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Urhobo Historical Society |
The Challenges of the Urhobo Nation
By Professor S.W.E.
Ibodje
Being a paper presented at
Urhobo Unity
Introduction
I was asked to talk on the key
challenges of the
Urhobo nation. There are issues that I consider to be challenges to the
Urhobo
nation. But I am not sure that I know the key ones among them. So, I
decided to
write on �The Challenges of the Urhobo Nation�. However, if in the
course of my
discourse I stumble on what my principals would consider to be key ones
among
them, I will give glory to God.
Perhaps, I should quickly add
also that I accepted
this assignment in the hope that I should be free to express myself
both as an
academic and an Urhobo patriot. It is in the same vein that I consider
that the
enormity of the challenges facing the Urhobo nation today would require
that
only the truth should be good enough for us. To me, therefore, the
assignment
is a mission which does not require that I should sing praises of any
person,
if to do is not the truth. And while the desire in me is to tell what I
consider to be a true story of the Urhobo nation, any historical defect
observed in my account should be entirely a result of my limited
competence in
the field of history, where Professor Peter Ekeh is a giant.
The observation guiding this
paper is that the major
challenges facing the Urhobo nation today is how to convert her
potentials into
a political asset at the state and national levels. The corollary
observation,
therefore, is that the resolution of this challenge is a necessary
condition
for the resolution of every other challenge facing the ethnic
nationality. For,
as Kwame Nkrumah said, seek ye the political kingdom first and every
other
thing will be added unto you. In the main, the paper is based on the
argument
that the poor performance of the Urhobo nation in modern politics,
especially
since 1999, is the result of the failure of the Urhobo Progress Union
(UPU)
since the end of the Chief Mukoro Mowoe era1
to maintain the vision of the organisation
and the
necessary central structure of leadership, standards and focus left
behind for
the ethnic nationality. The corollary argument is that a clearly
defined Urhobo
national vision, driven by a strong and centralized leadership
structure is a
necessary condition for the group to attain visibility in politics at
the state
and national levels.
The Setting
Notwithstanding
the recent events in the Idjerhe kingdom, the present Urhobo national
structure, in terms of its boundaries and sub-political units as a
single
ethnic nationality with a clear identity, owes its origins to the
nationalist
activities of the UPU in the 1930s. Prior to the emergence of the UPU
as the
umbrella organisation of the Urhobo people, what is now Urhobo
territory was
inhabited by essentially different groups that had similar cultural
traits with
claims to different traditions of origin, and separately transacted
their own
internal and external affairs, including the signing of the then
�Treaties of
Protection� with the British imperial authorities. During that period,
the
Urhobo personality did not command respect as his identity was not
visible.
What is more, his coastal neighbour sold the impression to the
Europeans that
he was �bush and uncivilised� and only fit for low level activities and
engagements.
This was the situation when the UPU was born. Thus, the birth of the
UPU was
greeted with different challenges confronting the Urhobo people, which
called
for immediate actions requiring ingenious political engineering to
handle successfully.
No doubt, the strategies adopted, the commitment involved, and the
level of
success achieved by the union in the handling of those challenges
showed that
the leadership was guided by a clear vision of a strong and united
Urhobo
ethnic nationality, capable, among other things, of defending its
territorial
assets, benefiting fully from opportunities provided by the modern
political
society, and playing a leading role with a strong voice at the various
levels
of the modern political arena. Thus, the motto, aims and objectives
which
propelled the early UPU were as follows:
(i) To foster the spirit of love,
mutual
understanding and brotherhood among Urhobo, and good neighbourliness
with
non-Urhobo people;
(ii) To
encourage growth of educational development of Urhobo people;
(iii) To
encourage economic development of the Urhobo people:
(iv) To work for
mutual understanding and co-operation among Urhobo people on one hand
and the
government at all levels on the other;
(v)
To protect and promote the Urhobo personality at all times and
everywhere; and
(vi) To preserve
and promote Urhobo culture, language and traditional rulers (see The
Urhobo
Voice, May 18, 2009, p.17)
The above aims and objectives of
the UPU were directly
relevant to the early challenges it faced, as they are relevant to the
challenges of today. The challenges which faced the Urhobo nation
during the
early days of the UPU were among the following:
About the first major challenge
which faced
the Urhobo nation at the early days of the UPU was the challenge of
lack of
identity and how to create one. At the early days of colonial rule, as
earlier
mentioned, the various Urhobo groups who inhabited the Urhobo territory
did not
have any visible identity as a people under a single umbrella of any
kind.
