Well-known for his pungency, assertiveness and speaking truth to power, Wariopusenibo Darlington Tobin was in his elements again when he spoke with Kristina Reports Correspondent, Clariza Allison, at Finima Community in Bonny Local Government Area of Rivers State.

Tobin is the Wariopusenibo representing Jonathan Burusu in the Konibo-ye-Awanta Tobin House of Finima in Bonny Kingdom, Rivers State, as well as Chairman of the House.

In this first installment of a no-holds-barred interview, the community leader disclaimed certain information about his chieftaincy house, which he described as alien to reality and veracity. He delved into history to articulate the origin of the Tobin House, its leadership spectrum and other issues affecting her relationship with her two sister houses, Attoni and Brown. It’s an interesting read, dive in. 

Kristina Reports: We would love to have some insight – for the benefit of our audience – to know a little more about the Tobin House. We understand it is one of the chieftaincy houses in Finima; can you open the window and let us see somethings about the Tobin house?

The Tobin Konibo-ye-Awanta Chieftaincy House is one of the three houses in Finima created by King Adum Opubo in 1826 with Awanta not as a chief as the national chief priest of Bonny Kingdom; that is chief priest of Ibani-Nyana Simingi. Since then the House have had leaders and chiefs. The immediate past Chief of the House, Chief Young Sunday Tobin was the fourth chief that has been in the Chiefs Council. The owner of the house, who is Awanta himself was not a chief. He was the national chief priest of the national deity of Bonny Kingdom; and so was above chiefs. He was in council but not as a chief. He sits next to the King. You can see that in the Chronicles of Bonny by Adadonye Fombo.

After Awanta, the first chief of the House that was presented in the Bonny Native Authority Council as a chief was his son, Chief Captain Ijumangibo Tobin. That was the first capped and traditionally presented chief. Like I said, the founder of the House, Awanta himself was above chiefs and, of course, because he was above chiefs, he countersigned all treaties of the Kingdom. You can see that in the report of G.I. Jones. He signs every treaty with the King, without his consent no treaty is accepted so far as Bonny Kingdom is concerned.

The second Chief that was presented in the Bonny Native Authority Council was Chief Abraham Sunday Tobin in 1933.  He became a Chief and was in Council till his demise in 1945. The third Chief that was presented to the Bonny Chiefs Council was Chief Samuel Owunabo Tobin, that was in 1961, and the last chief that was presented to the Bonny Chiefs Council was Chief Young Sunday Tobin in 1993. If you go to the records of the Bonny Chiefs Council, Tobin House so far has four chiefs that have represented the House in Bonny. Before this time, it was the Bonny Native Authority Council and now the Bonny Chiefs Council. The records are all there. Also there were leaders of the House that were not presented to the Bonny Chiefs Council. They were just Wari-Alapu.

You said the Tobin House was created in 1826 but the Chief and Head of Brown House during the second anniversary of his installation stated that the Tobin House was created in 1961 as a minor House to Brown House. How do we reconcile these two positions?

Ordinarily, the Tobin Chieftaincy House has decided not to get involved or join issues with the Brown House over what they do in their House. It’s none of our business. We are Ibani people, we know the tradition. We know who has the power to create a chieftaincy house in Bonny. So, it’s like when a mad man is dancing in the market square, you are going to drag him. You will be seen as a mad man too. But to put the records straight, we have to say something about it.

I believe any Ibani son or daughter that sees that statement will be laughing because it’s actually laughable to hear that a Bonny man is creating a chieftaincy house. It shows how naïve, clueless and ignorant that person is. That a chief is creating a chieftaincy house? To start with, I don’t want to go into the internal politics whether he is the chief or not. That’s not my business. But in Ibani custom and tradition, a chief is creating a chieftaincy house or is upgrading families to chieftaincy houses is an aberration.

