EDO CONVENTION - USA
FIRST NATIONAL ASSEMBLY, WASHINGTON, D.C.
SEPT. 5 & 6, 1992
THE INAUGURAL ADDRESS by
REV. DR. S.I. AGHAHOWA
INTRODUCTION:
His Excellency, Chief John Odigie Oyegun, Governor of Edo
State,
Nigeria;
Traditional Chiefs, representatives of His Royal
Highness, Omo N'Oba
N'Edo, the palace chiefs of Benin City; My lords
celestial and my lords
temporal, most respected guest speakers, special
invitees, members of
the Council of Presidents, E.C.U.S.A.; members of the
Executive
Committees of Edo Associations, members of the press;
distinguished
guests; Ladies and gentlemen: MAY THE GRACE OF GOD BE
WITH YOU ALL,
AMEN.
I stand to welcome you all to the first National Assembly
of the Edo
Convention-USA held here at Washington, Saturday, Sept.
5and Sunday,
Sept. 6, 1992. As you very well know, this is the first
of this kind of
a meeting of all Edos in the United States of America
coming together
as one body on a national level. Thanks be to God for a
vision come
true. With a heart full of joy and abounding emotions I
am very
grateful to all of you for making it a point of duty to
be present here
today. I welcome our guest speakers who have come
prepared to feed our
hungry souls with the facts and figures we are waiting to
hear. And
especially, all Edo people in USA join me to welcome our
invited guests
from Nigeria, for taking the pains to obtain the
"mighty visa,"
spending the high cost of flight, taking the risk of the
eleven hours
of flight across the Atlantic Ocean, just to be here at
this meeting.
To you we say welcome, and through you we send greetings
to all Nigeria
as a whole and to Edo State in particular. At this time,
as part of
what principles we are advocating, it is desirable for me
to greet you
all in our mother tongue or dialects: W a koyoo; WA
obokhian o;
Obokhian Aba; Es e o; Mo o; Wa hia dooo.
I want to salute Washington, D.C. Edo Association, not
only for
volunteering to host this unprecedented meeting, but also
for all the
detailed and excellent preparations that were made to
provide for our
comfort. Washington, we thank you for this good example.
Other
--Associations will pick up the challenge, which you have
thus put
forth.
To all members of the Edo Associations, I salute you, in
the first
place, for taking the initiative to come to USA. I'm
aware that over
90% of us here came to this country to improve on
ourselves by way of
acquiring education. I'm also aware that most of us, if
not all, have
actually succeeded in that direction. I salute you for
your successes
so far; for enrolling in one school after another,
obtaining one degree
after another, going from one internship to one
externship; marrying
and getting married, starting and raising a family; all
these from Your
hard-earned wages from one part-time job here, and
another part-time
job there. I sincerely salute you for your courage,
perseverance and
relentless efforts to make it, even against all odds.
(Edo we, "O sian
Nomayo".) I'm proud of my people, both old and young,
men and women
that you are always different people, who, by the strict
discipline in
your upbringing, and dint of hard work, become achievers
in anything
you set your heart to do. I also salute the people of the
United States
of America, for receiving us, supporting us, bearing with
us in our
times of financial needs, especially regarding late
payment of tuition,
etc. America, you helped us to become the men and women
we want to be.
May God bless America, Amen.
Now we are here. Today we have gathered here as a people,
the people of
Edo State of Nigeria: Bini, Esan, Afemai, Ora, Etsakon,
Akoko-Edo. We
have come to unite, to reunite, and as brothers and
sisters to remind
ourselves of our common root. It is important to remind
us that all
people of the present Edo State are one people. We are
brothers and
sisters, one family with a common ancestor. It is a
serious disservice
and anti-patriotic for anyone to try to search out the
fine lines of
differences among us. Actually the old Edo Kingdom was
larger than the
present Edo State. Time will not permit me to go deep
into that part of
our history now, but it suffices to say that the people
of Edo State
have been one from origin. No part thereof should, nor
can one claim
superiority over the others; nor should any part breed
the bad blood of
estrangement. There is no 'minority' group in Edo State.
