By Gab Ejuwa

His Royal Majesty, Ogiame Atuwase II, the Olu of Warri, kicked off  his coronation anniversary penultimate  Saturday.  The anniversary  is a week-long affair to be rounded off  today.  The  whole country is bound to celebrate with  the Itsekiri nation whose cultural heritage is one of the richest in West Africa, like their Yoruba kith and kin with whom they share many affinities.

The week-long celebration  witnessed  visits to the Olu’s palace to pay homage to this monarch, and activities underscoring the metaphysics of the Itsekiri nation, traditional wears, cultural chants, work songs and boat regattas, climaxing in a church service today, which will wrap everything up.

The million Naira question pops up, who are the Itsekiri people and where on earth did they spring from?
The Itsekiri people inhabit the area around Benin  river, Forcados and Escravos  in Western Delta, an area of countless mangrove swamps, although those in Warri,  the capital of the kingdom, live on drier land and they are very much influenced by the Benin and Yoruba culture with the effect that they are very different from their Ijaw and Urhobo neighbours.  Warri. According to oral tradition, the core of the Itsekiri people of Warri comprised two groups of immigrants: a party of Ijebu from Yoruba country in the early fifteenth century and another party of Edo from Benin in the same century, led by a Bini  Prince, Ginuwa.

The  Olu of Warri  who reigned since the 15th century to date  include Olu Ginuwa II (1936-1951), he reigned after an interregnum; Olu Erejuwa II (1952-1986), who believed in constitutional monarchy; and Ogiame Atuwatse II (1987 and currently on the throne).

Another pertinent question that agitates the mind is: why are the Itsekiri communities neglected in terms of developmental projects?

Warri has three LGAs, where the bulk of the oil resource keeping the entire nation going is located. The Itsekiri homeland has suffered monumental devastation and destruction in their cultural and economic lives as a result of exploration and exploitation which give succour to the entire nation, but  sorrow, tears and blood to the people who own the land.

Apart from the oil sleek coating the coastline and killing marine life, the trauma of dislocation affects the inhabitants of the coastline, who have to look for alternative occupations to keep bodies and souls together. In this way, many families  break up. This also precipitates health hazards, as the waters are polluted and rendered unsafe for drinking.

Furthermore, many Itsekiri towns and villages were torched during the Warri crisis when the Ijaw and Itsekiri were at daggers drawn. The tragedy  affected the morale of the Itsekiri nation adversely, and many Itsekiri are still trying to find their feet many years after. There is, therefore the need for Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan to revisit the old issue of infrastructural neglect not to reopen the old wounds,  but to ensure that the affected people and communities are rehabilitated fully and integrated into the society.

Uduaghan, at the risk of sounding repetitive, must rehabilitate all Itsekiri communities affected by the communal crisis in the three Warri LGAs  for them to come back to their bonafide villages and towns and upgrade Koko, Warri and Burutu ports to (EPZ) economic processing zone. Another important assignment is the construction of the proposed Koko-Oghoye-Lekki Road, 45 minutes ride to Lagos and the south-west region which the Federal Government approved in the 2004 federal budget, but for which no funds have been released. Still another is the construction of Omadino Escravos Road approved by the NDDC, but on which nothing has been done to date.

History  is replete with great political leaders who fought tooth and nail for Itsekiri’s  rights. There was Chief Festus Okotie-Eboh, a former  finance minister.  We also had  Pa Afred Rewane, a towering figure in Iwereland and the nation’s industrial landscape and a political juggernaut who fought   to ensure the unity and survival of the nation. He, too, was one of the leaders the Itsekiri nation has been compelled to sacrifice for the survival of democracy.

There are some prominent Itsekiri personalities who gave dazzling accounts of themselves. They include Nanna Olomu, governor of Itsekiri-land 1884-1894. There was Dore Numa, paramount  head of Itsekiri nation (1895-1932). We all remember, with stereophonic clarity, the Rewane brothers and  Chief Begbo, founders of the first grammar school in Itsekiri-land, Hussey College, Warri, who were so prominent and close to Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the late sage.
Today,  there are eminent sons and daughters of Itsekiri who have emulated the worthy deeds of our heroes past. There is the Ugbajo Itsekiri in the U.S. There are the eminent Itsekiris who belong to the Alpha May Club. There is the Women Consultative Assembly and such like groups.

It is imperative for us all to sink  our differences and exert our collective emergies so that the Itsekiri nation may stride ahead and take our rightful place in the comity of nations. The occasion of the Olu’s coronation anniversary affords us a golden opportunity for stocktaking, articulation of our needs and renaissance of our corporate pre-eminence in the Nigerian nation space.