Many were enthralled and at the same time befuddled when on Saturday, December 7, 2019, the Amanyanabo and Natural Ruler of the ancient Kingdom of Grand Bonny, His Majesty, King Edward Asimini William Dappa Pepple III, CON, Perekule XI, accompanied by the Executive Chairman of Bonny Local Government Area, Rt. Hon. David Irimagha, Managing Director of the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG), Tony Attah, among other dignitaries, strutted the football pitch of Government State School, Bonny to perform the kick-off of the finals of the Amanyanabo Football Tournament.
Before the kick-off, the man, popularly referred to as the Black Monarch, a sobriquet given to his great grandfather, King George Pepple I by the British Monarchy years ago back in Windsor Castle, London, United Kingdom, juggled the ball a few times as a professional would do, to the applause of spectators and his distinguished guests.
To those who know his antecedents in football, from his professional footballing days at Calabar Rovers Football Club to All Stars Football Club, his pet project, juggling the ball before a kick-off was the least way of demonstrating his dexterity on the football pitch. ‘Dede’ as his very close friends call him is a very talented footballer right from his youth.
At his age and amidst his daunting schedule as a first rate traditional ruler in Nigeria, pro chancellor of tertiary institutions, and host of Nigeria’s frontline economic behemoths, NLNG, Shell, and Mobil, and the trending Train 7 expansion project of Africa’s second and Sub-Saharan Africa’s only liquefied natural gas plant, he makes out time to keep fit by joining his ‘boys’ on the field almost every weekend.
He sat through and watched the Finima Beautiful Strikers FC clinch the gold trophy and N3 million cash award after defeating Igbo Brothers FC with a lone goal. The Igbo Brothers FC went home with N2 million as first runner-up, while the Oil and Gas FC, who emerged second runner-up got N1 million.
The Amanyanabo Football Tournament, of which he was the chief host, was sponsored by the Nigeria LNG Limited. Thus, NLNG MD, Tony Attah, Deputy Managing Director, Sadeeq Mai-Bornu, General Manager, Production, Leye Falade, and General Manager, Technical, Ekeinde Ohiwerei, Managers, Community Relations, Godson Dienye, and his Security counterpart, Lukman Longe, among numerous other staff of the company, graced the occasion.
Aside the corporate guests, some football legends such as former Super Eagles Captain, Joseph Yobo, Nigerian Internationals, Victor Ikpeba and Victor Ezeji, as well as former coach of Nigerian Flying Eagles and Administrator of Real Madrid Academy, Port Harcourt, Fanny Amun, and several other sports heavyweights, also added colour to the competition.
After the tournament, the reigning monarch of the Ibani Nation witnessed the culmination of the good gesture of his guests, the Nigeria LNG, which handed over a drivers’ licensing office located at 31 Jack Manilla Pepple Road, Bonny and patrol vehicle to the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC). NLNG Managing Director, Tony Attah handed over the keys to the property and the patrol vehicle to the FRSC Zonal Commander, Kingsley Agomoh.
The goal of this gesture, according to Attah, was to make Bonny a licensing community and alleviate the burden of residents of the community with regards to acquiring a driver’s license.
He further stressed that bringing the licensing office closer to the people of Bonny will help reduce the risk of having unauthorized persons behind the wheels with the attendant risks this poses to other road users.
The football tourney and the FRSC licensing office are just a few of the landmark development indices that has strutted the landscape of the 23 year sojourn of His Majesty, King Edward Asimini William Dappa Pepple III CON, Perekule XI, as he has, as a demonstration of his love for his people, diligently sought, pursued and attracted projects and programmes that have positively impacted the lives of both indigenes and residents of Bonny community over the years.
A cursory stroll around the various communities that comprise Bonny Local Government Area would reveal an array of projects and programmes which were either initiated or supported by the Amanyanabo of Bonny Kingdom. His footprints are very ineffaceable and indelible in the areas of Security, Infrastructure, Governance, Community Engagement, Education, Health, Sports, Culture and Tradition.
Very recently, the Bonny Community Health Insurance Programme (BCHIP) was launched to collate and profile beneficiaries who would pay an infinitesimal portion of the healthcare cost and receive qualitative medical care from different health facilities across the community.
This unique initiative from a traditional ruler who would rather see his people healthy than ill has been hailed by many as a step in the right direction.
His strident efforts have also seen that there was potable, drinking water across Bonny Island and Finima; not only is water being supplied directly to homes, there are water kiosks across different parts of the community which are accessible to residents irrespective of where they live. Added to these, special supply points have been installed adjacent to the entrance to Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) Bonny Crude Oil Terminal (BCOT).
The water is being managed by the Bonny Utility Company (BUC) which is jointly run by the joint industry companies (Nigeria LNG, SPDC, Mobil, Chevron, etc) and Bonny Kingdom.
BUC is also responsible for the supply and maintenance of electricity across the community. Bonny LGA remains the only part of Nigeria that has continued to enjoy 24/7 uninterrupted power supply.
Currently, the BUC is distributing close to 20 megawatts of electricity to different parts of Bonny LGA with ongoing plans to scale up to 30 megawatts as the developments rapidly spreads to Finima, Abalamabie, Oguede, Bagg-Jumbo, and several other aspects of the LGA.
Traveling to Bonny LGA is another area where the Midas touch of the Black Monarch has made definite imprints. Instead of the usual travel by sea by speed boats, travelers to Bonny can now fly in and out of the island community courtesy of the Nigeria LNG flights run by Donnier Airlines which currently does three destinations: Port Harcourt, Lagos and Abuja.
Recently, the company decided to commercialize its flights with the boat trips to be added to the menu by next year. The ferry boats are being managed for the Nigeria LNG by Bouygues Nigeria Limited.