"Thou spirit
of division, alienation and estrangement, be thou gone
and cast into
the sea forever." AMEN. We have before us, two full
days and two nights
of deliberations and activities. We shall receive
addresses on various
topics; we shall sponsor a special program of launching
the project
1992; we shall receive the "en quantum"
textbook donations; and our
entertainment hours are blessed with the presence of the
celebrated Edo
musician--Osayomore and his Ulele Power Sound. Let us all
open our
hearts and mix up in the joyful spirit of togetherness,
that we might
enjoy this convention to the fullest.
WELCOME.
WHY EDO CONVENTION-USA?
For a long time, some of us have been conceiving the idea
of having an
umbrella organization that will bring all Edos together.
This idea was
hatched by the Akugbe Oretin Union of Chicago, when, last
year in
August 1991, this Union sent out the first circular
letter calling on
all Edo Associations to send delegates to a planning
committee meeting
at Chicago. That meeting convened on December 8 & 9,
1991, attended by
delegates from San Jose, Washington D.C., Ann Arbor,
Detroit, Nashville
and Chicago. That was the beginning of the Edo Convention
U.S.A. The
second meeting convened for the Council of Presidents,
which was
entrusted with the planning for the general assembly here
today, was
held at Nashville, TN on Saturday, April 4, 1992. It was
the plans and
prayers of that meeting that brought us together today.
At the
Nashville summit, I shared with all the participants the
genesis of
this vision. Briefly put, it was in 1987 that I made the
first attempt
to make known my vision for our people. I sat down and
tape-recorded a
60-minute cassette which copies I mailed to our
traditional father Omo
N'Oba N'Edo and the Iyase of Benin respectively. It is my
fear that
this cassette message might have been lost in transit. In
1989, still
burning with that zeal, I launched what I called the
National
Association of Nigerians in America (N.A.N.A.). That
Association didn't
survive. It became obvious that the best thing to do was
to consult
with my own people--the Edos in America. Akugbe Oretin
Union of Chicago
took it up from there. It is in humble gratitude to God
that I stand
before you today to share my vision. I pray you all to
listen carefully
to this vision so that you nurture it and give it a
chance. I pray you
to make it your vision, so that if I happen to die, you
let the vision
live on in you to a fulfillment.
THE PURPOSE OF EDO CONVENTION.USA:
From time ancient, we've suffered at the hands of
disunity. We of this
generation grew up to meet the saying that, "Umaigba
N'Edo" and we
joined in the propensity to disunite, even when and where
unity was
possible. How long shall we linger under the hand of an
"assumed curse"
that perhaps was never pronounced? How long shall we
allow ourselves to
be deceived by our own deceitful deceits, that what hath
been said
cannot be unsaid 7 Brethren, as dawn as it is today, it
is time for us
to take hold of our own destiny and ask for God's
blessings upon it. If
we won't, no one will do it for us. We need to be united;
to be united
in spirit and in truth. We are witnesses of what manner
of unity that
exists among other people and other nationals. We don't
need to be told
of how strongly knitted is the tie that binds the
Japanese, the
Chinese, the Koreans, the Indians, the Polish and the
Irish people in
this country. We need this kind of unity; the unity that
breeds love;
the unity that nurtures understanding; the unity that
gives
encouragement and moral support to people; the unity that
gives
economic helping hand to people at the time of need, and
the unity that
provides the forum for solving common problems. This
unity, we need it,
we ask for it, and we can have it!
A GLANCE AT HISTORY:
For purposes of emphasis, it is necessary to mention that
Benin ranks
among the highest category of organized kingdoms of
ancient history.
Benin Kingdom, along with the Ife and Owo Kingdoms,
possess art
antiquities, which testify to the advancement of the
organizational
structure of these kingdoms. In the catalogue of the
recent "Circa
1492" exhibition in Washington, Ezio Bassani of
Florence, Italy said
that the Kingdom of Benin was established in the 13th or
14th century.
