The Nation Newspaper

Category: Niger Delta

  • Rivers local governments of controversy

    Rivers local governments of controversy

    On Monday, the National Industrial Court of Nigeria granted an Order of Interim Injunction against the sacking of the 23 Local Government Areas of Rivers State. Will this save the council bosses? Bisi Olaniyi reports

    The Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission (RSIEC), then headed by Prof. Augustine Ahiauzu, on May 23, when Rotimi Amaechi of the All Progressives Congress (APC) was governor, conducted the local government election in the state.

    The election, which had 27 political parties participating, was, however, boycotted by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), whole leaders claimed did not follow the local government law and due process, but dismissed Ahiauzu.

    The Rivers local government election was held in 22 of the 23 LGAs, excluding Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni LGA, where the tenure of the chairman and councillors will expire next year. APC won all the 22 chairmanship seats, thereby controlling all the 23 LGAs.

    •Wike
    •Wike

    A former Minister of State for Education, Chief Nyesom Wike, who was Amaechi’s Chief of Staff and ex-Chairman of Obio/Akpor LG council of Rivers state, shortly after the 2015 LG poll, as governor-elect, hinted that he would dissolve the LG councils, shortly after his inauguration.

    The members of the Rivers House of Assembly, immediately after their inauguration, invited the RSIEC chairman and the commissioners, as well as the chairman and members of the Rivers State Judicial Service Commission (RSJSC) to appear on June 8, which they did.

    The Rivers House of Assembly, led by Ikuinyi-Owaji Ibani of Andoni constituency, has 31 PDP members and only one lawmaker belonging to the APC.

    The Rivers legislators recommended to Wike to dissolve both RSIEC (which conducted the LG election in accordance with the law) and RSJSC, which the governor implemented in the evening of the same June 8, which the Rivers Chairman of the APC, Chief Davies Ibiamu Ikanya, said was meant to witch-hunt Amaechi and his teeming supporters.

    The Chairman of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON), Rivers chapter, Chimbiko Iche Akarolo, of Port Harcourt City LG council, declared that Wike had no powers to dissolve the councils, while urging him to go to court, if he was not comfortable with the election.

    On June 11, the LG chairmen got wind of the plan by the Rivers lawmakers to recommend to Wike to dissolve the councils and decided to stage a peaceful protest round Port Harcourt, which was terminated at the state’s House of Assembly, with the chairmen vowing to resist the planned unconstitutional dissolution.

    The council chairmen and their protesting supporters remained undaunted, in spite of the teargas by the police, who prevented them from accessing the Rivers House of Assembly complex.

    Prior to the massive protest, the council chairmen had earlier addressed a news conference at the Port Harcourt LGA (PHALGA) House on William Jumbo Street and declared that if Wike decided to return to self help, they would also opt for it, saying illegality would beget illegality.

    They accused Wike of having a sinister plot to plunge Rivers state into another round of avoidable crisis, insisting that they would defend the renascent democracy, warning of dire consequences of dissolving the LG councils.

    The displeased LG chairmen stated that the new Rivers governor wanted to turn the state into his personal estate, stressing that Rivers people want bread not bullets, declaring that if it meant dying to defend democracy, they would not mind losing their lives in fighting a just cause and added that Wike was not prepared for governance.

    The protesters, armed with placards bearing various inscriptions and chanting anti-Wike songs, shut down Port Harcourt, thereby affecting commercial activities and traffic, with motorists hurriedly making detour, to avoid any incident.

    The Commander of the Swift Operation Squad (SOS) in Rivers, Romokere Ibani, an Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), who led the policemen to stop the protesters in front of the state’s House of Assembly, said there was the need to give peace a chance.

    ACP Ibani, a Rivers indigene, said: “We will convey your message to the appropriate quarters. Rivers State belongs to all of us. We should not resort to self help. Politics will come and go. Let us not destroy our place.

    “I am pleading for relative peace in Rivers State. It is only when there is peace that we can have development. In the interest of peace, let us go back. We must reason together.”

    Some of the placards carried by the chairmen read: “Wike is inviting anarchy to Rivers State, Federal Government must call him to order”, “We cannot be intimidated to abandon out God/people-given mandates. The 23 LGAs’ Chairmen have come to stay for good” “Wike wants to destroy our local councils”, “No to dissolution” “NJC is in Wike’s pocket” “Rivers State is falling fast under Wike” and “Our mandate is sacrosanct.”

    Others were: “We shall resist you with every legal means at our disposal. We say no to councils’ dissolution”, “Your election is not more credible than ours. Leave LGAs’ chairmen alone”, “Rivers people want peace, not dissolution”, “Members of Rivers State House of Assembly should concentrate on serving Rivers people, instead of witch-hunting LG chairmen”, “Wike should remember 2014 Supreme Court judgment on tenure of LGAs’ chairmen” and “Dissolution of LGAs is detrimental.”