Before this, community members were taking advantage of the Nigeria LNG ferry boats for its staff and visitors to also travel to and from Port Harcourt. This one singular phenomenon has lifted Bonny Kingdom above other communities by adding a cosmopolitan hue to its existence as no other community in Nigeria enjoys these much facilities and opportunities, thanks to her versatile, urbane and strategic minded traditional ruler who knows how to bring the bounty home.
In terms of infrastructural development, a walk by along the Akiama Road towards Oguede Community will afford visitors the opportunity to interface with critical development infrastructure such as the Forward Operating Base of the Nigerian Navy; the Ibanise Hall, a top rated event centre fully fitted with modern facilities; the Bonny Vocational Centre, a top class skills set development institution; and the Bonny Information Centre.
A right turn on the same road will take one to the rear entrance of the Federal Polytechnic of Oil and Gas, Bonny, which is currently in the process of being upgraded to a university.
Come back to Hospital Road, adjacent to Bonny National Grammar School, is the King Perekule Bypass, popularly known as Berger Road, which connects that aspect of the town to King William Dappa Pepple Road in another part of the rapidly growing town.
And then, there is the Bonny-Bodo Road project currently ongoing which construction work on the Bonny axis just commenced two months ago. The road actually begins from the Shell gate where it connects with Shell Road, which takes you to the Bonny roundabout. from Shell gate it runs through King Perekule Road, formerly, New Road, and links up with Finima Road at Assemblies of God junction, and from there goes all the way to Workers’ Camp and on to the boundary between Bonny and Andoni and Gokana LGAs.
The high level negotiations and bargaining skills that went into achieving all of these are not lost on His Majesty, the Amanyanabo of Bonny Kingdom, who has ensured he played the right cards in tandem with the political class and his country chiefs wherever the need arose to secure the best opportunities for his people.
Recently, sea piracy became a recurring decimal in the area but the traditional ruler in concert with the political leadership of the area rose to the occasion, working with the various security agencies to bring relief to the traumatized residents of the community, who have constantly borne the anguish of being robbed, raped, maimed, abducted and killed by daredevil sea pirates on the Bonny waterways, especially, the Bonny River.
With a humane, responsive and determined Chairman of the LGA in the person of Rt. Hon. David Rogers Irimagha, who has keyed into the template laid out by his predecessors, the King and, indeed, the community have been able to checkmate the menace.
Currently, the security agencies, especially, the Nigerian Navy, have gone bullish on the waterways by mobilizing several gunboats to sustain patrols on the rivers and creeks.
The resolution of this issue of sea piracy and the attendant peace that followed, speaks volumes of the harmonious interface His Majesty, the King of Bonny has been able to achieve between the traditional institution and the political class. Like water, diverse aspects of the Bonny Community life has found their level in him as a father figure to whom they all come consulting.
Days ago, a member of the one the chieftaincy houses contending their status as Duawari, told Kristina Reports in confidence that the community engagement skills of the Monarch were noteworthy and commendable, stating that “we have been talking. In fact, he called us to a meeting and we discussed, though we didn’t agree on all the issues raised but I commend his predilection to dialogue. And he showed great understanding of the issues we raised. I love him for that.”
Back in February this year when the presidential elections almost stirred emotions across political divides in the community, King Perekule XI called all political stakeholders to a meeting where he was able to extract the commitment of the various political parties and their leaders, political officeholders and other relevant stakeholders to ensure peace and calm in the LGA before, during and after the elections.
This was a clear indication of the profound respect and high regard his subjects, especially, the political class, have for him and the throne he occupies – the King Perekule throne.
As the Train 7 plus expansion project of the Nigeria LNG gears up to a start, the wise King has not left anything to chance. With every stakeholder awaiting with bated breath the signing of the Final Investment Decision (FID) for the project, the Bonny Monarch has put in place structures to ensure his people derive the best benefits from the project when it commences.
One of these structures is the Bonny Kingdom Local Content Monitoring Committee, headed by erudite lawyer, Mr. Opuada Willie-Pepple, and assisted by other versatile professionals such as Dagogo Tobin, Cyril Hart, Helen Jack-Wilson Pepple, and Charles Jumbo, among others.
This committee has ensured that extant local content provisions in the country for projects of such magnitude were entrenched and enforced in the build up to the commencement of the Train 7 project. It has pursued stakeholder engagements on all fronts to ensure no one was left behind and both the preferred bidders, their employers (NLNG), the contractors, and subcontractors, among others were carried along in the plans for the project.
Enumeration of the achievements of the King would not be complete without the mention of the Bonny Consulate, which construction was about to commence, but was flagged off via a stone-laying ceremony by His Majesty, King Edward Asimini William Dappa Pepple III, CON, Perekule XI, during the 20/30 anniversary of the Nigeria LNG along the King Perekule Bypass. The edifice, a reminiscence of the original consulate building back in the 18th century, when completed, will house a radio station for the community, and also have offices for the King and several community based initiatives.
As he celebrates 23 years on the throne of his progenitors, we can say that there was enough developmental landmarks to justify such celebration. Even on the home front, he has sustained a blissful family life, catering to his aged Queen Mother, his dear wife, Queen Paula, and lovely kids, ensuring that they do not suffer as a consequence of superintending over a vast cosmopolitan cum global community that Bonny has become over the years.
Given the preceding analysis, a justified one at that, the management and staff of Kristina Reports join Nigerians and indeed the beautiful people of Grand Bonny Kingdom to celebrate His Majesty, King Edward Asimini William Dappa Pepple III, CON, Perekule XI, wishing him more grace and glory as he sustains his drive to leave indelible legacies as footprints on the sands of time.
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