Nigeria’s Oldest Monarch
IN 1958, two years before Nigeria gained political independence from Britain, a 20-year old youngster was chosen by the people of Bomo clan, that they might follow in his footsteps. He was not the tallest man in the clan. He was just shy of four feet two inches only. Yet upon his pint-size shoulders, God thought it fit to place a temple so endowed with good reason and fine sense that gentility and decorum have since become second nature, if not a complete part of the character of His Royal Majesty Warri Safigha Joshua Igbugburu X, Ibenanaowei of Bomo clan.
Igbugburu’s popularity has grown since then. He enjoys the love, and commands the respect, of people even outside his domain. Igbugburu is the kind of ruler whose commitment to the people is paramount and far above self. He personifies the collective will of his own peers who appointed him primus interparis, first among equals in the hierarchy of royal authority. The king himself confesses that his name is one of the longest in the catalogue of royal names in all of Africa.
Igbugburu’s sense of humour is well known. It is the instrument that grants him access to the heart of his neighbour, the key that opens up the respect that has since become his portion from the time he was selected by a caucus of wise elders as king. Igbugburu will tell you, and quite rightly too, that the only other name that compares with his own in the entire corpus of regal history is none other than Igbagara, his colleague in the Bayelsa State Traditional Rulers Council.
Igbugburu was king when the Union Jack was lowered at Tafawa Balewa Square, Lagos. He was king when Queen Elizabeth II of England visited Nigeria. In fact, both of them came to their respective thrones in the same year, 1958. He was witness to the royal reception laid out for the imperial monarch. He was in the line-up of Amanyanabos and Emirs and Obas and Obis who gave their felicitations. He was counted as one with a royal hat worthy of the communal imprimatur it carried in the hollow of its inside. It was a crown branded with populist ideals because it was placed upon his tender head by popular choice.
Joshua Igbugburu was king when the Traditional Rulers Council was constituted in the old Eastern Nigeria. He was king when Nigeria conducted her first census in 1963. He was king when Nigeria went to war with Biafra. He was king when the war ended. He remains king in this day of peace. Igbugburu’s sagacious leverage in the intervening period may well have attained a peak.
The king still speaks the language of peace today. He has been witness to so many governments in civilian times as in jack-boot times, and the confidence of his people in his ability to lead them through it all is not shaken. Igbugburu was king when Rivers State was created on Saturday May 27, 1967, and a young 25-year old Navy Commander was appointed to govern the infant state.
Even in those days, Igbugburu shook hands with Alfred Diete-Spiff all laid out in his immaculate naval uniform, shoulders emblazoned with epaulettes of gold. Both men can tell how much water has passed under the proverbial bridge since that handshake which became stronger when Diete-Spiff gained entrance into the portal of traditional rulers in his present capacity as king of his people, Seriyai II, Amanyanabo of Twon-Brass.
Igbugburu was king when Isaac Adaka Boro fought valiantly in the twelve-day revolution, drawing attention to the prospect of a Niger Delta Republic. He was king when Ken Saro-Wiwa died, agitating for parity in the oil and gas equation. Igbugburu was king when Bayelsa State was carved out of Rivers State on Tuesday October 1, 1996.
He sat in exclusive counsel with the first civilian Governor of Bayelsa, Chief Diepreye Alamieyeseigha and his deputy. He was king when Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan rose to become President and Commander-In-Chief of the Armed Forces, Federal Republic of Nigeria, the first son of the Niger Delta so to do. Igbugburu remains king even today, long after that eventuality.
Born to a royal family on Sunday August 21, 1938, he is the son of Joshua Idenghe and Gbalipre Amienyo, and a grandson of late King Amienyo Egberigbagha. As a boy, Joshua had his early education at St James Standard School, Ekowe, and later proceeded to the People’s Teachers Training College, Oleh. He successfully completed his teacher training course and began his career as a pupil teacher at the age of sixteen. His destiny, however, pointed in a royal direction. At the age of eighteen, and still single, the people of Ekowe chose him to ascend the vacant stool of his maternal homestead as the Amananawei of Ekowe.
Opposition came from the most unlikely quarters. His own mother, Gbalipre Amienyo, stood against the proposal. In a motherly bid to protect her son from harm, she fled with him into exile in Nembe for six months, in much the same way that Joseph and Mary fled with their beloved son, Jesus, when King Herod was out to kill every male child two years young.