    Inscriptions on placards also included: “Darkness has taken over Rivers State again, FG send help to us now”, “Every action has a reaction, Wike”, “Respect the third tier of government”, “Wike wants to destroy our local councils”, “Rule of law is the beauty of democracy”, “PDP/Wike, leave elected LG chairmen alone”, “Wike is embodiment of thuggery, impunity and everything that is evil, President Buhari, save us.”

    The Legal Adviser of ALGON in Rivers State, Sogbeye Eli, of Degema (Kalabari) LG council, who read the speech at the news conference, while responding to reporters’ questions, said: “We have a matter in court. If Wike’s government is a responsible government, the government should wait for the legal process to go through. If the government does not wait for the decision of the court and resorts to self-help, we will resort to self-help. Illegality will beget illegality.

    “Wike’s government also has questions over the April 11, 2015 election, before the Election Petitions Tribunal in Abuja. If the National Assembly has not been used by anybody to dissolve the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) or send its Rivers REC (Resident Electoral Commissioner), Gesila Khan, to jail, we wonder why the hurry and the interest in Rivers State.

    “If they (Wike and his allies) subvert the law and the due process of the law, and do anything outside of what the law allows, we will resist it. If that means we are going to die, let us die. The most important thing is that we are going to enforce a regime of resistance.

    “Maybe this may be the point local government autonomy will be finally defined. First, let us define Rivers State as no man’s property. If you have a grouse, go to court. People should allow the rule of law to prevail, not the rule of man. Rivers State needs peace. The people want bread not bullets. If you cannot protect lives and property, why are you in government?”

    ALGON in Rivers State, in the news conference’s speech, titled: “We Must Defend our Democracy,” declared that danger was looming in the horizon for the prized democracy.

    The LG chairmen stated that there was a sinister plot by Wike’s government to plunge Rivers into another round of avoidable crises, after the most mindless bloodletting the state had ever known in its 48-year history, in the name of struggle to wrest transient political power.

    On June 18, the Rivers ALGON members called for the immediate dismissal of Justice Lambo Akanbi of the Federal High Court (FHC), Port Harcourt for allegedly taking sides with the PDP and Wike on the plan to dissolve the councils. He was accused of bribery in a case in his court.

    The LG chairmen also accused the FHC judge of judicial rascality and impertinence, gross violation of the Nigerian constitution, perpetration of corruption and impunity, thereby sending petition against him to the National Judicial Council (NJC) to investigate the allegations and dismiss him.

    They stated that Justice Akanbi of the FHC One abused court proceedings in the pre-election matter that had gone to the appellate court, which he adjourned sine die (indefinitely) on April 29, 2015, while the appeal court adjourned till October 12, 2015.

    The Forum of Concerned Lawyers in Rivers State, through its Chairman, Chris Itamunola, in Port Harcourt, however, called for the arrest of the 23 LG chairmen, while expressing surprise that they could so unjustly accuse Justice Akanbi of taking bribe to see the councils dissolved.

    The concerned lawyers said: “The allegation by the Rivers LG chairmen that Justice Lambo Akanbi financially compromised regarding the case that is subsisting in the FHC, is not only serious, but a very contemptuous issue and the option open to the judge is to immediately round them up, get them arrested and send the case to an independent court for trial. Since a judge cannot be a judge in his own court.

    “You do not come to the public domain to make such wild and spurious allegations. When this same class of politicians got very favourable judgments before the honourable court and the same Justice Lambo Akanbi, sometime in 2014, regarding the chief judge’s matter and some other ones, there was no wild allegation whatsoever. The music cannot be different in times like this.”

    The PDP filed the suit at the FHC, Port Harcourt against holding the LG election on May 23 this year and for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) not to release the voter registers to the RSIEC. INEC, RSIEC, Governor of Rivers State, Inspector-General of Police and the State Security Service were defendants in the suit.

    The then governor of Rivers state (Amaechi) and RSIEC appealed against the order of Justice Akanbi to show cause why the motion filed by the PDP should not be granted.

    The LG chairmen noted that Justice Akanbi no longer had jurisdiction to entertain any further proceeding in the case, making him to adjourn sine die, to enable the Court of Appeal to decide the matter.

    The Rivers solicitor-general, however, condemned the allegations levelled against him and Justice Akanbi by the LG bosses.

    Godwin, in his reaction in Port Harcourt, insisted that he was at the FHC on June 16 to represent the present Rivers government and RSIEC in the matter filed by the PDP against the conduct of the May 23 LG election.

