In this interview with Deji Elumoye and Udora Orizu, the paramount ruler of the Kingdom of Warri, Ogiame Atuwatse III, spoke on salient issues, particularly why monarchs should be included in the country’s security apparatus and constitutionally recognized to help curb insecurity. Excerpts:
One year in office, what has it been like as Olu of Warri kingdom, and what are your plans for your people?
It’s like any other position of high authority, it’s a huge responsibility. It comes with several challenges because there’s never a dull moment. People constantly have needs and reasons to see you. Initially it could’ve come off as overwhelming but the truth of the matter is that you have to make sure that you remain focused, you have to maintain balance there. It makes it easier going out to meet numerous responsibilities and expectations God helping you, giving you discernment, wisdom, one is able to take it each day at a time.
The plans for the people could be ultimately summarized in, first of all elevating them in their minds, because if there isn’t that enlightenment, illumination, it does not matter what you bring to them. The way their mind is, they are still feeling downtrodden from decades of things not going the way they expected. There’s a risk that all your ground plans may not amount to much. It’s literally about ensuring that the foundations are properly set, so that it’s easier when good things roll, it’s easier to gain adequate momentum and get to where we need to get to.
Two months ago, Your Majesty with your chiefs were in Canada to drive foreign direct investment to Warri Kingdom and Niger Delta as a whole, how did it go?
Ultimately it came down to thinking outside the box, because the way things have been in the traditional way, the status quo with communities in Nigeria looking for avenues in which they can be developed. We just thought that perhaps we could try something a bit unusual and let’s go and find other ethnic indigenous people like ourselves who face similar challenges, that we face. Rubbing minds together with the expectations that the process of rubbing minds together on common solutions could be procured and indeed we have gotten to that stage where those discussions and ideas that previously I don’t believe I’d ever come up, so it’s now gotten to a point where we are now trying to see how these discussions could become active realizations. It’s quite multilayered but that was the heart of the original approach.
Your coronation speech resonated with women around the world, how will you say your reign has shone the spotlight with women?
Yes, I think the best way to shed more light on that question is, the world has changed tremendously. When you look at the 8000 recorded human history, it has been very much male dominated. We have actually achieved a lot in this male dominated era. When you look at things all over the world today, it’s not just the progressive or liberal Western Hemisphere, even when you look at the other parts of the world, even here in Africa, women are rising.
I had given a speech back in October last year, in a program with the American embassy and there was an analogy I used there which I want to repeat now. I believe when God created both sexes, male and female, he created women to help the man, help him to achieve the best version of himself. Man in their own wisdom went and limited or restricted women participation in the way they led the affairs of the world. It has gotten us this far, yes a lot has been achieved. I am of the opinion that in the world today, it’s no longer about male domination, it’s really about what is in the brain, which is why we go to school. Young boys and girls go to school to learn, and for us to better ourselves we need to draw on as much brain power as we can from both sexes. Oftentimes there’s a tendency that men will keep doing things suggesting things in a particular kind of way, perhaps because of the way they are genetically wired or socially trained to. And women also can approach it in their own unique way. To get the best is to consider both approaches, close our eyes on whether it’s a man or woman and take things for the quality that they are, I think that is the best approach. There are a lot of ideas that will take the world to the next level that are deposited in women and we should open the door and invite them to be active participants in that human discourse.
What are your thoughts on the recent development from the female athletes who have done the nation proud on the global stage?
We watched it with so much pride, seeing those women represent Nigeria the way they did. It was quite timely, as we all know, things have not been so great for Nigerians. Not too much to boldly beat our hands on our chest to say this makes us proud, there has been a lot of being through and surviving, just getting by, being grateful to God. But what happened in Birmingham a couple of weeks ago during the Commonwealth Games, showed that even in the most of what we are currently passing through there was something that made us come alive and say that we felt good. That made us to be proud to be Nigerians, it’s not that our men didn’t give their best or didn’t compete, but the glory just happened to come through the women. If we had not invested in our women athletes we would’ve been denied that opportunity to have felt a set of pride as to what it is to still be grateful and happy to be Nigerian even in the midst of where we are today. And I think that should crossover into other spheres and I would dare say that going forward we would see women do exceptional things in the political space. Women are running riots in those elections in Kenya, and it’s a society very similar to ours and clearly the very male dominated space in Kenya, for whatever reason decided let’s give these women a chance and I expect great things come out of Kenya over the next political tenure.