Nothing could be farther from the truth. If indeed the
Portuguese
adventurers arrived in Benin in 1485 to meet the
well-organized Kingdom
of Benin, how could it be assumed that such a kingdom was
only
established a century back? In his own words, Professor
Bassani stated,
that when the Portuguese seafarers arrived in 1485,
"there was a highly
organized society in Benin, wealthy and militarily
powerful, and
governed by an absolute monarch, the Oba, supported by
court
aristocracy and an efficient bureaucracy."
Apparently it was the
popular reports about Benin which the Portuguese
explorers carried home
to Europe that attracted the British to send its party to
Benin in 1897
to establish trade relations. Of course the story is
known to you, that
when the Oba forbade the visit because of the then
traditional
ceremonies going on in the kingdom, the consequences of
the loss of the
visitors precipitated the British punitive expedition to
the land in
Feb. 1897. What followed was the heavy looting of the
Benin Art
treasury, which to date have never be6h retrieved. Looted
Benin Arts
are found in big and small cities all over the world: in
the Nigerian
National Museum in Lagos; in the Detroit Institute of
Arts; in the
Museum of mankind-London; in the "Stadtisches Museum
Fur Volkerkunde,
Frankfurt; Museum Fur Volkerkunde, Berlin; Seattle Art
Museum, Seattle;
the St. Louis Art Museum, St. Louis; the Brooklyn Museum,
New York; the
Metropolitan Museum of Art; the Museum of Primitive Art,
New York; and
the University Museum in Philadelphia, to name a few. In
reference to
their military prowess, several of the Obas of Benin were
probably the
most powerful men in the world. Visiting Europeans
testified that they
were able to raise armies of 100,000 warriors in 24
hours; something no
European or Asiatic King could dream of in those days.
History tells us
that Oba Ewuare (ne Ogidigan) the invincible, the
unpredictable, the
indefatigable, the insurmountable, the unapproachable,
the powerful,
the mighty warrior, Ewuare the Great, indeed conquered
and subdued ALL
the neighbouring kingdoms and countries of the
contemporary West and
West Central Africa south of the Sahara, marching through
Ida, Eko,
Dahomey, Togo, Camerrouns, until he pitched his sword in
the soil of
the Congo, now Zaire. It is therefore not surprising that
as early as
1492 the Oba of Benin actually had his envoy in a foreign
country like
Portugal. Why do we have to recall history? It is because
we have a
history to be proud of. But more, because the glory of
our past history
prompts us to wake up out of our sleep and apathy or puts
us to shame
in our failures. The good thing is that we're really not
weak people;
we're indeed not naturally different from our ancestors.
Then, the
question is, what happened to us? The answer is not
far-fetched. When
King Rehoboam the Son of Solomon capitulated to Shishak
the King of
Egypt, Jerusalem was looted of Solomon's shields of gold.
Though Rehoboam replaced them with shields of bronze, its
glory was not
radiant as in Solomon's shields of gold. Western
civilization indeed
enlightened us with the capacity to read and write;
outside of this
theoretical knowledge, we are bereft of the powers, which
made our
fathers great men. The cultural dispersion in which the
African society
finds itself has no answers to African problems, for as a
fact, the
scaffolds of the present generations have no roots though
they are set
on the soils of our own nativity. For example, the
understanding our
people have about modern politics and the practice they
make of that
understanding completely negates the African value of
community and the
place for mutual leadership and followership. In modern
politics, what
makes the Western rulers come together, makes the
Africans fall apart.
