Constitutional Role For Monarchs Will Reduce Corruption

-HRM Eze Jonathan E. Kanegede JP, 7th Ogene of Ibedeni Kingdom, Ndokwa East, Delta State

The Palace Watch train touring the Niger Delta Region has moved from Bayelsa State to a town called Ibedeni in Ndokwa East of Delta State.

In this riverine, fishing and agrarian town located along Asse Creek in Delta State, His Royal Majesty, Eze Jonathan Kanegede JP is the king, and the 7th Ogene of Ibedeni Kingdom. This town shares boundary with the Isoko community of Delta State, and is host to one of the Independent Power Plants (IPP) that generate electricity for the country.

Until recently, Eze Kanegede was chairman of Delta State chapter of Traditional Rulers of Oil Mineral Producing Communities of Nigeria (TROMPCON). He has been on the throne for 16 years.

Palace Watch recently had an interview with Eze Kanegede on various matters affecting his kingdom, Delta State and Nigeria.

How has being from an oil and mineral producing area impacted on your kingdom?

When I was chairman of TROMPCON, Delta State Chapter, we spent the better part of our time fighting and agitating over the marginalisation of the oil and mineral producing communities. Up till now, efforts have been made to pass a bill into law that was proposed then, to make life better for these communities. Unfortunately, as it is customary with Nigerian politicians, they have been dilly-dallying over the matter. It is, therefore, no surprise to us, traditional rulers that the bill has not been passed into law. We are watching and waiting, to see what they are going to do.

The truth is that any government that comes into power wants to seize the opportunity to feed fat on fortunes from oil producing areas and leave the people and communities producing this oil in abject penury. So, what they often do in the name of little palliatives they occasionally give to us is like “throwing a bone to two dogs to struggle over.” Once this type of fight is going on, they look the other way. This is what the oil producing areas generally suffer.

Instead of paying required homage and royalties to their host communities, companies and people who come to our areas to explore oil and other minerals end up igniting crises in these communities. At the end of day, the people will begin to fight themselves, while the explorers start looting the places for their benefits and that of their political godfathers. Likewise, government is not helping matters, because if you check some of these oil-producing communities, for example the Ijaw and Ndokwa axis, there are no roads into these places, and yet they are major oil producing areas.

A glaring example of this recklessness is the current situation we have here in my kingdom. An Independent Power Plant (IPP) that generates power, which is taken from here to a turbine in Anambra State, is sited here. You will, therefore, not believe that people living around this plant don’t have electricity; that they live in perpetual darkness. This is how irresponsible our government and the companies that operate in these areas could be.

This singular act has led to a lot of agitations, even during former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration. Our people keep asking: “How do you expect us to maintain peace, when electricity generated from here is taken to another place, while we continue to live in darkness?”

Read more: https://guardian.ng/sunday-magazine/constitutional-role-for-monarchs-will-sanitise-society-reduce-corruption/