AN ADDRESS BY CHIEF RAYMOND TOM OYIL, JP AT A SYMPOSIUM ORGANIZED IN
PORT HARCOURT ON 3RD SEPTEMBER, 2017.
Protocol
1. Meeting & Greeting: For some of us who are here, the probability, even in a life-time, of “meeting and greeting” ourselves one-on-one, flesh-and-blood and outside of the social media, as we are doing today, would probably have been quite low, if not zero. I therefore count our meeting and greeting today as a privilege and one of the achievements of this event and thank God for making this possible. I want to demonstrate the spirit of the gathering which is to “MEET and GREET”, by actually meeting and greeting all Abolgans and our friends who are here.
2. Introduction: When the organizers of this event approached me to be a Special Guest and make a speech, I naturally, inquired to know from the leader of the group what they wanted me to talk about. I was told that they would not like to restrict me to a particular topic, but that I should feel free to speak on any topic of my choice that would be motivational and inspirational to the youths of ABOLGA and propulsive to the development of Abua/Odual Local Government Area.
3. I thank the organizers for allowing me such latitude and reposing confidence in me to do, as it were, an open ended speech or give a narrative that has no boundaries in time and space. There is therefore, the temptation for me to embark on the impossible mission of trying to make a difference by telling you what you probably have not heard before about ABOLGA in the various forums that have been organized, over the years, to attempt to proffer solutions to our nagging social, economic and cultural problems. I wish it was possible for me to re-invent the wheel by telling you what you have not heard before.
4. Aim of event: I am informed that this gathering is aimed at uniting, reorienting and connecting the people of ABOLGA in order to rebuild peace and foster brotherhood and solidarity, especially among the youths. This aim presupposes that in our dear homeland of ABOLGA, we are not yet enjoying the peace of God which passes human understanding; we have somehow become disunited and disoriented and that there is a disconnect among the people. As a keen observer of contemporary events in our society and one who has been actively participating in some of our corporate affairs for over four decades now, I would say that this presupposition is correct.
5. The Need to Rebuild ABOLGA: I say the above presupposition in the aim of this gathering is correct, because the pragmatic and patriotic leadership that existed in ABOLGA in the heydays of military rule, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, that propelled them to write those unrelenting and persuasive memoranda to the Federal Military Governments of Generals Ibrahim Babangida and Sani Abacha requesting for the creation of ABOLGA seems to have gone without successors. This gathering is therefore very timely and encouraging as it raises the hope and awareness that good leaders should create more leaders and not more followers. The unity, cultural affinity and social cohesion that informed the first Military Governor of Rivers State to unify the twin Kingdoms of Abua (formerly in Ahoada Division) and Odual (formerly in Degema Division) to form the administrative area now known as Abua/Odual Local Government Area (ABOLGA) seem to have waned with time. The sense of communality, co-operation and spirit of togetherness that once existed in ABOLGA and led to the formation of numerous social clubs, cultural groups, town unions, Sunday meetings and other community development friendly bodies that kept the people organized and ready for prompt and effective collective actions all appear to have vanished. ABOLGA, our own dear native land, the haven of peace where we ran to and took refuge during the civil war and still run to whenever there is civil strife in the city is still recuperating from the severe emotional shock occasioned by the gang wars of the youths against themselves. ABOLGA, the resort where we gleefully retreat to on holidays, vacation and retirement is not enjoying the best of times now as her rural life and main occupation of subsistence farming were greatly disrupted recently by the loathsome activities of her restive youths. The local economy of ABOLGA and her productive capacity for the agricultural produce by which she was widely known and respected have fallen. The social values of ABOLGA have been badly desecrated by a cultic culture and greatly eroded by acrid politics. Group interest has disappeared and the focus has shifted from selfless community service to self-centred endeavours that yield little or no corporate benefits. These have resulted in a virtual system failure, collapse of traditional governance, retrogression, mutual suspicion and hatred. The youths of ABOLGA now seem to engage themselves, at the slightest available opportunity and platform, particularly on social media, in political mudslinging and unnecessary trading of blames in search of scapegoats for the causes and cures of our problems which are mainly self-inflicted. There is therefore, the need for us to rebuild ABOLGA to reflect the standards of the 21st century digital world. A united ABOLGA where all the component parts and stakeholders enjoy the much talked about dividends of democracy.
6. The Youths and the Rebuilding of ABOLGA: I have deliberately brought to you this undisguised and bleak but not hopeless picture of where we are, as a reminder of where we were and the need for us to strive to be where we should be. I believe that this gathering is quite appropriate and capable of absorbing and digesting the message. The youths should, at all times, critically examine the system and put themselves and our current problems in perspective with a view to seeing if there is a causal relationship between them and the problems, in order to proffer solutions or the way forward. Are they part of the problem or part of the solution?
