Former Delta State Commissioner for Youth Development, Comrade Omolubi Newuwumi was conferred with Chieftaincy Title by the Olu of Warri Kingdom, Ogiame Ikenwoli. In this Interview with our News Editor, Francis Sadhere, he speaks on varied issues where he appeals to Nigerians to support President Muhammadu Buhari and lauds the Warri Monarch for finding him worthy to be conferred with a Chieftaincy Title. Happy
ReadingPlease tell us your name?
My name is Comrade Omolubi Newuwumi. I am from Warri North Local Government Area of Delta State.
Let us look at the Niger Delta region; do you think it has received enough attention from President Muhammadu Buhari?
Yes, it has received so much attention from the President. But the problem is that the Niger Delta people have not being giving back to President Buhari what he has given to us. Why did I say this? Take for example, we were told that if former President Goodluck Jonathon lost the 2015 election, there would crisis in this region. But it is going to two years now, yet there is no crisis in the region. How much appreciation have we given the government? Instead what we do is to criticize the government every day. I think that is not fair to him.
When you say he has given the people something, what exactly has he done for the people because the agitations are still there?
Yes the agitation will continue to be there because it is going to take a lot for the problems in the region to be resolved. We need patient and understanding in order for this crisis to be resolved. We need to give the President enough time to do what he wants to do for this region. The anxiety we are facing in this country today is because we are expecting too much from the government. We are expecting too much from the government but we are not doing to encouraging the government to work. This is the problem we are having in our football today. If we look at the global economy, Nigeria still remains one of the best amongst many other countries that are facing recession. We do not appreciate what we have.
What is your advice to Nigerians who you said are not given back to the government?
We should first of all understand that before President Buhari came on board, were we satisfied with what we were getting from sales of crude oil? Where we satisfied with the kind of leaderships we have been having before? If we were not satisfied before now, why can’t we give this present government the opportunity to do something different? We have to understand that until the issue of hunger is solved, things will continue to be bad. Whatever you want to tell somebody without first satisfying his hunger, he will not listen to you because he is already an angry man. The economic team should provide enough information on how to get out of this recession. We have a lot of Professors in this country that can provide solutions to what we are facing today. They should all come out and tell the President what to do. However, I think the President knows what he is doing. All we need to do is to give him the time to do what he thinks is right. It is too early for us to begin to blame him for what we are passing through in this country.
Are you not feeling the pains that the Niger Delta region is going through?
I have been in pains for a very long time and it is not two years pain that will bother me now. I feel pained that during the Itsekiri and Ijaw crisis, I have not been able to retaliate what the Ijaw people have done to my people. I have passed beyond anger and there is nothing that anybody can do to me now that will bother me. Before the Warri Crisis I was a very radical person but I have since learnt a lot of lessons from the crisis and I am now a changed man. We cannot get the kind of leadership we are crying in this kind of atmosphere.
How do we get out of this recession?
If you ignore hunger, you cannot solve anything. If a man cannot feed himself and he had to go to his next door neighbour before he can feed, then that man is already an angry man. We have to prove that we have the economic capabilities to revive the present economic situation we are facing today. We should not wait for the President to do everything for us. Let individuals begin to proffer solutions to problems right from their bedroom. Let Nigerians come out with innovations that can take us out of this recession. We have the capability to do all things in this country. All we need to do is to come out. We are living in a country where some generals cannot provide good leadership. We need to put our acts together before we come out to say that we want to lead.
On the clamor for sales of national assets, what is your opinion?
A property is meant to solve a problem, so I am for the sale of our national assets. The assets are not just there for decoration. They are there to solve our problems when they arise. Treasures are meant to be found. If the white man can leave his country where everybody is running to, and come to my village to look for crude oil, then you will understand the importance of that oil. All of them come to my village and take away our oil and leave us empty handed. There is what they call Oceanic Well which is not common. Out of the about twelve Oceanic Wells in the world, Warri North has two. So you can imagine what we would have become if we were the ones in charge of these wells. This is the true struggle that we are fighting for, but most of us who are in the forefront of the struggle do not have enough money to fight the fight. I am appealing to the media to come to our aid and help us to fight this fight.
