation of the Urhobo nation is that it is worse than other communities. We shall examine a few of them. a. Political leadership: There is a lack of political leadership in Urhoboland and Delta State. The republican nature of the Urhobo people has not helped matters. In modern society, election is the best approach for the emergence of political leaders. Some commentators have alluded to the fact that the Niger Delta is one of few regions in the country where the leadership of the region is decided by people outside the region. A study of the electoral geography of the 2007 elections indicated that the Niger Delta produced the worst outcome in election in the country in terms of election malpractices. Since 2003, elections in Delta State have been disputed. The statistics do not add up. In the January, 2011 re-run elections for instance, the population distributions of the three senatorial districts are: Delta North- 30.33percent; Delta Central 38.87 percent and Delta South 31.90 percent. In 2007, INEC registered a total of 1, 386, 595 eligible voters distributed as follows: Delta North 421,099 (30.4 percent); Delta Central 492, 743 (35.5 percent) and Delta South (472,753 (34.1 percent). This was the results announced by INEC, Delta North produced 18.79 percent; Delta Central 26.41 percent and Delta South 54.79 percent. A comparison of the votes cast in the recent Senatorial election held in September, 2013 followed the same pattern as can be seen from the table below: Three Top Parties 2013 2011 PDP 263,024 85,365 DPP 29,055 102,313 APC/CAN 29,075 10,190 Total 321, 154 197,686 From the table above, increase in number of votes between 2011 and 2013 is 62 percent. Similarly, the number of registered voters in 2011 was 827, 338 and in 2013 was 819, 118. The turnout of the three top parties in 2011 was 24 percent but in 2013, it was 40 percent. The statistics do not add up. b. Citizen’s engagement: There is no robust citizen engagement in Delta State. There is a social distance between the rulers and the people. There are many organisations in Urhobo land parading as working for the benefit of Urhobo people. Unfortunately, these organisations turn around to work against the benefit of Urhobo land with reckless abandon. The irony is that many Urhobo people continue to follow these people and organisations without question. This is quite different from the behavior of the typical Urhobo man with republican nature and self-pride. c. Peace and Security: Peace and security has eluded Urhobo land for many years from the struggle between the Itsekiri landed aristocracy and Urhobo land owners to the siege and destruction of Kokori land. Our rulers and law enforcement agents clearly lack modern methods of law enforcement. All over the world, the approach is to use intelligence, scientific methods and community participation (neighbourhood watch etc). Resort to demolition of houses that the alleged kidnapper may not have contributed to building is barbaric, wicked and callous. d. Good Strategies and Policies: There is a clear absence of good strategies and policies to deal with the challenges that face us as a people-poverty, inequality and unemployment. For instance, what is the policy to provide housing for the people especially the poor? Where is policy on social housing? What is the policy to deal with inter-generational poverty? It is interesting to note that there are some states in Nigeria that are less endowed that are implementing social protection policies like in Jigawa and Ekiti States. Ekiti State receives the second least allocation from the federation account, yet it pays all indigent people above 65 years old five thousand naira every month. e. Democratic Governance: The beginning point of democratic governance is credible, free and fair elections which is a scarce commodity in Delta State. Another big issue is how the government spends the resources of the state for the benefit of citizens. Our analysis of budget in Delta State for period 2007-2011 showed that government house cum governor’s office received more budget allocation than agriculture, commerce and industry, women affairs and social development and water resources put together. No society will spend its resources this way and hope to develop. Scholars are in agreement that any society that wants to develop must give priority in terms of spending to education, health, infrastructure and agriculture. . f. Accountability: The concept of accountability is almost alien to Delta State. This is what Strengthening Transparency and Accountability in the Niger Delta (STAND)- a project of DfID stated about the core states of the Niger Delta: The three core oil producing states of the Niger Delta, Rivers, Delta and Baylesa are anything but poor. Their combined budgets in 2010 were $4,761,857,941. This wealth, if utilised effectively, could go a long way to ensuring a peaceful and prosperous Niger Delta. Even if 30% was utilised effectively, the Niger Delta region would at least achieve the minimal benchmark set by the MDGs. The realities of service delivery and opportunities for sustainable development in the region clearly demonstrate how successive governance regimes have failed to utilise the resources at their disposal for the good of the people. The budgets of the core Niger Delta states are locally perceived as secret and are not formulated based on clear or defined assessments of the core needs of the state. Recent public moves towards improved budgetary transparency, which have occurred in particular in Bayelsa state and to a lesser extent in Rivers and Delta States, have been hollow and failed to ensure greater local transparency or space for scrutiny or input. The state budgets remain a key tool in the dominance of a self-serving patronage system and the PDP elites. To put this into perspective, if the combined annual budget of Rivers State $2,860,000,000, Delta State $1,447,840,024 or Baylesa state $454,017,917 is $4,353,247,917 compared to that of Ghana $6.039,000,000, it is clear that there is a systematic failure of state structures in utilising this wealth for development. According to Ken Henshaw, the project co-ordinator of Niger Delta Citizens and Budget Platform stated clearly: Unfortunately, rather than open spaces for greater participation and accountability, the Delta State Government has become more secretive, making the budget the exclusive preserve of the government and further alienating citizens from governance. g. Institutions: The building of institutions is not on the agenda in Delta State. It is inconceivable that prospective teacher will be given written examination in a process of recruitment and the scripts will not even be marked. One hundred percent of appointment will be based on patronage. Such a society can never develop. 