Ofoni is an Urhobo community in Sagbama Local Government Area in Bayelsa State of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Ofoni is about 40 kilometres by water to Sagbama (headquarters of Sagbama Local Government) 5 minutes by land to Odorubu and about 120 kilometres by road through Odorubu toYenagoa (Bayelsa State capital) respectively.

The community which is a peninsula, due to its almost being surrounded by water, is about 6 square kilometres in size and it is made up of three sub communities (villages) of Ekrediagbo, Ekreogbe and Ekreyavwien which in turn, have a total of seven quarters.

Ofoni which is in Bayelsa West Senatorial District has Iseni, Uduere and Ofoni Oil Field of the SPDC. It has oil facilities such as pipeline as well as drilled and capped oil wells.

The community shares boundaries with River Forcados, Lalagbene, Angalabiri and Ayamasa in the North, South, East and West respectively. Ofoni is in high forest agro-ecological zone of Nigeria.

The community has sandy loam and clayey soil texture; the settlement is generally gentle slope susceptible to flooding, erosion, land degradation and pollution (air and water).

Ofoni has some levels of depletion of animal and plant species largely due to various human activities over the years. It also has six creeks, lakes namely Agbaka, Amavwaresa, Ekadeya and Ukrogo as well as River Forcados.

The community has bimodal or double maxima rainfall pattern spreading through late March to early November, that is, about eight month of annual rainfall.

Population, Social Structure and Institutions

The present estimated population of Ofoni obtained from community sources is about 30,000 persons made up of 12,900 male and 17,100 female, that is, male/female ratio of 43:57.

There are more children (≤ 17years) accounting for 12,000 or 40% of the population than the youths (18 – 45 years) and the adults (46 years and above) which constitute 9,900 (33%) and 8,100 (27%) respectively.

Ofoni is about 92% indigenous community with the remaining 8% made up of other tribes across the country. Both men and women often contribute to the cost of maintaining the family.

An average of thirteen persons constitutes a family. Presently, polygamy is the more popular form of marriage in the community, although monogamy still accounts for some reasonable percentage of the marriage types. The divorce rate is relatively low, there are some cases of single parenthood and about 10% of the households in Ofoni have female heads.

Ofoni has twenty-one (21) churches of various denominations, no mosque and ten (10) shrines. The community is made up of over 75% Christians and less than 25% African Traditional Religionists (ATRs).

The community has no central cemetery as the dead are buried at their respective homes. The predominant spoken languages are Urhobo, formal English Language and Pidgin English respectively. The time of the day and various occasions such as wedding, burial etc attract different greetings.

The formal greetings for ‘Good Morning’, ‘Good Afternoon and ‘Good Evening’ translate to “Migue”, “Migue” and “Migue” respectively, while “We-ko be cha” (Meaning Thanks for coming Or Welcome in Urhobo ) and “We-ko biruo” translate to “Welcome” and “Thank you”.

Furthermore, Ofoni can boast of various social institutions categorized as NGOs, CBOs, Government Agencies and Private Sector.

Urhobo Wadooo !!!!

Hmmm....I never knew that there are urhobos in bayelsa. This means urhobo are present in two states. Good to know. Would love to visit someday.

Urhobo Wado!!!

I've been researching for quite a while about the Urhobos of bayelsa to no luck. Thank you OP for opening this thread. I'm aware that the current commissioner for works in Bayelsa is an Ofoni man. We are ably represented.


Urhobo Wadooooooo


This is FP material @Lalasticlala, Ishilove, Seun, Obinoscopy

Modified :
Thanks @Mods

OK

[img]http://2.bp..com/-5J-7Q8K2XnY/Tg4_TrwjIqI/AAAAAAAAAHs/7vryM0J12rM/s1600/SAM_0456.JPG[/img]

A street in Ofoni town.