Adding to this situation was the role of the Itsekiri coastal neighbour
who
sold the impression to the first set of incoming European traders and
the early
colonial officers that the Urhobo people where �bush� and
�uncivilised.� So
much was this impression bought by the early set of colonial officials
that the
native courts that they established in Urhobo clans had Itsekiri
members
appointed into them, because the Urhobo people being �uncivilised�
needed the
�civilised� Itsekiri people to show them how to run the new native
courts. This
was happening at the same time that there was no Urhobo person
considered fit
to sit in the Warri native court which had jurisdiction over the Urhobo
clans
including Effurun, Effurun-Otor, Adeji, Aladja, and Agbarha-Warri. (See
Obaro
Ikime, 1977, p.71).
Creating
an
identity requires focus, a rallying point, and a committed leadership.
UPU
under Mukoro Mowoe provided the needed focus, that rallying point and
the
required leadership.
The
second
challenge was that when UPU was formed, different Urhobo groups were in
�
Another
challenge was
that posed by claims to Urhobo lands by the neighbouring groups of
Itsekiri and
Bini. It took the effective central leadership and the rallying point
provided
by the UPU to save those lands for Urhobo.
More
than their
neighbours, the challenge of fitting into the new ways and
opportunities
brought about by colonialism and its administration in its early days
was
significantly severe among the Urhobo people. The reason was that the
Urhobo
people were particularly ill-equipped for the social change and the
educational
empowerment needed for that dispensation. The birth of the UPU was
greeted by
this challenge. A story told us by Professor Ekeh is necessary for
reproduction
here:
An example of the hardship that
confronted the Urhobo
people could be illustrated from an event from one of the several
meetings that
the UPU leaders held with the colonial officers in the 1930s. At a
meeting with
the Resident, the highest colonial officer of
It can be said that each of the
above challenges which
confronted the Urhobo people as at the 1930s, when UPU was formed and
led by
Mukoro Mowoe and his colleagues, was handled with positive results.
Within less
than a decade of the formation of the UPU, and the nationalist
activities
embarked upon by its leadership, the Urhobo identity became visible and
respected even by the early colonial officers who were earlier
influenced by
the Itsekiri to think that the Urhobo people were �bush� and
�uncivilised�.
Following this, the Urhobo people who were in �Babylon� under �foreign�
administrative divisions were brought together under their own
administrative
division and Urhobo people who would have been lost to Kwale and Benin
today
were brought back to Urhobo. After all, Orogun people were already
speaking
Ukwuani more than the Ukwuani people themselves, and giving Ukwuani
names to
their children was becoming a fashion and a mark of civilisation among
them.
Again, the UPU leadership of the Mukoro Mowoe era fought to ensure that
Urhobo
lands were secured from the hands of pokers from outside. Finally, the
UPU
leadership of the 1930s confronted the challenge of educational
development
frontally and the result was the
It remains to be said that each
of the challenges that
were there to be confronted by the UPU under Mukoro Mowoe was handled
with the
appropriate approach it required. Those that required diplomatic
engineering,
by way of meetings with the colonial officers and persuading them with
good
reasons to change their unfavourable policies were handled as such. The
issues
of Urhobo identity and the allocation of Urhobo people to �foreign�
administrative divisions were handled with much of this approach.
Again, those
that required to be resolved in the court as the most realist option
were so
handled; and Mukoro Mowoe and his colleagues did not shy away from
going to
court. The securing of Urhobo lands from the hands of pokers was a case
in this
point. Similarly, when it was clear to the then leaders of the UPU that
self-help would be the answer to a challenge, they went all out and to
any
extent to confront it as such. The challenge of education is a case in
point.