The woman stayed away in the belief that the storm would blow over by the time she returned with her baby. For six months, the people of Ekowe waited. For six months, the stool remained vacant. Igbugburu, when he returned from hiding, was old enough to recognise the will of God, and therefore had no reason to hesitate about the call to govern his people.
Even as a young man of eighteen, his leadership qualities were already evident. Two years later, in 1958, when he turned twenty, he was formally appointed to the royal office with the full endorsement of all the kingmakers. So did Joshua Igbugburu ascend the throne as Amananawei of the palm-oil rich Ekowe. In his spirit, Igbugburu felt inadequate for the assignment. He stood in need of formal training to enhance his apparent leadership skills. He promptly enrolled for the Eastern Region Leadership Training Course at Awgu in today’s Enugu State. He remains grateful for the experiences he acquired.
As if to confirm that he was ripe for a higher calling, Igbugburu was elevated to the status of clan head, following the death of his predecessor, King M.S. Torufa. At age thirty-one, W.S. Joshua Igbugburu, Amananawei of Ekowei, was installed as the Ibenanawei of Bomo clan, his paramount authority stretching over twenty Ijaw kingdoms in the Southern Ijaw area of present day Bayelsa State.
HRM Joshua Igbgburu X has abiding faith in the unity of Nigeria. From the vibrant trade in oil palm during the colonial era to the boom of trade in crude oil, the monarch has done his level best to keep the pipes of the oil industry flowing. His leadership acumen was put to a tough test when the incidence of militancy in the Niger Delta rose to international prominence. He was traditional ruler over the area with the highest number of militants in Nigeria, and a great onus was placed on him to resolve the crisis.
Well ahead of President Umar Yar’Adua’s amnesty programme for the Niger Delta, when militants disrupted the oil exploration routine almost on a daily basis, Shell Petroleum Development and other oil companies often solicited his intervention. On several occasions, the monarch is known to have marched fearlessly into militant camps, waving a white flag of peace at gun-wielding militants, and demanding dialogue with a fatherly rhetoric that called for understanding.
The king’s crisis management techniques have been better honed since then, and the respect of the people for their amiable traditional ruler has continued to grow. He has refined his peace-building strategies between companies and communities across the Niger Delta, and has come to be counted as a dependable instrument for raising the economic development index of Nigeria.
King Igbugburu’s reputation as the longest serving monarch in Bayelsa goes back in time. He was Chairman of the Council of Traditional Rulers in the days of the defunct nine Eastern States of Nigeria. He was Chairman of the old Rivers State Council of Traditional Rulers, member of the National Council of Traditional Rulers under the General Sani Abacha regime, and a member of the exclusive Kings Assembly of Africa.
King Igbugburu earned his title as Justice of the Peace, formally conferred on him after the civil war by the Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon. His home in Yenagoa, in fact, is festooned with an array of plaques and awards, including the SPDC award for Community Conflict Resolution and Development in Nigeria award, 2006, Bayelsa State Development Progress Award, 2006, Church Kingdom Builders award by the Anglican Bishop of Niger Delta West Diocese, 2012.
He also holds his personal trophy in his deserving capacity as a Founding Father of Bayelsa State, 2006. What’s more, he is a distinguished recipient of the Commander of the Order of the Niger, CON, a national honour conferred on him by President Umar Yar’Adua in 2010.
In the course of his reign thus far, King Joshua Igbugburu has secured a good number of development projects for his community. His mobilization efforts have led to the construction of markets, schools, and health facilities. What may well rank as his truly salutary achievement is the location of a Federal Polytechnic at Ekowe, and the domestication of peace in his territory despite the tumultuous political temper of the area.
He remains one of the longest serving monarchs in Nigeria, and certainly the longest reigning monarch in the entire South Eastern Nigeria. He counts as a peace builder, a courageous community mobilizer, and a royal gentleman of the people. In April 2015, the Federal Government appointed His Royal Majesty Warri Safigha Joshua Igbugburu X, Ibenanawei of Bomo Clan, as the first Chancellor of the Federal University, Lafia. On the day of his inauguration, he was conferred with the honourary title of Doctor of Letters, D.Litt, honouris causa.
He is joyfully married and blessed with a good number of princes and princesses. The monarch says, with resolute assurance, that he has no regrets whatsoever. He believes that everything that has happened to him in the course of his life was well guided by powers beyond him. His greatest aspiration now is to serve God and humanity for the rest of his life in all humility.
By: Pope Pen