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…hails UPU for extending hands of fellowship to ethnic nationalities
…Nigeria confronted by hydra-headed impediments- Taiga
By Festus Ahon & Ochuko Akuopha, UGHELLI
GOVERNOR Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State Friday, lamented the challenges and frustrations currently being faced by the Nigerian nation, expressing hope that with God, the country would not go down.
Speaking during the non-elective convention and awards of excellence in the ongoing 90th anniversary of the Urhobo Progress Union, UPU, Okowa said: “By the special grace of God, peace will yet again return to Nigeria and we will begin to move again on the part of progress”.
He commended the leadership of UPU for it’s resolve to extend hands of fellowship to other ethinc groups in the state.
“UPU has played a major role in the advancement of not only the Urhobo nation, but in the advancement of Delta State and Nigeria. I know the role UPU is playing in helping to build peace in Urhobo land and trying to extend hands of friendship across the state and by time our people in Delta State are able to relate as one, it will help government to solve it’s problems,” he said.
Thanking the Urhobo traditional rulers for the support they had continued to give to the UPU and the state government, he commended the union for honouring sons and daughters of the Urhobo nation who had excelled in various aspects of life. “When people are recognized, it is a call for those who are growing up to do more for the nation”, he added.
On the 2023 governorship election in the state, Okowa expressed happiness with the peaceful manner and respect for each other with which the lobby groups seeking the gubernatorial seat had been going about their aspiration.
He said: “As we continue to extend our hands of cooperation, l am foreseeing a peaceful coexistence and very soon, we will sit down at the roundtable and talk to ourselves because we want a state that will remain stable.”
Advising those vying for the governorship position to be mindful of the choice of words in public places to avoid crisis, he advised the Urhobo people to prune down the number of their aspirants.
“When there are too many sons and daughters in a race, it creates a lot of challenges. There is the need to trim down and l believe the time is now,” he said.
Reiterating the determination of his administration to remain focused on its goals through 2023, he said “we are better off as a united people, we are better off talking to each other and better off respecting each other.”
Earlier, President-General of the UPU, Olorogun Moses Taiga noted that the union was the oldest surviving socio- cultural organization in Nigeria.
He said: “Our forebears stoke the embers of cultural nationalism and as deftly as possible put the UPU on a pedestal that insulated it from the murky waters of politics.”
He lamented that “Nigeria, nay Urhobo of today is confronted by hydra-headed impediments that we must brace up to combat. We are assailed from within and outside.
“Urhobo is part of the global current of disillusionment and we must like others also embark on the quest for a new social order to attain the essence of the redemptive strides the founders of the UPU envisaged for the Urhobo people ninety years ago.
“Just as our forebears did in 1931 when they engaged the times in which they lived, we the Urhobo of 2021 must also interrogate our today and contemplate our tomorrow and begin to work our way through the currents of hope and land at the shores of the Promised Land.”
He thanked the ethnic nationalities that felicitated with the UPU on the anniversary, saying, “we cherish our cultural and fraternal bond.”
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