By Jesutega Onokpasa
It is perhaps because he came from what is very probably the smallest kingdom in Urhoboland that the much celebrated Urhobo unifier, Mukoro Mowoe, came to a crucial appreciation of the critical importance of the majority in any geopolitical endeavour, while naturally, of course, not discounting the resourcefulness of the minority, from whence he, himself hailed.
In the course of his historic quest to forge Urhobo unity and found the Urhobo Progress Union, UPU, he made the strategic decision to hold the meetings for that purpose in Orerokpe, ancient capital of Okpe, which, today, is not just the biggest kingdom in the Urhobo heartland of Delta Central but, indeed, in Delta State, as a whole!
Okpe Kingdom, simply by encompassing, at least, two whole local government areas, wherein there are no other monarchs besides The Orodje of Okpe, is already easily the realm, whose traditional ruler presides over more subjects than any other in Delta State.
Indeed, Mereje alone, just one of the 12 clans or districts of Okpe Kingdom is very likely bigger than any of the Urhobo kingdoms except, probably Agbon. While Mereje is most certainly bigger than Ughelli, which Urhobos now prefer as the unofficial headquarters of Delta Central, it is most probably also bigger than Oghara. Indeed, I reckon Mereje is bigger than either Uvwie Kingdom or Olomu, both of which, alongside Okere Urhobo, are the closest Urhobo groups to Okpe in ancestry and similar elements of affinity!
In the gestational era of the UPU, not only did Mowoe and his colleagues fix these meetings for the founding of the apex Urhobo body to be held in Orerokpe, they also ensured they were chaired by an Okpe man, the legendary Chief Ayomanor of Sapele!
Thus, as a matter of an incontestable fact of the history of the Urhobo people, the UPU, the umbrella body of the great and ancient Urhobo nation, was founded in Okpe at gatherings of the Urhobo ethnic nationality, presided over by an Okpe chief! In short, Mowoe and the UPU had realised from the onset that Okpe formed a critical and indispensable part of Urhobo.
Indeed, at the time, Chief Mowoe and his fellow Urhobo patriots, including the unforgettable Chief Omorohwovo Okoro of Agbon, who would go on to become the first President General of the UPU, had been yearning for an Urhobo king with a realm big enough to rival or even surpass that of any other traditional ruler in Delta Province and, were all too happy, to record the keen and pivotal participation of Okpe chiefs and elders in forging a sense of Urhobo nationhood which has so far most stoically stood the test of time.
Later, this fraternal paradigm would see the UPU, in partnership with The Okpe Union, an umbrella organization of the Okpe people, actually founded before the UPU, spearheading the restoration of the monarchy in Okpe, a goal, finally attained with the coronation of Esezi II in 1945.
Instructively, the colonial era (which coincided with the later part of the interregnum in the kingship of Okpe) would see the colonial administration encountering typical challenges regarding its policy of indirect rule in Urhoboland, thus constraining the colonialists to be all too willing to cooperate with the Okpe Union in partnership with the Urhobo Progress Union, toward the restoration of the monarchy in Okpe as a crown solid enough to hold its own in any respect in what was then Delta Province. The British would not stop there but would go on to make Orerokpe the headquarters of Western Urhobo Division!
Truth is, Okpe is not just the largest Urhobo kingdom; indeed, within the context of the old Delta Province and the present Delta State, Okpe is not just a force to be reckoned with but, is, in many respects a first amongst equals. In the context of the defunct Mid-west and Bendel, Okpe Kingdom was second only to Benin Kingdom in size!
Most worryingly, there are ongoing efforts, not just to distance Okpe from Urhobo but, indeed, to completely abrogate the classification of both as belonging to one and the same ethnicity.
To be fair, these tendencies are not, at all, entirely new and, seem rather unwilling to quietly go away. Recently, I was accosted with a familiar query from a fellow Okpe who having first recalled the fact that Isokos are arguably the non-Urhobo group Okpes are most closely related to, nevertheless wondered “why should Okpe, which is less similar to Urhobo than Isoko be considered part of Urhobo when Isoko is regarded as a separate tribe, entirely, even while Okpe is bigger than Isoko?”
Truth is, this is actually very old rhetoric except that in my experience, it most often comes to the fore when Okpes feel particularly marginalized, taken for granted, relegated to the background, stabbed in the back, or, otherwise treated with an egregious untowardness by their Urhobo brethren.
