THE history of how Oboghoro came into being is the history of history of history that is splendidly splendid history. Its founder Prince Ijala will ever remain in the eyes of his descendants and in those of historians who are historians as a perpetually immortal figure that needs to be examined from generation to generation and from age to age.
His qualities – some of which his descendants, such as the Olaraja of Oboghoro, Pa James Ebosa, has captured – and as described in the first instalment last week – should inspire or astound professional historians from anywhere to study most seriously. And his historical image as a good and an unusual Prince of Warri should be inked and painted by poets whose words, lines, passages and stanzas should be learnt by heart by at least the descendants of the saintly prince.
Maybe the teachers at the Odo-Okun Secondary School, Oboghoro should give helpful thought to this artistic fancy which is more than an artistic mental fancy – which the government of the community should develop practical feeling for – and birth a new tradition to unfading and a not dim memory of Prince Ijala. The yearly December Oboghoro Festival is towards this end. It is hugely important for the commemoration of Prince Ijala, the founder of the royal community.

It was this hugely significant festival of commemoration of Prince Ijala and his town’s founding that lovingly motored and flying-boated me to Oboghoro of a beauty of wonders in 2024 and 2025 December. And what were the wonders I saw? Or to frame what I am framing or what I want to frame in the present tense: What wonders are in Oboghoro that the members of the government of the community are building and the prosperity that they will create – or are creating?
Their development vision and goals which are derived from Prince Ijala’s “demonstrated virtues of love, selfless service, conviviality and sacrificial giving” and “a rare act of magnanimity, graciousness and the uncommon virtue of placing common good above selfish personal interest.” There is absolutely no reason for this writer and observer to disagree with the afore-stated illustrations and assessment of the celebrated humanist and founder of Oboghoro.
My little personal research – or, better, my inquiring mind – fetched me the following revelation. After settling peacefully in Oboghoro which was called “Peace Haven” he received counsel/advice from a loyal family member to distance himself rebelliously from Ode-Itsekiri the then seat of the government of Warri Kingdom. Prince Ijala declined to accept this counsel even before he and his Council solemnly deliberated over the matter.
He still believed strongly in the wisdom that informed his decision to give up the crown and to found Oboghoro. He knew what not to do. He thought beyond the moment. Very importantly, to boot, traditional soothsayers of acknowledged wisdom had furnished significant signs and wonders (at Prince Ijala’s special request) of the eventual timeless greatness of Oboghoro.

The signs and wonders glowed and glowed in the colonial era and even before then. Now they are animating and re-animating themselves through the fragrances of the government of sound, qualitative and clinical governance of the Oboghoro community leaders who are through and thorough descendants of their forebear.
They illustrate in their actions today the buoyant qualities of Prince Ijala, every one of whose faculties and qualities of goodness dwells in them. The arrow-head and helmsperson of the Oboghoro community government is Hon. (Dr) Godwin Ebosa, MFR, ROI. He is the National Leader of Oboghoro Community, and a past Chairman of the Delta State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission (DESOPADEC). He is a very reticent human being. As a matter of fact, he is a personage of majestic reticence. He is very eloquent, but he rarely speaks especially in a gathering of unfamiliar persons.
He is Oboghoro’s symbol of intellect and conscience that propels and animates the developmental goals of the community. My grand impression of him – rightly or wrongly – I hereby communicate. He is a personage of multiple fragrances – the fragrance of altruism; the fragrance of philanthropy; the fragrance of tolerance; the fragrance of love; the fragrance of peace; the fragrance of harmony; the fragrance of selflessness; the fragrance of transparency; the fragrance of kindness; the fragrance of friendship; the fragrance of decency; the fragrance of decorum; the fragrance of prosperity; the fragrance of propriety; the fragrance of a committed builder of people; the fragrance of a patriot who is a patriot; above all, perhaps, the fragrance of a good student/follower of the teaching of Charles Darwin, to wit, “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change, that lives within the means available and works co-operatively against common threats.”

In imbibing the teaching of Charles Darwin (1809-1882), English naturalist who “formulated the theory of evolution by natural selection,” Dr. Godwin Ebosa oozes as well the fragrance of a man and leader of wisdom.
Indeed, Dr Godwin Ebosa’s fragrances imbue him with thoughts relating to the wherewithal to give Oboghoro community the government of development, that the people will continuously enjoy and support. His fellow members of the community’s governing executive team share his vision.
He and all of them are already thinking of and about Oboghoro of tomorrow. They are already dwelling on how and on what Oboghoro should be in the future; and on how Oboghoro people should live in the future – when the present will be the past of the present and the present will be the future the people will and must live in.

How will they navigate what they must navigate to make Oboghoro the “Dubai of Itsekiris” or the Shanghai of the Niger Delta? What a tall question that is not a tall question!
Signs and wonders and wonders and signs – they are coming again and will continue to come with their glow and fragrances… Memories!

To be continued.

Afejuku can be reached via 08055213059.