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| Dein of Agbor seated at his Palace |
First class traditional ruler in Nigeria, the Dein of Agbor kingdom, His Royal Majesty (HRM) , Benjamin lkenchukwu, Keagborekuzi 1, has stated that he is looking forward to the efficacy of subsidy removal.
According to the monarch, "I heard we've saved over 400bn in just a month of removal of fuel subsidy, if so far we have saved 400bn, then I'm looking forward to what we are going to do with it."
"Other countries have various forms of subsidy from health care to education amongst others and its not an issue there because of absence of corruption, but our issue here back home is corruption"
The British bred monarch, made these statements at his palace in Agbor, Delta state when members of Indigenous Correspondents Chapel (ICC) Asaba of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, Delta state council paid him a courtesy visit.
He further expressed that "Nigeria is not poor, God has blessed this nation with numerous mineral resources beyond oil and gas, we just need to tackle corruption undivided. I want to know what's happening with our gold, I want all our resources brought to Federal books "
"We are heavily indepted, but we are rich in minerals. The West knows how important Nigeria is, we should know how important Nigeria is to us and to Africa. Foreigners are not here to teach you their language and their food, but because they know the importance of Nigeria to their world."
"We are too used to illegality in this country and thats our problem. The money belongs to all Nigerians and needs to be shared accordingly."
"We are at the point where we copy from the rest of the world their harsh penalties to public officials caught stealing. Nigeria as a country should consider harsh penalties like death sentence for corrupt public office holders to help reduce below average the unwavering issue of corruption evident in the nation, we need to tackle corruption, we need to tackle it head on."
While commending President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for the bold step he took on subsidy removal he posited that "I'm hoping that Tinubu would be able to give us ministers and allow them to act and be at the fore front of development, also we have to give the president time and encouragement.
Speaking on taxation, the Monarch said, "we need to pay taxes, all of us need to pay taxes for the country to work, but many won't want to pay because we don't know where It's going or how it's being used. Also citizens need to know their rights and know how to act decisively, if your representatives are not performing as expected you have the right to a recall, they are our representatives and we are the leaders, we sent them their to do our bidding. If we don't like any law we can counter it, taking cognizance of the N1000 annual tax on certificate of ownership of a vehicle legally bought and owned, we can recall it, also the increase in electricity tariff without increase in output can be decisively countered"
"We need to change and the change can't come from outside but from within, what we did in the last election is a prove that we can do it, we need to learn our rights, we have rights to call them back, they are called representatives, not leaders , we are the leaders, they are just there to represent us."
On developmental and constructive criticism, he stated that "we need to reduce abuse on social media, Youths need to leave the woke ideology and remember that this is a moral nation. Can't we make feelings known without excessive abuse of fellow Nigerians?"
"We are richer haven shared everyone's opinion, we should respect each other and know when to apologize, we owe the rest of Africa a responsibility, Africa is in chaos, black Africa to be precise. I bet Ukraine is doing better than many African Nations at the time while in war and will come out better than many nations after the war."
Keagborekuzi 1, also spoke on education, wherein he stated that "our kids also need to go back to school, leave fraud and stop calling school scam. Yes you see from their point of view that after an elongated school year from strike amongst others, you don't have a job but that's not an excuse."
"We also need to bring back the glory days of our educational standards, before our graduates were sort after all over the world but now you have to right exams, which is a proof that your results are in doubt."
"Traveling is one of the best forms of education that you can have. I'm happy to have grown up in a different capacities and environs which is what made me who I am today. I'm only worried at our elite who leave the shores of the country and come back even worse that they left, you can't go out see nice things and not come replicate same here, why don't we make those things we value there work here?"
'I've been to Niger Delta and the beauty you see in Miami can be brought to the Niger Delta, and you will see tourism blossom over night and foreigners would be here everyday but they don't want to get killed or kidnapped at the very least."
On tourism, the Agbor Monarch made it clear that insecurity and environmental decay is the bane of tourism in modern day Nigeria.
"Insecurity has reduced the chances of tourism growth in the nation, we need to tackle security for us to recover what we have lost, for us to get back our investors we need security,"
"Environment, nobody invests in a dirty environment, we need to be intentional about keeping our environment clean, so much can be done here in Agbor. I expected my CBN Governor to have turned agbor to a light of the state, taking cognizance of Emir Sanusi whom held same position and placed his host community on the Nigeria map further to the point he was seen as deserving the position of an Emir but because we didn't have the best of relationships, he didn't want to give room to sense of reasoning or even listen to what I had to say."
Speaking further he disclosed that "tourism will come, but its won't come before security or before a clean environment, or before peace, take for example, the east today is decimated unlike before, the same east is like the China of Nigeria, if the east wants to be our tech hub let them do it, if the north wants to be our food basin let them do it, but most importantly lets ensure all our minerals resources on board but not at the detriment of the local community."
On the cultural representation, tthe soft-spoken monarch noted that "we have a peculiar culture, but its not any different from the beauty of culture. Regardles, Nollywood should help us and stop projecting our culture in negative light, but in positive light. Culture is not only about juju and disappearing powers which we are yet to see, it's easy to sell bad stories, but when you sell bad stories its makes everybody depressed. Nollywood selling disappearing juju stories is wrong. We are not just also about song and dance, we should start selling our indigenious engineers and lawyers and not just our dancing and music.
While speaking coexistence as one, he expressed that "Don't judge other people negatively because of your beliefs or culture, but let's learn to continue to coexist as one, no one side is above the other, we only have differences which if the unique part of it. We should learn to respect these differences that exist amongst our cultures."
He also called on Journalists to be diplomatic in their duties and even up the equation of bad stories to developmental stories
"As Journalists, I want you to be diplomatic and very careful when we say certain things, for instance its the criminal elements of the fulani herdsmen that are committing these crimes not all fulani herdsmen, its crucial to state the difference".
On the issue of governance in the state he hinted that "whether you like okowa or not, he did well, he made his mistakes but he's human, and yes the new Governor Sheriff Oborevwori, is a good man very approachable but I advice him to get the right people around him. You could be a good leader with the bad advisers and not be productive." He added.
Earlier Speaking, ICC Chairman, Comrade Kenneth Orusi appreciated the monarch for his time and privilege to tap from his fountain of knowledge.
Orusi said, "as Journalists, we ensure that we move from community to community to see the level of government presence, analyze and ensure onward reportage to the corridors of government till the needful is done".
While commending the Agbor monarch on his giant strides towards securing the agbor forests and environs, Orusi expressed his worries at the slow pace of development in Agbor, adding that something has to be done.