To quote Professor Ekeh again on this point,
It was clear to Urhobo Progress Union in the 1930s that the Urhobo
people could
not wait for the government or the Christian Mission to train the
personnel
that the Urhobo needed in order to function adequately in the new
colonial era
(ibid. p. 7).
By 1936, the machinery was already in motion to mobilize the Urhobo
people,
home and the diaspora, to confront this challenge. Records have it that
Mukoro
Mowoe and his compatriots personally travelled to wherever the Urhobo
diaspora
sojourned in Nigeria to raise funds both to build the Urhobo College
and to
fund the scholarship scheme put in place to train the two Urhobo sons
already referred
to above.
The huge success achieved by the
early leadership of
the UPU in confronting the challenges which faced the Urhobo of their
time can
be attributed to their vision and commitment to the motto, aims and
objectives
of the union. There was brotherhood, there was understanding, there was
commitment, and above all, there was the ability to listen on the part
of the
leadership. For instance, Professor Ekeh told us of how, in
approaching
the UPU�s Urhobo Education Scheme, there was a disagreement concerning
the
preferences of the Home Branch, the Lagos Branch and the UPU branches
in the
Urhobo Diaspora. And it was resolved by Mukoro Mowoe along the lines of
the
suggestions from the Urhobo Diaspora which preferred a secondary school
and the
Lagos Branch which suggested a scholarship scheme, while dropping the
idea of
an elementary school suggested by the Home Branch to which he
belonged.
Professor Ekeh also told us of how Mukoro Mowoe had to write a letter
of
unconditional apology to the Lagos Branch over an issue of disagreement
between
the Home Branch and the Lagos Branch, which laid the mater to rest for
continued cooperation and progress.
The purpose of the foregoing is
to tell us the journey
and labour that brought us to where we are and to appreciate the
sadness
concerning out inability to confront the challenges facing us today.
The Contemporary Challenge
As I have
already stated
in this paper that the main challenge facing the Urhobo nation today,
into
which any other challenge can be encapsulated, is the challenge of how
to
convert her potentials into political assets at the state and national
levels.
I have also argued earlier that the poor performance of the Urhobo
nation in
the present political dispensation is the result of the failure of the
UPU
since the end of the Mukoro Mowoe era to maintain the vision of the
union and
the necessary central structure of leadership, standards and focus left
behind
for the ethnic nationality.
In the first place, what are the
potentials of the
Urhobo nation for political leadership and a strong voice in state and
national
politics?
The Urhobo
National
Political Potentials
The over 250 ethnic
nationalities inhabiting
So if population can be such an
element of political
power, as being played out at the national level in the case of the
Hausa-Fulani and the other two major groups, there is no reason why the
population of Urhobo should not be a potential source of
political
leadership, at least, at the level of the state.
After the three major ethnic
groups, Urhobo is the
second largest among the so-called minority ethnic groups, coming next
to the
Ijaw ethnic nationality. The home state of the Urhobo people is
In terms of education, as an
element of social and
technical equipment for functioning at any level of political endeavour
at the
state and national levels in Nigeria, and indeed the world, Urhobo is
among the
best prepared in the country; being among the top group with the
highest
concentration of professors and lawyers per capita. Again, in economic
and
professional activities, Urhobo is also among the most visible groups
in
Again, in terms of contribution
to national wealth,
Urhobo contributes significantly to the oil industry in
Urhobo in the
Present
Political Dispensation
The question beckoning on every
Urhobo man or woman
for an answer is how has Urhobo converted these potentials to assets,
especially in terms of political performance at the state and national
levels?
In other words, what has the Urhobo gotten to show politically for her
population and other elements of power? The answer is nothing! With 60
per cent
of the population of
A careful look at the
distribution of national
offices/positions at the legislative, executive and judicial hierarchy
at the
federal level reveals a very gory state for the Urhobo nation indeed.
In the
national assembly, for instance, we can only talk of two committee
chairmanship, while the leadership of any of the chambers of the
national
assembly continues to elude us. Even the committees chaired by the
Urhobo have
no direct bearing on the livelihood of the Urhobo man or woman. These
committees are of little or no strategic importance to the Urhobo
interest.
