{"id":13004,"date":"2017-01-15T19:13:24","date_gmt":"2017-01-15T19:13:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=13004"},"modified":"2017-01-15T19:13:24","modified_gmt":"2017-01-15T19:13:24","slug":"why-ijaw-nation-must-not-abandon-tompolo-adaka-boro-reincarnation-by-alaowei-cleric","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=13004","title":{"rendered":"Why Ijaw Nation Must not Abandon Tompolo: Adaka Boro Reincarnation by Alaowei Cleric"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><code><a href=\"https:\/\/btclab.io\/?ref=Omafume\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/btclab.io\/banners\/320x100.gif\" width=\"541\" height=\"169\" \/><\/a><\/code><\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n<!-- www.deltanewsroom.com --><br \/>\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display: block;\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-2163942495525027\" data-ad-slot=\"1411897411\" data-ad-format=\"auto\"><\/ins><br \/>\n<script>\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n<\/script><\/p>\n<p>Government Oweizide Ekpemupolo (a.k.a Tompolo) is generally believed by majority of Niger Deltans to be a reincarnation of the Niger Delta pioneer martyr, Major Jasper Isaac Adaka Boro who pioneered the liberation struggle. Though Boro gave birth to several field fighters who raised the bar from where he stopped, Tompolo is an exceptional martyr having born for the purpose for which Boro lived for. While Boro remains the symbol of the Struggle, Tompolo is undoubtedly the driving force behind the Struggle at this present age. He is the alter ego and the wheel of the Struggle as it stands now. Hence, Tompolo is the reincarnated Adaka Boro who threw down the gauntlet to fish in the turbulent river.<\/p>\n<p><code><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.alternativeadvert.com\/show.php?z=30&amp;pl=11944&amp;ad_type=59&amp;rl=180\" width=\"300\" height=\"250\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/code><\/p>\n<p>At the thick of uncertainty resulting from the gross marginalization and criminal neglects of the Niger Delta region by the Federal Government and the then Eastern region Government, the young undergraduate from the University of Nigeria, Nsuka, took that eclectic but lethal decision to set in, the liberation Struggle. While Boro was successfully unleashing his naturally endowed military prowess to liberate the down-trodden region from the neocolonialism, the Federal might came calling at Kaiama Town in the present day Bayelsa State, Boro&#8217;s hometown, started harassing, intimidating and terrorizing the innocent civilians, a case now televising itself in Gbaramatu Kingdom. The Ijaw leaders at the time such as PA Harold Dapper Pepple Biriye of blessed memory were tamed, emasculated and intimidated into submitting their son to the invading Federal forces. &#8220;Produce Boro to the Federal Government or the Government will destroy your community&#8221; were the only news broadcasted loudly from over the tannoys\u00a0and the electronic media so much so that it became the trammels to free movement in the region.<\/p>\n<p>At the battlefront, the cry of the maimed innocents rent the air, reverberating and the sound of their cries went faster than the bullets. Alas, Boro became seemingly traipsed up. Winced at the thought of liberating the region from the imperially bequeathed neocolonialism, he declared the word of the former American President, Theodore Roosevelt in 1898, &#8220;One more river to cross&#8221; and then he surrendered to the Federal forces to buy the costly peace for his people. Boro was not captured at the battlefield neither was he arrested by his assailants in action. No wonder our forefathers said the Ijaws were never conquered in war. He willingly submitted himself to the Federal Government\u00a0due to the latter&#8217;s demands to submit Boro for the freedom of the region. No sooner had Boro been sentenced to death by the oppressors than the Niger Deltans realized that the sacrifice for peace was a mirage.<\/p>\n<p>The sound of oppression grew uninhindered at the demise of Adaka Boro and it had rooted in the very foundation of our existence. At the down of events particularly at the time the intellectual chapter has a firmed grip of the music of oppression, the youths became increasingly agitated. Different militia groups sprang up to confront the high-handedness of the Federal Government. At last, all these groups coalesced into one formidable platform to be known as the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) with its historic Kaiama Declaration which now formed the base of the Struggle.<\/p>\n<p>Though Kaiama Declaration has set forth, the formula for the Struggle, its implementation was becoming the albatross to the redefined Struggle. Tompolo and like minds who were the key players of the Kaiama Declaration, keyed into its resolutions to open another chapter for the Struggle. He specifically declared that the Niger Delta people must cross the Rubicon, the turbulent one more river Boro promised to cross. At the height of events, he gathered all the generals and their lieutenants at Camp 5 in Warri South West LGA of Delta State to form the dreaded Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND) in 2006. The sophistication and the intellectual attachment to MEND has internationalized the Struggle, albeit the Federal Government under the command of late President Yar&#8217;Adua granted an unconditional Amnesty for all the armed bearing agitators.