Where have our people benefited? It brings tears to my
eyes when I
recall the havoc of partisan politics in my childhood
days. Having been
bought over and stupefied by the political leaders of our
local
communities, our homogeneous ethnic groups were torn
apart into various
enemy camps. Before our eyes, our fathers began to hate
their own
family members, neighbors, clansmen, and even public
co-workers. Before
our eyes, the stronger parties oppressed the weaker ones,
arresting
innocent persons by police warrants, ravaging village
communities
willfully, setting opponents' houses on fire, destroying
farm food
crops by their tendrils, harassing women because of their
husbands'
political affiliations, etc. etc. In recent years, these
atrocities
culminated in the rigging of elections, the sabotage of
government
contracted efforts and the obduracy of suffering in
starvation and need
instead of cooperating with the powers that be. The
results of these
political antagonisms are misgivings, miscommunication,
enmity, and
high corruption in order to get what is needed. Above
every other
thing, we Edos now know when the rain started to beat us.
WHERE WE ARE NOW?
The present situation of things in Edo State defines a
position of
loss.
Unfortunately, not many of us have even realized this.
Down the years
in our cultural dispersion, we have lost those life-giving
ingredients
that prepare and see people through troubled times.
Little by little we
are loosing our language; we've lost our ethnic
dignity--the joy of
belonging to that native Edo; we've lost our cultural
heritage of
seniority-order, the castes; we've lost our cultural
identity even in
name, in dress, in greetings; we've lost our dignity of
labour; we've
lost our self love--the highest form of love; we've lost
mutual
respect, respect for life, respect for elders and respect
for rulers;
we've lost indigenous initiative and our Edo technology
as we hope and
depend on imported Lux soap to give the first bath to our
new-born
babies. Above all the Edo person has lost the basic trust
for his
fellow Edo person. Having lost all of these, what do we
hold on to? As
no culture can exist in a vacuum, nilly Willy, we've held
on to foreign
languages, foreign cultural values, foreign dresses,
foreign food
items," foreign technology, self hate, and above
all, we've held on to
negative attitudes.
Ladies and gentlemen, if anything will change in our
homeland, our
attitudes must change. Again, our attitudes must change!
If indeed people's lives are negatively occupied with
hate, mistrust,
resentment and all such negative feelings, there would be
no room for
learning and growth. To face the matter squarely, we
cannot expect much
unless we change our present attitudes to life. We must
be forgiving;
we must learn to love our neighbors as ourselves; we must
live and let
others live; we must be considerate and more acceptable
of other
people; we must desist from corruption, from pride,
greed, selfishness,
malice, jealousy, hatred, and deceit. In public life, we
should
cultivate the spirit of faithfulness, respect for public
property, the
spirit of hard work and the spirit of good fellowship and
trust. Only
in this kind of atmosphere shall others find themselves
better-integrated, and able to function effectively.
These selective
values will sooner bring reinforcement into lives, which
in turn will
yield high productivity. What you give to life, you'll
receive in
return.
GLOBAL EVENTS:
There would be no need to take this audience through a
chronicle of the
global events of recent times. We are all living
witnesses of the
changes, the incredible and unprecedented changes that
have taken place
in the last three years, in Germany, in the former Union
of Soviet
Socialist Republics (USSR) and the Baltics. More than
ever before,
people are more conscious of their identity and the need
to pursue the
course of their identity-fulfillment. It is not enough,
nor fulfilling
to be provincially identified. Provincial identification
always
represents incompleteness and that constitutes a danger.
It means that,
for some reason the human being has failed to fulfill his
maturity-potential. Therefore if love and unity are to be
built in the
minds of men and women, they must be built through types
of group
experiences typical of cultural identities. These
cultural identities
manifest in unifying experiences of eating together,
giving and
receiving gifts and help, talking, listening with
understanding,
working together and playing together, learning together
and affirming
together. The Federal Government of Nigeria stands to be
applauded for
realizing this
need' for closer ethnical identifications by creating
smaller states
out of the larger ones in 1991. But it is not enough to
identify our
semblance, it is more important to explore and exploit
them to our
advantage. There is no need to fear to do this, because
it is our
responsibility. Such a fear would cast out love, cast out
intelligence,
goodness, and all thought of beauty and truth. We need
not block out
this responsibility out of our consciousness (as we
always do) and
pretend that everything will come out right, or that we
at least are
doing all that is called for if we attend to our own
affairs.
