By Jerome-Mario Utomi
Having come a long way in lending a virile voice to the crusade for socio-economic and infrastructural development of the Niger Delta region, GbaramatuVoice, the leading pan-Niger Delta media organisation, on Wednesday, August 27, and Thursday, August 28, 2025, at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja, celebrated a milestone that highlighted a decade of impactful journalism, cultural preservation, and sustained advocacy for peace, justice, and development in the region.
The event which had as theme “Gaps and Silences in Nigeria’s Oil & Gas Economy: Appraisal of Resource Control, Security & Media Dynamics” featured Public Lecture and the Niger Delta Night of Honour attracted dignitaries drawn from the nation’s critical sectors including traditional rulers from across the Niger Delta with His Royal Majesty, Oboro-Gbaraun II, Pere of the Ancient Gbaramatu Kingdom, serving as host.
One of the exhilarating highlights of the colourful event was the deserving honour and award bestowed on Mr. Asiayei Enaibo, Managing Editor, GbaramatuVoice, for his unwavering commitment and unbroken eventful 10years of meritorious service to the Media organization.
“No man, according to Aristotle, chooses anything but what he can do himself. And thus, choice is limited to the realm of things humanly possible. Aristotle further stated that there is no choice among impossibilities. Choice, by its very nature, is free. A necessitated choice is not a choice at all but a great sacrifice”
The above lines from the great philosopher amply capture Asiayei Enaibo’s persona.
An Ijaw cultural ambassador who also describes himself as a cultural journalist, Enaibo hails from Bobogbene community, Burutu Local Government Area of Delta state.
Also hailed as the “Talking Drum of the Niger Delta”, Enaibo has spent well over 15 years on long-standing dedication to documenting and promoting Ijaw culture, particularly Ijaw culture and worship, preserving the true values of Ijaw heritage and bringing their stories to a wider audience.
Aside being a friend and brother, and GbaramatuVoice being an organization that I share in its vision and prays for its success, there are salient reasons the event, to me, was all about celebrating Enaibo’s strides and the success and impact the newspaper has had on the region.
The first borders on his reaction to the award – his recognition that he was not alone in that journey to success and stardom, his worship to the gods and payment to key people that assisted him, particularly High Chief Government Oweizide Ekpemupolo aka Tompolo and members of his community in the sleepy Bobougbene, Ayakoromo and Obotebe Communities.
Secondly, the latest appreciation and reward of efforts has on the one hand postured GbaramatuVoice leadership as a bunch that recognizes and rewards efforts, sacrifices and contribution made by staff to the organization. In a similar vein, the award will inspire the awardee, the entire staff to do more for the organization while teaching staff of other organizations and future generations that hard work pays just as no effort shall go unrewarded.
Enaibo is a thoroughbred journalist with great insight into political reportage as well as laced with in-depth knowledge of socioeconomic issues, development and analysis. Also working in his favour is the fact that he is well-foresighted and naturally at home when it comes to broadcast and any other form of commentary.
Despite these enchanting virtues, attributes and proficiency needed by the global community, Asiayei Enaibo, in what could be described as extraordinary sacrifice and response to a call for the highest level of spirituality, opt for a voyage into little-known and less attractive cultural communication genre where he has since become both sign and symbol to the heart of traditional worshippers in the whole of Ijaw land and Niger Delta region in general. Asiayei has remained resolute and laced with an unwavering commitment to this spiritual call for the past 15 years, precisely since 2009. Like a self-willed prisoner, Enaibo has travelled a long windy road to be here.
Most profound about the commentary is his deep understanding of Ijaw in the African traditional worship institution which has given him both leverage and latitude to deconstruct negative arguments that posture the African traditional worship system as evil. He has not only changed the narrative but vehemently defended African culture and traditional worship system at local and international gatherings.
For instance, he believes and has argued beyond reasonable doubt that the consciousness of Ijaw spirituality hangs on the powers of Egbesu and Egbesu, according to him, is the deity of justice of the Ijaw people of the Niger Delta region. Egbesu, he said, is also perceived as the spiritual foundational force for combating evil and cleanses them at every point of confession for forgiveness. The Egbesu force can only be used in defence or to correct an injustice, and only by people who are in harmony with themselves and the universe.
‘Before the coming of the Western religion, Egbesu worship had been in existence. The god of warfare and justice, Egbesu, is regarded as a divine guardian who protects the Ijaw people from their enemies. He is often invoked before battle and is believed to grant victory to those who fight with righteousness and integrity, those who go to the temple of Egbesu must go with a clean heart. If you abhor any evil at the point of entrance, there is a pot for purification to cleanse and wipe every evil thought away’.
Enaibo’s investment of his time and talent in cultural journalism has equally seen him widely travelled on a fact-finding mission to the entire Ijaw nation, an ethnic nationality which happens to be the fourth largest in the country.
He has not only made friends and commanded followership but moved severally from Ondo to Edo state, Rivers to Bayelsa down to Akwa Ibom and back to Delta state among others, researching and documenting the undiluted fact that centres on Ijaw history, traditional worships and other critical knowledge areas as well as participated in high profiled seminars and conferences that has Ijaw culture and traditional worship as its thrust.