When this is not the case, then it is because Okpes feel howsoever shortchanged by successive administrations dating back from the present Delta State, through the defunct Bendel, all the way to the era of the Mid-west Region on account of their being subsumed under an Urhobo identity they categorically feel Okpe has not in any way been benefitted by!
These misgivings have however become, not only more vociferous but, quite honestly even more poignant in the present buildup to the 2023 elections with rather bitter complaints and lamentations increasingly emanating from all corners of Okpeland.
Another of my fellow Okpes I engaged recently raised the query: “how come there is a full university and, then again, a separate part of another university in Isoko, when there is no institution of higher learning of any sort, anywhere in either Sapele or Okpe LGA?” Frankly, I had absolutely nothing to offer in response other than to feebly conceed that in fact, the treatment of Okpe has been quite unjust and most unacceptable, indeed.
Come 2023 the Governorship of Delta should go to the Urhobos of Delta Central in accordance with the tripodal rotational ethos which has played out thus far on the basis of senatorial districts.
Perhaps the most compelling logic for the continuance of this rotational paradigm is the argument that where minorities have been successively allowed to rule over a majority, it would be most unconscionably inequitable for that majority to be then denied its turn to rule when it comes. As one of my Urhobo brethren had remarked to me when I rooted for Governor Ifeanyi Okowa for a second term, “it is bad enough for a majority to oppress its minorities but it is truly wicked for the minorities to then conspire to shut out the majority from power”.
Yet, what is good can only be truly good for the goose if it is also good for the gander, or it is rendered most inequitable and shamefully hypocritical.
If indeed Urhobo is “ovuovo”, thus truly one, as our refrain goes, then it cannot also be an Animal Farm wherein all animals are equal but some are more equal than others or, worst still, one in which its minorities are more equal than its majority constituent!
For me, and in fact, the overwhelming majority of my fellow Okpes, Okpe is not just part and parcel of Urhobo, it is, indeed, the very heart, soul and center of Urhobo more so when Orerokpe was the epicenter of the explosion of patriotism and activism that led to the epochal sensitisation which birthed the Urhobo Progress Union and unified the Urhobo ethnic nationality for the first time in history!
Let it not seem as if Mukoro Mowoe and others simply hoodwinked Okpe into identifying with Urhobo just in furtherance of a a selfish agenda to increase the size and boost the prestige of Urhobo, thus making it the most populous ethnic nationality in what would become the Mid-west Region, Bendel State and now Delta and Edo states, only to keep sidelining it when it comes to the benefits accruable to a tribe of such preeminent pedigree!
To all those still idiotically and rather arrogantly content to keep playing the ostrich with this quite delicate matter, they would do well to know that many Okpes are presently seething with anger and much regret that they might had, after all, been taken for a ride and, used and dumped, through the years by their Urhobo brethren they have all along stood firmly by.
So far, four Urhobos have held the mantle of leadership from the era of the defunct Midwest Region to the present Delta State. They are, Jereton Mariere, David Ejoor, Felix Ibru and James Ibori, none of whom hailed from Okpe, even though within the present eight local government structure of the Urhobo heartland of Delta Central, Okpe alone makes up a quarter of Urhobo as a whole, and as such should have produced a Governor by now.
Were Okpe to produce the next Governor of Delta State come 2023, its turn to produce the Governor would have been long overdue and it would only have gotten what had been its due long before!
As Urhobo sets about taking its rotational turn to govern Delta State in 2023, all Urhobos must aspire to total unity, synergy and amity as we forge ahead. Yet, nothing shall secure these goals more than our own sense of internal equity, justice and fairness. Indeed, how well we manage our internal harmony is just as important as how resourcefully we reach out to our beloved fellow Deltan brethren both in Delta North and South senatorial districts, going forward.
Thus, in our political calculations toward 2023, we, the Urhobos, would do well to cede our slot to produce the next Governor of Delta to Okpe in order to put those who seek to tear Urhobo apart to shame; to do justice to every part of Urhobo; to do equity to the biggest kingdom in Delta State; and, to demonstrate that at the end of the day, we are one truly equal, just, fair and equitable Delta!
Onokpasa, a lawyer, wrote from Warri . +2340737212475