The issue of Amadabo, where did they derive it from? Which Ama is he daa-ing? In Ibani custom and tradition, we deal on chieftaincy houses, and that is why no community has community Opuwari. if you go round Bonny communities what you see is townhalls for community meetings. Opuwari are for Houses. There is not one community Opuwari because Bonny custom and tradition forbids it. Ibani not Bonny because the same thing is applicable in Opobo Kingdom, there is nothing like community Opuwari or palace. The Houses report to the King and take directives from there, down here. In all the communities, at most, what you see is CDC, that is Community Development Committee or something related to that and not Amadabo. This is what we know

I am trying not to go into their internal politics because the things they do outside shows that they don’t even know anything about the custom and tradition of Bonny Kingdom. They have chiefs, for instance, from the first chief of that House, Omuso, after Omuso, they have Omoni, after Omoni, they have Abebo, and after Abebo, they have Chief John Green Owupele, after Chief John Green Owupele, they have Okpe, after Okpe, they have several others, how many of them answered Amadabo?

I can give you more than ten letters of Chief Henry Buowari Brown. Of course, we all know how educated and exposed he was. In all his letterheadings, you can never see anything like Amadabo or paramount ruler or paramount chief. And all the letters he addressed to his counterparts or colleagues, Chief Abraham Sunday Tobin, he will give him the due respect and address him as Chief Abraham Sunday Tobin. After the address, he will come down and say “My dear cousin”, and there was nothing like Amadabo. All the while Buowari was in town here as a Chief; Chief Abraham Sunday Tobin, as his colleague and brother and cousin, he reports the activities of the community to him.

So, where does Dagogo Lambert derive the power to upgrade houses? Let me just read something to you; this is the report of the arbitration committee set up by the Amanyanabo-in-Council in 1964/66 when they wanted to depose (Chief) Max Allwell Brown. I want to read from the 5th paragraph here that said “Mr. H. B. Brown, that is Henry Buowari Brown, also known as Nwoke said, while answering the question from the commission, on composition of the finance committee, the commission asked a question from the finance committee and answering that question, Mr. H. B. Brown said that “it comprises of representatives from the three major families that make up Finima and they are Attoni, Tobin and Brown”. If you want this report, I will give you the report. They never mentioned Adum.

Now, who creates chieftaincy houses? Who created Adum House? Adams Intelligence Report? Ok, who was the first chief of Adum House? Because the first day they create a house it goes with a chief? Who was the first chief of Adum House? Why are there no records of this Adum House here? So, somebody can just sit down in his comfort and stand up and mislead the whole people. You know, the problem I have with these lies is that it’s so misleading; not to the true sons of the land, you cannot go to Bonny to tell anyone that a chief sat in his Opuwari in his comfort zone and said he has created houses or he is upgrading families. Who is he to upgrade houses? Who created him? Somebody created him and that responsibility is for the King exclusively to do. And he will just sit in his house because he is answering this and that and say he is creating houses and he is forming chiefs’ council.  

But if we may ask, Amadabo, in Ibani language, literally means the head of a town. Now before the English and the Portuguese came with their language, the Ibani people were speaking Ibani. Now, we want to believe that across all the towns, especially the 14 original towns that made up Bonny Kingdom they had heads and those heads were not identified in English language. But like we have seen in Ayama (Peterside), we have seen in Abalamabie, we have seen in Oloma, they have a consensus among the houses. These communities don’t just have one chieftaincy house, like Finima that has more than one chieftaincy house, they may all have agreed, like in Ayama, Chief Wilcox is the head of the community; in Abalamabie, Chief Longjohn is the head of the community. Now in the case of Finima, what is the issue? Is it that the title, Amadabo does not exist at all or there is no consensus among the three families that one of you should be the head?

This is very strange to me. As a matter of fact, I have yet to hear that in Peterside, Chief Wilcox is the head of the community. I am yet to hear any statement or announcement or publication in regards to that, that he is speaking as the Amadabo of Peterside or something. The same thing in Abalamabie. Now, if you go to those places and make your investigation; you are a journalist now, you should know what am talking about. You will see what they call CDCs. In Abalamabie, there’s this name that they call it with Chief Longjohn as the chairman; there’s nothing like Amadabo.