Now Edo State, which we prayed for is created for us;
what do we do
with it? The only thing we need to fear is the type of
political
partisanship that is willing to jeopardize our internal
cohesion and
homeostatic for the sake of winning an election. To fear
this is not to
stand paralyzed before it. It is to recognize how
dreadful its
consequences may be and to bend our energies toward the
building of our
state and common identity that is legally one,
economically one, as it
is physically one." A house that is divided against
itself cannot
stand," the Bible says (Mark 3:25). We in America
need Edo
State, to remind us of who we are. In turn, Edo State
needs her
children abroad to remind her of how things ought to be.
And as Rev.
Jesse Jackson puts it, "it is this creative tension
that makes us
healthy, alive, sensitive, alert and accountable."
We in America, call
on His Excellency the Governor of Edo State and ALL
political,
traditional and religious leaders to build Edo States on
solid, moral,
ethical, economic and sound spiritual values that are
higher than
partisan politics. We appeal to you to protect our people
from being
treated as objects, or as means to an end. The people of
Edoland (as
any group) are more than a collection of persons. Edo
people have their
being and essence. We appeal to you to pave the way and
provide the
atmosphere for our people, both young and old, to
cultivate trust,
honesty, faithfulness, sacrifice, patriotism, a sense of
freedom,
fairness, justice, understanding, a sense of community,
of oneness, and
a sense of the future and growth towards it. We need this
forum of
understanding, that we might be able to affirm our
character and
selfhood. Africa has been seen and known to take whatever
comes to it
in the struggles of life. Africa has been seen and known
to let things
happen to her. We must not be led to accept this kind of
status. We
should initiate our own political and economic salvation.
We should
identify and uproot the stems of our political problems.
IT IS NOW!
THE GOALS AND THE FOCUS:
At the turn of this century, every nation on earth will
take stock of
its achievements and set its goals or rather announce
them. The first
thirty years of the twenty-first century will be those of
dynamic
ventures, a redoubling of efforts in order to hit the
targets before
schedule. One necessary question is, How did the nations
of the first
world get to where they are now, with an estimate of one
hundred years
of developmental gap between them and the third world?
Many factors can
be listed for an answer. Unity, patriotism, sacrifice,
cooperation, and
hard work are top values on the list. And we may depend
on it, that the
road, which will lead us to greatness, will have to
create spaces for
these signposts. There is no magic to greatness it has to
be worked
for.
To realize laudable goals:
(1) Edo Convention and Edo State must focus on unity and
cooperation in
their planning. Our people must be seen as one and
working towards the
same direction. Cooperation, they say is the
wonder-working power of
society. Name any successful corporation, and it shall be
discovered
that it is successful because the corporators cooperated
for its
success. Edo Convention USA needs to map out strategies
of inaugurating
other Edo Conventions in Canada, Great Britain, France,
Germany, Japan
and other parts of the world. Setting aside the next three
years to
realize this goal, it is our proposal that the first
assembly of the
Edo World Alliance shall be held in summer 1995. This
vision must be
fulfilled!
(2) Edo Conventions (and Edo World Alliance) would need
to stand side
by side with Edo State as a government and as a people.
Edo State
should be seen as the blessed beneficiary of the
expertise advice and
moral support of Edo World Alliance. This will mean to
stand by its
elected Governor at any regime, to aid him/her to succeed
in the
service to Edo State.
(3) As you all will see and hear before this Convention
session is
over, there is a serious need to define our economic
goals and to map
out strategies to meet them. There is a need to harness
our human and
natural resources toward some definite positive ends.
