NIGERIA: Agiri Festival

IT was a rapturous affair at Bille Kingdom, Degema Local Government Area, Rivers State, recently, as citizens adorning stunning cultural regalia trooped out en masse to mark this year’s multi-million naira Agiri festival, their most revered convention.

As tradition demands, visitors and security escorts were given George wrapper and other traditional attires to robe themselves at the festival that abolishes diseases, promotes peace and unity.

NDV gathered that Agiri festival was earlier celebrated annually, but in recent times, the community unanimously agreed to be marking the event every four years due to the huge financial outlay.

We inherited it from our forefathers— Minapakama Vice Chairman of Bille Kingdom Chiefs Council, Chief Ibitamuno Minapakama, told NDV that the community ensures that it celebrates Agiri festival because after it, several people are healed of strange ailments.

He asserted,What you are seeing today is a testimony of what we inherited from our forefathers. This is an ancient culture in Rivers State; there is no festival like this, we celebrate this every four years. Any community that does not have this kind of culture, they are bound to have problems.

It is for unity and togetherness. It makes us come together to reason together for development and peace. We have not experienced communal war; we are working in line with the Rivers State government and Governor Nyesom Wike, who is preaching that there should be peace in Rivers communities.

It is the entire kingdom that is here; even the Christians are also participating. I am a Christian. If you celebrate Agiri, you will see diseases are eliminated, culturally, we are united.

Oath of adherence similarly, Secretary of Bille Chiefs’ Council and Opu-towi II of Bille kingdom, Ibiba Kombonimi, remarked, When our forefathers migrated from Benin Kingdom and settled down here, based on what was handed down to us, they met people celebrating, they later came to their understanding that for them to live harmoniously in this land, they need to keep this festival.

Originally it was yearly, but because of the cost, we decided to make it four years interval. From the first masquerade till today, we have spent over N50 million, over 15 masquerades have performed and each of them is important to us.

We keep the oath our fathers kept; this is the oath we kept with the people our fathers met here. They took oath that this festival will be the object of their unity.

To keep faith in the covenant we had with the people that our forefathers met here, we need to maintain this cultural heritage.

I see great tourism potential — Chigbara A native of Nkoro Kingdom, Opobo/Nkoro local government, Chief Philip Chigbara, who visited Bille for the Agiri celebration, said: This is part of my people, I also want to advise the community to make the government to be part of this festival and to be one of the state cultural displays to also attract tourism to this place.

Let it not be for only Bille people. It should be made a state culture. When the government sees this kind of culture, they will support it, it can bring development. The celebration makes the community united.

If it happens at the state level, it is also for unity because even enemies come together to celebrate culture. Govt hails peaceful disposition Secretary, Caretaker Committee Secretary, Degema local government, Mrs. Okorite Adiele, who represented the Deputy Governor of the state, Dr. Ipalibo Banigo, commended the people of Bille for keeping to their culture.

She said: “Agiri festival is a rich cultural heritage of the people of Bille Kingdom. The hospitality of Bille people is what is exhibited in the festival. Today is a great day for the Bille people wherever they are.

There is a demarcation; the women have a degree of participation, so also men. I encourage other communities to embrace their cultural heritage so that the youths will learn to be peaceful.”

The Bille Tribe of the Ijaw people lives in central Rivers State, Nigeria. The small clan is sometimes classified as a Kalabari clan rather than as its own tribe. The tribal seat is the town of Bille

There are numerous settlements in the Bille territory, which combine with the Bille town to form the Bille kingdom. These are situated in various locations around the area that used to be under the control of the Bille people in the pre-colonial days. The Bille town is the major settlement in the kingdom, which served as the headquarters of the ancient Bille Empire.

Bille town, like other coastal towns, is a low-lying land in the vast mangrove forest region of the Niger Delta and is only a few feet above the sea level. It is situated in the south-eastern part of the present Degema Local Government Area of the Rivers State. It is an island on the bank of the Bille Creek, a tributary of the Sombrero River (Akuku Toru).

