Chief Pa. Johnson Oritsegbubemi Sunday (J.O.S.) Ayomike, known for his work on Itsekiri history and his influential role as a former chairman of the Itsekiri Leaders of Thought (ILoT), in his verdict about Chief (Dr.) Wellington O. Okirika CON (JP), the Bolowei of the ancient Gbaramatu Kingdom, said: "Wellington Okirika has not changed. He remains the model I knew: honest, nation-minded, a bridge across ethnic divides. If the Delta still hopes for harmony, it will find its blueprint in the life of this man."

The above verdict of Ayomike is captured in chapter 19 of the book titled: "Mr. 13% Derivation Fund: The Life and Legacy of Chief (Dr.) Wellington O. Okirika CON" authored by Amb. (Dr.) Jerry Abiri, among a compilation of a series of testimonies by influential personalities who had an encounter with the pioneer chairman of the Delta State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission (DESOPADEC). The book itself is centered on Okirika's activism, with one of the major outcomes being the popular 13% derivation fund.

Ayomike, whose career included roles as a management staff at the Nigerian Tobacco Company Limited, and as a cabinet commissioner for various portfolios in the Midwest/Bendel State government from 1975 to 1979, is an author of several books on history and ethnography (although he is associated with controversial writings on the history of Warri and the Western Niger Delta).

His testimony on Okirika as captured in the book is reproduced here, highlighting their first meeting point and their interactions in other events that played out. Excerpts:

Chief J.O.S Ayomike—Itsekiri historian, former Midwest commissioner, and veteran of Delta diplomacy—first encountered Wellington Okirika in the mid-1940s. Then, Willy was simply the barefoot boy at Baptist School, Ogidigben, a play-mate of Ayomike's younger brother Joseph. Even at that age, the elder noticed three traits that have never faded: quiet industry, quick intelligence, and instinctive courtesy.

From village lads to university man: Time scattered the boys. Ayomike entered King's College and University College Ibadan; Okirika later did the same, reading Forestry at Ibadan and graduating in the class of 1971. When Ayomike returned to Bendel State in 1975 as Commissioner for Works, he found his childhood acquaintance transformed into an articulate liaison for Gbaramatu's chiefs.

"First among equals," he recalls, placing Okirika ahead of other rising Ijaw voices.

The pipeline crisis of 1978: Their first major test arrived when a Soviet contractor laid a crude oil pipeline from Escravos to Warri and Kaduna. Mangrove fish-ponds and shrines lay in the bulldozee's path; Gbaramatu youths shut the project. Lagos dispatched Commissioner Ayomike to negotiate. Okirika became his guide and interpreter.

Helicopters ferried the delegation to Oporoza. Ayomike stepped out, greeted the Pere in flawless Ijaw—"Akitekwe!"—as coached by Wellington, and the meeting ended in peace.

Decades later, a Gbaramatu regent recognized Ayomike at a presidential ceremony: "Were you not the Ayomike who settled our crisis?"—proof that the memory of that diplomacy endures.

Vanguard of the 13% Crusade: Into the 1990s, Okirika joined national lobbying for an oil derivation formula. Ayomike describes him as "courteous yet unyielding: a man who spends his own money on dossiers and plane tickets, never on bribes."

While younger militants chased quick wealth, Okirika's circle insisted on lawful negotiation. Their persistence yielded the 13% principle that still funds Niger Delta Project.

Enduring character ledger: HUMILITY: still greets monarchs in dialect, never flaunts wealth. LOYALTY: maintained Itsekiri-Ijaw channel for Ayomike's ministry. CIVIC FOCUS: secured schools, markets, jetties—rarely personal assets. BRILLIANCE: UI graduate, strategic mind behind derivation formula.

The Elders' Verdict: "Whatever unrest you hear today," Ayomike concludes, "is the noise of younger men chasing oil. Wellington Okirika has not changed. He remains the model I knew: honest, nation-minded, a bridge across ethnic divides. If the Delta still hopes for harmony, it will find its blueprint in the life of this man."

Thus, from barefoot pupil to seasoned negotiator, Wellington Okirika's story—told by one who has watched each stage—reveals a leader whose constancy may prove his greatest legacy.

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