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Taiga, Enajemo-Isire, Barovbe canvass united Urhobo nation

By Clarkson Voke Eberu
04 October 2017   |   4:24 am
The President-General, Urhobo Progress Union (UPU) Worldwide, Olorogun Moses Oghenerume Taiga, President, Urhobo Social Club, Lagos (USCL), Prince Austin Enajemo-Isire and the Chairman, Board of...

President-General, Urhobo Progress Union (UPU) Worldwide, Olorogun Moses Oghenerume Taiga

• Group wants think tank, centralised, vibrant Lagos UPU

The President-General, Urhobo Progress Union (UPU) Worldwide, Olorogun Moses Oghenerume Taiga, President, Urhobo Social Club, Lagos (USCL), Prince Austin Enajemo-Isire and the Chairman, Board of Trustees, Chief Johnson Modika Barovbe, have called for unity in charting a progressive and development cause for the ethnic nationality.

Taiga, who spoke on Monday in Victoria Island as chairman at a gathering, organised by USCL with the theme, Urhobo Unity, Progress and Way Forward, asked sons and daughters to work together in order to reclaim the pre-eminent position of Urhobo in Nigeria’s socio-political and economic configuration.

He stressed that no single factor retards the progress of a people as much as lack of unity.

The UPU chief noted: “As Urhobo people, we have some serious challenges ahead of us that can only be tackled by our unity. No single factor retards the progress of a people as much as lack of unity, just as internal conflicts and discord clog the wheel of growth and development of any ethnic nationality.”

He reiterated that his administration was galvanising the process of returning oneness to the fold, enjoining the indigenes to reinvent the old communal spirit and harmony for the economic prosperity of the ethnic group.

Taiga went on: “While it is agreed that we are a nation that is immensely blessed with dynamic, resourceful and intellectually enlightened people, and so have different perspectives to issues, we must, however, guard against presenting contradictory views to the outside world. The cacophony of voices emanating from Urhobo on local, national and international issues, especially in the media, makes complete mockery of us as an ethnic nationality, and greatly calls to question our strength, structure and harmony. It also creates entries for others to penetrate our ranks. We must speak as one, indivisible body.”

According to Enajemo-Isire, it was bewildering to see the largest ethnic group in Delta State and the economic base of the nation with 24 kingdoms as well as abundant natural and human resources struggling for recognition largely due to disunity among those, who ordinarily, should drive its developmental cause.

He stated that it was the wish of the club for Urhobo to have a convergence point in Lagos where “we can discuss, articulate and come up with a common front.”

The USCL president noted: “There is no better time to re-emphasise the need for unity among our people in particular, and Nigeria in general, as a vehicle for progress and development. But unity built on falsehood and injustice is like a house by the seashore built with sand. It cannot withstand the vagaries of nature.”

Consequently, he called for a representative universal committee as a think tank, a common purse to prosecute agreed matters, one voice using UPU organ as a rally point as well as strong ties with traditional rulers.

To Barovbe, it was time to inaugurate a centralised and vibrant UPU branch in Lagos, headed by a strong personality with influence and means, saying: “We cannot call the UPU branch in Ajegunle, the Lagos UPU.”

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