Keynote Address
by
Prof. Yakubu Aboki Ochefu, FHSN, FNAL
President-General, Ochetoha K’Idoma
at the
Maiden Edition of Idoma Day Abuja
Theme: “Celebrating Our Heritage, Strengthening Our Unity, Building Our Future”
Old Parade Ground, Abuja
Protocols
His Majesty, the Och’Idoma, Paramount Ruler of the Idoma Kingdom;
His Highness, the Ad’Idoma;
The distinguished Chairman of this occasion and Akanaba K’Idoma;
Our revered traditional rulers — First Class, Second Class, and Third Class Chiefs,
district and ward heads, clan heads, and title holders;
Our esteemed political office holders, serving and retired;
Captains of industry, professionals, and business leaders;
Leaders of our vibrant youth organisations and cultural associations;
Special guests, friends of the Idoma Nation, and representatives of the media;
Distinguished ladies and gentlemen;
And, most importantly, the hundreds of thousands of proud Idoma sons and
daughters gathered here today:
A Moment of Silence
Before I proceed, I must ask that we pause to honour a fallen brother. Less
than forty-eight hours ago, our dear friend, colleague, and community
leader, Professor David Onu Salifu former Secretary to the Benue State
Government, scholar of Public Administration, and a teacher at the
Federal University, Wukari was snatched from us in the most brutal and
senseless manner. He was travelling on the Wukari–Makurdi road, going
home to bury a beloved uncle, when armed men intercepted his vehicle
and shot him. He fought for his life through the night but could not survive.
He died in the early hours of yesterday, Friday, at the Benue State
University Teaching Hospital in Makurdi. Professor Salifu was not merely
a politician or an academic. He was a man of uncommon humility, deep
intellect, and unwavering commitment to the Idoma cause. His death is a
painful reminder of the daily deteriorating security situation in our dear
country. A reality that claims the lives of our people on highways, in farms,
and in villages with a regularity that should shame every Nigerian. We shall
return to this matter before the end of this address, for it concerns us all.
May I now kindly request a moment’s silence in honour of Prof. David
Salifu. May his soul rest in perfect peace, and may his family find the
comfort and strength that only God can provide.
Preamble
Distinguished elders, leaders, and the vibrant pride of the Idoma Nation:
We stand today at a profound crossroads of history. Looking across this
gathering this vast ocean of faces at the Old Parade Ground I do not just
see a crowd of hundreds of thousands. I see the living, breathing
embodiment of a resilient civilisation. I see the faces of the miners who
walked to the tin fields of Jos in the 1920’s. I see the faces of the soldiers
who marched from Benue to Burma and back. I see the faces of the
women who carried trade goods across the Niger. I see the faces of the
professionals and entrepreneurs who built new lives in this city and
beyond, without ever forgetting where they came from.
As we mark the milestone of the Idoma Centenary Plus celebrations one
hundred and three years since the establishment of the Idoma Division in
1923 this maiden Idoma Day Abuja is more than a festival. It is a sacred
convocation of identity.
And let me state a fact that bears emphasis: when the Federal Capital
Territory was formally inaugurated fifty years ago, our people were
already on the ground. Indeed, long before the bulldozers arrived, Idoma
sons and daughters were living and working in the outlying communities
of what is now known as Abuja. Today, this city represents the single
largest concentration of Idoma people anywhere in the world. Not
Otukpo. Not Makurdi. Not Lagos. Abuja. And that is why I must commend
the organisers of this maiden Idoma Day for their original thinking. You
have recognised a profound demographic reality and created a platform
to celebrate it. I salute your vision. To chart where we are going, we must
ground ourselves in three immutable pillars the triad of our collective
destiny: Celebrating Our Heritage, Strengthening Our Unity, and Building
Our Future.
I. Celebrating Our Heritage: The Anchor of Identity
Our heritage is not merely a collection of colourful dances, traditional
attire, or folklore. It is the bedrock of our resilience. As Idoma people, our
history is forged in the fires of endurance, honour, and an unyielding
sense of justice. Heritage is memory made sacred. And memory, for a
people who have been underestimated for too long, is power. Our
peoples have always been a migrating, enterprising, boundary-crossing
civilisation. The concept of going to “Owe” — of leaving home to seek
better fortunes did not start yesterday. It is woven into the fabric of who
we are.
