I deem it necessary to commend Your Majesty on the success of the just concluded 10th Anniversary celebrations commemorating a decade of your reign on the throne of your ancestors.
A decade on the throne of the kingdom of Grand Bonny, in my opinion, is not and seldom can be an easy or smooth run given the inevitable imperatives it places at the foot of the incumbent monarch. These imperatives include but are not limited to the onus of satisfying the fundamental aspirations of your subjects; preserving the sanctity, dignity and integrity of the office you occupy; preserving the sanctity of age-old customs, traditions, norms, lores, etc of the land; managing the diverse interests, pressures and elements pervading the kingdom; acting up to the demands of being the service brand of the kingdom; integrating into a common front the political, traditional, religious, social, cultural and economic dynamics and ideologies thriving in the kingdom for the common good; and creating a true home for the Ibaniawo both those at home and in the Diaspora.
These do not seem to be an easy task even for the brave-hearted, at least not in my purview. That you have been able not only to thrive but excel in many respects with regards to the afore-mentioned particulars sets you forth as a budding achiever and with youth on your side, the horizon holds tremendous promise and opportunities for the kingdom and her people.
To the politicians would have been directed the issues being conveyed through the vehicle of my pen to Your Majesty’s doorstep. But the interests they represent and must perpetually patronize gives them away as relatively unqualified to address these issues.
The fact remains that though Your Majesty is, by virtue of age, still in the arena of youth, your youth does not obliterate the fact of your fatherhood of this kingdom consequent upon your being, in the present and near future, the Amanyanabo (owner, ruler, and leader) of the kingdom. That office confers on you the responsibility of rulership of the indigent and the resident and even of the itinerant. Moreso, the integrity, dignity and sanctity associated with the throne you occupy elevates you above primordial interests and leanings, be they political, religious, social, personal or otherwise. Put in another way, you are to subscribe loyalty only to God and the land and people the almighty God, through tradition, heredity and providence, has ordained you to serve. You are to be nobody’s slave but everybody’s servant!
By reason of the leadership that office has vested on you, you are to be for the kingdom and her people a service brand, a trailblazer, pacesetter, frontrunner, role-model and point of convergence.
In the decade that has seen you on the throne; I reckon you now assume a consensus with me on the following:
• That sycophancy is a great distraction to leadership given that loyalty when driven to a blind extreme (as is true of sycophancy) can be disturbingly nauseating and worse still counterproductive.
• That self-deceit is the bane of progress, development and achievement consequent upon the fact that until we (on the individual and community levels) divorce ourselves from our illusions, we will continue to lose touch with reality. I state this in respect of putting the destiny of this kingdom in the hands of multinationals. It is trite to aver that the agents of neocolonialism will seldom be distracted from their murderous economic agenda by any form of pressure from ethnic nationalities, minority groups or local communities in the third world to fully discharge their corporate social responsibilities, not with the government at the center being their reluctant protégé. We can make the most of what we make them deliver but the earlier we look inwards, the better for us.
• That concern for the assuaging of the needs of Your Majesty’s subjects will naturally activate valuable ideas that would engender positive transformation of the land and her people.
Done with preambles, I ordain to advance through this medium certain salient issues critically relevant to the Ibani nation.
Paramount among these is the flooding debacle witnessed annually by the inhabitants of the island. The factors that give strength to this monster include the abject lack of a functional drainage system; blocking of natural evacuation channels from the intra-city swamps and the Burrow-pit along New Road; the shoddy and substandard road system built for us by the quislings of this nation upon being awarded road construction contracts; etc.
Ordinarily, those who know in the environmental management sector would maintain that we are encircled by many bodies of water suits us well to be free of flooding problems. All there is needed is for a sound drainage system to convey the various accumulations out into the rivers and creeks. The Burrow-pit at New Road has over the years become a critical eyesore. That body of water that could serve many ends (tourist, economic, agricultural, etc) has become a reluctant liability. It has become a reservoir of contaminated and toxic water; a convenience facility; a geographical anomaly, an environmental menace to inhabitants of its precincts; and a waste.
