A PRESENTATION AT UROMI TOWN HALL MEETING DURING THE ESAN MEGA SUMMIT 2021.TITLED: ESAN UNITY, CHALLENGES, AND STRATEGIES FOR RECTIFICATION

BY DR. JUDITH OMON AKHABUE ISEGHOHI

His Excellencies

His Royal Highnesses

The Chairman 

Traditional Rulers

Special Guest of Honour

Our respected Leaders

Gentlemen of the press

Ladies and gentlemen.

It is a rare honour and privilege for me to present a paper on Esan Unity, Challenges, and Strategies for Rectification in a town hall meeting that parades a rich harvest of intellectuals and achieved professionals.   

I hope the result of these discourse will snowball into a United Esan descent, which will form a ‘Think Tank’ for pan Esan that will address issues affecting Esan people.  If you want to address the Yorubas, you will discuss with the Afenifere; the Ibos, you will talk to the Ohaneze, and the North, you will talk to the Arewa.  Now, who do you talk to, when it comes to Esan people?  Here we are at a crossroad, dealing with the issues in Edo Central.  

It then becomes cumbersome for us to handle our problems, which brings us to the issue of Unity in Esanland.  Are we united as a people?  Are our fathers united?  Are the youths our supposed leaders of tomorrow united?  These are pertinent questions; we shall be addressing in this town hall today.

I am sure you have heard the word “Umaigba” meaning" they cannot agree. " But why?  Knowing that a house divided against itself cannot stand.  You can see the bickering, superiority fight etc.  All these cannot earn trust and cannot enhance Unity. It will only result to setback.

Now, what is Unity?  Unity means a condition of harmony, and working in agreement.  It means oneness and to be in one accord.  When people are in one accord,  what happened in Genesis 11:  1-9 will be possible to achieve.

Where the tower called the tower of Babel was being built to high heavens.  And the LORD said: “Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.” So, the Lord confounded their language and they could not achieve their goals. From the above, we could see that unity is a formidable weapon to achieve the impossible. 

You can imagine how much Esan people will achieve if they are united.  The biggest strength of mankind lies in an unwavering Unity. We have seen unity as a force and as a weapon for peaceful co-existence that engenders development.  Unity can be realized,  In the same vein, it can be elusive,  It has actually eluded us as a people that is why we are here today.  A chain is only as strong as its weakest link.

However, there is no need to cry over spilled milk.  Unity is in our hands, very much achievable in the entire Esan jurisdiction.  Remember, unity equals good governance, proper growth, and true development.  Unity is strength and “United we stand, divided we fall.”

Sadly, I do not think the Esan people have maximized the dividend of democracy owing to  lack of unity. By political permutations, after this present administration, it should be the turn of an Esan person to be the next governor of Edo State.  But how United are we?  We must therefore follow the direction of the compass in navigating our route.

That is one of the reasons we are here today to chat the way forward to achieve our common goals.   Esan people must wake up from their sleeping state to take the bull by the horn and must rise above primordial sentiments, sectional interest, and selfish ambitions.  We must avoid socio-political dichotomies and reduce divisive tendencies, otherwise, Unity will remain an illusion.

Still, on Esan Unity, it will be recalled that the progressive Edo elite in London attempted to build a bridge of Unity among Edo people in 2000 and they called it, “Edo Okpa makhin.” If this was attempted, what stops Esan not to be “Esan Okpa,” a homogeneous group of people at that! This is a call to duty to all the Esan Ethnic Extraction, to foster greater unity among themselves.

The challenges Confronting Esan Unity

1. First there is what I called “Superiority fight” among the Esan people with such phrases as “odalo Esan” “Ikeke Esan” should be removed from our Lexicon as this  only brings disunity.

2. Lack of cooperation, especially with what has happened in the past, what has been the participation of the youth?  Has it been inclusive? Is there cooperation among our people in decision-making process in terms of governmental activities?  Are youths seen as leaders of tomorrow? Do we cooperate when it comes to employment generation? Are there monitoring and evaluation criteria? How does it add to gross domestic product (GDP)?  Are welfare improved? and poverty reduced?

From all these myriads of questions what then beholds our future.  Will the youth pray for us? The future is certainly bleak due to lack of cooperation among our people.  Let’s begin to amend our ways.  Let’s work towards a formidable solution. Let’s build institutions where rules and regulations will be adhered to by all; where justice and fairness will be upheld.

3. Insecurity – it has increasingly become difficult to move from one part of Esan to another due to incessant kidnapping and ransom taking.  This is due to high level of unemployment and absence of small-scale industries for school leavers to work.   Farming is discouraging due to its subsistence nature of using obsolete equipment.  It can be encouraged by making funds available for mechanized farming.

4. Indiscipline -This affects Unity and hinders progress. Not seeing Esan as one will continue to create division, which is inimical to  progress and Unity of  Esan people.

5. Ego – also destroys the chains of Unity of  Esan people.  we also have jealousy, envy, and self-centredness as challenges.