Consider the record. From 1914, Idoma men walked to the tin mines of
Jos, joining the earliest waves of migrant labour on the Plateau. When the
railway bridge at Makurdi was completed in 1932, it opened a gateway for
our people to move northward and southward with greater ease. Our
people migrated to the cocoa plantations of the South-West and as far as
Fernando Po. They worked in the rubber plantations of Delta State and in
the textile mills of Kaduna and Kano. And then there is the story of the
Idoma in the armed forces. A trickle during the First World War, a
significant contingent during the Second World War, and a veritable flood
during the Nigerian Civil War. The Idoma soldier became a byword for
courage and dependability. That military tradition endures to this day.
When you put all of this together, you understand why our people are
settled today in Jos, Kaduna, Kafanchan, Zaria, Port Harcourt, Lagos and,
above all, here in Abuja. We did not arrive in these places by accident. We
arrived by enterprise, by courage, and by an ancient instinct for survival
and self-improvement. Nor are we confined to the borders of Nigeria. We
know, from the scholarship of historians, that Idoma-speaking enclave
communities exist to this day in Suriname in South America , living
vestiges of the slave maroon communities who preserved fragments of
our language and culture across centuries of displacement. That is the
tenacity of the Idoma spirit: even the Atlantic slave trade could not erase
us.
In modern times, the first recorded Idoma person to travel to the United
States for higher education was our late former Och’Idoma, Agaba Idu Dr.
Edwin Ogbu. Since then, we now have three generations of Idoma in the
diaspora in the United Kingdom and the United States, and two
generations in Canada, Australia, China, Russia, and Vietnam. Our people
are also established in several West African countries and in Namibia,
Kenya, and Uganda. Just this past February, His Majesty the Och’Idoma
himself was in London, inaugurating the executive of the Idoma
Community United Kingdom. The Idoma Nation has gone global. In a
rapidly changing world, our culture is the anchor that keeps us from
drifting into anonymity. To know who you are is to be unconquerable. We
must fiercely protect, document, and celebrate this heritage, passing it
down to our youth as both a shield and a badge of honour. It is on
occasions like this that we come together to reinforce our identities, to
remind ourselves that we are not a scattered people but a connected
civilisation.
II. Strengthening Our Unity: The Shield of Our Survival
History has taught us, again and again, that a house divided against itself
cannot withstand the storms of time. Our diversity across clans, political
affiliations, professional divides, and generational differences — should be
our greatest tapestry, not our fracturing point. True unity is not the
absence of disagreement. It is the presence of a shared purpose.
Let us be honest with ourselves. We are not always united. We have
allowed political seasons to drive wedges between brothers. We have
allowed personal ambitions to override communal obligations. We have
sometimes spoken more loudly against each other than we have spoken
for each other. This must change and it must change now, in this
centenary year, when the eyes of the world are upon us. Whether you are
a traditional ruler or a ward head, a political leader or a civil servant, a
business mogul or a market woman, a senior professional or a young
graduate searching for your first opportunity our collective survival
depends on a singular truth: we are stronger together.
Let us deliberately build bridges across our communities, silencing the
voices of division and amplifying the bonds of brotherhood and
sisterhood. Unity is not a sentiment to be celebrated at festivals and
forgotten on Monday morning. Unity is the currency with which we
purchase security, political relevance, and economic progress. Without it,
we are at the mercy of those who would wish us diminished.
And I must say this plainly: the tragic death of Professor David Salifu, on a
highway that should be safe, is a reminder that our unity must also
translate into collective advocacy. We must speak with one voice when
our people are killed, when our communities are attacked, and when our
highways become killing fields. A united Idoma voice is a voice that cannot
be ignored.
III. Building Our Future: The Blueprint for Prosperity
My dear brothers and sisters, we cannot live only in the glories of the past.
