In 1995, I took a ‘dangerous’ trip to the vicinity of Anegbette and Ifeku communities – where I unintendedly encountered the presence of the ‘Hippos’. The two communities are situated in Etsako North East Local Government Area (LGA) of Edo State, in the meandering stage of the famous River Niger, descending from the Guinea highlands. The massive mammal, with a twisted pronunciation that tends to dry up the mouth’s saliva, was killed by the pellets of some local hunters.
The killing of the ‘bulldozer of the swamp and submarine of the under-water’, that has a long-alphabethical name as with its enormous body, had drawn the angst of the state’s Forestry Commission, shepherded by Dr. Valentine Owamagbe Asuen, the youthful and energetic business man, more known as DVD. Asuen had condemned the poaching of the Hippo through a widespread media staement that canvassed for the stakeholders and public’s support for nature conservation.
In my over four decades traverse in the wilderness and romance with its biodiversity, the wetland of Lau and Karim Lamido LGAs, respectively of Taraba State, strikes a semblance with the Edo habitat and its killed Hippo. In the scenic state, Hippos were usually reported to be sighted, but killed around Lau, Karim Lamido, Ibi, Tella, Donga and Ngeyanki on the temperate Mambilla plateau.
Taraba, Nigeria’s north eastern fringe state, aptly prided the ‘Nature’s Gift to the Nation’, has River Benue at Lau separating Karim Lamido, within its aforesaid wetland. In 1997, Hippos were usually sighted in sizeable detached populations, by an ornithological (bird) study group that I joined on a field trip about the River Benue valley. It wasn’t for when the news media was unabated with the killings of the mammals by hunters, like the Edo’s case.
The Hippopotamus or Hippo is a large mammal, but of a specie that is a native to sub-Saharan Africa. Hippo is mainly herbivorous (lives on plants and its derivatives). And because of its love for water, it derived its name from an ancient Greek word, ‘river horse’. It is third largest land mammal, following the elephant and rhinoceros. The Hippopotamus is semi-aquatic (amphibious), staying on land and more in water. Male Hippos are known as ‘bulls‘, while females are called ‘cows‘, and the babies, ‘calves’.
At the time of my visit to the Edo wetland site in 1995, adventurism and risk-taking were a twin hobby that was second to one’s nature. Then, there was a protracted bloody skirmish between both communities, over the ownership of a vast arable land on the River Niger trough, with its very rich alluvial deposits, which encouraged bountiful fishery and all-year-round crop farming.
I had reported the crisis for a national magazine and a staple of the Nigerian Observer, while David Izegaegbe, now a filmmaker in Benin City, penned the news for the Speaker, a tabloid then owned by the flamboyant Edo business man, Chief Gabriel Osawaru Igbinedion, the Esama of Benin.
From Anegbette to Ifeku, the river was filled to the brim.
Whilst the dusk was fast approaching, still, there was no one who to paddle us to Ifeku, about an hour canoe distance from Anegbette. The voyage had raised security fears, not only because the river tides was tense and highly ‘temperament’ in that drenched month of September, but that there was also a premonition or likelihood of being caught amidst a gun fight on the way.
“Never mind, today is for a ceasefire”. One of the youths had assured us.
About midway, the wooden canoe was thrown off-balance and round-tripping at the centre of the river, due to the high tides. The canoeist sadly shook his head, confirming to us that he hadn’t paddled a canoe for months, an expression that he was helpless and we were all doomed. He regretted that there was no person to back him up, in the steering of the canoe, which was expected to be manned by two persons.
Next, he asked us a cold-blooded question. “Can you swim?” Out of confusion, I almost yelled at him because I was hydrophobic heavier than the lead in water “No, we can’t swim”, was all I could whimper. Then, Davidson sorrowful uttered that we were finished. I retorted that my end hadn’t come yet, and we were going to make a safe voyage.
Then I broke into the songs of Bob Marley’s, with a repetition of his timeless lyrics of ‘don’t worry about a thing everything gonna be alright…’ from the ‘Three Little Birds’ title.The canoeist was now self-possessed and we again got the confidence to paddle on.
Soon and from nowhere behind us, on the opposite river banks, there were staccatos of gunshots. For the supposed ‘cease-fire’ between the feuding communities might have failed. Our hearts jumped into our mouths. We had no choice than to be ‘calm and emboldened’. Either, the canoeist didn’t need to be reminded to double the paddle strikes, rather mechanically away from the danger, until we disembarked at Ifeku.
Interestingly, bloats of the Hippos, obviously riled by the gunshots, had bolted into the water. That was how we accidentally sighted the presence of the “elephants of the water” in the area. This had partly formed our news reportage.
Of course, the locals from Anegbette and Ifeku, later confirmed of Hippos’ long existence (in bloats or batches) in the area.
But for the inattentiveness of the military era of the then newly-created Edo State, conservation experts and institution couldn’t honour the invitation to carry out the needed study and to develop it into a conservation enclave.
Those invited included the International Union for Nature Conservation (IUCN), World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), Nigerian Conservation Foundation (NCF) and Pro-Natura International.
Poor Hippo creatures! How was it to be know to the world that they were still alive or didn’t go extinct in that terrain, like the other species of the once biodiversity-rich habitats of Edo, it it wasn’t fell by the hunterst?
Most importantly, Edo State governor, Senator Monday Okpebholo and his nature-loving chairman of the state’s Forestry Commission, Dr. Asuen, should strive to institute concerted study and synergise conservation bodies and others institutions, in order to conserve wetland for posterity. This done, Governor Okpebholo will have earned a niche for saving one of Edo priceless wetland habitats, that have long given way to large monocrop plantations, hunting and other debilitating human activities.
For there had been excessive plundering of similar biodiversity treasures of the Gelegele River in the Okomu National Park’s proximity, of the wetlands in the various forest reserves of Sakpoba, Ologbo, Urhonigbe, Udo-Ubiaja, Owan BC 12 and Iuleha-Ora-Ozalla of the state, just to mention a few.
Hon Asuen, chairman of the Forestry Commission, who is obviously keen at preserving the remnants of Edo’s priceless species and habitats, is widely commended to have done well in the position. Apart from the frequent endorsement for his work, as inspiring, by the critical media, the public and the Forestry Stakeholders of Edo State (FOSES), to which I belong, had all applauded him.
Also, there were earlier critics that Governor Okpebholo had erred, by appointing Asuen, a non-forest and wildlife professional.
The same critics, have turned around, to a different narrative that there was a professional appointed to the same position, by the immediate-past government, who underperformed for the several years he was in office, whereas Dr. Asuen, a non professional, had done so well within few months of his appointment.