This wastage could be redeemed, Your Majesty, through some simple initiatives, viz: an all-round feasibility study on its viability for economic and other ends; a censure of dumping of wastes and refuse into it; draining of the toxic water therein into the Bonny river through its flow-out channel which runs through the back of GGSS, Finima out to Park community where it connects the main river; canalization of that channel down to the sea; fencing it out; and outsourcing it to a tourist firm is all that is needed to transform it into an economically lucrative phenomenon.
On the other hand, it could be drained of water, sandfilled and sold out to inhabitants to develop into residential and commercial purposes. Other options still, include sandfilling it and utilizing it for the siting of an ultra-modern civic center, stadium or sports complex, etc.
Another issue that is of utmost importance to the average indigene is the proposed Ring Road that was supposed to connect the various villages and towns that constitute this kingdom and the Bonny-Bodo Roads and Bridges that was supposed to connect us to the outside world. It still baffles and conjures up questions in my mind whatever happened to these hugely beneficial projects. Those of us who have a predilection for the rural localities that shaped our childhood retain a mental disconnect with our villages and ordinarily would favour the opening up of the hinterland.
Roads, being the primary conveyor of development, would serve us well were this projects executed. The plusses for the kingdom are unquantifiable; from whatever perspective you consider it. Our villages would be accessible (just as it is presently with Akiama, Oguede and Abalamabie communities); development will spread speedily into the hinterland; there would be a decongesting of the mainland as indigenes relocate to their hometowns and villages attracting with them developmental projects; and also there would be an unravellng of the latent potentials and tourist sites yet undiscovered in the hinterland.
As for the Bonny-Bodo Road, we would be able to drive into town from Port Harcourt anytime without being afraid of whatever dangers the marine route is likely to hold. The myriad opportunities that road would afford us are tremendous.
The issue of a landing jetty is next on my list. It is unnecessary to suffer while one has the wherewithal to be happy. With the status of Bonny on the national, continental and international spheres, it is unbecoming that travelers would almost have to swim out of the boats that convey them down here from Port and wherever else they are coming from. A landing jetty that is of the very best standards needs urgently to be installed at the waterfront at Bonny and even at Port Harcourt so that travelers would be spared this unnecessary nightmare.
Given the integrity of the indigenes, the overwhelming presence of multinationals and the place of Bonny in the economic equation of this nation, it reeks of an irony why this kingdom would lag behind in development.
With all due respect, Your Majesty, by the standards of development best practices around the world, the Ibani nation is not at its best. Observe, Your Majesty, that even at this moment, the questions of adequate and conducive housing; clean and accessible drinking water; adequate and affordable health-care at the primary and secondary levels; functional and empowerment-oriented educational system; transportation system; security; and result-oriented governance are yet unanswered.
Even on the socio-cultural front: we lack a thriving local dialect that is universal to all natives both at home and in the Diaspora; we are yet to have the Holy Bible in the Ibani language despite being Christianity’s first port of call in Nigeria; the history of the Ibani nation is yet to assume a streamlined narrative that is commonly accepted and authenticated by all authorities concerned with it.
What more? On the local setting, the population of the island is on the rise with the dynamics of high population density (such as the subsuming of the indigenous language, rise in crime rate, congestion, air and noise pollution, etc) playing out before our very eyes.
I do not intend, Your Majesty, to raise these issues to the end of engendering a pessimistic mindset or outlook but to x-ray the current situation and thus instigate an urgent and positive response to them. The issues raised in this letter are not impossible cases or no-win situations. They are problems that are solvable. With the right attitude, will-power, intelligence gathering, intellectual research aimed at finding ways to address this issues, resource mobilization, networking and partnerships among stakeholders, some measure of patriotism and exemplary leadership these and other problems bedeviling this kingdom could become milestones to our development. The land of Bonny could be so transformed that it could become an investors’ haven, a tourists’ attraction and a true point of convergence to the Ibaniawo at home and in the Diaspora.
It is my opinion, Your Majesty, that my concerns have been addressed to the appropriate quarters with the understanding that the throne on which you sit has been endowed with wisdom to make the best decisions for the overall good of this kingdom.
May Your reign continue to be blissful and productive!
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