4. IMPACTING URHOBOLAND The political and socio-economic destiny of Urhoboland is inextricably linked to the destiny of Delta State, Niger Delta and Nigeria as a whole. The present state of the Urhobo nation is not just undesirable but unsustainable. The way that the Urhobo nation, Delta State and Nigeria is being organized and governed is unacceptable. There is the need for change in the leadership selection process, citizen engagement, peace and security management, strategies and policies, democratic governance , accountability processes and strengthening of institutions. The Urhobo nation is made up of a unique people who are republicans, hardworking and independent with self pride. But a combination of several factors has led to underdevelopment of Urhobo people and the Urhobo nation as part of the underdevelopment of the Niger Delta and Nigeria. To impact Urhoboland positively requires proper focus on leadership selection process, citizen participation, peace and security, good strategies and policies, democratic governance, accountability and institutions. We are confident that the future is bright for Urhobo land, Delta State and indeed Nigeria for many reasons. Change is coming. First and foremost, for change to occur in any society requires the presence of objective and subjective conditions. Objective conditions exist when situations are evidently abnormal with huge contradictions which can only be resolved by change. The subjective conditions are the organizational preparations required to bring about change. In our view, the objective condition for change has existed in Nigeria for a long time. There is poverty in the midst of plenty. There are huge contradictions and gap between the poor and the rich. The country cannot continue in the way it is presently being run. The challenge is to build the subjective condition for change. Meanwhile, there are individuals committed to and are driving change. The challenge is to build the organizations with dynamic and visionary leadership as well as a committed followership that is dedicated to change. Therefore ongoing attempts to build the requisite organization, leadership and followership for change must be assisted, nurtured and consolidated for the necessary change to occur in Nigeria. Secondly, the level of awareness and consciousness is very high. Deltans of 2014 are different from Deltans of 1999. Access to information, new technologies and the social media have all helped to increase the level of consciousness. We just need to step up organization. In addition, people must change their orientation from focus on stomach infrastructure and immediate gain to what will be beneficial to Urhobo land. In the past three years, I have been involved in political mobilization for change. I have met several Urhobo leaders and the conduct of some of them is disappointing. In one case, I embarked on the consultation with the one of the Local Government Coordinators of the Dr. Otive Organisation. The Urhobo leader told me point blank that I should package money in three sets: one for him, a second set to bribe members of his inner core and the third which must not be less than one million naira will be presented in public. These are the kind of political entrepreneurs destroying Urhobo land. Thirdly, the profile and historic duty of the youth is changing. The level of unemployment and the obscene display of wealth by the political elite is radicalizing the youth and nobody can stop it with force. The radicalization of Urhobo youth can be seen on the social media. The Urhobo people are intensely loyal to Urhobo cause. A few days ago, someone posted on facebook that he regrets being an Urhobo. The response to the post displayed how passionate Urhobo people especially the youth are about being Urhobo. However, poverty and unemployment has made many Urhobo people to sell their conscience. But they know the truth. Fourthly, there is a lot of anger in the land. Anger is very important in bringing about change. Nelson Mandela noted: I had no epiphany, no singular revelation, no moment of truth, but a steady accumulation of a thousand slights, a thousand indignities and a thousand unremembered moments produced in me an anger, a rebelliousness, a desire to fight the system that imprisoned my people. There was no particular day on which I said, Henceforth, I will devote myself to the liberation of my people; instead, I simply found myself doing so, and could not do otherwise. According to Martin Luther King, Jr (1968), the harnessing of anger is the greatest of tasks: The supreme task is to organize and unite people so that their anger becomes a transforming force. Gandhi (1929) also talks about the harnessing of anger as a powerful force for justice: I have learned through bitter experience the one supreme lesson to conserve my anger, and as heat conserved is transmuted into energy, even so, our anger controlled can be transmuted into a power which can move the world. The challenge facing us is how to channel the anger into the change process. CONCLUSION Societal development is governed by the laws of dialectics. The seed for the destruction of the present order in Urhobo land is being planted by the recklessness and impunity of the ruling class. Nobody can hold back history. There is a limit to the time that people will continue to deceive Urhobo people and engage in political entrepreneurship. They may delay the change process with their ill-gotten wealth helped with the pervasive poverty in the land. But they are working against history. Change will definitely come. “Every generation out of relative obscurity must discover its mission, fulfill it or betray it.”- Frantz Fanon “The future will have no pity for those men and women who possess the exceptional privilege of being able to speak the truth to their oppressors but have taken refuge in attitude of passivity, of mute indifference and in some cases of cold complicity.”- Frantz Fanon “For evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.”-Edmund Burke
Posted on: Sun, 05 Oct 2014 22:01:08 +0000
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