Govt doesn’t recognise my dad’s sacrifices — Isaac Boro’s daughter

Esther

Esther is a daughter to the famous Niger Delta freedom fighter, the late Major Isaac Adaka Boro. She talks about her father’s ideals with us

Tell us about yourself.

I am Esther Boro, daughter to the late Major Isaac Adaka Boro and Roseline Agidi Boro, a retired Superintendent of Police.

What childhood experience with your father do you remember?

My early childhood started in Maroko, Lagos. At the age of 12, my late grandfather, Chief J.P. Boro, sent for me and my younger brother, Felix, to join him in Port Harcourt,  Rivers State. It was in Maroko that I saw him last. I still see that image till today. He and a few persons came to my grandfather’s house in Maroko. We were all children sleeping on the ground and no adult was present. He walked in very demonstratively, agile and looked around. I opened my eyes to take a glance at him. He looked around and there was no adult to speak to and he left, waving at me. That was my last image of him.

Did he speak with you?

No, in those days, parents did not use to speak with children. But I do recall what my mother told me that when he was in prison, he asked her to bring me to see him because I was his favourite child.

Did you see him?

Yes, but I was just scared of the chains he had on him. He was imprisoned for treason at the time.  It was in 1966 and I was three years old. Imagine, at that impressionable age, I saw him tied up in chains — both legs and hands. I was frightened.

Did you see him after he was released from prison?

After he was released from prison, he went straight to war and he died in the war.

How do people relate to you knowing you are a daughter to a famous freedom fighter?

Isaac Boro was a phenomenon. Growing up, I attended Government Secondary School, Kaiama, his hometown. From his pictures, I look a lot like him when I was younger. People used to get scared of me even my fellow students. They felt that dating Isaac Boro’s child was like Boro was coming to kill them. They believed he used to take a walk with his army boots around the village (Kaiama); that if they had anything with his daughter, something terrible might happen to them. That was the experience I had and it was terrible. No one told me what they were feeling but I felt the resentment.

Does your father’s name open doors for you?

Major Isaac Adaka Boro

One can knock at any door and one will enter. After the knocking, I don’t think much happens. I do not get favours because of my father’s name.

Who were your father’s close friends?

My father did not have friends. He only had work associates. I admire him so much. To be close to him, one must be productive. If he were alive today, he would have expatiated on his person. I was told that during the 12-day revolution for the declaration of Niger Delta republic, there were some persons he described as traitors that were also part of the struggle. He disconnected himself from them because they betrayed the cause. I still like and respect him even in death.

How close were you to your father?

I was only five years old when he died. My mother told me that when she took me to him, he would say he did not like to see me cry. I was not a crying baby though. He loved me.

How would you describe your father’s social life even though you were only five years when he died?

Regarding his social life, I think my mother was very jealous. As I said earlier, his life was connected to something. He was a police officer. He worked intensively in the police. He also attended the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.  He did not stop there. He joined politics.  Those were his social life. He didn’t have so much social life. His brain was fast, most times irritable to others, especially those who could not follow his pace. Some people might see me like that as well because I like to work to perfection.

What ideals have you learnt from him?

We should go back to the struggle. I think I like the struggle. It is part of the ideals I learnt from him. Some people, including me, were not very pleased that he left us to fight for the liberation of people he did not really know.

Every child needs his or her parents. One needs both parents. Even if the man is poor and lives in a makeshift apartment at least he is there to relate with his children. He stated it in the struggle that he was not in it as an individual but that it was what he stood for. It was his identity. What he stood for was encapsulated in some of his speeches. He said, “Today is a great day, not only in our lives, but also in the history of the Niger Delta. Perhaps, it will be the greatest day for a very long time.  This is not because we are going to break heaven but because we are going to demonstrate to the world what and how we feel about oppression.” This was the speech of young man who had not lived life at all at the time.

The remains of your father were interred in a cemetery in Lagos and later exhumed 45 years after to be buried in Ijaw Heroes Park in Bayelsa. What was the reason for that since he was a national hero?