In Nigeria we have few women chair the boards of banks, I believe by all accounts they are rendering very faithful stewardship. And that will further open the door, the next time there’s a qualified woman she won’t be overlooked, this will in turn inspire young women to know that I can get to the top of my career choice if I work hard.
Going into the 2023 general election, what advice will you give to the youth in the interest of the socio-economic development of Nigeria?
I don’t know specifically about socio-economic but I have been asked this question a couple of times. Speaking to the youth, I implore them to have a really strong sense of history, it’s very important we really understand where we are coming from politically and the choices the generations before us made and how it contributed to us being where we are today. It’s very important to have a thorough view of the collection of those choices, and I think if they are able to do that, if they are fair to themselves, they will think differently in how they decide. I was at a program recently and I spoke on the Esau and Jacob syndrome, and it’s really I want to eat what’s in my hand now because there’s no hope for tomorrow. And that attitude apply to long term decisions but they just take it like, let me collect this ten thousand Naira and vote this guy, so yes you have eaten something but the consequences of that decision more than likely you will cry about it. Same thing that happened to Esau in the Bible, he couldn’t think beyond today. And most of our youth, if you want to call it the frustration of what the Nigerian situation is today, looking at over 30% unemployment rate, so those who even went to school, looking back to why did I even waste time and resources to go to school, those who didn’t go to school or learnt things that they are using to hack their way into success, is now making those who went to school feel “who did school help”. And it’s like even the yahoo situation is becoming over saturated, yes international and local authorities are clamping down on them and it’s very hard for a Nigerian youth to say you even want to travel because they will look at you and give you hard time. When you go to Dubai, London, immediately you will be looked at with suspicion, simply because you were trying to make a way for yourself that was not necessarily the generally accepted right way. That also adds to the frustration of being a Nigerian youth. I think the way to begin to change that comes down to a reorientation of the mind and it’s easier said than done, because these people come from educational institutions where their minds were supposed to have been shaped into the right direction but even getting through that educational system involved a bit of corruption and so they now feel well “I don go school “ nobody should come and tell me how to live because it has now come down to pure survival, and to reorientate one’s mind is not about today’s survival, but majority of them don’t want to listen to anything about tomorrow, it’s about today. It’s a serious problem. If they are not going to give themselves the space to slow down and think, not yielding quickly to the seed in your hand, but because they cannot imagine tomorrow, they think even if i successfully plant this thing I may not eat it, so let me eat it and die, not physical but mental death. So that’s the mindset that’s just governing our youths today and so it is to try to persuade them to give it a chance. Try planting this thing collectively and let’s see what the first harvest is like and let’s see whether it was worth waiting for the harvest. There needs to be some sort of demonstration, assurance, I don’t have the specifics but they need to know it is worth getting an education and it is worth standing for what’s right. Because clearly standing for what may not be the right thing seems to pay them off now, and it’s what goes into their stomach, not even their pockets, because of the situation that the country is in right now. So It’s really to appeal to them to say, let us be a bit more resilient, patient and let’s see how different the outcomes could be.
Given the worrisome security situation in the country, how do you think traditional rulers can help the federal government curb the insecurity bedeviling the nation?