The past is our foundation, not our ceiling. The ultimate test of our
generation is the future we construct for the next. Building the Idoma
future requires strategic, aggressive, and deliberate socio-economic
engagement. It means investing massively in the education and
technological empowerment of our youth. It means pooling resources as
a
diaspora and homeland network to invest in industrialisation,
agriculture, and infrastructure within our communities. We must
transition from a people who merely survive to a people who dictate the
economic and developmental pace of our region.
To this end, I am pleased to inform this gathering that we are putting
together the dynamics of an “Agbenu Fund” a community-denominated
investment vehicle that seeks to catalyse investment opportunities back
home. The Agbenu Fund is not charity. It is a strategic framework through
which Idoma professionals, business people, and diaspora communities
can channel resources into productive enterprises in Idoma land. We want
our homeland to be more than a venue for celebrations and burials. We
want it to become an economic gateway that improves the material
conditions of our people.
The Charge Forward
My dear brothers and sisters, the destiny of the Idoma Nation does not lie
in the hands of others. It lies squarely in our own. Let this maiden Idoma
Day Abuja be the spark that ignites a grand awakening. I wish to note, with
appreciation, the federal government’s decision to award the contract for
the rehabilitation of the Oweto Road and the construction of the spur to
Karshi. This is an infrastructure development of strategic importance, not
just to the Idoma Nation but to the entire Middle Belt and South-East
corridor. We urge the government to ensure that this project is delivered
to specification and on schedule. We must also salute and celebrate the
Federal governent the educational institution located in our zone. The
Federal University of Health Sciences in Otukpo, Colleges of Education
Odugbo and the new and College of Agriculture in Ugbokolo. These are
the nurseries of our future. Every graduate they produce is a seed planted
in the soil of our collective ambition.
We also wish to acknowledge and celebrate our political leaders those in
office and those who have served while gently reminding them of a truth
that is as old as democracy itself: all politics is local. The development of
our homeland should never wane from their vision. The people who vote
must also be the people who benefit. We must mobilise our people to
register to vote and come out of vote massively in the coming election.
The stigma of voter apathy we must jetisson at the next election.
To our security agencies, and particularly to Operation Whirl Stroke, we
say: we are counting on you. The killing of Professor Salifu, the ongoing
attacks on our farming communities, and the general state of insecurity
on our roads and in our villages demand urgent, sustained, and decisive
action. We cannot build the future if our people are afraid to travel, to
farm, and to live.
And now, let me speak directly to our young people. You are the reason
we are here. Everything we do ,every celebration, every fund, every
advocacy is ultimately for you and the generations that will come after
you. I invite you, with the full weight of this platform, to participate in the
upcoming events of the Youth focussed Idoma Centenary Plus
programme:
ü The Idoma Talent Hunt is scheduled for next Friday and Saturday
right here in Abuja, followed by Lagos, and then Otukpo, before the
grand finale in in Otukpo in December.
ü The Hackathon — for our young innovators and tech entrepreneurs
— will showcase the creativity and problem-solving genius of Idoma
youth.
ü The Investment and Economic Summit will bring together
investors, policy makers, and community leaders to map the
economic future of Idoma land.
Full details of all events are available on our website. I urge every young
person here and every parent, mentor, and leader to spread the word and
ensure maximum participation.
Conclusion
Let me conclude where I began: with identity. One hundred and three
years ago, the British colonial administration, for its own administrative
convenience, drew a line around our communities and called it the Idoma
Division. They did not know and perhaps did not care that they were
giving formal recognition to a civilisation that had existed for centuries
before they arrived. But we knew. We have always known who we are.
Today, as we stand in the heart of Nigeria’s capital, let us carry that
knowledge with pride. Let us leave this ground not merely entertained by
our culture, but transformed by a shared vision. Let us go forth fiercely
proud of our past, relentlessly united in our present, and strategically
focused on building our future. We should never forget our homeland. We
should never treat it merely as a venue for celebrations and burials. We
should see it as the wellspring of our identity and the frontier of our
economic ambition. Home is not where we go to mourn. Home is where
we go to build.
God bless the Idoma Nation.
Thank you.