Celebrating a national hero is not just by word but by action. If they said my late father was a national hero, how come his birthday is not recognised? Why is it that we do not read about him in the history books?

He was an Ijaw hero and I am proud that he was. Not only an Ijaw hero, he was the Niger Delta hero because he is even better celebrated in Delta State, Edo State and other places. I remember when I was in Maroko, when his classmates in the university heard that Isaac Boro was our father, my younger brother and I, they gave us money. They said they loved our father so much. He was not just an Ijaw hero. He was a hero for all the minorities.

Your father fought for the unity of Nigeria during the civil war in which he was killed…

He died in the process. He got something of what he wanted like the liberation of Rivers State.  Rivers State was given to him. It became a state. But he fought because of the lack of socio-economic development in the area. There were no roads, electricity, water, health care facilities and educational institutions.  In those days, they used to travel many miles to submit application forms for anything. One would travel to the old eastern region. Imagine travelling from Bayelsa to Enugu to submit an application.

What do you think would be his major regret?

I think his major regret was his inability to take care of his children. This is so because he was a loving father. He was a selfless man.

Nationally, I will say he did not groom those to take over from him. It is said that in vain do people build the city without first building the men.

His regret would have been “why didn’t I educate them first for them to understand where I was coming from.”  He was far ahead of his time. The people, as of that time, no matter the level of their education, were not exposed. They were not educated through books. They were educated to speak the English language and that was it. But he was far more educated both physically and spiritually.

Would you say the death of your father was a conspiracy or it was just an act of war?

To me, I will say it was an act of war. My late uncle, Gestop Boro, wrote a lot about him. He wrote some books like Who killed Boro? for instance.  I was privileged to ask him some questions when he was alive.

About his death, what happened was, you know when you have had victories for a while something would happen to your mind. He went gallantly on the boat as if nothing would happen. He went to the front of the boat, stood there gallantly, like in some of his pictures, and spread his leg. He forgot all the principles of war as of that moment and it was purely accidental. He was killed in a war situation.

He passed on with his young cousin Nottingham Dick. His cousin died instantly and was buried in Bonny in Rivers State. My father, they said, did not die immediately. He was said to have died later. They attended to him properly and made sure nobody knew that he had died as the war was not over yet. He was buried nationally at the Ikoyi Cemetery in Lagos.

He was a national hero. Do you contradict that?

But a national hero is not forgotten. Isaac Boro was forgotten until he was brought back by the Governor of Bayelsa State, Mr. Seriake Dickson, for reburial.

Would you say that the Federal Government does not recognise the contributions of your late father to the development of the country?

Yes. They do not. We have seen how people, group of persons are being recognised. When you add value to the peace and development of the country, you are respected. It seems Nigeria is a cocktail of groups of persons or a cartel. All the same, you have to give honour where honour is due.

If Isaac Boro’s ideologies were addressed, we would not have the Niger Delta problems as we have today. There could be some grievances that would pop up and it would have been an entirely different level.

How does his family remember him yearly?

Why should we remember him annually? You know the trauma when one loses a person one loves so much.  One deals with it individually and collectively. But remembering him annually in the state, in Ijaw or Niger Delta is the issue. They want to remember him annually but the way they remember him, is not the best way for him to be remembered. I would rather not have them remember him at all rather than remember him halfway.

Why did you say that? 

Have you seen any mausoleum built in Boro’s name where individuals from far and near can go and read about him? Have you seen a place like that? In the United States, there is Martin Luther King’s mausoleum and a day to celebrate him for all his struggles against racism.  He is honoured. They have a public holiday for him. Do we have that?  We don’t. What kind of celebration? My grandfather died, we buried him, did his rites traditionally, he was buried and once in a while, we look at pictures and remember some things that he had done. Here, I am being forced as the daughter of Isaac Boro to remember him constantly.

Who is forcing you to do so?

