Your Excellency,
The people of Ondo State, particularly the Ilaje nation and the entire coastal belt, are watching. More importantly, they are waiting.
For months now, the issue of Eba Island has moved from discussions in coastal communities to a matter of national concern. The Governor of Ogun State has publicly declared that Eba Island belongs to Ogun State and has announced the commencement of commercial oil drilling activities linked to the area. In contrast, the people of Ondo State have merely heard responses through aides, official statements, and appeals for calm, rather than directly from their Governor.
There is nothing wrong with calling for calm. Indeed, peace and order are essential in a sensitive matter such as this. However, calm without visible action creates anxiety and uncertainty among the people, especially when another state is publicly asserting ownership over a territory that many in Ondo State believe rightfully belongs to them.
More importantly, your prolonged silence in the face of a competing claim risks being interpreted by many as acquiescence or a lack of urgency.
Why You Must Act Now by Leading From the Front
1. The Issue Of Eba Island Is About Economic Survival, Not Mere Sentiment
Eba Island has now become more than a territorial issue. It sits within a strategic oil and bitumen corridor that could have far-reaching economic implications for future generations.
Any state that is eventually recognised as the host territory stands to benefit from derivation revenues, employment opportunities, infrastructure development, corporate social responsibility projects, and broader economic growth.
This is why the issue cannot be treated as a routine boundary disagreement. It is a matter with the potential to shape the economic fortunes of Ondo State for decades to come.
2. Leadership Requires Visibility
When one governor publicly and repeatedly makes a claim over a disputed territory while the other remains largely unheard on the matter, history tends to record only one voice.
The boundary disputes involving Cross River and Akwa Ibom States and that between Rivers and Bayelsa States demonstrate an important lesson: the political leaders involved at the time, led from the front. They did not abandon history to press statements or leave critical moments/issues entirely in the hands of their aides.
Your Excellency, this is one of those defining moments that demand your visible leadership.
3. The People Who Supported You Deserve Reassurance
The people of the coastal communities stood firmly behind your administration, and these ones, Your Excellency, are beginning to express concerns by asking legitimate questions such as:
If not now, when will our Governor speak for us?
If not him, who else is in the best position to speak for us?
Just as you are aware, Mr Governor: traditional rulers, youth organisations, community leaders, and concerned citizens have expressed their anxieties over the matter. Many may not have the opportunity to convey these concerns directly to your Excellency, but their anxieties deserve attention, and whether fairly or unfairly, your continued silence is already being interpreted in some quarters as indifference.
The people of Ondo state deserve reassurance that every lawful and constitutional measure is being taken to protect the interests of our State.
4. Silence Has Consequences
It is imperative to state that, in territorial disputes, Mr Governor, perception matters.
Repeated public assertions, if left unanswered, may gradually shape public opinion and create an impression of uncontested ownership. While legal rights are ultimately determined by evidence, maps, records, and constitutional processes, political narratives on issues of this magnitude can also influence negotiations and public confidence.
This is precisely why the people expect their governor to lead from the front and reassure them that Ondo State's interests are being vigorously protected.
5. History Will Demand Accountability
Your Excellency, leadership carries responsibility.
Should Ondo State ultimately lose benefits to which it may be entitled because of inadequate action, insufficient preparation, or failure to assert its position with the required urgency, history and the people will ask difficult questions.
This is not a threat, Mr Governor. It is simply a reminder that public office ultimately demands accountability, especially on matters that may define the economic future of an entire people. It is the burden of public office the people of Ondo state entrusted in you to bear, through their votes.
Posterity will want to know what steps were taken, what efforts were made, and whether the government acted decisively when the issue of Eba Island arose.
Questions the People of Ondo State Are Asking From Mr Governor
1. Why have you not found it necessary to address the people of Ondo State directly on Eba Island after the public declarations made by the Ogun State Government?
2. What is your personal position, as Governor and Chief Security Officer of Ondo State, regarding the ownership of Eba Island?
3. What legal, technical, and diplomatic measures have you personally authorised to protect the interests of Ondo State before the National Boundary Commission and relevant federal agencies?
4. What assurances are you giving to the people of Atijere, Ugbonla, and the wider Ilaje nation, who maintain longstanding historical, cultural, and economic ties to the area?
What the people need from you, Mr Governor, are:
1. A direct address to the people of Ondo State through a press conference, radio, or television broadcast.
2. The immediate establishment of a legal and technical team comprising constitutional lawyers, boundary experts, historians, cartographers, and geospatial specialists.
3. Proactive engagement with the National Boundary Commission, relevant federal authorities, and all stakeholders before decisions are taken elsewhere.
4. Periodic public updates so that citizens who possess useful historical records and documents may also contribute to the process.
A Final Appeal
Your Excellency, this is not a call for confrontation with Ogun State. It is not an invitation to hostility.
It is a call for leadership, transparency, and constitutional resolve.
Every administration encounters moments that define its legacy. For your administration, Eba Island may well be one of those defining moments.
Future generations may not know every private engagement lẹt alone behind-the-scene effort you made. But they will remember the public position you took and judge whether their governor stood firmly and visibly when the territorial and economic interests of Ondo State were being questioned.
The people are not asking you to fight Ogun State.
They are asking you to lead Ondo State.
Speak to your people.
Reassure them.
Show them the steps being taken.
Lead from the front.
Your Excellency, there are moments in governance when silence is interpreted as caution, and there are moments when silence is interpreted as absence. The people of Ondo State do not seek confrontation; they seek confidence. They want to know that their Governor is fully engaged, fully prepared, and fully committed to defending every legitimate interest of Ondo State through lawful and constitutional means. For if history eventually records that Ondo State lost benefits to which it may have been entitled because its leaders failed to act with sufficient urgency, posterity will ask difficult questions, and the people will remember who occupied the office when Eba Island fervently called for leadership.
On Eba Island, silence is no longer golden; it is becoming costly, unsettling, and increasingly difficult to distinguish from indifference.
The time to speak is now.
The time to act is now.
The time to lead is now.
Sunday Olusegun Omosule writes from the Coastal Region of Eba Island, Ondo State, Nigeria.
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