7. In every generation, at any point in time in the history of mankind, the youths have always been the driving force of society, because of their robust physical and mental vigour as well as their wide demographic spread. The youths constitute a higher percentage of the population and workforce of every community or nation. Therefore, they are positively or negatively involved in every facet of human endeavour, moving the community or nation either way: forward or backward.
8. Many years ago, in ABOLGA, when I was a youth, it was the youths who drove the economy and kept the wheel of development rolling. They worked in the farms and fished on the rivers and creeks. They promoted and pushed their communities to fame in competitive traditional sports like wrestling and provided recreational activities such as cultural dances and other entertainments. Those were the days when the biblical dictum in Proverbs 20:29 applied: “The glory of the youths is in their strength and the beauty of old men is their grey hair.” The role of the youths as the drivers of society has not changed. It is the tools and methods they use that have changed.
9. The Roots of our problems: Every problem is better tackled from its roots. I must say, although it is open to argument, that our problems originated mainly from the collapse of our traditional institution which was responsible for grassroots governance. In other words, the current ineffectiveness of the traditional institution, necessarily led to the collapse of grassroots governance and everything that the traditional institution stood for. This is the taproot of our problems. It is pertinent to recall that the colonial administrators recognized the importance of the traditional institution and that was why they left it intact and used it in their Native Authority system, particularly in the North. Although the institution had its own flaws as modern traditional rulers had chosen to RULE (dominate), instead of LEAD (guide), traditional rulers, before now, not only facilitated the maintenance of peace, law and order in their domains, but also ensured that our social values, norms and rules as well as other traditional principles governing descent such as our ancestral backgrounds, marriage and inheritance tenets were preserved. Today, it is unfortunate that the inability of the traditional institution, particularly in our part of the country, to adapt itself to change by discarding the primordial mentality that monarchs rule instead of lead, has dealt a near fatal blow on the institution. Other factors which are seriously undermining the importance and threatening the very existence of the traditional institution are excessive political interference, youth restiveness and intimidation. Let there be “traditional leaders”, not “traditional rulers.” It is however, obvious that our problems are spillovers from the Niger Delta oil wars and the Nigerian problem.
10. As society evolves, every generation has its own characteristic and peculiar features and problems. There is no doubt that this generation (of youths) is a specially lucky and blessed generation. They are a digital generation. They are the youths of a world that has been reduced to a global village by the Internet. A world in which almost every human effort has been reasonably reduced in speed and scope at the press of a button. The youths of this generation did not trek bare-footed to and from school. They did not use log tables or dizzying mathematical calculations to arrive at answers to the frequently asked questions of the classroom and real life. They simply press the buttons of electronic devices in their pockets (or ask Google) and the answers are there for them. The levels of literacy and education in this generation have increased in leaps and bounds and the youths have spent years acquiring education and skills with which they can effectively drive the world.
11. Paradoxically, the youths who are now better equipped than their forebears appear to be unable to positively use their education, skills and experiences to face the challenges that are confronting them and are bound to confront them in the future. In spite of the gains and advantages of science and technology, mankind in general, tends to move perilously back to the cave, Stone Age or anarchy from whence he came. There is more education and less civilization.
12. My Charge to the Youths of ABOLGA: Now therefore, having once trodden on the same path that they are treading now, I charge all the youths of ABOLGA and that includes my children, biological and social:
12.1. To shake off their apparent intellectual lethargy and infantile dependency on political patronage and endless parental nursing and carry their own cross of adding the next block to the project of building ABOLGA.
12.2. To shake off all negative complexes and come out of their cocoons and comfort zones and go into the world to market their acquired skills, rally support and compete favourably with their counterparts outside. ABOLGA no dey carry last!
12.3. Not to allow themselves to be eternally divided by “the umbrella and the broom” even as they collectively share the pains of their diehard and unwary support, over the years, for the systems which these two symbols depict.
12.4. Not to sit and wait for government to put food on their tables, but pull themselves together, be creative, aggressive and ambitious.
12.5. Not to see violence as the only way to make a living and being heard.
12.6. To use their access to the Internet to acquire knowledge, knowing full well that knowledge is power; use it to inform, entertain and educate the people and not to do hate speeches against each other on Facebook.
12.7. To realize that the one thing that the people of ABOLGA need most now is peace; to put aside their political leanings and always stand together on moral principles to promote reconciliation and build peace with their religious, traditional and political leaders; to assign to themselves the responsibility of Peace Ambassadors or agents of positive change in their communities to stem the various threats to peace; to realize that it is foolhardy for them to stage a war against themselves as this will make them divided, internally weak and unable to compete for the “national cake” with their peers from outside.
12.8. To practise living for the sake of others and for service to community and humanity.
12.9. To use their education to improve or add value to themselves, family and community.
12.10. To always demonstrate leadership and excellence in their given spheres of activity.
Continue to MEET and GREET. Thank you and God bless.
CHIEF RAYMOND TOM OYIL, JP
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