Tamunotonye Martins-Brown is a vociferous advocate for community development, societal harmony and human capital development. He is the outgoing Sibidabo (Chairman) of Asawo of Buoye Omuso Brown Major House of Bonny Kingdom and has during his very eventful tenure steered the men of the House and Finima as a whole to the path of egalitarianism and contributive participation in the progress of the community.   

Brown, who is a member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Management (CIPM) and Chartered Institute of Human Resources Management (CIHRM), among other professional bodies, spoke to the Publisher of Kristina Reports, Godswill Jumbo, on some recent developments in Finima in Bonny Local Government Area of Rivers State. Enjoy the read!

Kristina Reports: The New Year just began and expectations are high, what do you think people, especially, Bonny, and Finima, to be precise, should expect? 

Tammy Brown: I see this year 2022 as a year of possibilities. Thus, we need to be focused and committed in all we do so that we will all enjoy the good things God has blessed us with. Looking round the land you can see lots of wealth that we need to take advantage of but because of greed and petty jealousy amongst us we tend to misplace our priorities and keep losing opportunities. We really need to be committed and focused. 

The Buoye Omuso Brown House, last December, opened what it referred to as Dupuyo, can you give us more insight as to what this is about? 

Yes, last year precisely on Monday, 27th December, 2021 the Buoye Omuso Brown Major House in Finima Community officially commissioned our Monumental Memorial Cemetery (Alapu Dupuyo) where our late Paramount Rulers are usually laid to rest when they are called to join their ancestors. This special cemetery will also serve and be reserved as a tourist site for our children yet unborn and visitors. At this cemetery you will see all our past Paramount Rulers and little biography of their reigns before they passed on to join their ancestors. It is called Alapu Dupuyo.

Recently, we understand there were some disagreements between the Finima Community Security Team and the Bonny Local Government Taskforce, what actually happened? 

That incident was unfortunate; you see situations where people don’t respect authorities because they are in office or power. If I remember, the State Governor will always emphasize on the need for the traditional leadership and communities to collaborate with government in ensuring that they complement the efforts of government and security agencies to help protect lives and properties in their various communities. Governor Wike will always charge the communities to support government and security to fish out criminals. But here in Bonny a taskforce that was constituted to enforce the ban on motorbikes at night after 8pm will be the same individuals flouting the orders, invading communities very late at night with the pretense of looking for motorbikes.

The same taskforce members will ride on the same motorbikes in their numbers into Finima with strange faces very late at night looking for bikes to seize and extort monies and then allow them go back. Like, I said the incident was quite unfortunate as our community security/surveillance team got a tip off that same night that some cultists were in Finima and threatening call girls and extorting monies from their rooms at a club in Finima and while the young men were on patrol in search of the alleged group, these bikes ran into them and in the course of trying to interrogate them someone came out to present himself as a chairman of a Bonny taskforce. They claimed that they were attacked and some items were seized from them and taken away. That is the much I can say for now.

With the Federal and State Governments, security agencies, and other stakeholders clamouring for homegrown security arrangements such as community police, neighbourhood watch, etc., do you think this incident would undermine such efforts?  

We had already started ours in Finima. We have the youth security and surveillance team working with the government security agencies and that is why you hardly hear issues or serious crimes in Finima community. Whether you are an indigene or not, we treat everyone equally and hand you over to the appropriate security agencies to investigate and where possible prosecute you because crime is crime and so we try not to allow it in Finima. Apart from being a leader, I am also a member of the community policing committee in Finima community.  

Since the last time when there was crisis in Finima, there seem to be measurable calm, what were the factors that helped to achieve this relative peace? 

You said crisis. I cannot remember which one of the crises you are referring to but I guess you maybe referring to some disagreement between brothers which for me is common because even husband and wife do have their quarrels sometimes but it depends on how you manage and resolve your quarrel. So, I think sometimes we will disagree to agree as long as we don’t allow it degenerate into serious crisis or violence in the community.

Before we let you go, what is your advice to the people of Finima Community including visitors, especially, with regards to security?  

My humbly advice to my people is for everyone to be law abiding and maintain peace by loving one another. We need to continue to support the leadership and security agencies, to watch out for strange characters that if given a chance will damage Finima’s reputation and report same to the appropriate authorities for swift actions. Whether you are an indigenes or visitor, we are all one and should treat ourselves as such so we can live and accommodate ourselves peacefully. Let’s conduct ourselves in an acceptable manner within and outside Finima Community so that we will continue to attract investors for businesses to operate smoothly in our environment.