As an island, it was surrounded by water with a channel dividing it into two; hence, kala anga and opu anga, and thus one can drive round the town until in the late seventies when the southern axis - the Angula and Osia sections - was sand filled for expansion. The main land is now joined with the sand-filled area and extends into the mangrove forest, which is still being reclaimed.

Someone coming from Degema will sail along the Sombrero River southwards into the Opu Bille kubu creek and further southwards into the Kala Bille kubu opposite the Ibi Iriawo Anga now extinct after the Bille-Kalabari war of 2000 settlement. After about 4 turns from the entrance of the Kala Bille kubu, the town is immediately sighted, welcoming you into its warm embrace.

A visitor from Port Harcourt can board a speedboat or any sea vessel at the various jetties but usually at the Bille waterside along the Creek Road, Port Harcourt. From there, the boat will sail southwards along numerous routes and later cross the New Calabar River or Kalabari Toru within fifteen minutes from take-off and pass through the Awun Toru unto the Touma creek before entering the Oro kubu that runs to the shore of Bille.

The new site (Iwo-ama) - a newly reclaimed mass of land - adjacent the town with school structures and playing fields is the first port of call. Thereafter, the boat will sail past the Green poku, Asuka poku, Abekereme poku and finally berth at the Siran poku where the first jetty is sited.

The Bille town has five basic entry points; the Kala Bille kubu, the Besi kubu, which terminates at the Teinma (besi) boko or meinma anga opposite the Ibilan poku, the Oliyama anga, the Oro kubu and the Oruama boko. The Oliyama anga is the lower stream that starts from the Bille creek and leads to such southern places and towns as the Bille 1 Flow Station, Ke, Kula, Abissa, etc.

Among the other major settlements in the Bille kingdom where Bille people as well as fishermen and traders of various tribes reside include; Jikeama, Touma, Krikama, Ekema, Oruama, Oboma, etc. although there are also numerous smaller settlements used for plantations.

Some of these include: Makiridikianga, Sekiyabo-kurowa, Ele, Emannuel-kiri, Enesirama, Imopeleye ama, Ikpabiraba-daba, Dikama, Duroko, Ninama, Owu poku-obu, Feni-paan, Borma, Ibi-iriawo anga, Nonjuama, Madu-kiri, Amabiofiyema, Kari-ama, Epeka, Singi-kiri, etc. All these locations surround the Bille town, which is at the centre of the Bille kingdom.

In the 1935 Intelligent Report on the Kalabari Clan in the Degema Division of the Owerri Province, Captain Kelsey, the District Officer at the time said, “the inhabitants of Bille share rights of the rivers boundaries with Bonny only, commencing from the left side of Anwokiri-toru now known as Kalabari toru which has its start (sic) from Anya creek near Bakana to the Bar.”

In the same Report, Bille's fishing ports along the Anwokiri-toru and Bille Obu-toru were recorded to include Tunduro bokobe kiri, Emmanuel kiri, Greenkiri or Feni-paan, Wosaba, Touma, Ekulekule-tombi and Dabira.

Others were “Ibi iriawo angabe kiri, Kala-Bille bokobe kiri, Minji du kiri all in the Bille Kubu creek while along the Opu Bille boko there are the Opu Bille bokobe kiri and the Oruama bokobe kiri, Oruama kiri, Imopeleye bokobe kiri, Imopeleye, Eli kiri, Dokubo kiri, Dikama, Ogbodo piri, Ekema kiri, Balo bokobe kiri, and Torusira bokobe kiri.”

The Report further identified rivers owned and controlled by Bille as Akuku Toru (Sombrero River) up to Ndele Toru, Obu Toru and the river stretching from Anwu Toru to the Anya creek.

