Chief Godspower Gbenekama is the Benemowei of Gbaramatu Kingdom as well as the acting secretary of Gbaramatu Tradional Council in Warri South West Local Government Area of Delta State. He speaks with EBENEZER ADUROKIYA on the fact-finding visit of Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo. Excerpts:
THE vice-president recently came on a fact-finding visit to Gbaramatu kingdom nay Delta State and he has made some categorical statements concerning the expectations of the people. Do you think the Federal Government will actually bring a lasting peace to the region?
I really do not want to join those people who feel that this visit is another showmanship by the Federal Government. The vice-president is the number two man in the Federal Republic of Nigeria. If he is visiting somewhere in order to see for himself because of the information and calls that has gotten, I think we should give him the benefit of the doubt. I see the VP as a very intelligent person and a person who understands the grass-roots, that is why he came to the grass-roots. He has seen for himself and we are expecting. He’s the vice-president and he would have discussed with the president before coming. So he’ll report back to the president and both of them would sit down and plan. So I think it’s a good omen.
The visit also brought up some other issues, especially on the part of other ethnic nationalities. Some are feeling slighted that the vice-president spent more time with the Gbaramatu people. What’s your take on this?
First of all, the visit was supposed to be a visit of two days and if it had been for two days, he would have had time to visit all the other ethnic nationalities within this environment. Unfortunately, I think he had something to do somewhere because (January 18), I read in the news that he was even out of the country, which means immediately he left, he travelled out of the country. That must have been the reason he couldn’t make it a two-day visit.
So I plead with other ethnic nationalities that he couldn’t visit, because everybody has the right to be visited by the vice-president. I want to plead with them, especially the Urhobos, that the vice-president will find time to visit them soon.
However, it should be known that the beginning of the crisis was as a result of it being pushed to the Gbaramatu people. People said it was Gbaramatu people who were destroying places; they said the maritime university has no temporary site, let alone permanent site, that it was still at the feasibility stage. The man went to see things for himself and you know our terrain is a difficult one, so he had to go there and see things for himself. It’s not that the Gbaramatu has power, but I think the VP in his own wisdom, tried to see things for himself because of the rumours and information that he heard.
So, what do you think was the impression of the vice-president after the visit?
The vice-president is a very intelligent man and he evaluated his visit and he has his own opinion. I think he was impressed with the visit from the speeches he made. He’s impressed with the maritime university; he’s impressed with Ijaw people no matter how they try to paint us bad. He was very sure that neither the Itsekiri nor the Olu of Warri would want to say that all Ijaw lands belong to the Itsekiri, I think he is impressed with the Ijaw people.
And I want to plead with the Itsekiris not to fan embers of war and I want to plead with the state government that they should talk to the Itsekiris and their king that they should stop fanning the embers of war. They have been calling us slaves; I want them to retract their statement, because one day the slave will rise up against the master!
Are you insinuating that you people were slaves to them?
We have never been slaves to them; it’s just a figure of speech. I want to ask a question, when did the Ijaw annex the Gbaramatu community? Was it 2009 during the military bombardment? Why are they claiming the land we have been living on? We are the original owner of that land. And also, the Itsekiri have never supported development when it comes to Delta State; they have never. Where were they when the Federal Government published the acquisition of that land? Where were they? The Itsekiri are all over the government offices, but the publications were made over a month and they never made any statements, but today they feel like since it’s an APC government, they would want to use it to their own advantage; that is very unfortunate. Their son was even the governor when these acquisitions were made. [former Governor Emmanuel] Uduaghan is an Itsekiri man, but are they saying that they are more educated than Uduaghan? That is very unfortunate; they are fanning the embers of war, and we are not ready to go to war. They have never supported development; they are always struggling to stop whatever development that is coming their ways.
So, do you think the visit of the vice-president would now put a stop to the hostilities of the militants?
Yes, I think it can put a stop to the hostilities of the militants; the issue of militancy goes beyond Gbaramatu. Gbaramatu only presented the issues that affect us and that is the Nigeria Maritime University. We are talking about a project that cuts across the Ijaws and Itsekiris. We say that the project should come, so that these youths can see something to do, and academic activities should start in the university; those are things that would reduce tension in the whole of Warri South-West. But militancy cuts across the whole Niger Delta. Invariably, the issues are not just Gbaramatu’s issues, but I can assure you that if the vice-president and the president can start doing something, it would reduce the incidence of agitation to the barest minimum vis-a-viz also setting up a team to engage the people of the Niger Delta, not just sectionally.
Since PANDEF represents the whole of Niger Delta, they can discuss with PANDEF for a way-forward; if the discussions starts, the people would know that they are discussing about them, and then things would start going down. For a start, if they start doing all of these things that were demanded, things would begin to get down little by little.
You had a mouth-to-mouth discussion with the vice-president in Gbaramatu. From the discussions, where do you think the FG is going to start from?
Well, the mouth-to-mouth discussion was between the king and the vice-president and I’m not qualified to talk about that.
But where do you think FG is going to start from?
Well, there are other issues, but for us, what is paramount is the Nigeria Maritime University. He said they have started working on the issue of the university, because it has passed Second Reading in the Senate. We believe that they are doing something about that.