COLLAPSE OF CEASEFIRE: MEND issues two-week ultimatum

SUNDAY VANGUARD, JULY 10, 2016, PAGE 15
royalty
100 year
ears s of Nanna of Itsekiri’s ‘Living
Histor
ory’
C
M
YK
“
By Egufe Yafugborhi
Of all his contemporary
traditional rulers,
particularly around the
Niger Delta, that fought intruder
British imperialists, got tried and
exiled in his time, Chief Nanna
Olomu was the only one who
returned home to re-establish his
throne and pre-eminence before
he died. All others died in
captivity.” This was one of the
measures of the exceptional
greatness of the legendary Itsekiri
ruler, highlighted by Wilson
Onime, Curator at the Nanna
Living History Museum, Koko,
Warri North Local Government
Area, Delta State while taking
visitors through the museum last
Sunday in celebration of the
100th year of Nanna’s death.
The Nanna Living History
Museum, the nucleus of the
celebration of Nanna’s centenary
remembrance, was, until the
Federal Government accorded it
that status, the palace the
venerated colonial era traditional
ruler of the Itsekiri people built,
lived, died and was buried upon
gaining freedom from captivity of
the British imperialists who
deported him to Accra, Ghana.
The palace was declared by
Federal Government as a
National Antiquity in 1979 before
the upgrade into the Nanna
Living History Museum,
dedicated by Gen. Sani Abacha in
1996 for the preservation of
Nanna’s legacy as an outstation
of National Commission for
Museums and Monuments.
Nanna, born in 1840 and
enthroned by the colonial
overlords as Gofena (Governor)
of Benin River (1885-1894),
faced many trials in conflict with
colonialists from the Nanna
(Ebrohimi) War in 1894 through
his trial and detention in Calabar
(1894-1895) to his deportation to
Accra, Ghana (1896) before his
return to Nigeria in 1906 and
death in Koko, Delta State: July
3, 1916.
The centenary celebrations,
inspired by Pa J.O.S Ayomike,
foremost Itsekiri historian and
husband to a granddaughter of
Nanna, Utsaghan, began with a
visit by Ayomike and associates,
including Edward Ekpoko,
Secretary, Itsekiri Leaders of
Thought and Chairman, Warri
Study Group, to the home of
Chief Victor Nanna, eldest
grandson of Nana who now leads
his famed grandfather’s
descendants and also holds the
larger capacity as Olare-Ajao
(Communal Head) of Koko,
Nanna’s final settlement and
present day headquarter of Warri
North council.
Activities then shifted to the
Nanna Living History Museum
where each visitor had the
privilege of conjuring a personal
sense of the historically
documented majesty of Nanna
with tour the home he lived. On
display aside his tomb were the
remainder of Nanna’s treasures –
his private boat, regalia, swords,
jars and dishes set on his private
dining, lamps, decanters, silver
rays, spectacles, pendants, clocks,
and water filters as well as
pictures of his siblings, extended
family as well as those of his
contemporaries, particularly
King Jaja of Opobo, Oba
Ovonranmwen and his British
friends among the imperialists
•Chief
Nanna
Olomu
who sacked him fall from Ebrohimi, his first
throne where he was assumed Gofena
(Governor) of Benin River. Inside the Nanna
museum were also a treasured rifle and a
cannon, a fraction of the arsenal he
employed in the failed resistance of the
imperialists invasion.
Tributes
A candle light session was held at Nanna’s
tomb where Onime, the museum’s Curator,
pledged commitment of the National
Commission for Museums and Monuments
to sustained preservation of the Itsekiri
sage’s legacy. Ayomike led the observance of
a moment of silence in his honour and a
requiem service at the museum’s hall and
dance entertainment by Itsekiri cultural
groups followed simultaneously.
In a statement Onime read to Nana
descendants, signed by its Director General,
Yusuf Usman, the commission praised
Ayomike as a friend and “a strong pillar”of
the Nana Living History Museum while
identifying with the Nanna family on the
centenary of his death.
