*Being Response to Barr. Jesutega Onokpasa’s Open Letter to Tompolo
It is encouraging that only a few Urhobos are creating the unfortunate Urhobo-are-born-to-rule-Delta-State impression following Urhobo nation’s unsuccessful bid to clinch the gubernatorial ticket of the dominant Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). The increasing declarations of support for Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, the non-Urhobo PDP gubernatorial candidate, among the Urhobo especially in PDP campaign rallies in Urhobo-land suggest that the few Urhobos who profess that view are simply prodigals likely to return soon to equity, justice and real brotherhood in Delta State.
It is such few Urhobos represented by Barr. Jesutega Onokpasa that I herein address. In his “An Open Letter to My Brother, Tompolo”, published in the Vanguard of January 22, 2015, Onokpasa carried the Urhobo-alone-must-rule-Delta-State mentality to shoot-self-in-the-foot contradictions. Let me now declare I am Ijaw. I was advised not to dignify Onokpasa with a response. I herein do for two reasons. First, many Urhobos who hold a liberal view of politics have commendably expressed disgust with Onokpasa’s hate campaign against Tompolo and the Ijaws. Secondly, I respond to let Onokpasa know that neither his learning nor the long length of his letter (two-page advertorial!) represents lengthy wisdom.
Onokpasa cannot tolerate High Chief Government Ekpemupolo alias Tompolo’s support for Okowa, a candidate of Delta North extraction for governor in place of Urhobos who have governed for 10years out of the 18-year-democratic-experience via Chiefs Felix Ibru (2years) and James Ibori (8years) in a state peopled by more than 5 ethnic nationalities! Onokpasa cannot appreciate a Tompolo who felt that any governor of Delta North extraction would serve the interests of equity, balance, peace and unity which Delta State needs for progress and prosperity. Onokpasa wants Tompolo to be keeper of his Urhobo brothers in brotherhood which must not at times include his paternal and maternal relations. Onokpasa once believed Tompolo a hero and Niger Delta champion yet says all Tompolo had done therein was grab elective/appointive posts for blood brothers George Ekpemupolo and Julius Pondi who he said were qualified performers in office in one breadth and had nothing to offer in another breadth, in one letter!
Onokpasa wants Tompolo to transform beyond local and remain a Niger Delta champion but Tompolo must not extend hands of political fellowship beyond the old Delta Province—for the political convenience of the Urhobos and others to the perpetual exclusion of the Ijaws. For appearing to be no keeper, in the moment, of the Urhobos’ governorship ambition, Onokpasa must whip up sentiments against Tompolo who must be blackmailed with issues Tompolo fought against some of which Onokpasa himself claims were repulsive! (Some of these issues like the Warri South-West Chairmanship with Tompolo’s alleged threat to Barr. Keyamo’s life would engage my address in a separate treatise in the days ahead). Onokpasa must realize on retrospection that Urhobos are too intelligent to allow their brilliance dragged in the mud and cannot therefore ride in his hate car! From the gubernatorial primaries to post-primary election diplomatic shuttles round Delta South, Tompolo who Onokpasa knows did not employ any guns to coerce any votes for Okowa, proved humble and politically astute! It would take the Onokpasas full of jaundiced reasonings, several decades to achieve same.
Let us at this juncture remember with Onokpasa and remember what he does not remember. Onokpasa noted in his letter that Tompolo’s “approach to politics displays shocking ignorance of the realities on ground in a manner capable of upsetting centuries-old inter-tribal relationships and inter-ethnic cooperation”. He stressed: “You proceeded to betray your Urhobo brothers by mobilizing votes for an aspirant from a non-oil producing part of Delta State. I was aghast and most taken aback that our brother Tompolo, of all people, would throw caution to the wind and proceed to betray his fellow brothers from the oil producing old Delta Province”. In Onokpasa’s idea of brotherhood, Tompolo and the Ijaw must never upset the centuries-old apple-cart that keeps Urhobo up politically and Ijaw down to perpetual hewers of wood and drawers of water!
Neither fair-minded Urhobos nor the Ijaws have ever felt that “centuries-old” political cooperation given by Ijaws to the Urbobos meant treatment of Ijaws as underdogs the way Onokpasa wants the Ijaws to now feel. When Chief Felix Ibru was to become governor via the dominant party of the time, he did not pick his deputy from Ijaw, Urhobos’ “centuries-old brothers” but took Mr. Simeon Ebonka, from Ika—outside “Old Delta Province” that Onokpasa hates for the sake of O’tega Emerhor. When Chief James Ibori wanted to become governor, despite Ijaw contribution to his emergence, he did not pick his deputy from Ijaw—Urhobos’ “centuries-old brothers”, but took Sir Benjamin Elue from Aniocha, outside the “Old Delta Province” that Onokpasa cannot call brothers 24 years after being together in Delta State! The Ijaws never felt outraged by this treatment! The Ijaws did not shout or accuse Ibru and Ibori “betrayers of the centuries-old inter-tribal brotherhood of Ijaw/Urhobo and old Delta Province”. The Ijaws understood what Ibru and Ibori did as political necessity of the time and cooperated in voting the Urhobos to power.
I fear that were Ibori to possess Onokpasa’s horrible sentiments, the Itsekiri of Delta South would never have been governor via Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan to whom Ibori demonstrated brotherliness! In another article titled “Now that Okowa is running with Otuaro” in Vanguard of January 23, 2015, Onokpasa taunted the PDP gubernatorial ticket as “Ika/Ijaw”, not Delta North/Delta South, adding: “any gubernatorial ticket that does not include Delta Central either as Governor or Deputy Governor is a recipe for electoral disaster”. Would Onokpasa not have taunted the ticket as Ika/Isoko or Ika/Itsekiri had PDP taken Isoko or Itsekiri as deputy to Okowa? Instead of uniting Deltans, can Onokpasa’s hate campaign truly garner genuine Itsekiri and Isoko votes for his political master in the opposition party?
Let the Onokpasas today kindly join the rest of fair-minded Urhobos to be their Ijaw brothers’ keepers by helping Ijaw become deputy Governor for the first time by supporting Okowa. There is another day for “Urhobo governorship” component of the Uvwiamuge Declaration earnestly prosecuted. After Okowa’s administration, there is another day! Onokpasa must not lead the Urhobo nation down the path of hate as if all were lost in the brotherhood! For those in the Urhobo nation who despair, I render the eternal words of former President Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida: “Nations do not despair because of circumstances in particular periods of their history; for the nations are eternal, circumstances are temporary”.
***Bulou Kosin, is of DELTA REBIRTH INITIATIVE