    The solicitor-general reiterated that the case was initially adjourned sine die by the court, but resumed to regularise the development on the matter, following a change of government.

    Godwin said: “With the new government, common sense should have indicated that it would be unfair to continue with the counsel, who was pursuing a different interest from the interest of the present government. So, the proper thing to do and at a time when there was no Attorney-General, was to debrief him, so that when the matter comes up, we will take over the matter.

    “That was why we wrote to Nwofor on June 2 and we also gave a copy to the court, Nwofor knows that ethically, if we have written to him, to say you are no longer the counsel in the matter, you cannot insist that you must continue with the matter as counsel.”

    On Monday, the National Industrial Court of Nigeria presided over by Hon. Justice J.T. Agbadu-Fishim, holden at Yenagoa, Bayelsa State granted an Order of Interim Injunction against the governor of Rivers State, the Rivers State House of Assembly and the Attorney-General of Rivers State and their agents from dissolving, suspending, sacking terminating or in any manner whatsoever interfering with the tenure of office of the 23 Local Government Councils of Rivers State.

    The order will remain in force until the hearing and determination of the motion on notice for Interlocutory Injunction.

    Will Wike respect this order or find a way around it? Time will tell.

  • Auchi Poly…Breaking new grounds

    Auchi Poly…Breaking new grounds

    Last November 21, Auchi Polytechnic matriculated 91 students as the first set to begin various degree programmes in the 2014/2015 session.

    Dr Philipa Idogho, the rector of the polytechnic, said during the matriculation that the polytechnic would run the programmes in affiliation with Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Akwa.

    She recalled that the then Bendel State Government Technical College which was established in 1964 was upgraded and called Auchi Polytechnic in 1973.

    “It began with the mandate to train skilled manpower in engineering, sciences, environmental studies, business studies and art and design.

    “The polytechnic was taken over by the Federal Government in 1994 and it is currently running 63 programmes up to the Higher National Diploma.

    “It is the first polytechnic in the South-South geo-political zone of the country to be awarding degrees,” she said.

    The rector also said the institution had concluded plans to start the award of degrees in 11 disciplines.

    She claimed that the Senate of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, had approved the affiliation after assessing the infrastructure and manpower in the affected disciplines.

    According to her, the programmes include Electrical/Electronics, Civil Engineering, Business Administration, Accounting, Building Technology, Estate Management and Education/Physics, among others.

    She also said the polytechnic management was expecting the National Universities Commission (NUC) to carry out an assessment of facilities and personnel of the institution.

    According to Idogho, the polytechnic can transmute into a university easily because of its emphasis on sound academic programmes and training of staff of the institution.

    “We are now in better stead to continue to improve on teaching and learning environment in the polytechnic.

    “The management of the polytechnic is determined to improve and sustain the ranking of the polytechnic among other institutions,” he said.

    With this achievement, observers note that the polytechnic has remained relevant in the education sector, promoting excellence and required manpower in all discipline.

    Commending the school authority for transforming the polytechnic, Mr Nyesom Wike, the former Supervising Minister of Education, said that the Federal Government remained committed to the development of technical and vocational education.

    Mr Mustapha Oshiobugie, the polytechnic’s spokesman, said: “It is the rector’s vision to make the polytechnic relevant to its immediate community and the country as a whole.

    “Her success story is visible in the upgrading of infrastructure, massive capacity building and productive management-student relationship, among other values.

    “During Idogho’s tenure, the polytechnic authority has constructed many well furnished offices and classrooms.

    “Also it has sponsored more than 80 per cent of both academic and non-academic to various conferences, seminars and workshops.

    “Before she came, we had only four Ph.D holders, but now we have more than 20 of them while more than 30 staff members of the institution are at their various stages of their Ph.D programmes,” he said.

    Sharing similar sentiments, Mr Geroge Okosun, the former Chairman, Auchi Polytechnic Academic Staff Union, said Idogho had “turned Auchi Polytechnic into a success story.”

    In the same vein, Mr Abdulwasiu Bukoye, a staff of the polytechnic, said he was impressed with the performance of the school authority.

    “I came here in 2009 not knowing anybody. I got my appointment on merit. I have several other persons that can attest to this. I understand this was not so easy before she came in.

    “I just hope she continues in this direction in addition with her development strides,” he said.

    Mr Vincent Okhani, the Dean of School of Environmental Studies of the polytechnic, described Idogho as a leader of men and resources.

    Appraising the performance of the institution, the rector observed that the school authority had made its modest contributions to the infrastructural transformation of Auchi Polytechnic.

    “Our target is to create a learning environment in which students do not struggle for use of lecture rooms; where our laboratories have the right equipment and facilities.

