Popularly known by his traditional sobriquet, Anieresi IV, the Chief and Head of the Ezekiel-Hart Chieftaincy House of Grand Bonny Kingdom, Se-Alabo Idasonye Ezekiel-Hart, a Nothingham University trained engineer and oil and gas expert, comes across as the embodiment of candour, leadership and grace, with an all-knowing disposition on almost any issue you raise with him.

In the 17 years he has piloted the affairs of the Ezekiel-Hart Chieftaincy House, one of the 34 families, cum chieftaincy houses, that comprise the ancient Kingdom of Grand Bonny, there has been a steady upscale of fortunes for the members of the House as he has continued to provide the needed leadership, dispensing favours generously, empowering the youths, and on the whole advancing the house. Under his leadership, the Ezekiel-Hart House prides itself as the house with the youngest House Secretary and bustling youth involvement in house activities.   

Se-Alabo Idasonye Ezekiel-Hart, a former senior staff of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), spoke to Kristina Reports’ team comprising her Publisher, Godswill Jumbo, Community Correspondent, Clariza Allison, and Deputy Head, Digital Content Generation, Sokari Wilcox at his country home in Bonny on issues surrounding the House’s ownership of Kom-Kom Community in Oyigbo Local Government Area, especially, after a judicial pronouncement on the status of the House in relation to the said community. It promises to be an interesting read. Enjoy! 

In 2019, there was a court judgment declaring the Ezekiel-Hart House of Bonny Kingdom as the owners of Kom-Kom Community. Can you shed more light on the judgement, how it came about and its implications?

Yes, the founder of the Ezekiel-Hart House, Chief Ezekiel-Hart and Anieresi the first, was a successful business man and he had locations all over the place, not just in Kom-Kom. He had in B-Dere, Azumini and so many other places, which are not necessary for me to mention. So, the Kom-Kom, he bought Kom-Kom from the Oyigbo chief of that time, a hundred and twenty years ago, between 1902 and 1912 before Nigeria became Nigeria. He bought it as a virgin land, there were no houses, there were no buildings, nothing, just virgin bush and then named it Kom-Kom. Then went to bring his people all over the place especially from Bonny to come and develop the place. That is how Kom-Kom became the property of the Ezekiel-Hart House. It was completely bought over. It is completely documented, with the signature of the Ezekiel-Hart House members and the Kom-Kom members. His father (points at the House Secretary) was one of those who actually witnessed the buying of Kom-Kom because he was the Secretary of the House with my late grandfather. So, having done that, Kom-Kom became our own and we have been administering the place for over 120 years now.

When Nigeria came into being, we went into proper official registration in the registry and you know Nigeria’s capital started at Calabar. So, the registration of the land was there. We went to Calabar when Calabar was the capital of Nigeria, from there to Lagos, to Enugu; Enugu now to Port Harcourt and put the Land Registry to Port Harcourt. So, we have all the documents to back up our claim of ownership. And then when some people came up and tried to falsify this claim and took us to court, we went with them, and the court was able to see what I am telling you now, and that Kom-Kom belongs to us in every way. We own it, that’s why he accepted all those demands we asked from the court. We are the owners, but put everything to Oyigbo. I bought over 100 copies of The Tide and made sure the thing was publicized in Oyibo so that peace will reign.

Between 2019 and now, after the court judgement, what actions have taken place?

We want to really re-organize the place and, at least, let people who have now been defeated in the court, let them accept their defeat. But in the process, we have this problem of COVID-19 and I think that caused everything and then the #EndSARS and crisis, especially, in Oyigbo there. So, we had to mellow down till things return to normal and then we can start from there. That’s the position.

What is the Ezekiel-Hart House looking out for in terms of land development using the Kom-Kom land as a tool for economic development of the House?

We have explored so many avenues, the Kom-Kom land is very large piece of land and we have the unfortunate circumstance of having people who didn’t even know when the land was bought, taking us to court here and there, unfortunately, he has never lost any case. What we had in mind was to call an estate agent to come and help us survey the land properly, but because of the so many cases that were coming up and all that; so many property agents were just waiting for the final decision, until this decision came.

Now, we will go ahead to, in fact, we also wanted the government to really empower some of our people to start farms, plantations, cassava plantations, and all kind of businesses. We applied but you know Nigeria, since today, nobody has responded. Our people have gone to sign documents, but we have not gotten any feedback. I don’t know what’s causing it, probably you will help us tell government that this is our property, and we would want to develop it. We have spent so much money to deter people from going to court because they don’t own anything.

Now considering your efforts to engage private investors and all that you are contemplating to do to retool the economic template of the House, does it speak to the enterprising spirit of the average Ibani man, given that Bonny history revolves around business like the palm oil trade?

(Cuts in) My grandfather was one of the leading participants…

Are these efforts being made reflecting that?

