The Amanyanabo of Abonnema, HRM King Disrael Gbobo Bob-Manuel (II), Owukori (IX) has expressed gratitude to the governor of Rivers State, His Excellency, Chief Nyesom Wike, for upgrading his stool to First Class status saying the elevation of his stool during his reign was “one of the biggest and greatest things that have happened”.
Speaking in a special interview, over his tenth anniversary the revered monarch said: “That was one of the biggest and greatest things that have happened to the people of Akuku-Toru Local Government, the people of Abonnema and I dare say the people of the Kalabari ethnic nationality because for a long time we had only one First Class in the whole of the three Kalabari local governments and so you can imagine when the second one emerged it called for joy and celebration. So it’s another opportunity to say thank you to his Excellency for doing so”.
He said that the proclamation about upgrading his stool was made in his palace saying “so we thank him once more for doing the right thing and for helping to elevate the ancient Owukori stool which is the stool of the Amanyanabo of Abonnema”.
Ten years after his coronation he called for unity to move the community forward.
He said that the community has been growing adding that the state government also came in to support the development of the community.
He also said he had no regrets becoming king to serve his people.
“I’ve no regrets whatsoever because coming to serve my people, the people of Nyemoni, the people of Abonnema, the Kalabari people for me is a far more higher call than serving elsewhere”.
The Amanyanabo was in private legal practice before he became king, on 20 May, 2011 and was elevated in 2016.
He however said his greatest challenge since becoming king has been the issue of insecurity brought on by the unemployment of youths.
He however expressed hope that there would be jobs to engage the youths.
The revered monarch, called for unity among his people saying that without unity there would be no peace.
The monarch said: “My special message to my people would be that we must make effort to be unified. Without unity you cannot have peace (and) without peace you cannot have progress”.
He also appealed to his people to avoid political violence.
He called for constitutional roles for traditional rulers saying that they need more than their office to keep peace in their domains.
He said: “You ask me to keep the peace, this’s all I have (raising his walking stick). If I secure any weapon it will be illegal and I’ll be in conflict with the law. So I don’t have a gun. I can’t carry a machete. All I can carry is my walking stick so how do you expect me to do all of those things. (They say) if there are kidnappers here they will hold the traditional ruler responsible (but) what do you want him to do because he too needs to be secure”.
He further said: “If you look at our Memorial Halls each of them has armaments. In those days there were cannons that they used. Every traditional ruler had war equipment. Up till now my great grandfather’s armoury is here because you will see cannons and guns and all that of those days but those are things that have not been fired for over one hundred years and are no longer in force. The point I’m making is in those days the traditional rulers had means of coercion. If you are misbehaving there are many things they can do. You cannot come to their kingdom and cause problem. They will arrest you and if any group comes to fight them, they will fight back but today we cannot fight back. We just sit down because we have surrendered our freedom to the state, so it is the responsibility of the state to defend us”.
He however said he has “convincing power” to ask his people to obey any directive given by government.
“So we still have that voice to tell our people (to) do this (and) don’t this. So to that extent we can work but anything other than that it’s difficult to achieve”.
He also said that he interacts with different ethnic groups to maintain peace in his kingdom.