People from smaller ethnic nationalities are given the control of
energy,
petroleum, industry, agriculture and education committees, yet these
are areas
for which Urhobos are naturally endowed. Why are we barred from holding
any of
the principal officers� positions in our national assembly despite our
population? Is democracy no longer the game of numbers?
Again, if we take a look at the
executive arm at the
national level, the story is the same. Apart from a few slots as
cabinet
ministers during the military regime, the Urhobo have not even got a
slot as a
junior minister of state since 1999. In the present dispensation, we
are no way
near there. Something has definitely gone wrong (ibid. p,.5).
That
is the picture of the political performance of the Urhobo, even at the
level of
Lack of effective central
leadership structure;
Personality conflicts among
Urhobo leaders;
The role of the Urhobo
political class;
Effects of social and
economic change and the value system of Urhobo people; and
The nature of the
relationship between Urhobo and other groups.
Each of these factors can be
briefly
explained as we will do below.
Lack of Effective Central Leadership Structure
One of the factors that helped
the enormous
achievements of the early UPU was effective central leadership
structure. From
early 1930s, when UPU was founded, it became about the only
organisation or
union which brought the Urhobo people together, while its leadership of
Mukoro
Mowoe and his colleagues provided a central rallying point, both for
the home
people and the Urhobo diaspora. The branch in
Such visits were also undertaken
to raise funds from
the Urhobo diaspora to deal with the various challenges that faced the
Urhobo
nation.
There were, however occasional
disagreements between
the home branch and the outside branches over preferences in approaches
to be
adopted to deal with specific challenges. But such disagreements were
often
resolved through Mukoro Mowoe`s personal intervention even where such
interventions meant tendering a personal apology to a branch, as
earlier
mentioned in the case of the Lagos branch. Through that central
leadership,
the Urhobo nation was able to speak with a single voice in
confronting
the challenges that faced the group with positive results to the
benefit of
all.
Today, that strong central
leadership structure has
been seriously challenged and rendered almost impotent by the
activities of
emergent multi- subgroup organisations, which are in parallel
relationships
with UPU. Each of these sub-group organisations claims to be speaking
for
Urhobo interest, while, in fact, competing against one another for
selfish
interests, which often elude them due to lack of unity and collective
efforts.
Thus, as against the central leadership structure which obtained during
Mukoro
Mowoe era, which made easy the mobilisation of the Urhobo national
efforts,
what obtains today is a situation of multiple centres of leadership,
including
those created by groups such as the Urhobo Political Forum, Urhobo
Consultative
Forum and the Urhobo Patriots as well as those resulting from
activities of
some Urhobo leaders who have become institutions on their own. All
these
parallel groups and separate centres of leadership are competing for
space,
loyalty and followership with UPU, thereby making it difficult for
Urhobo to
speak with one voice on major challenges facing the group. Among the
consequences of all these activities are the types of experience we had
in the
2003 and, particularly 2007, when Urhobo was in disarray.
Personality
Conflicts among Urhobo Leaders
Mukoro Mowoe`s era of leadership and followership is to the history of
Urhobo
as that of Christ and his followers is to the history and traditions of
the
Christian religion. They are often cited within the contexts of their
different
communities as models necessary for advancement or attainment of group
goals.
Going by the existing Urhobo
historical records,
Mukoro Mowoe`s leadership could be said to be generally accepted by all
Urhobo
men of worth during his time. He served as a rallying point to all
Urhobo
people, both at home and in the diaspora. There are no records yet of
intrigues
and subversive activities against his leadership. This must have
accounted very
largely for the unity of purpose which prevailed in confronting the
various
challenges which faced the Urhobo nation during his time.
That situation does not exist in
Urhobo any more.
Apart from the fact that some Urhobo leaders have now become
institutions of
their own and would not be bothered about UPU and its affairs,
intrigues and
subversive activities have become the order of the day among Urhobo
leaders.