How do we stop militancy in the region?
Militancy in the region cannot be stopped until the government starts talking to educated and reasonable leaders in the region. It is high time the government stops rewarding criminality in the country. They should start recognizing decent people in the society instead of these militants. I am advocating that government should regulate the way awards are given freely to people in this country. Good things are not common. Genuine people in the country should be recognized, if not good people will not come out to do good things again.
People have been complaining about the NDDC candidate for appointment, how do you look at this?
I am among those that are complaining and as I am talking to you now, we are in court in Abuja. It is like when people are in a queue. When it is my turn to be attended to, you did not attend to me fully. I have the right to complain. When Joe Omene was removed from NDDC he was replaced with Emmanuel Agwariavwodo. So also, when Emmauel Ogidi was removed he was replaced with Solomon Ogba. So why should it now be the turn of Itsekiri that they are singing a different song? This injustice must stopped by appointing Itsekiri man on the board of the NDDC. This is what we are fighting in court today.
You have been offered a chieftaincy title by the Olu of Warri, how do you feel about this offer?
I will say this is the best offer I have ever been offered in my life. If you have contributed so much to your kingdom, I think the best that kingdom can offer you is a Chieftaincy Title. For this reason, I will always be grateful to my people for the offer. I never expected that I will be offered a Chieftaincy Title because the selection process is tedious and when it started long time ago, my name was not included. So I thank God that I am among the first five people in the kingdom that the King gives Chieftaincy titles to. It is a thing of joy for me and I am very grateful for that gesture. In leadership, I like Comradeship and if it were possible I would like to be called a Comrade Chief. So I am highly honored by the king. When I looked at my Facebook comments about my selection as one of the Chiefs, I am very grateful because I am widely accepted. I think this offer will spur me to do more for my people.
What should the people expect from you?
They should expect much from me. For example in Warri North Council Area, the Itsekiris are not recognized in the council area. I don’t know who made that law that the Olu of Warri should not be recognized in Warri North. In Edo State for instance, a King is recognized in many local governments. So why can’t it be like that in Warri. In Warri North the only recognized king of the council area is the Agadagba. I am not comfortable with this system. This is one of the reasons why I wanted to contest for the Chairmanship of that local government area to see it is a law. Coming to the issue of the Niger Delta, the government of the day has shown that violent is rewarded more in the region. Nigeria has continued to reward violent people and this is a wrong signal from the country. In my local government, for example, it is only those people who are violent that they respect.
I have said in one of my publication that Nigerians should come and serve Itsekiri ancestors. If they do this, they will get it right in this country. You can imagine what these people did to us during the crisis. At a point they were targeting the oldest men in the villages and were dancing with their severed head in their communities. People witnessed all these things they did to us. So to achieve peace, we have to create a strong atmosphere for it. We later discovered that they were angry with us because we were taking them to court to fight for our rights. They did not want to continue to go to court with us that was why they became violent. For a very long time my people were been killed in the river while business was going on smoothly because it was only the Itsekiris that were affected. These things need to stop.
Why do you think Rita-Lori is opposed to the Chieftaincy title being offered former Delta State Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan?
She has her reasons for opposing it. I agree with her in some areas. If you look at the history of the state since 1999, Emmanuel Uduaghan is the only Governor that does not have a house in his community. Even if he points at any one, find out how that house was built and who built it. Look at even the one people are calling Uduaghan house. You cannot even find him there. So why will somebody say that this person is a good leader in his community.
What is your message to the Iwere nation?
The king has started well. All the Chiefs are with him and we will continue to identify with him. The Itsekiris should be patient with him and they should learn to listen to the truth.
Final words to rap-up this interview.
Government should first of all take care of ‘stomach infrastructure’ before talking about anything because that is the only way that they people can listen to you. Secondly, I want to tell the Itsekiri people to be patient with me and believe that with this new Olu, we are going to take the Itsekiri nation to places.