A corper's diary of Ofoni town
Ofoni is a rural community located in the Niger-Delta state of Bayelsa in Sagbama Local Government Area. It is acclaimed to be the second largest community in Bayelsa state. It is populated by approximately 17,000 people and it is polygamous in nature, with men having more than one wife in their lifetime.
It is a riverine community that is only accessible by water. It has four primary schools, A Basic Junior Secondary School and a Senior Secondary School. It has a health centre and lots churches and shrines.
I would not have known that there existed a place called Ofoni Town if I had not been posted to Bayelsa state for the compulsory National Youth Service Corps programme for the 2010/2011 Batch ‘B’.
When I saw my Call-up letter and Bayelsa written there, I was filled with joy because I wanted to travel to place that I had never been to before and to see firsthand the problems plaguing the Niger Delta state, this was due to the fact that I researched on the Niger Delta crisis and militancy for my final project in the university.
I left Abuja for Bayelsa on the 6th of June, and when I got there I was dumbfounded because the state was really underdeveloped with only one access road.
I was in the NYSC orientation camp located in Kaiama for three weeks and I did not enjoy my stay because the condition of living in the camp was nothing to write home about, with no portable water, electricity, clean toilets and other necessary items.
I was a member of the Nigeria Christian Corpers’ Fellowship (NCCF), I joined the publicity wing of the fellowship and I really had fun in the fellowship. I met beautiful people like Abimbola Ibitoye, Adakole Christian, Nkechi, Antoinnete and a host of others. It was NCCF that kept me going through out my stay in Kaiama.
In camp I took part in the Peer Education Training for HIV/AIDS educators, this programme really took my time and I did not have time to take part in parade which I was looking forward to taking part in.
I also took part in a cultural dance competition in camp, I joined the dance group of my platoon (06) that competed in the dance competition and we took second position.
The first week in camp was really hectic; I found it difficult to cope in the hostel because of the amount of people in a room.
The second and third weeks came with its own activities that made me forget the evils of kaiama camp and I really enjoyed that period, to the extent that on the final day in camp, I was nostalgic, I did not want to leave the place because of the realization that the friendship I made was going to come to an end.
The activities that I enjoyed in camp were dance, NCCF, parade, morning drills, endurance walk etc.
My most embarrassing moment in camp was during the fire alarm drill, prior to that moment we were told that something of that nature was going to happen. Fire alarm is a situation whereby camp officials would pursue all the corpers unawares out of their room to an open place and they would begin to take roll –call to know the corpers that are on ground and those that absconded.
The time for the fire alarm was one a.m. and all the corps members were asleep, so, when the beagle was blown we were all asked to leave the hostels, lo and behold, a scared boy like me, did not bother to wear something presentable, but I left with only boxers short, singlet, wrapper and I was bare footed. People that saw me really had a good laugh. They told me that I could have taken my time to put something on. I would never forget that day.
Finally, the day we all were waiting for, 27th of July 2010. That was the day we were given our posting letter to our places of primary assignment.
On that day, I was really scared because people were really afraid of being posted to a riverine community. So, I was given my posting letter and I saw C.S.S OFONI, OFONI TOWN, SAGBAMA LGA. When I saw my posting letter the TOWN really deceived me, I assumed that I was being posted to the capital of the local government, so I was happy; then we were given our life jacket, I started having cold feet, ‘I AM GOING TO ENTER A BOAT FOR THE FIRST TIME’ was all that was on my mind.
The journey to Ofoni began in the late part of July 28, 2011. Four out of the five corps members that were posted to the same school embarked on the journey; Myself, Lola, Ijeoma and Babatunde, with Ernest making a journey home and promising to catch up with us later.
The journey to Ofoni was not easy, to get to Ofoni, you have to leave Bayelsa and go to an interior community of Delta state, before you board a motorcycle and cross to the other side.
Ofoni is a boundary community between Bayelsa and Delta states and it is the only Urhobo speaking community in Bayelsa state.
When one of the female Corps member saw the river, she began to cry because before that moment, the Principal of the school told us that we were going to cross a small river.