Following this,
attention shall be focused on supporting Edo Convention
and Edo State
economically by sponsoring definite projects. Outstanding
among such
projects are Education, Health, Agriculture, public
sanitation and the
establishment of financial institutions that can be
reached by the
common people. It is towards this end that in its meeting
at Nashville
on April-g,
1992, the Council of Presidents, among other things set
up a Committee
on Projects. The duty of this Committee was to research
into,
enumerate, and prioritize the feasible, viable and
possible projects
that Edo Convention shall embark upon from this year
1992. I have been
duly informed that the Committee recommends to this great
Convention as
its first project, the establishment of a financial
institution--the
bank. The bank, as you know, serves two purposes for a
group
organization of our own status: (1) It would make good
profit like any
other business ventures, and (2) It would aid its members
to obtain
their economic independence by serving as a loan giver
for them. This
is an edge a bank has over other businesses.
Edo Convention - USA, our project 1992 is the
establishment of a
financial institution. Its launching is tomorrow evening.'
To succeed
in all our projected goals, money is a necessity. And to
be financially
sufficient requires sacrifice and hard work. This
sacrifice I want to
ask of you today. The financial experts in our midst
shall see to it
that we don't fail. (All bankers, accountants,
economists, business
administrators please stand.) Unto these brothers and
sisters we shall
commit this phase of our vision. But I need all of us
here and even
those not here today to join hands and combine efforts to
give this
vision a chance. (PLEASE BE SEATED)
To this effect, it is necessary for every one of us to
make a
sacrifice; and the sacrifice is this: That every Edo
person in USA
contribute (invest) the sum of one thousand ($1000)
dollars towards
this project between now and September 1993 when this
Convention shall
reconvene again. Let it be noted that the said one
thousand ($1000)
dollars is not to be given as a donation, but as an
invested
contribution, which Edo Convention USA shall (by the
grace of God)
refund to the individuals with interest in a few years.
Brothers and
sisters, considering the privilege for self-improvement,
work and
status that we have as of today, and in view of our goals
and
objectives, one thousand dollars ($1000), is it too much
to ask? Isaac
Newton once said, "Give me a place to stand, and I
will move the
earth." Today you are called upon to give Edo
Convention a place to
stand, so
that it can move its own world. IT CAN BE DONE!
RECENT EVENTS IN EDO STATE:
This address will not be complete if it doesn't touch the
issue of the
recent events in Edo State. It is a common adage in Bini,
"Owa i man
orawan, ai kporhu vb'ugbo." Nothing in the foregoing
pages of this
address would be achievable if the people of Edo State
are not living
in harmony with themselves. The need for a peaceful home
base for Edo
Convention, and for the Edo World Alliance cannot be
overemphasized.
The Edo Convention - USA greets His Royal Highness, Omo
N'Oba N'Edo,
Uku Akpolokpolo, Oba Erediauwa; The Oba of Benin. The Edo
Convention
-USA greets His Excellency, Chief John Odigie Oyegun,
Governor of Edo
State, Nigeria. To all traditional rulers in Edo State,
the "Enigies",
the palace chiefs, the Edionweres, all political leaders,
all
government executives, all religious leaders, and the
good people of
Edo State, Edo Convention - USA sends greetings. News
coming from
Nigeria concerning the events in Benin, political and
otherwise, since
the last gubernatorial elections of December 1991 have
been disturbing.
These events, climaxed by the assassination of George
Idah, former
chairman of Oredo Local Government Council, have been
narrated through
different sources, making it difficult to fathom the
truth of the
situation. But detailed reports, as carried by Nigerian
News
magazines--the African Guardian of June 29, 1992, and
August 24, 1992,
and the Newswatch of June 29, 1992 have given light into
the
unbelievable stories of the past eight months in Edo
State. The first
reaction of Edo Convention -USA to these matters is to
register our
concern over the unfortunate events. We in this part of
the world would
like to maintain a neutral position, not taking sides
with the
different factions that have emanated during these
developments.
Nevertheless, we cannot fail to express how touching and
shocking it
was to receive the news of the assassination of George
Idah. As the
sympathy of Edo Convention - USA goes to the family of
Idah, in
particular, and the Binis in general, this Convention
wishes to, and
hereby condemns in no reserved terms, the murder of this
public
servant, George Idah. Such an action that has no
reverence for life, is
bad, unAfrican, outrageous and therefore evil. We of Edo
State are
ashamed to read of the bad light in which Benin City has
been placed on
account of the numerous murders of her prominent sons.