6. Poverty – this has affected a lot of Esan people and there seems to be no light at the “End of the tunnel.”  For Unity to be strong, we should empower each other.

7. Diminishing Esan language – it is most surprising that the Esan language is gradually diminishing very fast, even in this generation.  And for Unity to gain a firm hold as seen in Genesis 11: 1-9, where language was a major variable for cooperation, it  should not be  allowed to diminish.  Therefore, there should be a concerted effort to speak to our children and let it be reintroduced in schools in Esanland.

Consequences of Disunity

1. Lack of social amenities, which I called absence of government presence. Today, there is no portable water in most places in Esanland, except streams, rivers, and few boreholes on personal effort.  There is also no light in some places in Esanland, and also absence of good road network.These will be addressed when there is unity.

2. communication gap between the people and leaders. People could be engaged in misguided actions due to  communication gap.  

3. Forfeiture in key positions due to disagreement.

4. Under development

5. Disharmony

All  these will lead to absolute failure, whereas, with unity, we can achieve  success.We should not remain in that state of inertia where we choose to do nothing Therefore, let us kickstart the process of Unity now and not tomorrow.

Factors That Can Promote Unity

 Engendering cooperation for partnership.

 Patriotism

 Tolerance

 Discipline and reward for hard work

 Equity, Fairness and justice.

 Living a life devoid of discrimination.

 Living together in harmony.

 Effective communication of  government policies to the people

 Leaders should be closer to their people.

 Identify the needs of the people and solving them.

 Development of a blueprint empowerment programmes to instill confidence

Benefits of a United Esan

1. Cohesion and cooperation.

2. Achieving societal goals and objectives.

3. Peace and stability.

4. High political will on the part of the leaders.

5. Growth and development of the community.

Strategies for Rectification

In conceptualizing the unity of Esan, what readily comes to mind is the acronym; “TINK,” (Truth inspires necessary kind word)

T - Stands for truth, in every nooks and crannies of Esanland before you articulate anything, it must be truthful.  Let truth be your guiding principle.  There should be no prejudice, no sentiments, no Odalo Esan or Ikeke Esan.  There is a saying that, what is good for the geese, is good for the gander.  Therefore, without truth ,Unity will be a mirage.

I – Inspire a strong community  based  institutional framework for cohesion through town hall meetings, Unions, Associations. We must inspire progress  ,prosperity, actions and activities that will improve the welfare of Esan sons and daughters. 

N -  Necessary: For Unity to reign in Esanland.  Always consider your actions and plans if they are necessary at that particular point in time. If you are called upon by a Bini man or Etsako man to betray your fellow Esan to sell your birthright for a plate of porridge, always ask yourself, are these actions of mine necessary?  Will it inspire the desired Unity?  Will it encourage growth, peace and progress in Esanland?  My beloved brothers and sisters.  It is of great importance that the necessity of our actions are being put into consideration and x-rayed properly before execution.  The last but not the least is K.  

K – Kind words.  Even the Holy Bible says let your words minister grace to the hearer in Ephesians 4: 29b.  Holy Quran also corroborated it in chapter 2 verse 263, and it says" kind words and forgiveness are better than charity...." and Allah is most sufficient and most forebearing."  Yet, in Esan you hear word like "Efoge " meaning" it will never finish " One of the main factors affecting Esan people is the absence of kind words.  Hostility, hypocrisy has become the bane of our society and it’s skyrocketing among the entire Esanland.

 Harsh words, can lead to lack of trust.  The Scriptures again says in Mark 13: 12, that on the last day brother shall rise against brother, father against son.  If you like husband against wife and vice versa.

 

That the Uromi man does not confide in Uzea man or Ughoha man.   Ebele man does not take Ogwa,s suggestion.  In the same manner Ubiaja man does not trust Irrua man.  All these are fueled by unkind words for example, Odalo Esan, Ikeke Esan, Efefen Esan, etc.  The Scripture in 1 John 4:20 says “If you do not love your fellow brother whom you see, how then do you claim to love God?  It concluded by saying you are a liar.

Therefore ,whenever you see an Esan person, old or young, rich or poor and you want to act contrary, remember the acronym, “Tink.”   Tink, so that we do not come to a scenario where things will fall apart and the centre can no longer hold.  How do we create a seamless tomorrow, impeccable, near-perfect?  If we do not make any attempt now, your guess is as good as mine.

I want to conclude by this quote of former president Jerry Rawlings and it says, “We are only as strong as we are United and as weak as we are divided".

God bless the Enigies.

God bless Esanland

God bless Edo State.

God bless Nigeria.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would want to thank the team of the Resources committee headed by Prof. F. Okonofua, and the Secretary, Prof. Ibadan.  Also, other members of the TRC for believing in me to present this paper.  I am indeed very grateful to the BOT Chairman and the Council Chairman including BOT Secretary for always trusting my decisions.  You are highly appreciated.