They are forcing me. That is all I can say. Imagine celebrating Boro and I am taking a tricycle (keke) to attend the celebration.  And the day they celebrate him, there will be no seats for members of his family even if to at least honour them on that day. Rather, all the so-called big people will sit at the front and the family will be pushed behind. Is that a celebration?  If you can’t celebrate him well, don’t celebrate him.

As a soldier and activist, how did he discipline his children?

He wasn’t around to discipline his children. His last child was born after his death in 1968.

How many children did he have?

He had four children.

Was your father a polygamist?

Yes. He married more than one wife. Don’t get me wrong. As of that time, it was normal to have more than one wife. Besides, I was told that he was handsome, fair skinned and loved by many. Besides, he commanded authority. Women love men that command authority. I am the first child. Felix Boro is the first son; we are of the same parents. Bunmi Boro is of another woman — a Yoruba woman — and Deborah born on June 2, 1968.

He declared a republic for the Niger Delta with some people that led to his arrest by the Federal Government. Could you shed light on that?

He formed a republic called the Niger Delta People’s Republic. He formed it with Captain Samuel Owonaru and the late Nottingham Dick. He was the leader of that group. As of that time, he was the most enlightened one. He was the only one that had attended a university and a son of a headmaster. Dick was called from Ghana to join them. The entire struggle was beautiful. They allowed my father to lead them and they all knew their roles and had constant meetings. I spoke with Owonaru.  He is alive and lives in Kaiama.  I spoke to him on several occasions on what they did and how they did it. After hearing him speak about it, I knew that it was a privilege they could do that.

How many of his colleagues in the struggle are still alive?

Many have passed on. But the ones that we talk so much about are Captain Owonaru, Dick and Isaac Boro. Capt Amangala was also part of the struggle.  That is to tell you that the struggle was not just armed struggle, it was also an intellectual struggle.  Everything was marked out. The central aim of the struggle was to ensure the development of the entire Niger Delta region.

How did his death affect your education?

Our late grandfather sent for us from Lagos, when we got there, he was paying the school fees. He was a contractor. Sometimes, contractors are not paid on time. They just give them mobilisation and then they use the money to work. After that, they begin to go through offices constantly to get their money. At times, there was no money to pay my school fees. Thirty naira was my school fees then in the 70s.  I expected something like a scholarship.  Why didn’t the authorities in Rivers State then give us scholarship? Why did I have to go to the Ministry of Defence to access my scholarship but it was not recognised abroad. When one dies in active military service according to the military rules, one’s children will be sponsored and trained until they attain 21. No one told me about this. I read about it and I started pursuing my scholarship at the age of 18. I went to the Ministry of Defence to get my scholarship. Finally it was approved and I was told to submit all the tellers that I had.  I could not get many of them. I got refunded on the few I could get. I later realised that my scholarship was not recognised abroad. I travelled to Denmark. In Denmark, I had to marry at a tender age to get my green papers and my residence permit like anybody else.

How old were you when you got married?

I was 19 years old. The person I married is the father of my son and my son is fine.

Do you have any regrets marrying early?

I have no regrets whatsoever.

The Shehu Shagari administration in 1982 gave your father a national honour posthumously. Was that not enough rcognition?

What would make my father happy in his grave is that the children he left behind are taken care of.

What do you do now?

In Denmark, I studied Accounting.  Later, I decided to study Nursing.  I have B.Sc Nursing. I worked in two countries – Denmark and the last posting was Norway. I love the nursing profession so much. After sometime, I was hungry for Nigeria so I returned home.

When I came to Nigeria, Governor Seriake Dickson appointed me as Special Assistant on Health. I used that portfolio to establish a non-governmental organisation with nurses. I groomed newly trained nurses from the school of nursing in Tombia, Bayelsa. I got them from eight local government areas. We still keep in touch with them. Currently, I work as a supervisor at the Skills Acquisition Centre, Boro Town in Kaiama, under the Presidential Amnesty Programme.  We do have a clinic there. I am back to my nursing.

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