Chief Robert Audu
Chief Robert Usman Audu, a former Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports holds the traditional title of Agenyi Attah Igala. In this interview with Apex News Exclusive, he chronicles issues that Lokoja and others are part of Igalaland leased to the British in 1841 and the recent landmark judgement on the case in favour of Attah and issues concerning handling of COVID-19 in Nigeria among others.
By Anthony Maliki & Gabriel Agbonika
The case of the Attah Igala and the Federal Government concerning owning Lokoja and other local government areas has been interesting. What is the latest. Is there an appeal?
The Attorney General and Minister of Justice said the Federal Government is not appealing the matter. They went to court and saw the facts of the matter. Politicians can go on appeal to delay. If they say you lost an election, you are asked to apply for stay of execution so you can buy time. In the case of Lokoja, one Egbira man was telling his people that he will advise them to trend cautiously on this matter that if the Attah Igala want to get this judgement through legal process, Egbira should approach it through the legal process. But let’s ask a pertinent question. Where was the Ohinoyi of Egbira when Attah Igala gave this land to the British in 1841? So even the Igala have discovered that there is no Ohinoyi in 1841. Some people are being instigated on the spur of the matter. What is General Tunde Ogbeha stake in this matter? Tell us what your stake is. How does the Attah Igala stops you from your rights? What part of Lokoja were you occupying by 1841 when he gave the land to the British? There were the Nupe, Bassa-Nge, Bassa-Komo who are in Lokoja. The British say ‘no, we don’t want you here.’ So, they gave them three years moratorium to stay. Attah Igala now relocated them and gave them where they live now in Bassaland. All these facts have now come out. Attah Igala gave them this land stretching up to the Federal Capital Territory.
This issue of land that it belonged to the Igala and the matter taken to court. What actually necessitated this issue in the first place?
You know, it is an evolutionary matter. Attah gave the land. In this they saw the overbearing and extending influence of the Igala to Igboland and want to start clipping our wings. After giving this land to the British and amalgamated Nigeria in 1914 and changes started taking place. By 1960, the British left and that leasehold understood they could do anything on the land. They created their cemetery and buried their dead in Lokoja. Then regions were created, before then, provinces were created in 1926. The land that Attah Igala gave to the Europeans and left and after amalgamating northern and southern protectorates and capital of Nigeria moved to Lagos, they had wanted to use Lokoja as capital, so that one ceased to be and they now went to Lagos. So, they created Kabba Province. Since the British were there and improved Lokoja with some basic infrastructure, Lokoja conveniently became capital of Kabba Province and while the provincial administration was going on, movement was inhibited by the river. So, people on the eastern flank of River Niger and Benue, started facing the north. Their front became Makurdi and abandoning the back which is part of their land. They didn’t know what to do with the land. But Ajaokuta, Koton-Karfe all came from Idah. It was Attah’s people with other tribes that sojourned them from 1841 or earlier, so their languages started undergoing some changes. For example, at a point, the Ona of Abaji title became a problem. The late Governor of Niger State, Alhaji Abdulkadir Kure, who was a Director of Engineering in the Federal Capital Development Authority and wanted to install someone of Nupe extraction who settled in Abaji so the people protested. They say though people have settled at Abaji they know the owners of the land and the Nupe have no land here so they told Director of Legal Services of FCT, Barrister Philip Okala was the chairman of the panel to look into the Ona’s issue. He asked why are they saying they knew who owns the land. He was told that when their forebears came to the land, they established the chieftaincy institution of Ona of Abaji which is an adulteration of Igala name. They said their forebear was Adegbe of Igala extraction. They told him, those in Abaji are Igala. We went through due processes. The Attah Igala sees himself as the owner of Lokoja because the province is a successor to the federal capital that the Europeans acquired Lokoja for. Then the military came under General Yakubu Gowon and abolished the regions and the provinces, states were created and the rest is now history.
You accused the Nigerian media of not doing enough in this period of COVID-19 as well as the Presidential Task Force on the pandemic led by Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Mr Boss Mustapha.
The Nigerian media has not given the people a true position of things. They have not gone deeper in enlightening the people about COVID-19. You see, there are 1757 deaths on road accidents from about 4000 auto crashes more than the coronavirus. The John Hopkins University in the United States is coming with statistics and issues that are supposed to be known. Here, the Presidential Task Force is only talking to a few people on television. Go to the markets, is there any social distancing or physical distancing or in the hospital. Clustering is our lifestyle. So, they have to study our lifestyle and help us to survive under our unchangeable lifestyle. In Madagascar, their own is neem which is normally used for malaria here and for other things like to mix with agbo, the Yoruba people sell. Why not tell everybody to be drinking it as a First Aid. If everybody is sick today, they have no facility for them. What is the capacity of the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital that they can receive 1000 patient? The Group Managing Director of Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mele Kyari built a 200-bed hospital in Kaita add to that of the Air Force in Daura and the all the government hospitals in Katsina State, they are still under 500 capacity. If there is a disaster in Katsina they cannot cope. With all these realities, tell the people ‘sorry, let us move on’. It is like war as you are moving on, your colleague gets hit by the bullet, tap him on the back you move. That is the truth and reality we most face, not sentiments. The next thing that is coming is more than COVID-19. That is famine. Do we need to be told that agricultural production will go down next year? So, hunger will set in gradually.
