Chief Gabriel Ofotokun, a researcher in Chemical Engineering, is the President General (Interim Administration) of the Urhobo Progress Union, UPU, the umbrella body of the Urhobo people at home and in Diaspora.

In this interview with Vanguard he spoke on his recent emergence as President General of the UPU, the eventual collapse of the Chief Joe Omene led UPU executive committee, the Urhobo people in the current nation’s political scene and his agenda for the Urhobo nation. Excerpts:

By Godwin Oghre

Recently you emerged as the President General of the current interim administration of UPU, how did it happen?

Every Urhobo man and woman, including you (pointing to this reporter) knows very well the running battle that crumbled the Chief Joe Omene executive committee.

There was rancour in their midst. They sued themselves to court severally and individually. They even attempted to outwit the people by declaring that the Urhobo cultural centre at Uvwiamuge was insecure and could not be used for the national congress which was to come up on a Friday.

By the next day Saturday, they went to the same cultural centre to give award to certain people. Based on the premise that the cultural centre had been declared unsafe, the 24 President Generals of the 24 kingdoms, the 24 Ivies (kings) and 20 delegates from each of the 24 kingdoms decided to hold the national congress in the Palace of the Chairman of traditional rulers of Urhobo nation, the Ovie of Olomu kingdom, Ogbon Ogoni-Oghoro 1, who incidentally is the oldest king in Urhobo land.

National congress

It was there that their executive was dissolved by a motion moved by Prof, Iboje which was upheld without a single dissent from all the kings, all the President Generals and all the delegates of the 24 kingdoms of Urhobo land. That national congress consequently set up the UPU interim administrative committee and made me, by their wisdom, the President General.

But Chief Joe Omene is widely quoted in several media publications saying he will never hand over to you, what will you say?

Is he God? It is God that make and unmake leaders, kings and queens. Chief Omene is a young man compared to me. If he says he is not handling over to me, I leave him to God to judge.

God will carry out His own judgment at His own time. He is the One that will reply Chief Omene, not me.

Omene is not the God of the Urhobo people and he alone is not supreme to them and cannot the whole people of the 24 kingdoms represented by the 24 President Generals in the decision making mechanism of Urhobo land. That is all I can say for now on that.

How will you describe the UPU constitution and what is its position now?

My interim executive committee has set a seven man to review the UPU to find out if there are grey areas, not properly envisaged by the drafters, with a view to making useful amendments where necessary. They have been given three months to do so. We shall also use three months to sensitize the Urhobo populace in the course of that time so that if they wish they too can make imputes into the constitution, and at the end of the following three months, there would an emergency national congress where the final draft of the constitution will be passed into law by the congress.

What are your plans for the Urhobo nation between now and the first weekend of December, 2016?

Good. First I will ensure that the Urhobo, Ijaw, Itsekiri and Isoko nations live together in harmony. Already, the Ijaws are our brothers and we are one. So also we should be one with the others. My committee has started building a harmonious relationship with our surrounding ethnic groups. We have already paid a courtesy visit to the new Olu and he was very glad to receive us. We shall do the same to the others.

Why did you lift the sanctions imposed on some Urhobo politicians by the Joe Omene regime?

Yes, we have lifted the sanctions. The reason is that you cannot sit in the comfort of your bedroom and impose sanction on anyone. Those sanctions were not imposed by the Urhobo people but only Chief Joe Omene.

Prominent positions

Immediately after our inauguration, I stood up and asked the entire congress if they took part in imposing the sanction and every one present said I was speaking Greek, saying they do not know about anything like sanction imposed on any Urhobo son or daughter. The 24 President Generals of Urhobo nation said they knew nothing about the sanctions.

They said it was only Chief Omene who imposed sanctions on some illustrious sons of Urhobo nation from his bedroom and that he did not consult with them and that they had no hands in it.

What is the present political direction for the Urhobo people?

We should be accorded the prominent positions in all the political parties so that good things can be coming to the Urhobo nation. We should not be marginalized. We should have a say in the scheme of things, both in the state and at the national level.