Urhobo must develop 25-year plan for development, says Darah

Backs restructuring, resource control, others
The various associations and unions of Urhobo extraction have been enjoined to join forces in floating a 25-year development plan for the ethnic nationality.

A Professor of Oral Literature and Folkore at the Delta State University, Abraka and delegate to the 2014 National Conference, Gordini G. Darah, made the call yesterday in Lagos, at the Urhobo Foundation Lecture Series with the theme, “Urhobo Nation and the Restructuring of Nigeria.”

According to the university teacher and author of several local and international publications, the case of the Urhobo people is akin to a man surrounded by wealth but, still, swims in abject poverty.

Darah recalled that certain directives in the past created the tortuous path to the blind plundering and under-development of the Niger Delta.

He specifically cited those of 1968 and 1969 wherein the military government ordered all multinationals to evacuate the oil-rich region till the end of the war.

The one directing the reparation of all oil and gas revenues to Lagos and Abuja followed it.

The former Chief of Staff to the Delta State Government House challenged sons and daughters to take their destiny in their hands, reminding them that the hopes for others to change their lot over the years had been futile.

Darah disclosed that the ethnic group remains committed to the crusade for fiscal federalism, resource control and return to true federal system of government as prescribed in the 1963 Constitution.

He disclosed that the area is richly endowed, especially now that the call for restructuring has gathered momentum, as the South and the Middle Belt are more than ever determined that the right things are done.
Darah hinted that the concerned groups have vowed that until their demands are met, they could not guarantee that the 2019 polls and even next year’s national census would hold.

The professor decried the 13 per cent derivation formula in the nation’s law book, likening it to someone collecting a 100 per cent of the people’s commonwealth, only to return that dismal fraction. He termed it “13 per cent derivation, 87 deprivation.”

In his speech, the chief convener, Daniel Esekpe, reiterated the rich endowments in Urhoboland, the fifth largest ethnic group in Nigeria.

According to him, besides priding herself as a territory of riches, the ethnic nationality witnessed the next major discovery in 1957 after that of Oloibiri in the present day Bayelsa State.

Dignitaries at the event included Prof. Bruce Onobrakpeya, Prof. Cecilia Otete Okobia, Olorogun Bernard Okumagba, Prof. Joe Abugu, Chief Ede Dafinone and Mrs. Cecilia Ibru.

Others were Mr. Ese Gamaliel Onosode (Jnr) and Chief Vincent Awuyi.