It is a reflection, you know he was, if you try to investigate, he was one of the foremost palm oil industry merchants in Bonny Kingdom. That was how he got his wealth and became rich and then you would expect that we would follow in his footsteps. There have been efforts, some people have approached us to buy the land, for a price and they were looking for something like 7,000 acres which we can comfortably give them from the land but along the line, the negotiation broke down and now that we have a legal backing, I think waiting for the effect of #EndSARS and COVID and then vandalization in Kom-Kom to calm down, we are going to restart the whole thing all over again. And you know in acquiring this land, my grandfather had a focus on where he can move easily, so you can see he occupied river water fronts in Oyigbo, the boundary of Ezekiel-Hart House is the Imo River. So, that’s the boundary of Rivers State, and that was decided during the Justice Mamman Nasir Commission’s investigation and one of our elders made a presentation that led the government to decide that since they were looking for real physical boundaries, they chose the Imo River because we are from Rivers State and to actually make that place and there is nobody there that doesn’t know that it is Ezekiel-Hart land. So they considered it and look at it and said of that is our boundary. The river, if you go to Azumini, it’s the same thing, if you go to Bdere, we are occupying the water front. It is just to make sure that goods without depending so much on land travel can enter the boat and come to Bonny. So that  is exactly how it happened.

I will have the tradition of following our fore-fathers’s footsteps by going into industry and you see, that is why we want the government to really be able to partner with us because things are not going the way one would want it to go. It would be necessary for those who want to go into industry to be empowered, to be assisted. I am a public servant, an engineer by profession, so, I wasn’t thinking of being a chief, I will behave like a chief, I will go into industry and make sure my people progress.

Now, if we come home, around Bonny Kingdom there have been one issue or the other; but we seem not to hear any rumblings, any noise around the Chief Ezekiel-Hart House, instead we see members of that house playing key roles in the development and progress of Bonny Kingdom. Is there a secret to all of these that we need to know why the House is peaceful?

The secret is that of exposure, to really be focusing on vital things. Ezekiel-Hart House does not brag about what they have. Jumbo, you people have all the money in Bonny Kingdom, but the Ezekiel-Hart does not go out bragging. In Bonny Kingdom, the Ezekiel-Hart appears as one of those that have a big compound bow close to the Amanyanabo’s house. There must be a reason why we have taken such prominent position and then with that, those managing the Ezekiel-Hart House, we have directed members to look into the progress of the Kingdom. That is why they are reflected in strategic places and I am not going to be an exception. I want our kingdom to progress so that is why we have key people in those areas. Probably, it may be… but then it is not very obvious because we have the resources, not directly based in Bonny Kingdom, but outside, so we can develop and use it to develop our own people too so that might be the reason. You see apart from the jumbo house, the brown house who are enjoying the oil money, we have alternative to get money and develop our people. I think that’s why we are in those strategic focus of Bonny Kingdom.

You have just said that you are an engineer, a professional, and then you are a country Chief in Bonny Kingdom, and one that is very close to driving things in trying to actualize the vision of His Majesty, the King of Bonny, and then we see you have a happy family; how do you manage life as a Chief, father, engineer, and all the roles you play? The young ones need to learn…

The thing is that, you have to be straight forward. You have to be honest both I’m your immediate family, house people and with everybody you interact with because, people know who is straight forward and who is honest, who doesn’t want to cheat them and who wants to maintain the peace. So, once they discover that, they will fit into it. Infact, it is just the same thing like Bonny Kingdom, everybody feels like we have a peaceful society here. It didn’t start from the top, it started from below. So I try to maintain peace around me just like the Amanyanabo wants to maintain peace in Bonny Kingdom. So, we are all doing the same thing. We are moving all to the same thing because without peace, there can not be progress. Once you have peace, there will be progress, people are happy, so if you see a happy family, it did not just come from nowhere because people are doing something to make it happen.

Let’s close with your advice to your House, people of Bonny Kingdom, people that are coming to work in the Train 7 and the global community; what is it about Bonny you think everyone should celebrate, should connect to and should identify with?

Bonny has been a center of Education and when you acquire education, your character is moulded because of what peoples will say to you and what you will read. So, my advice is that, just like before, just as we are the early educators, in this country. One of the early educators in this country, we should continue like that, we would educate our people properly and then make them have a focus on what I have just said. Try to be a team builder, a team worker other than everybody going his own way, or trying to undermine any other person, that’s my own advice. I don’t like a situation where people for their own selfish reasons or undermining rather than try to build up. If somebody annoys you, or does something you don’t like, go straight and get it sorted out, either one to one or get a third party to do it. You know if you don’t and allow that friction build up, it will affect so many things. Anything that affects one person, affects the other. In Jumbo family now, I have advised that Jumbo family should be united and then because any family in Bonny that is not united, it will affect the kingdom. So, that is my advice actually, that’s what I want everybody to work towards.