By Dr. Tonye Clinton Jaja
On 5th April 2025, an online newspaper reported as follows:
According to him (Turnah, Secretary of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)-South-Zone): “The lack of protest from Ijaw youths against Governor Fubara’s removal suggests that Wike’s assertion that Asawana will disappear when the law speaks is accurate as evidenced in today’s Rivers State. Thus, Wike’s perspective holds merit. Not even in Opobo, where Governor Fubara comes from, did we witness any form of protest by any Ijaw youth to suggest any kind of form of anger over the removal of governor Fubara from office. In fact Governor Fubara has been abandoned to his faith”.
The foregoing statements accredited to both His Excellency Nyesom Ezenwo Wike (NEW) and his protege, Turnah, provide evidence of their combined ignorance of the indigenes of Opobo Kingdom and their history of preference for Non-Violent Forms of protest!!!
Unlike Wike and Turnah and their supporters, it is not in the genes or DNA of indigenes of the Opobo Kingdom to resort to violence (of any form, including judicial violence by bribery of judges) as a form of protest.
To the contrary, from the date of establishment of the Kingdom of Opobo, both its founder (King Jaja of Opobo) and indigenes have CONSISTENTLY demonstrated a preference for the application of legal means and Non-Violent Forms of Protests to press home their legitimate demands!!!
Let me provide some illustrative examples.
As a result of the civil war that was waged in the ancient Kingdom of Bonny, King Jaja of Opobo and 14 War Canoe Houses migrated and founded the present-day Kingdom of Opobo in the year 1870.
King Jaja of Opobo achieved this by signing a legal document (Treaty) with the then-King of Andoni, who provided the parcel of land upon which the Kingdom of Opobo was founded.
Again whereas other Kingdoms of the then Niger Delta were involved in waging all kinds of guerrilla warfare against the colonial British Government, (as their methods of protests against colonial incursion into their territories) King Jaja of Opobo signed a Treaty with the colonial British Government in the year 1873. This Treaty of 1873 clearly defined the economic and trading relationship between the citizens of Opobo Kingdom and the trading merchant ships of the British Colonial Government.
Even when in 1887, the British colonial Government violated the terms of the said 1873 Treaty by illegally arresting, then subjecting King Jaja to an unfair trail and subsequent deportation and exile.
The response of the son of King Jaja and some chiefs was Non-Violent; they sent a delegation to the Parliament of Britain wherein they submitted a written protest. The legislators debated the matter and passed a Resolution that stated that the official of the British colonial Government who arrested King Jaja of Opobo acted in an illegal manner. The Parliament ordered that King Jaja be returned to his hometown from the illegally imposed exile. In the year 1940, the Parliament of Britain also approved the payment of compensation for the confiscation of arms and ammunitions of the Kingdom of Opobo by the British colonial Government.
The British colonial Government had taken this step to prevent any suspected violent uprising that could arise from their illegal arrest, trial and deportation of King Jaja of Opobo in the year 1887!!!
Another example of how the DNA of Non-Violent Forms of handling affairs of the Opobo Kingdom is during the election of the Amayanabo (King) of Opobo in the year 1942.
Both from oral tradition and written records, I learned that my grandfather (from my mother’s side), Chief Siminilayi Chinaka Jaja was one of the contestants, and he emerged as the runner-up, he was defeated by just one vote by Sodienye Jaja III (Douglas Mac Pepple) who went on to be crowned the Amayanabo of Opobo and reigned from 1942 to 1980.
Even though the runner-up (my grandfather) was by then one of the richest men within Opobo Kingdom, he did not resort to the use of his wealth to hire an army of protesters to unleash mayhem or to bribe the kingmakers to elect him at all costs!!!
In the year 1980, following the death of King Douglas, when it was time for his son, Danderson Jaja, to assume the throne, some chiefs of some of the war canoes houses of Opobo Kingdom raised a protest.
Their argument was that the Kingship of Opobo Kingdom was not the exclusive preserve of the lineage of King Jaja of Opobo. They argued that the Kingship ought to rotate amongst all the original 14 War Canoe Houses of Opobo Kingdom.
Again, as evidence of the DNA of Non-Violent Forms of handling matters, this matter was referred to a court of law and lasted for twenty years before the Supreme Court of Nigeria in December 2003 delivered judgment to the effect that the Kingship of Opobo Kingdom was the exclusive preserve of the King Jaja dynasty!!!
Following the said Supreme Court judgment, the current King Dandeson Douglas Jaja was crowned as Amayanabo of the Opobo Kingdom in the year 2004!!!
So from the foregoing, it has been established that DEEPLY INGRAINED within the DNA of the average indigene of Opobo Kingdom is a preference for resort to Non-Violent Forms of Protests such as resort to courts of law and submission of protests to Parliaments or legislatures!!!
There is no amount of provocation or taunting or injustice perpetrated against the indigenes of Opobo Kingdom, including the suspension of Governor Fubara, that will make us to go against our DNA preference for resorting to Non-Violent Forms of protest!!!