One such issue was the manner of removing Chief (Dr.) Esiri from office
as
president general of UPU through a coup d` etat by some Urhobo leaders
who were
supposed to be his colleagues. The planned coup d` etat against Chief
Esiri was
executed at Orerokpe. The same group that overthrew Esiri soon
developed its
own internal rift and inter-play of intrigues, which subsequently led
to their
overthrow of one another. Since then, each occasion of electing a new
set of
executive members for UPU has witnessed a strong division among Urhobo
leaders
leading, in each case, to separate venues of annual congress holding
concurrently at Orerokpe and PTI, Effrun, and always ending up in
series of
court cases. These developments have not helped Urhobo unity in recent
time.
Unlike the time of Mukoro Mowoe, many Urhobo leaders now move in
opposite
directions and speak with different voices- a situation which is non-
promotional to the advancement of Urhobo national interests.
The Role
of Urhobo Political Class
The Urhobo political class is the category of Urhobo men and women who
have
taken to politics as a profession. The bulk of them are in their
forties and
fifties. As a category, their political activities have been
characterised in
the recent years by intra-group struggles and intrigues to undo one
another,
rather than to collectivise their energies and resources for solidarity
building in order to create and expand political spaces for themselves
as a
group and for Urhobo as a nation. Having been so internally divided and
bereft
of the necessary unity to confront their external opponents as a group,
they
have often resorted to seeking separate alliances with their counter
groups
from outside, even if only to play the second fiddle in such
engagements. Thus,
with Urhobo political centre no longer holding strong, the political
class has
dismembered itself with different groups going separately to pitch
tents with
outside blocs, such as Delta South, Ndokwa and Anioma, thereby
returning Urhobo
to the �Babylonian� experience of the pre-UPU era . In all this
development,
the UPU of the new era has not helped matters. In the particularly
disastrous
outing of the 2007 general elections, the UPU leadership played the
role of
tying bells on the necks of too many of her dogs and pushed them out to
hunt
for the same game. As should be expected, the dogs devoted a good part
of their
energies to try to eliminate each other in order to get at the game,
which had
to elude all of them to the benefit of the dogs from the other parks
due to
lost energies and lack of internal unity. This position of the UPU
then
was not due to lack of warning signals from some low level directions,
such as
ours. This is probably one of such issues where Mukoro Mowoe would have
characteristically intervened to save the situation for the benefit of
the
Urhobo nation.
Effects of Social and Economic
Change and the Value
System of Urhobo People
As a social group, Urhobo people
share a strong
similarity with the Igbo people of South Eastern Nigeria in an aspect
of their social
values. Like the Igbo people, the Urhobo people respect and revere
those who
control wealth and defer to them in public discourse. This
characteristic of
the Urhobo people is echoed by the type of names they give to their
children,
indicating why the rich should be revered and deferred to. Thus, there
are many
such names as �Etaredaferua�- meaning statements from the rich are more
convincing and acceptable; �Edafewhara�- meaning the rich are more
sensible;
�Edafiavwoghoke�- meaning it is the rich that command respect; and
�Edafevwiroro�- meaning the rich have more wisdom.
It is therefore reasonable to assume that the enormous achievements of
Mukoro
Mowoe in positively transforming the Urhobo identity can largely be
attributed
to his towering combination of social, economic and political status
over and
above any living person of Urhobo origin and, indeed
At the time of his death Chief Mukoro Mowoe was a member of the Western
(Regional) House of Assembly, member of Warri Township Advisory Board,
member
of the Warri Provincial Development Management Board, a Councillor of
the
Eastern Urhobo Native Administration, General Merchant-Exporter and
Importer
and a many-sided contractor, President General of the Urhobo Progress
Union. No
other person in the entire province combined in himself such
multifarious
duties to his people and the province. Everyone from the youngest
talking child
to the grey-bearded knew the name Mowoe. He was virtually a legend in
his own
life.
Mukoro Mowoe`s political and social status then was such that during
the brief
illness that led to his death, the Acting Resident of Warri Province,
Mr.
R.P.V. Wilkes and the Chief Commissioner of the Western Provinces, Mr
John
Macpherson, who later became Governor of Nigeria, visited and sat
beside him on
his sick bed. In terms of wealth, the account has it that Mukoro Mowoe
was by
then the most successful international merchant of Nigerian origin in
the
So much has changed in social, economic and political terms in Urhobo.