She was on the verge of going back when one of the boat riders pushed her into the boad and we began our journey on water for the first time in our lives. I really had a good laugh when I saw the way she cried all through the journey and I did not let her forget that moment throughout our stay in Ofoni.
By the way, she sat on the deck of the boat. When we crossed the first hurdle of our service, we entered Ofoni community. The first thing I said when we entered was that “do people live here”. When we got to Ofoni, Lola did not follow us into the community, instead, she gave us some of her belongings and she went back.
That’s all I can say about my entry into Ofoni. The major thought that was in my head was how I was going to live in a place that does not have light, portable water, g.s.m network, corpers lodge, access road and lots more. I almost gave up when I got to Ofoni and I almost deferred my service but I had an attitudinal change with the impression that all was for adventure.
Beyond the physical challenges of Ofoni community, I also experienced what they call culture shock. I was surprised with what the people in that place do, they did things that you’d hardly found being done in public.
Ofoni is a sexual community, in the sense that sex was seen as a neccessity and they could not do without it. People were introduced to sex at a very young age with teenage pregnancy being on a high note. The men of Ofoni are of the lazy stock, they hardly work, it is the women and children that do all the work. The men of Ofoni wake up In the morning and the first thing they do is drink a bottle of hot alcoholic drink. Almost everyone drink alchohol in Ofoni, the young, the old, boys, girls, men, women, every body usually drink.
I also saw the instance where Youth corps members have sexual relationship with their students.
We, the Corps members were all posted to the secondary school in the community, and what we discovered was alarming; majority of the students of the senior secondary school do not know how to communicate in basic english, what they know how to speak is pidgin english , which they claimed was english, even at that, they could not even speak the pidgin.
Less than 10% of the students in the school could read, write and communicate effectively and they did not see a problem with that.
I had a problem getting across to the students of C.S.S Ofoni because of their level of understanding and their unwillingness to learn. The students were found of giving corpers bad names, I was called lots of Names, Ubulu monkey (monkey mouth) was the most prominent and I was called-even by the corps members- that name till I left ofoni.
Beyond the problems I faced in Ofoni, I will forever remember Ofoni Community. The community really thought me a lot, it made me experience a lot of firsts, the most prominent being my ability to stay alone in a house for a year without any parental guidance. I really had fun in ofoni.
Although, Ofoni does not have any relaxation centre. We, the corps members made it a point of duty to have places to go and things to do in order to keep up busy. The prominent being going to the water side to have fun in the afternoon/evening and going for ‘fellowship’ at night. The ‘fellowship’ here is not anywhere close to the usual fellowship in churches, this one is just a gathering of corps members where we’d discuss, argue, have sitting (in the form of a parliament), drink, dance and generally have fun. In the fellowship we had a Chairman, Speaker, majority Leader, Minority leader, Chief Whip, Women leader, Chair lady, Minister of Women Affairs and Kokolet matters, Interior minister, Minister of Information, Communication and Orientation. I served as Minister of Information in one tenure and Chief Whip in a different tenure.
In Ofoni, I got rid of my shyness and really had a lot of friends, most of which were my students, who made my stay memorable and they made me forget the problems of Ofoni.


Ofoni would forever remain in my mind. When I first got to ofoni, my prayer was that let one year come and go, but lo and behold, one year has come and go and I am wishing to go back to spend some time even if it is one week.
I was one teacher that was really close to his students. I made it a point of duty not to get close to the girls, because any friendship between a boy and a girl in ofoni would ultimately lead to sex. The girls had been made a sex object and to have a friendly disposition towards them would be interpreted as a sign of interest.
I had a lot of ‘boys’ that really helped me. Some of them helped me fetch water, others gave me foodstuffs. I never lacked plantain, Garri, Rabbit or even fish and snail. My house was a place that corpers used to come and take foodstuffs. I will never forget people like Benjamin Francis, Ebruphiyo okokorieta, Joachim, Solomon David, Oghenekevwe Ohwo, Collins Omuero, Simeon Clement, Oyivwita Joseph, Kevin Lucky and a host of other students too numerous to mention but they played a different roles in aiding my comfortability in ofonI.
It is not as if I was not close with the corps members, but I know that I would see them again, we even contact on phone and through facebook, so, I don’t have problems with them. It is my boys that I would really miss, there is no means of communication because there is no g.s.m network and it is only when they go to the waterside that they’d get constant network.
My friendship with the students did not affect me in carrying out my duty as a teacher in C.S.S Ofoni. When I am in school, I become their teacher and anyone that offends me or does what I told them not to do, then they’d be severely punished, but while in town, I become their friend and I play with them and I also advise them a lot. Most of my time with the boys would be focused teaching them reproductive health and teach then the adverse effect of HIV infection to oneself, family, community and country as a whole.
The people of Ofoni have a myopic view that there was no possibility of anybody being infected with HIV in Ofoni, so, they have sex with total abandonment, infact, protecting their selves with condom is not in their dictionary. Some of the students in the senior secondary school have already been impregnated or for the guys impregnate the girls.
It is my prayer that my one year in Ofoni was not a waste and that I impacted on my students and that they would forever remember the advice I gave them and use it to improve on their wellbeing.