"Truly, in the
annals of political killings in Nigeria, Benin City as
capital of Edo
State can lay claim to a position of eminence: Kayode
Giwa-Amu, Olu
Aroko, Oze Igiehon, and Aivan Nomayo, all brutally cut
down in cold
blood in the ancient city by hired goons during the
second republic,"
commented the Guardian (June 29, 1992, p.
31). Going by this report, it is seen that the Bini sand
has been
soaked with the blood of its own sons. But to ask the
question through
the voice of our old adage: A vbe gbe ovbioto ye oto aro
ra? Why would
the Edos allow this bad history to repeat itself so many
times? For
Edoland to be so disrupted as the first position in the
annals of
political killings in our vast country Nigeria is a fact
that puts our
boast to authentic cultural values and morals to
question. Before the
world, a betrayal of our lack of love for our brothers
and ourselves is
shamefully displayed. In most of these vicious acts, the
plotters and
killers include Edos. And who gains anything on the long
run? If the
plotters are Edos, the killers are Edos, the murdered are
Edos, the
losers are also Edos. And what are we doing to ourselves?
From these
printed reports, matters have escalated to high
proportions, leading to
other negative results, the division of our people into
different
factions and the cold war between these factions. In this
situation Edo
Convention – USA wishes to assume the position of the
peacemaker, not
of the judge. To do otherwise would be to add fuel to the
fire that is
already burning in the land. We therefore appeal for
peace. In view of
these troubles and pains that our people have had to
experience during
the last eight months in Edo State, Edo Convention - USA
hereby appeals
to Omo N'Oba N'Edo and the Governor of Edo State, to use
all the means
within your powers, your rights and privileges to bring
the different
factions in Benin, the hurters and the hurt, to a
reconciliatory forum
as soon as possible. We join other Edos all over the
world to ask all
Edo people at home to tread the path of clear reasoning,
so that we no
longer suffer disgrace. In the same vein, we unanimously
plead with
you, to ask our politicians and people in general, to desist from the
undesirable attitude of eliminating opponents, for
whatever reasons
there are. We need a peaceful home base. "Ai mwen
Owa, ai gb'owe." The plans of Edo Convention - USA
for the development
of Edo State would not be embarked upon if the people of
the land are
not in agreement. Consider our request in the spirit of
godliness and
love, and it is our belief that God will grant you the
grace and wisdom
to do it. If on the other hand you desire that our
physical presence
will be necessary to help to address the situation, we
will not
hesitate to come to Benin City to offer that assistance.
Peace is never
too expensive to go for, it is far above silver and gold.
CONCLUSION:
Ladies and Gentlemen, we’ve taken time to go in detail in
this address.
It is impossible to exhaust the number of issues facing
this
Convention, whether they be for now or the future. Along
this way that
we’ve come, we've left undone so much that we could have
done. But it
is not late. As long as God gives us life, let us rise
and build; let
us rise to our challenges and responsibilities, let us
rise to the
struggles and sacrifices that lie on the pathway to
success. To live is
to struggle, to live is to act. Docility, apathy,
passivity--these are
not in the character of achievers. If good people will
not act, evil
will prevail. In our glance at the future, I have a
vision, that we can
be free and united; that we can be free from economic
impoverishment;
we can be free from cultural losses; we can be free from
the bane of
underdevelopment; we can be free from pride and
self-deceit; we can be
free of our surposed limitations and self-imposed
problems. The road to
this freedom is not to be given as a gift from another,
we have to pave
it ourselves. The earlier we accept and face the
challenge the better
it is for us. MAY GOD BLESS YOU ALL. AMEN.
Long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria
Long live Edo State, Nigeria.
Long live Edo Convention USA.
Oba Gha to, O kpere, Isee.
Source: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/edo-community/message/6089