The limit of the boundaries of the old kingdoms of Kalabari and Bille is described in paragraphs 117 and 118 of the 1949/50 Report of the Commission of Enquiry into the Okrika - Kalabari Dispute by Mr. Justice G. G. Robinson. The case for Bille is however very plain as in paragraph 118 where the Robinson Report described the boundaries of New Calabar (Kalabari) by adopting the Supreme Court of Nigeria decision on the issue. The facts are reproduced below:

118 So it is interesting to see what territory was given to the Kalabaris by the judgement (of the Supreme Court). It is as follows:

‘I regard therefore all that territory from the Old Shipping extending to Bakana, Buguma and Abonnema (including Degema) and as far west as the Kula country occupied by the New Calabar people over which they have exercised ownership for at least forty (40) years and which is now the territorial property of the chiefs and people of New Calabar as representing the people of New Calabar and this property includes all lands, banks of rivers, ponds and creeks and swamps and includes the New Calabar River and the Ekwe River and all its tributaries in the territory of which Old Shipping, Bakana, Buguma, Abonnema, Degema and Kula may be regarded as boundaries but excluding the country of the Billes who appear to have never lost their independence’ (Emphasis mine)

This much was repeated in a memorandum submitted to the Rivers State Sub-Committee on Boundary Changes by Chief (Dr.) Harold J. Dappa-Biriye on October 10, 1997. In the memo, he further asserted that,

The Billes who released Old Shipping to the Kalabari know that the middle of the New Calabar River is our (Bonny/Bille) boundary. This is evident in the map of Bille boundary tendered to the Mbanefo Inquiry Panel and forwarded here as well.

The people of Bille have maintained these locations and boundaries even in the colonial period in spite of the expansionist threats from her immediate neighbours and benefactors. The Bille territory is the area that has more oil and mineral deposits in the present Degema Local Government Area.

Queen Ikpakiaba founded ancient Bille many centuries ago with several colleagues who fled their original settlement because of an internal conflict amongst the inhabitants. The people of Bille were said to have emigrated from the old Benin Empire. It is difficult to ascertain the accurate date from Oral tradition even as dates cannot be easily proven because of the difficulty in arriving at accurate data due to the level of knowledge about the calendar in those days.

We were told that they left the old Benin Empire and moved southwards to the Niger Delta region and first settled around the Tarakiri clan in Central Ijaw before finally settling at a place called Okolo Bille in the present Abua territory situated on the north of Degema on the bank of the Sombrero River.

It was at this point that a severe dispute occurred amongst the inhabitants. Oral Tradition relates it to a dispute over the sharing of the head of a special fish called tilapia (atabila) by the rulers during a festival. This resulted in a civil war that caused most of them to emigrate to the south where they founded various towns and settlements.

Originally settled at Elem Kalabari by the Bille people when they came from Duke Town in the present Akwa Ibom state, the Kalabari people have moved totally from there to found great cities, towns and villages with Buguma as the seat of their king.

The old single towns have greatly evolved to become clans. Oral tradition and recorded history has it that one Mfon Manuel and a group of his people left Duke’s Town and sailed down to Bonny where they met the king of Bonny. On hearing that they had fled from their former domain and are in search of a new settlement the Bonny monarch took them to his brother king at Bille and requested him to give him a portion of his vast territory for his guests.

His exact words as recorded for posterity were, “kele pa imbari” literally meaning, ‘please, give them some land’ to settle. It is this initial expression that the Bille people later used in identifying their Duke Town strangers that had metamorphosed, over time, to become the name ‘kalabari’.

The Bille people present were Amanyanabo Igolima Dappa, Chiefs Abel Uriah, Efrenbo Nangi, Irionu, Joel Siala, Bruce Mgbe, Charles Sibi, Edward Bibi, Walter Bibi, Isaiah, etc.

NIGERIA: ‘Miracle’ in Nigeria By Kenyan

A near mishap at the Tafawa Balewa Square, Lagos would have further soiled the already grubby image of a Kenyan preacher who made a great effort to establish legitimacy in Nigeria.

Many Nigerians surged at him as he stepped out of the arrival hall of the Murtala Mohammed International Airport in Lagos, accompanied by Senator Helen Esuene, her daughter, Mrs. Eme Udom and Rev. Israel N. Israel, the man many know as his anchor in Nigeria.

Israel lives in and runs a church called Glorious Covenant Church in Port Harcourt, Rivers State. It was through this small congregation in the Niger Delta that controversial Kenyan preacher David Owuor who goes by the title ‘prophet’ crept into Nigeria; paying uncelebrated visits in 2011 and 2012. “God bless you,” he spoke softly and motioned in that famed manner of revered religious personalities as he received a bouquet of flowers from a little girl.