This has undeniably made him a reference point for the present and future generations when it comes to Ijaw affairs and in the world of cultural journalism/communication in the Niger Delta region and the nation in general.
In recognition of his cultural promotion efforts/prowess, he was recently invited by the organisers of the Liverpool Biennial of Contemporary Art, to visit the United Kingdom and attend the launch of Liverpool Biennial 2025, slated for June 7 – September 14, 2025.
However, even as this feat is celebrated, it will on the other hand elicit the questions; first and very importantly, what got Enaibo fixated in this area of communication? Why is cultural communication in the face of other attractive areas of journalism considered more lucrative? Why not areas such as political and socioeconomic affairs?
Providing an answer to these questions recently, the Bobogbene/Ayakoromo community-born creative writer described himself as a privileged channel chosen by the gods to write their stories, noting that cultural journalism depicts the cultural sensibility of the people and the consciousness of their true identity as their heritage, belief, and values to their true origin and practical belief to commune with the gods of their forefathers.
He argues that “as a cultural journalist, I feel awakened to the core values of our people. It is the root pride of people who believe in their existence and perception of the God of their creator. I am culturally conscious of the belief, practice and worship of the ancestral God of the Ijaw land”
On Ijaw traditional worship, Enaibo has this to say: “The great Egbesu is our being that protects the land in time of war, justice, and freedom as an indomitable supernatural power solely for the Ijaws beyond conquest in time of war for justice. Yes, the power manifestation of this spiritual being was deeply abandoned by the coming of the Christian faiths that painted everything in derogatory mental brainwashing. And the gods elude us, but now with Tompolo, there is a new paradigm shift of root consciousness to our Spirituality.
“Tompolo, who I often referred to as god, begotten son of Ijawland communicates to the gods in the language of metaphysics and gods change its story and that has been with our forefathers. There is no new formation, but what has been. With morality and sincerity, there is no mistake in the story of the gods, and there is no deception, once you hand twist the wish of the land, the gods dare you with death or you make an urgent confession and plead for forgiveness at the sacred Temple of Egbesu or any other power you have offended.
“And it is a few journalists in Ijaw land like myself as part of this entity that the gods reveal their potential to. To me, in any temple I visit, I write their stories with ease because this is an old institution I was born into. Many because of this dislike distance themselves from Cultural Journalism’.
“From masquerade stories to gods of the land that protect us, to God and man, when we understand the missing bridge, the better prosper us as we have returned to our original paradise lost and regained with full glory as the examples of Tompolo and other high priests of Ijaw land. Writers like Enaibo have an internal soul personality that attracts this energy, purity of thoughts at the same frequency beyond the mundane world”
Essentially, going by his age and physical appearance, Asiayei in my view, is by no means an old man. But his understanding and competence in promoting the culture of his people have conspired to confer on him, the enviable title; ‘Talking Drum of Niger region’ by his friends and admirers because of his creative writing prowess. He has proved that history does matter and that ordinary calculation can be upturned by extraordinary personalities.
Enaibo’s regular intervention in Ijaw culture and worship has blown fresh wind to the discourse in ways that accelerate the process of the reemergence of a fully functional historical document that will be trusted by both present and future generations.
Regardless of what others may say, the new awareness created by the cultural journalist can engineer disruptive as well as constructive ideas that will help shatter set patterns of thinking, threaten the status quo or at the very least raise people’s concern to further question time-honoured historical accounts.
A circle of learning and empowerment has been created by Enaibo’s 15 years of unbroken commentary that allows the people of the Ijaw nation to see things that others cannot see.
Another reason Enaibo’s deep dive into Ijaw cultural journalism should be appreciated is that in population, Ijaws are the fourth largest ethnic nationality in the country. And the people, in material terms, have, through hard work, and planning, established themselves in all sectors-finance, science/technology, sports and education among others.
The above achievements notwithstanding, the people would have needed, yet, another generation to correct some sloppy traditional worship accounts that have invaded so many literary works currently in the public domain if not because of Enaibo’s critical interventions.
In his acceptance speech, Enaibo said: “I am greatly honoured, an award accompanied with millions of Naira. GbaramatuVoice TV Nua. On behalf of my family and my Communities, Bobougbene, Ayakoromo and Obotebe Communities are grateful. To whom honor is due, Father Igologolo, Ibemo Ibemo wenewei Aziza Pere High Chief Government Oweizide Ekpemupolo aka Tompolo. I dedicate this award for your commitment in reshaping the Niger story.
“Tompolo is the Image of our region and GbramatuVoice International holds the story firmly for the world to see the true picture of our region. Congratulations to my humble self. Hard work pays’’
The event, according to GbaramatuVoice CEO and founder, Mr. Jacob Abai, stands as “a testament to a decade of resilience, advocacy, cultural preservation and opportunity to honor leaders, amplify the voices of the Niger Delta, and chart a course for peace and development in Nigeria’’
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