<\/p>\n<p>Event now came calling for the repeated time. The oppressors have periscoped the region and they found out that with Tompolo wearing toga of freedom fighter without being exterminated then the region will cross the turbulent river of oppression. Again, the fold of events followed the Federal Government&#8217;s exterminating expedition to hound Tompolo, mirrored Boro&#8217;s episode. Reminiscence of submit-Boro-or-we-will-kill-<wbr \/>you episode in Boro&#8217;s era is the drama displaying in the Niger Delta particularly in the Gbaramatu Kingdom in Warri South West LGA of Delta State. Gbaramatu Kingdom is now the headquarters of the Nigerian armed forces all in the mission to arrest Tompolo dead or alive. The innocent civilians are the victims of the serial invasions. The only one option left is the substitution of Tompolo for peace to be restored in the region, the last straw that broke the camel&#8217;s back in the 60s.<\/p>\n<p>The question we must ask; must we buy peace with Tompolo the same way our forefathers sold Boro out for the peace of Trojan horse? The peace our leaders in the past bought with our pioneer martyr cost his life in the long run. We are the losers and today we are still regretting. Was the peace they bought granted the region any victory in the battle of emancipation? The answer is capital NO. Niger Deltans must not make that mistake again. Like the adage, &#8220;once biting, twice shy&#8221;. We must not be intimated into submitting our own for the soul of the Struggle. Though we need peace, we cannot sacrifice Tompolo for the Trojan horse. No wonder Ziegler said &#8220;If you want peace prepare for war&#8221;. Beloved Niger Deltans, our cherished peace cannot come in piecemeal except with a battle of the Waterloo. I agree with a onetime President of the United States of America, Mr. John Kennedy when he said, &#8220;Those who make peaceful change impossible, make violent change inevitable &#8220;. We must endure the hard time though with gnashing of teeth, that is the sure path to freedom. The battle of wits between the oppressive Federal Government and Tompolo will be for the common good of the region if we stand with our son to fight the battle. Niger Deltans must sacrifice her fair-weather peace to save the reincarnated Adaka Boro this time around.<\/p>\n<p>Ethnic Nationalities in the region must rise to the occasion to defend the Soul of the Struggle. My special appeal to the Ogojas, Anangs, Effiks\/Ibibos, Eches, Ekpeyes, Andonis, Engenis, Ogonis, Ikwerres, Engenis, Ijaws, Urhobos, Isokos, Itsekiris, Ikas, Ndokwas, Aniomas, Binis, Isans, Eladjes, Afemais among others to please chat a common front and stand with our brother. Let us join hands to fight our common enemy. Let us fight for our survival and economic right within the Nigerian Federation. Together, we shall win the battle for resource control and self-determination.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Tompolo.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-8910\" src=\"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Tompolo-300x234.jpg\" alt=\"Tompolo\" width=\"300\" height=\"234\" \/><\/a> Esq is a public affairs analyst, writes from Eseimogbene Town in Burutu Local Government Area of Delta State.<\/p>\n<p><code><script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n<!-- www.deltanewsroom.com --><br \/>\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display: block;\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-2163942495525027\" data-ad-slot=\"1411897411\" data-ad-format=\"auto\"><\/ins><br \/>\n<script>\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n<\/script><\/code><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/market.jumia.com.ng\/men-shoes\/?utm_source=pap&amp;utm_medium=aff&amp;utm_campaign=0bed9dec&amp;a_aid=Omafume&amp;a_bid=0bed9dec\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" title=\"\" src=\"\/\/kaymu.postaffiliatepro.com\/accounts\/default1\/a72f75b38\/0bed9dec.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"571\" height=\"245\" \/><\/a><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border: 0;\" src=\"http:\/\/kaymu.postaffiliatepro.com\/scripts\/a72f75i38?a_aid=Omafume&amp;a_bid=0bed9dec\" alt=\"\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Government Oweizide Ekpemupolo (a.k.a Tompolo) is generally believed by majority of Niger Deltans to be a reincarnation of the Niger Delta pioneer martyr, Major Jasper Isaac Adaka Boro who pioneered the liberation struggle. Though Boro gave birth to several field fighters who raised the bar from where he stopped, Tompolo is an exceptional martyr having [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":13005,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[7],"tags":[1166,3432,882],"class_list":["post-13004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","tag-isaac-adaka-boro","tag-kaiama","tag-tompolo"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/320x100-39.gif","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4oswh-3nK","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13004"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13004\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13006,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13004\/revisions\/13006"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}