These persons rushing forward to have Owuor lay hands on and pray for them had previously listened as he fielded questions from a small party of journalists.

Hitherto, Owuor’s mat of heavy, tangled beard reaching down to his chest masked his identity. Was he an artiste? His features conveyed the image of a sage.

His conversation with the journalists revealed his personality. As he was gently urged by Esuene and Israel to approach the car conveying him to his hotel, a few security men joined the rush for Owuor’s touch.

He looked at a middle-aged man and insisted that he remove the rosary on his neck before he could touch him. It took four years to plan what was supposed to be a heroic return to Nigeria, a country which is in Owuor strategic scheme.

His desire to make a lasting impression could be discerned from his insistence that his coming must be organised by a pool of influential Nigerian churches and personalities.

Welcome, Repent Now Nigeria, an inter-denominational platform “to plan for his reception in order that many Nigerians from denominations can be reached.”

The group which also had Mrs. Usen Bassey, Miss Ese Ekiugbo and Iniobong Esuene planned a three-day event. The first two days were fixed for meeting with church heads at the MUSON Centre, Onikan-Lagos and the last day scheduled a ‘healing service’ at the Tafawa Balewa Square in the same vicinity.

Owuor was quartered at the Oriental Hotel, Victoria Island. Senator Esuene was the arrow head, although she modestly referred to it as team work. But she was the interface at many meetings concerning Owuor’s 2016 visit to Nigeria.

Commuter buses carried the message of his visit to Nigeria and a private television network was contracted to record and transmit his activities in the country. Owuor carries the stigma of a fake preacher, even in his home country. And many decent and self-respecting clergy keep their distance from him.

Try as they did, the Repent Now Nigeria group was not able to get a buy-in from the organised body of Christians like the Christian Association of Nigeria and Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria. Therefore, they were not officially represented at any of Owuor’s meetings.

In a veiled attack on another controversial Nigerian cleric in particular and many Nigerian preachers in general, Owuor said his coming to Nigeria signals an “end to ‘gospel of money’ where you have people come from South Africa and all these countries and you sell water and all kinds of things to them.

I come to rise up against the gospel of money that is in this city. The gospel of buy your morning water, whichever water, gather people from Southern Africa, carry money to greet the men of God.”

A former research scientist at various universities in the US before his spiritual calling, Owuor claimed to have heard from God who has spoken with him about the coming of the Messiah. He would repeat various versions of this message throughout his meetings, moderating it sometimes with a direct charge to church leaders.

“Nigeria is a God-fearing nation, but now if they are really God-fearing, then this is the moment to return to the true gospel of cross and the blood – the holy salvation and the gospel that is not connected to money- that we may prepare the hearts of the people and the nation for the coming of the Messiah and then everything else will follow.

“I really bring the message of holiness of repentance and to prepare for the coming of the King. So the kingdom of the church you see in Nigeria now, the building of universities, the money and private aircraft acquired with big money and all of that is going to come down. That is why I have come. I come with tremendous power and there is no question about that.”

Instead of the demonstration of ‘tremendous power’, all the meetings barely attracted a handful of people. The most obvious was the last assembly at the car park of the TBS which attracted little less than 400 persons.

It was supposed to be a ‘healing service’ and Owuor whose strong taste for the miraculous in Nigeria could be seen by his invitation to inmates of two popular blind institutions in Lagos. Even though he kept saying that the blind will see, at the end of the day, no blind eye was opened.

No lame person abandoned his crutches. Owuor struggled to have a confirmation of his healing prowess in Nigeria, but it was as if God had taken leave of him! The few persons who came forward claiming relief from pain, stuttered with the ‘testimony’, while Owuor kept asking if there was a doctor to confirm the magnitude of reprieve enjoyed by this people.

A near mishap towards the end of the TBS assembly would have marred Owuor’s reputation irredeemably. As wind storm heralding rainfall started the railing which held floodlights on stage collapsed on a little boy.