If you go to the Chronicles of Bonny, before Perekule took over what they had were Elders. The Chronicles of Bonny says the King sits with the juju priest and the elders representing all the communities. When Perekule came in, he abolished that and started chieftaincy houses. Now, chiefs are the people representing their various houses and not the community. Let me tell you, Chief Wilcox cannot go to the palace and say he is representing Peterside. I hope you are getting me. He can only go there as representing Wilcox House. Chief Longjohn cannot go and say his representing Abalamabie; the King will ask him what are you talking about? He knows him as the Chief and Head of Longjohn House. So, nobody should come to Finima and say he is the Amadabo of Finima. Imagine, from being Amadabo today he has created Houses, tomorrow who knows what other pranks he would come up with.

Look, it’s very simple, like I said, the King made Omuso whatever he is today. The King took him home, bred him, made him a chief and sent him back to Finima. I want to tell you something that happened in 1992, something I heard with my ears. I was not told, I was there. I was standing by the window in Finima Townhall in 1992 when Mobil came to pay N20 million. King Opuada Secondus was there present and when he was giving his address before the closure he said and I quote “Brown House stop disturbing the owners of this land – he was beating his chest – you are my father’s property. The place you have right is in George Pepple, come to George Pepple, that’s where you have right to come and drag land and I’m the owner”. Let me tell you, before God and man and the ancestors, the who is who in Brown House were all seated there. Nobody said anything. He made that statement and after that he said all rise, everybody rose and stepped out and till today nobody has contradicted him. You know the problem we had then was the kind of gadgets we have today were not there then, so, nobody recorded it.

His Majesty, Captain Opuada Secondus fearlessly told them and I want to add my voice as the Chairman of this Council to say that enough is enough. They should go back to their roots and stop disturbing the peace of this place. Since they cannot do their things quietly without calling the Tobins, they will write their constitution, they will call the Tobins; they will do this they will talk about the Tobins. How can Engr. Gogo Lambert come and tell me Tobin House was created in 1961? When his father applied to Tobin for a land was it in 1961? His father, Senibo Lambert Brown applied to Tobin House for a land. It’s so annoying that somebody will just get up and come to give public statement, without facts. When Brown House was applying to Chief Abraham Sunday Tobin, when they were applying for land and they were addressing him as a Chief. Can there be a chief without a house? Does Bonny give chieftaincy titles to individuals that don’t have a house?   

If Tobin House was created in 1961, how come even Buowari, their chief, was writing to him as a chief? You notice that these are the things they do for the companies to notice them and they lie to them and be collecting the small things. But lies have time. And they tell these lies to the company, you see the companies running to them. And that does not make them better. 

But if I may ask, in that address, he said that Tobin House was made a sub-minor house in 1961. Could it be that he meant that Tobin House has always existed but was now made a minor house in Brown House in that year?

The question is by who?  Buowari died in 1959. His successor, Max Allwell Brown was made a chief in 1962. The Owunabo he is referring to – Chief Samuel Owunabo Tobin – was made a chief in 1961. Within 1959 and 1962, about two years, who was the chief then? Who was in Brown House to make it a sub-house? Go to the records of the Chiefs Council, who presented him? At least, the Chiefs Council knows the record. Adams Report will not come and tell us houses that are sub houses. Of course, even in the Adams Report they did not call Tobin House and they cannot call Tobin House. Like I said, I have this document here as far back as March 29th, 1870 by Omoni Jack-Brown and Ijumangibo Captain Tobin. It means Tobin House was existing; and Tobin House like I said, the peace treaty they signed during the internal civil war in Bonny here, Tobin House was one of the Houses that signed among the independent houses in Bonny.

So, who made Tobin House? Or is it Perekule that created the House that made the House a sub-house to Brown House? Or they are just assuming because they have the community money in their possession and telling lies to the companies and collecting from people and all of that? He should tell us who in particular because like I said, Buowari died in 1959. Max Allwell Brown, his successor, was made a chief in 1962. Who then made Tobin House a sub-house in 1961? 1961 is a recent thing there should be some documented evidence like he said. He should make them public because we are ready to make our own public.