http://ifeanyinwakudu..com/2011/07/my-ofoni-dairy.html?m=1

E good

Their population is very small

Lazy ass nıggaz

Since Sagbama is bounded by Patani(which is predominately an Ijaw LGA but have a handful of Urhobo people esp in Odorubu and Udolphri), so I am not surprised that there are Urhobo people in Sagbama too

;DOk enof women ,den I av to visit dere

Bayelsa as a whole is fun, God punish the leaders there that have made the development of the state a snail pace... I remember a night in Odi (tropani) where I danced all nyt to Sir Robert and a live all nyt performance to Robert Jnr. ...hmmmm!

UnknownT:
Since Sagbama is bounded by Patani(which is predominately an Ijaw LGA but have a handful of Urhobo people esp in Odorubu and Udolphri), so I am not surprised that there are Urhobo people in Sagbama too

Yes but they should have been acculturated by now. The fact that their culture and language survived Ijaw domination is what I find surprising

nice tribe....they are good people..
but it doesn't matter if you need a high paying job
get one now
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urhobo wadoo....wadooo

Gud 2 knw...tho I ddnt read it bt gud 2 knw

Wow. Thought they were only in Delta state.

Lol. Ofoni Don enter Nl. Op are u one Of Us?
People find it hard to blive me when i say im urhobo nd bayelsan,
i get tired of explaining myself, annoying part is, they never believe me...

Aiit

Urhobo wadoo !!!!!!

God bless u Efewestern, our land so rich, we gat oil, we re peaceful with our neighbour, God bless d OP ,

God bless GEJ, GOd bless SS, God bless Urhobo, God bless U


#irepNigerDeltaRepublic

midasbliss:
Lol. Ofoni Don enter Nl. Op are u one Of Us?
People find it hard to blive me when i say im urhobo nd bayelsan,
i get tired of explaining myself, annoying part is, they never believe me...

lolz, God bless d OP, so happy I av brothers in Bayelsa, Wadoo

ojeota:
Hmmm....I never knew that there are urhobos in bayelsa. This means urhobo are present in two states. Good to know. Would love to visit someday.

Urhobo Wado!!!

Ther are urhobos in edo state too.

literarymathy:

Yes but they should have been acculturated by now. The fact that their culture and language survived Ijaw domination is what I find surprising

Since the town is almost surrounded by waters meaning they may not necessary have a 'near' neighbor also one of the towns closet to them Odorubu(which is in Patani) is also an Urhobo town, so I believe it will be hard for the acculturation

The descendants of Otuoke....

tripod:


Ther are urhobos in edo state too.

Do you mean indigenous Urhobos or migrant Urhobos? The ones in Bayelsa are indigenous and not migrants like those in Lagos and other places so please clarify.

philips70:
There is also an Isoko community in the same local government named Anibeze.

Please educate me more about them if you can or give me a link to read. I've searched online but can't seem to find much.

firstolalekan:
Lazy ass nıggaz

Bleep u, u re d lazy nigga

parasite

Urhobo's happens to have top politicians in Bayelsa,

midasbliss:
Lol. Ofoni Don enter Nl. Op are u one Of Us?
People find it hard to blive me when i say im urhobo nd bayelsan,
i get tired of explaining myself, annoying part is, they never believe me...

I always knew but have never seen one. I know some Urhobos who claim to be Bayelsans from Ofoni so that they can get a job in Bayelsa. Nice to meet you oniovo.