Today,
many Urhobo business men and women of international status have
emerged,
competing with one another for attention, respect and reverence. And
unlike the
days of the lone �Providence House�, many more imposing houses
belonging to
Urhobo people have emerged with comparable splendour. Politically,
there are
now many of current, as well as ex-this and ex-that, in terms of
Governors,
Senators, national and state assembly members, including ministers and
commissioners
in Urhoboland. But, unlike Mukoro Mowoe and his colleagues of the early
days,
many in this class of the rich today would rather prefer standing above
the UPU
and have it serve their personal interest than being part of its
affairs in the
advancement of the general interest of Urhobo. One major consequence of
these
developments is that, for the Urhobo, the centre is no longer holding
for the
old spirit of brotherhood and development. Again, it has led to too
many voices
speaking for Urhobo with discordant notes. This, certainly, needs to
change, if
we must raise the political visibility of Urhobo collectively.
The Nature of
the
Relationship with Other Groups
In international politics, a nation�s ability to influence the
behaviours of
other nations along the lines of her interest is a national asset of
great
value. It enables a nation to meet much of her aspirations within the
community
of nations. However, this asset is not a commodity to be bought cheaply
in the
market. Rather, those nations that know its value invest largely in its
cultivation, growth and continuous nurturing through ingenious
diplomatic
engineering. One golden rule in this engineering process is that on no
ground
should the behaviours of other nations in the international politics be
taken
for granted, notwithstanding one�s perception of the greatness of one�s
natural
endowment � be it in the area of natural resources or population
strength. This
is because such natural endowment is only a mere potential waiting to
be
converted into an asset through serious management of inter-group
relations.
What applies in international
politics is
also applicable with inter-group relations within a nation. Just as
such
powerful nations as the
If Urhobo must play a leading
role that is
commensurate with her potentials in
It is my view that Urhobo does
not
necessarily have to be head of the state government each time to be
politically
relevant and strong. What is important is that in each of such
occasions, we
must not fail to be seen as the king maker. The pain of the particular
case of
the 2007 was that Urhobo was neither king, nor was she seen as the king
maker.
If Urhobo can understand what it takes to be such, it should be
difficult for
anyone outside Urhobo to head the state government without the Urhobo
people
playing the role of the king maker. The present situation whereby
prominent
Urhobo people run to Delta South and North to prostitute for positions
will
take Urhobo to no where. Urhobo must have a structure for inter-group
relations
management.
The Way
Forward
Much of what needs to be said in this paper has been stated above,
except to
re-emphasise that Urhobo needs to return to the Mukoro Mowoe�s era of a
strong
central leadership structure built under the umbrella of the UPU with a
well
articulated national vision. As of today, not many of us know the
national
vision that guides the Urhobo ethnic nationality and its UPU
leadership. The
Urhobo leadership under Mukoro Mowoe identified the challenges which
faced the
Urhobo of their era and confronted them with a vision of an Urhobo with
a
positive identity, strong and united, capable of defending its
territorial
assets, benefiting fully from opportunities provided by the modern
political
society, and playing a leading role with a strong voice at the various
levels of
the political arena.
The Urhobo of our era must not
only
identify her challenges, it must confront such challenges with a clear
national
vision, which must not be known to the leadership alone, but also to
the
average Urhobo man and woman. Again, the Urhobo voice should be heard
on major
national and regional issues. Urhobo is the second largest group in the
Niger
Delta, coming after the Ijaw. Yet, on the Niger Delta issues, the
Urhobo voice
has been dormant, while those of the ijaw and Ogoni are heard clearly
through
their Ijaw National Congress and the MOSOP machineries, respectively.
Such that
today, the Federal Government and the oil companies operating in the
Niger
Delta often sneeze whenever the Ijaw and the Ogoni people cough. If
these
people talk and they get much of what they want, and we play the good
boy by
not talking and get nothing, why must we continue to sing a song that
takes us
to bed hungry each night? We must have to review our survival
strategies both
at the state and national levels.
1 I
consider the Mukoro Mowoe era to have ended with the death of
Chief T.E.A. Salubi.
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