Rivers State Governor Siminialayi Fubara has offered a deeply personal and moving tribute to the late Amayanabo of Opobo Kingdom, His Majesty Dandeson Douglas Jaja, celebrating a monarch whose defining gift to his people was not the abundance of what he built but the steadiness with which he led through some of the most difficult seasons in the kingdom’s modern history.
The governor spoke during the funeral service of the late king held at St Paul’s Anglican Church in Opobo Town over the weekend, where he joined members of the bereaved royal family, community leaders and a congregation of mourners to pay their final respects to a ruler who departed at the age of 83, leaving behind a reign that those who witnessed it described as one of quiet but consequential distinction.
The Making of a Historical Reign
Fubara wasted little time in establishing the historical weight of King Jaja’s time on the throne, pointing to what he described as two milestones of exceptional significance that set the late monarch apart from most of his predecessors and will ensure that his name is not easily forgotten in the annals of Opobo Kingdom.
He noted that during the late king’s reign, the kingdom produced both a deputy governor and a governor of Rivers State, a record he said demands formal documentation by historians and academics who have an obligation to capture what distinguished leadership looks like when it is lived rather than merely proclaimed.
“History will never forget him. I urge our academia to document this, as King Dandeson Douglas Jaja is the king that came, saw even in the most turbulent waters and conquered successfully,” Fubara declared.
He described the late monarch as one of a rare few rulers who, beyond the founding fathers of Opobo Kingdom, left a significant and lasting imprint on the identity and direction of the community, and said his reign would stand as a reference point for generations of leaders who come after him.
Grace Under Prolonged Pressure
The dimension of King Jaja’s character that drew the governor’s deepest admiration was not political achievement but personal fortitude, specifically the manner in which the late monarch navigated a protracted and at times bruising dispute over the Opobo throne that lasted for more than two decades.
Fubara said what struck him most profoundly about King Jaja throughout that long and testing period was his absolute refusal to allow his personal struggle to destabilise the kingdom he was fighting to lead. While battles raged in courtrooms and corridors of influence, the governor said, the king kept his composure and his community kept its peace, a combination that he described as the hallmark of truly mature and selfless leadership.
“He kept his cool and the kingdom was peaceful. I describe him as a man of class and dignity. He was a man who treated everyone as a son and daughter without discrimination. So today we celebrate him with fulfilment as someone who had finished his work,” Fubara said.
He added that what drew him personally to the late king was precisely this quality of peaceful resolve, a disposition that he said never wavered regardless of how troubled the circumstances around it became.
A Direct Message to the Royal Family
Addressing the bereaved royal family directly, Governor Fubara used the gravity of the funeral occasion to deliver a message of both comfort and clear eyed counsel, urging the family to honour the late king not through words alone but through the choices they make in the days and years that follow his passing.
He was candid in his warning against the kind of disputes over inheritance and position that have torn other royal families apart, arguing that such conflicts would represent not only a personal failing but a fundamental betrayal of everything King Jaja worked across decades to protect.
The governor drew a distinction that he clearly wanted the family to carry away from the service, reminding them that the assets a man leaves behind are transferable but his success is not, and that each member of the family bears individual responsibility for building their own legacy through personal effort and honest industry.
“What you inherit are assets. You do not inherit success. The king has done his part. What we are describing here is his success and it is not transferable to anybody. You all need to work for your own success,” he told the family.
He followed this with an equally direct caution about the spiritual and moral consequences of family discord, framing any conflict over the late king’s estate as a direct affront to the man whose memory they had gathered to honour.
“He was a peaceful man and he will be very sorrowful wherever he is if he sees his family in disarray, fighting over nothing,” Fubara said, urging family members instead to invest their energies in long term values and purposeful development rather than the pursuit of gains that time would quickly render meaningless.
The governor concluded his remarks by returning to the central theme of his tribute, that the true measure of King Dandeson Douglas Jaja’s reign lies not in monuments or titles but in the manner in which those who loved him choose to speak of his life and embody his values in the years to come.