Ayomike, in a recount of some of the
memories that defined Nanna’s greatness,
said, “Nana was buried with a giant diamond
ring and lay in death on a regal catafalque
fabricated by his own children who learnt the
sophistry of carpentry and other vocations
while studying in Ghana where their father
was deported. In Accra he became a
Christian, but Ralph Moor, Actg Governor
and Consul General who placed a £500
reward for his arrest, tried and pronounced
life sentence on him and seized his entire
wealth, went back to Britain, got lunatic and
took his own life.”
He also shared fellow historians’ thought
on the greatness of Nanna in his reprinted
work, ‘Nanna, British Imperialism At Work’,
where he quoted Michael Crowder as saying,
“The importance of Nanna at this stage of
Nigerian history was considerable. Like Jaja,
he stands out as one of the few who were able
to offer serious resistance to the encroaching
British and as Cook has pointed out, this led
to the British practice of removing native
chiefs who opposed British penetration rather
than seeking their cooperation.” Prof. Obaro
Ikime, who Ayomike acknowledges as
foremost authority on Nanna history, added
his own assessment: “Far from derogating
from his importance and reputation, the
humiliation and exile he suffered have served
to further enhance his prestige in the eyes of
•Foremost historian, Pa J.O.S Ayomike (l) and Chief
Victor Nanna, eldest grandson of Nanna Olomu and
Olare-Aja of Koko.
•Nanna stool at his Koko palace where he lived
and died upon return from deportation in Accra,
Ghana
his countrymen and to win for
him a worthy place in the history
of the country.” Tributes also
came from Prof. Aborime
(Abuja), Prof. Johnson Ekpere,
Joseph Ayomike and Prof.
Ogbemi Omatete.
No apathy -Eyengho
Film and stage play maker,
Alex Eyengho, who is passionate
about projecting the Itsekiri
culture through his works, would
rather stick his neck out to any
length to debunk the notion of
Itsekiri apathy to the greatness
of Nanna. He said, “There is no
apathy. Nanna is a great African
hero. No right thinking Itsekiri
would hear about the
celebration of Nana and won’t
want to be part of it. As an
activist and arts practitioner,
who has also done certain things
about Nanna, I think the Nanna
family narrowed this celebration
as if it was a family affair.
“They did not reach out to the
larger Itsekiri and Nigeria at
large. Making it a Nanna
descendants’ affair was where
they got it wrong. Everything I
have heard about this centenary
event were on the pages on
newspapers. One would have
expected the family to set up an
all embracing committee of
resource persons of diverse
callings bringing their
experiences to the table for an
earthshaking celebration.
“This Nanna was a great hero.
He was before Oba Ovoranmwen. He
was the first to resist the British
imperialists and was fought and
overpowered before Ovoranmwen. I
would have expected that at this
point of his history, we would have
staged a play to reenact how big
Nanna was, as I have done for
Itsekiri on such auspicious
occasions. I put the blame squarely
on the Nanna family who don’t seem
organized themselves. If there is any
apathy, they created it.”
Barring the sentiments over an
apathetic Itsekiri to the greatness of
Nanna, not all his folks loved him in
his time and history has it that the
hate within escalated the imperialists
resolve to bring his empire down with
fingers pointed to Nanna’s rival and
extended relative, Chief Dore Numa,
who became the leading Itsekiri
figure at the capture of Nanna.
J.O.E Sagay in ‘The Warri
Kingdom’ on the trials of Nanna,
pointed out: “Since no other Itsekiri
chief came to give evidence against
Nanna, it can be assumed that only
Dore and Dudu, inspite of their
claims to the contrary, were behind
the Bristish action. And no peace
came to Itsekiri land after the
removal of Nanna.”
Love or hate him, “the great man
today lies buried in the bosom of his
palace in Koko. Nanna died and a
chapter of Itsekiri history closed. A
fulfilled life it was, but one pierced and
riddled with a dagger of hate –hate that
has been dissolved by seeming
irrelevance caused by time”, Ayomike
moved on the great Nanna of Itsekiri.