This is an age long question, I have been here only one year, and you have monarchs who have been on the throne for 40, 50 years who had been answering this questions for all those decades. And I’m sure in each part of the country the response is slightly different, but there’s general insecurity in this country, that’s a fact and not a political statement. You can fly or drive to the northeast, north west, south west, south south and so on and you will feel the tension of being on the road, it’s uniquely different and it’s there. At the same time this country is under policed. Unless if you want to simply empty the barracks of all soldiers and policemen and put them around the country, which is not their job description, because maybe there isn’t enough funds to recruit new people and train them, unless you want to do that, there will still be pockets all over the place, and so this is where you need to work hand in hand with the Traditional Rulers, who are usually, with the exception of men of the DSS, who make it their mission to go and collect information, traditional rulers will always get information without asking. There’s a saying ‘a king will hear the news twice’ unofficially and officially, because there is just that natural pathway that information will come to him. Once that information gets to him, if he’s able to now actively call the police commandant in collaboration with the youth structure on the ground, or if there’s some traditional vigilante structure on ground, there will be quicker response. I come from an oil producing part of the country so let’s use illegal bunkering which is a criminal activity, there’s no way boys can come and bunker the line and the people there are totally clueless. It is impossible, somebody would have been walking by, heard something, somebody would have been told to keep quiet, the locals always know. So it’s the same thing when there’s a den of robbery activities, somebody in the locality knows and that local authority could easily come across that information without much pressing, whereas security operatives will have to press for that information and the locals may just say let me not say anything to avoid getting into trouble. So because there’s a natural trust between the grassroots and the monarchs they must be included in the security apparatus of this country, at least if you want to see a quicker response in curbing the problems.
People are clamoring for constitutional roles to be assigned to traditional rulers, it’s among some of the areas they want to look at in amending the constitution. Do you support that?
Yes, specially traditional rulers being so close to their people, they are authorities, and it’s important that the constitution recognize these authorities. Not that we don’t have legitimacy without the constitution, because quite a number of us are older than Nigeria and definitely older than Nigeria’s constitution and we are only here to be an added value for Nigerians, we are not here for any self serving purpose. Because we are here for the betterment of our people, I think it’s right that the constitution officially recognizes and support these traditional institutions.
Afenifere, Southern and Middlebelt Leaders are clamouring for restructuring, state police as a means to solve the country’s challenges. Do you think that’s the way to go?
What’s evidently clear to everybody in the country is that the status quo is not working, or it is not working at a sufficient level. So there has to be a change in approach, some people can call it restructuring and all that, and I think sometimes the wording of a thing may make certain people a bit uncomfortable. But that’s why I say it’s clear to everybody that the status quo is not working efficiently and that simply needs to be addressed. That requires stakeholders to come to the table and put ideas and proposals together and the government takes it seriously without any looking at it in a suspicious way, because we have had many gatherings, and at those gatherings great suggestions were put forth, why those suggestions where not applied, I was not there. But if I was to guess I will say that those who were in a position to take that decision felt for reasons best known to them it should not have been applied in the way it was presented. So there’s definitely a need to reconsider the way things are currently being handled.
Security situation of the country gets worse as the day goes by, as the 2023 gets closer, do you think it is likely to affect the general election slated for February?
I think it’s very important that this journey we’ve began with this our recent goal at democracy that started in 1999, I think for posterity it’s important that we do our best to keep this momentum going because it’s very important Nigerians feel encouraged to participate in their civic duties. So anything that will prevent Nigerians from continuing this performance of their civic duty I think as much as possible should be avoided. But if insecurity is threatening to stop them, it’s something we cannot ignore because we don’t want people to be attacked or lose their lives in large numbers because they want to carry out their civic duties. The government’s primary responsibility is to protect its citizens lives and properties. So looking at February, March next year, I know the usual words of a monarch and most Nigerians these days is to pray, and to be fair, God actually does answer our prayers in this country. God is real and he has a bias for Nigeria, he answers our prayers despite the fact that we are the ones causing our own problems. People are praying. we stand and speak the truth where we have our fears and concerns. Every time the truth is said it opens the door for solution. If now we start collectively to say here are the patterns of these attacks we should start preparing for worst case scenario so that we are not completely denied our civic duty. And I can understand why the government maybe hesitant because they may have some special plans to use the Army last minute that you cannot publicly say that this is your plan, because obviously you will let the perpetrators know that this is the way you want to come. I think civil societies need to have these discussions and not just simply fear mongering, and come up with a solution based panels, plan for worst case scenarios and you will be amazed the solutions that will come out when minds are rubbing together in that direction. I think that’s what I will encourage people to do.
