In December 2024, precisely on December 19, 2024, I made my very first visit to Oboghoro, a progressively progressive Itsekiri island town in Warri – in Warri North Local Government Area in Benin River in Delta State.

That visit elicited from my pen the essay entitled “Oboghoro: Dubai of Itsekiris.” The experience I had and enjoyed immeasurably then was an experience that was an experience that was more than an immeasurable experience.

I ended the essay thus: “I left Oboghoro the “Dubai of Itsekiris” in high spirits and with fond memories. I shall return.” When I uttered the quoted words I assumed that I would return to Oboghoro not in the foreseeable future to witness what I expected to witness decently in terms of my picture or selection or perception of the promising island town as a perfect Dubai in the making.

I thought of returning there after sometime like the English Romantic poet William Wordsworth (1770-1850) who returned to Tintern Abbey after a period of time of five years of his absence. In his poem “Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey” often called “Tintern Abbey” by critics, the poet, or better, the speaker, among other things, speaks about his “past, present and future selves and about time and change.” The time and change Wordsworth speaks about in “Tintern Abbey” that is still standing on the banks of the River Wye were subjects that I thought I would capture after a pretty time of artistic and physical absence.

This, however, was not to be. I returned to Oboghoro sooner than I expected. I returned there on Wednesday, the 23rd of January, 2025. The power of memory of memory did not accompany me there. The serene scenery provided by River Ethiope right from Ejele Waterside in Sapele up to Oboghoro River in Benin River still gave me the kind of solace that entered my being in my first visit. But I did not expect that I would be entertained by any transfiguration in so short a time.

How wrong and wrong and greatly wrong I was! Structures and structures have sprung up – and are springing up – in ways that transmit feelings (in this observer) flowing from love of service as directed by God and His divine servant(s) who offer guidance to patriots of Oboghoro community who constitute the government bringing development that is development to the community. They are genuine leaders who are

Rightly or wrongly, I see a divine presence in the actions of the members of the government of Oboghoro. The deep understanding – or better the deeper understanding – of humanity that they exhibit through their development goals cannot but endear them to any ardent observer who is not in a daydream about their quality of mind relating to divine-inspired governance. My lyrical or pure intuition allows me to posit them as beings shaping their Oboghoro community under the influence of the Galactic Federation.

Now, who historically are the Oboghoro people? How did this remarkably notable island town come into being? Who founded this town, this scenic town, that has erected itself as the standard place of “demonstrated virtues of love, selfless service, conviviality and sacrificial giving”? These questions may be posed by readers of this column who are hearing or knowing about Oboghoro for the first time. According to Pa James Ebosa, the Olaraja – that is, the recognised titled Eldest Person, Prince Ijala descendant and distinctive Leader – of Oboghoro Community, who I have just quoted and I am quoting presently,

“The founder [was] Prince Ijala. The respected Prince, in a rare act of magnanimity, graciousness and the uncommon virtue of placing common good above selfish personal interest, conceded his assured right to the throne of Olu of Warri via primogeniture, to his uncle on [the] grounds of his old age. Factual traditional history has it that Prince Ijala heir apparent to Akengboye the 13th Olu of Warri, in furtherance of his belief that it was better for the Itsekiri nation to have a monarch occupying the ancestral throne, sacrificially and selflessly ceded his rights to the throne to his younger uncle Ikenogho, who was much younger than himself to the exclusion of his two younger half-brothers, both of whom had nursed ambitions of becoming king, but were of unsatisfactory conduct.

“In gratitude to Prince Ijala for his selflessness, the uncle and subsequent Olu Atogbuwa, the 14th of Olu of Warri, accorded him several royal privileges which included a proclamation by the king that Ijala would never kneel down to greet him, royal permission to wear coral beads on his ankles as a depiction of royalty and incorporation of the virtuous Prince into key decision-making apparatus in the palace. However, as is common in human societies, his two brothers out of bitterness and anger emanating from Prince Ijala choosing their uncle over them as king, subsequently carried out consistent campaign of calumny against Prince Ijala before the king and peddled unfounded and untrue comments purportedly emanating from Ijala about the Olu. This scenario subsequently soured the relationship between him and the king and drove a wedge between them.

“It was on account of this soured relationship and a statement from the Olu that “there cannot be two kings at the same time in the kingdom” that culminated in the decision of Prince Ijala to leave Ode-Itsekiri, the Itsekiri ancestral home to found Oboghoro in 1740, in the Benin River, now in the present day Warri North Local Government of Delta State – a narrative Tony Afejuku, a renowned poet, poetically captured in his poem, “Oboghoro of Ijala” as ‘Two crowns unwelcome are/in our mangrove kingdom of wealthy wealth.’”

Afejuku can be reached via 08055213059.