MIDWEST REGION: AN APPEAL TO GOVERNOR OBASEKI TO IMMORTALIZE LATE SENATOR DALTON ASEMOTA

In the good spirit of Edo people I want to appeal to the Obaseki administration to organize a special posthumous installation ceremony where the late Asemota would be officially recognized as a former leader for the creation of Midwest Region. This posthumous ceremony, should be organized in conjunction with the family of the late Asemota and members of the human rights and pro-democracy community that fought gallantly for the creation of Midwest Region and it should be witnessed by governor of Delta state that constitute the Midwest and other guests from across the nation. It is imperative for the event to be telecast live on television and radio.

The efforts Senotor Asemota made for the creation of Midwest Region were great. He laid the democratic foundation for the creation of Midwest Region. I want to beg Governor Obaseki to immortalize him.

He was a great man who was in the forefront of the struggle to create the Midwest region of Nigeria shortly after Nigeria’s independence. The Edo and Delta states as well as some other states exist today because of the work of this great man and others who believed in the peoples of the region.

Edo State House of Assembly was named after Chief Anthony Enahoro who never contributed positively for the creation of Midwest Region. The man late Senator Asemota was never rewarded in his death for his contribution to the creation of Midwest Region even after paying the supreme price.

Late Senator Dalton Asemota was the Chairman of the creation of Midwest Region Planning Committee. Late on March 23rd, 1962, Senator Dalton Asemota of the Benin province received an important visitor in his apartment at the federal legislation Legco Flats in Victoria Island, Lagos. His visitor was none other than Chief Anthony Enahoro, Vice President of the Action Group and leader of the Midwest Regional Executive. Enahoro stayed on in Senator Asemota’s flat until the early hours of the morning lobbying him to adopt the party position of the AG to vote against the second Midwest motion. The Senator, who was not a party man, was nonetheless reminded that he owed his position to the goodwill of the Action Group government in Ibadan. Early on the 24th, late Senator Asemota’s wife, late Mrs. Onaiwu Asemota (nee Obinwa family of Onitsha) reported the conversation Enahoro had with Senator Asemota. On this basis, the Senator’s brother in Benin, late Pa Elekhuoba Asemota was contacted by phone with a report of what had transpired.

After overcoming an attempt by Action group legislators, therefore, to amend the motion by deleting Akoko-Edo, Warri and western Ijaw from the definition of Midwest and then obfuscate issues by adding the creation of 11 new states as a pre condition, the Federal House of Representatives and Senate approved the second Midwest motion by 214-49 on March 24, 1962. The final count-down had begun.

Six days later on March 30th, 1962 the Midwest referendum Bill was passed. It was followed on April 17th and 18th by the Midwest Parliamentary Bill which specified the addition of Akoko-Edo, Warri and Western Ijaw areas to the proposed Midwest. No sooner did this vote took place than Barrister S. O. Ighodaro, Attorney General of the Western region, went to court to challenge the validity of the Midwest Parliamentary Bill and the Eastern region�s approval of the federal Midwest Bill. Separately, the Olu of Warri and Chief Reece Edukugho filed court proceedings to contest the inclusion of Warri in the Midwest.

On September 9th, there was another all-party round-table at the Oba’s Palace in Benin which most members of the Action Group, except Ja Isuman and JE Odiete boycotted. At this meeting, a 75 man Midwest Planning Committee including all Midwest legislators at regional and federal levels was created. It too was chaired by Senator Dalton Asemota, assisted by EB Edun-Fregene, JAE Oki, Dr. Christopher Okojie, Chief Festus Okotie-Eboh, Dennis Osadebay and Humphrey Omo-Osagie. Various sub-committee chairmen were Olisa Chukwura for the constitutional and legal, Chief A. Y. Eke for the finance and general purposes, J.I.G. Onyia for the civil service, Chief Obasuyi for delimitation, Ja Isuman for the Plebiscite, and Chief Odiete for minority protection. About one week later a new political party called the Midwest Peoples Congress (MPC) was formed. It was allied to the Northern Peoples Congress and led by Apostle Edokpolo. [Vickers, Op. Cit.]

It gives a great pleasure to give an account of the events that led to the death of Senator Dahlton Ogieva Asemota.

Senator Dalton Asemota, the consensus builder, did not live to see the Midwest he worked so hard to create. Descended from Chief Osemwota, the Eson, and a descendant of the Ezomo Nehenua family of Benin, and Madam Iyeye Ero, the late Senator was buried in the Asemota family compound after a sermon led by Reverend Akinluyi at the St. Matthew’s Cathedral in Benin City [personal communication, Mr. DA Omoigui]. He was replaced as Chairman of the Midwest Planning Committee by Chief Morgan Agbontaen his friend and colleague.

At the end of April 1963, Senator Asemota came to Lagos to attend a scheduled meeting of the Senate. The Senate adjourned on April 29th, and so he made plans to return to Benin on May 2nd. On May 1st, however, he woke up early and telephoned his older brother Pa Elekhuoba Asemota to tell him that he would be returning to Benin the next day. Then he went to the General Hospital in Lagos to see Dr. Laja in follow-up to a Chest X-ray he had earlier ordered. Dr. Laja gave him a prescription, some of which the Hospital pharmacy did not have, so he was asked to find them at a private pharmacy. From the hospital he went shopping but returned home at about 3 pm to take his medications on an empty stomach. After this he left for the Commercial Medicine Store on Nnamdi Azikiwe Street owned by his friend, Senator Wusu from Badagry. On arrival he handed the prescription to his friend who in turn gave it to his assistants to get the medications. Meanwhile Senator Asemota was resting on the counter along with his wife, Onaiwu, waiting on the prescription. Then suddenly, and without warning he slumped.

He was then rushed to the General Hospital Casualty department. His wife then came to my family house on MacDonald Avenue in Ikoyi, Lagos, where we were neighbours to Chief Anthony Enahoro on our back side and Dr. Rilwan, a well known Lagos physician, on the other. Dr. Rilwan, and Mrs Onaiwu Asemota rushed back to the hospital to find out what was happening, only to be directed to the mortuary where the Senator’s lifeless body was lying. It was unenviable responsibility to break the devastating news to Chiefs Omo-Osagie and Okotie-Eboh. Chief Omo-Osagie notified Pa Elekhuoba Asemota in Benin.

Dahlton Ogieva Asemota was a Nigerian politician who was a former member of the first republic senate and also served as the chairman of the Midwest Planning Committee. He was a unifying personality during the agitation for the creation of a Mid West region. Asemota was born to the family of Ezomo Nehenua and Osemwota, the Esan. He had his education at the Benin Government School. He worked with the Untied African Company for close to three decades, intermittently, he acquired an accounting diploma. Asemota served as a director of the African Timber and Plywood and also established his own business, Asemota & Son in Benin city.

A community leader, he was president of the Benin Red Cross Society and was chairman of the Mid West Advisory Council in 1958. the council was designed to increase the participation of Midwesterners in the Western government. He was also president of the Benin Imports and Exports Association and the Benin Motor Transport Association.

BY INWALOMHE DONALD