Owuor who was still talking when this happened, started announcing that people should step away from electricity cables. With worry written all over his face as it began to rain, he refused to heed Esuene’s request to enter a car. He continued to talk, as if to himself, “so this is the rain I saw in my dream.”

NIGERIA: Port Harcourt Gets New Museum, Zoo

•Alabo Amachree leading the guests on tour of the museum

Top tourism industry stakeholders in Nigeria last week converged on Port Harcourt for the pre-opening facility tour of the Museum of African History and Culture and Zoo located in the Brooklyn Tourist Centre on East-West Road, Rumuosi in Obio-Akpor council area on the outskirt of Port Harcourt, near the University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

The tourism complex is the brain child of one of the leading tourism practitioners in the country, Alabo Mike Amachree, the owner of Brooklyn Group of Hotels and former president of the Association Tourism Practitioners of Nigeria (ATPN).

The practitioners were taken round the new complex to see the new zoo and the museum.

The museum has history of top monarchs that has left indelible marks in the history of Nigeria.

After the tour, the practitioners visited the chairman of the Rivers State Council of Traditional Rulers, His Majesty Dandeson Douglas Jaja, the Amayanabo of Opobo.

Amachree said tourism a major economic activity which generates income and create employment for the people. He added that for a country or state to attract tourists both local and inbound tourists, necessary infrastructures and superstructures that are capable of attracting tourists have to be put in place in addition to the tourists attractions. He said it was on that basis that the practitioners are visiting the monarchs to make suggestions on how the state could built its tourism profile and attrct tourists.

According to him : “Rivers State with international airport, seaport and network of roads and the petroleum industry, has comparative advantage over other states in the country foe tourists’ inflow. Secondly, Rivers State was the first state in Nigeria to establish a tourist site known as the Isaka Holiday Resort in 1967 by the first military governor of old Rivers State, King Alfred Diete Spiff. The second tourist site was established by my humble self known as the Port Harcourt Tourist Beach. It is also on record that my association, the ATPN organised the first Abuja Carnival under my leadership in 1991 without government assistance. We organised the second Rivers State Cultural and Musical Carnival in 1993, tagged RIVCAM ’93.”

Amachree said tourism was not just about building hotels, fast food restaurants, organising carnival festivals that will attract the desired tourists to Rivers State as these facilities are mere ancillary or support service for tourism promotion and tourist delight. He said the state has to develop high class tourist sites and museums where our history and cultural relics, artifacts and monuments would be permanently exhibited for admiration by our visiting tourists. The tour operators would then market the sites and bring in visitors. He said also that development and promotion of tourism was entirely a private sector affair, and that government was to provide enabling environment.

Amachree said traditional rulers, as custodians of culture, history and tradition, should be assisted by the government to equip their palaces with relics and artifacts to promote tourism in their various communities.

He also called on the private sector and the government to jointly open up the rural areas by establishing private tourist sites, monuments, museums, tour operating and tour guiding enterprises which will create more jobs for people like the one he had just built.

In his response, the Amayanabo of Opobo praised the Alabo Amachree for the consistency in his efforts in developing tourism in the country. He also praised him for the new project, the new Museum of African History and Culture.

He said: “Tourism is a product that enhances the dignity and prestige of most countries and provides so many opportunities, employment and entertainment. It helps in boosting national economies. We are lucky so many tourist sites abound in Nigeria.

“In Nigeria, we have so many places to go to. It requires government assistance to private sector to develop them. Your call came at the right time. We will try to talk to the government to look at that area for developing in the area of employment possibilities.”

The monarch said if tourism was developed to its full potentials, oil would take a back seat. He said people want to see new things in Africa. He promised to be at the commissioning of the tourist centre later in the year.

The monarch also used the opportunity to call on the government to return History as a subject in secondary school.

Among the stakeholders on the trip were Malan Garba, President, ATPN, Dr. Mumbo Eniola, ex-permanent secretary, Kogi State Ministry of Tourism, Dr. Dike, former director general, National Gallery of Arts, Prof Alegoa and many others.