By: Wisdom Oniekpar Ikuli
We often sermonize and sloganize about the immeasurable sacrifices of Late Major Isaac Jasper Adaka Boro during the annual Boro Day Celebration that has become a yearly ritual but fails to do the essentials.
How many persons that celebrate the annual Boro Day yearly have ever asked or cared about the children he left behind?
Is it not shameful and painful to hear that the only son of Isaac Boro lives in a ghetto and slum in Yenagoa because he does not have money to build or rent a good apartment?
Is it not shameful and painful to hear that the daughters and grandchildren of Isaac Boro are living in rented apartments where they are harassed and threatened daily because of their inability to pay house rent due to their present economic conditions?
Is it not shameful and painful to hear that the direct grandchildren of Boro cannot afford to pay school fees because of the poor conditions of their parents?
Yet, we gather annually to sermonize and sloganize about Boro. We eulogize his sacrifices and the ideals that he represented and equally died for.
Isaac Boro choose death in the quest for freedom of the Ijaw people to good education and good life and that was why he abandoned his studies at the prestigious University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) to lead the famous ‘Twelve Day Revolution’.
His father begged to send him to school abroad after he left UNN but Boro refused because he resolved to fight for the emancipation of our great people.
Boro, High Chief Harold Dappa-Biriye, Melford Obiene Okilo CON, Ernest Sisei Ikoli like King Fredrick William Koko of Nembe, King Jaja of Opobo, King Amakiri (Amachree) of Kalabari, King Ibanichuka of Okrika, King Perekule of Ancient Grand Bonny Kingdom, King Akalisuo Odidi-Ediro of Okarki-Engenni and others gave us the present identity that we are proud of. They promoted, projected and protected our Ijawness.
Unfortunately, while we are proud of our identity, we have failed to immortalize them by caring about the welfare and well-being of their descendants whom we now treat like outcasts and endangered species.
Isaac Boro, High Chief Harold Dappa-Biriye and Chief (Sen) Dr. Melford Obiene Okilo, CON played the most significant roles in the creation of Rivers State in 1967.
The Twelve Day Revolution that was led by Isaac Jasper Adaka Boro against the General Johnson Thomas Umunakwe Aguiyi-Ironsi military government was the third attempt by Ijaws to call the attention of the international community to the sufferings, plights, oppression, repression, suppression, subjugation, marginalization, deprivation, devastation and degradation of the Ijaw Nation and the geographic Niger Delta region in general.
King Fredrick William Koko of Nembe carried out an earlier revolution in 1895 against the Europeans and British Crown in particular.
High Chief Harold Dappa-Biriye engaged the British Crown and government intellectually at Lancaster House in London, United Kingdom during the Pre-independence Conferences.
Rivers and Bayelsa States, OMPADEC, NDDC, PAP, NCDMB and every other system and institution that we have today in Rivers and Bayelsa States in particular are products and results of the struggles and sacrifices of these Ijaw Heroes.
Sadly, we cannot claim to love, respect and appreciate the sacrifices and worthy legacies of these heroes without caring for the welfare and well-being of their children, grandchildren and other descendants.
Can we spare some quiet moments to ponder over how we have disappointed these great heroes?
These heroes sacrificed their comfort, their little wealth, health, leisure, families and everything they had in their quest for the emancipation cum liberation of our great people from economic and political servitude, but ironically, we cannot stand for their descendants.
Multitudes have made millions, billions and even trillions with the names and sweat of these heroes, yet they do not bother about the welfare and well-being of the children, grandchildren and descendants of these heroes.
Moving forward, I wish to humbly and passionately appeal to the governments of Rivers and Bayelsa States and the management of the Presidential Amnesty Program (PAP), Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) and others which are headed by Ijaw people to see how they can build houses and also provide employments and other better welfare packages for the immediate family members of Isaac Jasper Adaka Boro, High Chief Harold Dappa-Biriye, Chief (Sen) Dr. Melford Obiene Okilo CON and other Ijaw elders and leaders who have made immeasurable and invaluable sacrifices for the Ijaw Nation.
May the labours of our heroes never be in vain, Amen!
Most Senior Comrade Wisdom Oniekpar Ikuli aka Mirror and Conscience of Society.