    “I am glad to note that, in general terms, our students perform competitively within prevailing national standards; they have won laurels at national mathematical and debate competitions.

    “Some of them easily pass the relevant professional examinations while yet in school, or soon after graduation.

    “Auchi Polytechnic has produced quality personnel for the construction, corporate, socio- economic, political and religious sectors of Nigeria.

    “Our products hold their heads proudly high wherever the spirit of enterprise, for which the institution is known, leads them,” she said.

    By and large, concerned citizens suggest that all education stakeholders and head of educational institutions at all levels should encourage the effective implementation of development programmes.

    According to them, stakeholders also ought to work effectively to offer solution to the challenges of implementation of the strategies to attain effective transformation.

    •Igbaugba is of the News Agency of Nigeria

  • Akwa Ibom group seeks more money for Maritime Academy, Oron

    The National Assembly has been urged to enhance funding opportunities for the nation’s premiermaritime  training institution, the Maritime Academy of Nigeria (MAN) by passing a Bill seeking the increase current five per cent funding from the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) to 15 per cent.

    The request was made in Abuja on Wednesday by a group, the Civil Societies of Nigeria (CSN), Akwa-Ibom chapter. The group, while lamenting the inability of the institution to meet its responsibilities, blamed the development on paucity of funds and neglect by past administrations.

    The group, led by Richard Wilson, hailed the current management of the institution led by Dr. Joshua Okpo, which it said has improved on the standard of the school. It called for the retention of Okpo as the school’s Rector in view of his achievement so far.

    CSN faulted the planned conversion of the institution located in Oron, Akwa  Ibom State to a conventional university, arguing  that such a decision will rob Nigerians the privilege of the institution established to train marine engineers  and seafarers.

    The group described as mere political move the reported announcement by the immediate governor of the state, Goodwill Akpabio that the Goodluck Jonathan government had approved the school’s conversion.

    “When did the federal government empower former governor Godswil Akpabio to overtly announce the conversion of a highly technical institution such as MAN Oron into a university without strict adherence to due process?

    “The International Maritime Organisation (IMO) Convention, which Nigeria is a member state, makes it mandatory for Certificate of Competency (CoC), issued by the institution, to be acceptable beyond the shores of Nigeria, while degrees can only assist the holder in other aspects of maritime education and training.”

  • Boost for child rights in Rivers

    The General Manager of the Rivers State Broadcasting Corporation, Medline Tador, has urged parents to help end child marriage.

    Tador, who lamented that Africa has the second highest rate of child marriage in the world after South Asia, reiterated  that it was time all stakeholders came together to fight the menace.

    She spoke at an event to mark this year’s “Day of the African Child”; an annual event organised by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), to draw attention to the plight of African children.

    She spoke on the theme: “25 Years After the Adoption of the African Children’s Charter: Accelerating Our Collective Efforts to End Child Marriage” at Abonnema, Akuku- Toru Local Government Area of Rivers State.

    Represented by the Director of Production, Constance Amaehule, the General Manager reminded community leaders, traditional and religious organisations, parents and the school of their roles in the fight against early marriage.

    She advocated the use of jingles and drama in radio and television houses to highlight its negative effects, and reaffirmed the commitment of Radio Rivers in assisting UNICEF in its health advocacy programmes.

    In a remark, the Acting Education Supervisor in Akuku- Toru LGA, Sukubo Nath-Obu, enjoined all to come together to end the practice of early child marriage because it is not good development.

    He said that the council would continue to join resources with UNICEF in the crusade against early child marriage, and thanked the organisers for holding this year’s celebration in the area.

    The two day event featured art competition and drama presentation by the participating schools to drive home the negative effects of early child marriage.

    Also, the General Manager of Rivers State Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency (RUWASSA), Chibunma Kakada,  identified poor access to good and safe drinking water and poor toilet facilities as some of the challenges facing the girl child.

  • Lawmakers groan over Itu-Calabar

    Residents of Calabar,  the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly and other Nigerians who daily have to ply the Itu-Calabar Federal Highway, the all important Federal single lane highway constructed in the 1970s, have appealed to the Federal Government to save the road from being  cut into two at Enen Atai Itam, in Itu Local Government Area by gully erosion.

    Raising a motion of very urgent public importance, the representative of Itu  State Constituency in the House of Assembly,  Hon. (Prince) Idongesit Ituen described the condition of the road as “life threatening”. He said gully erosion is almost cutting the road into two. Hon Ituen  said if nothing serious  is done urgently within the next few days, Cross River may be cut off from her Sout-South and South-Eastern neighbours.Supporting the motion, Hon. Onofiok Luke, representing Nsit Ubium State Constituency, wondered what ecological funds were meant for while thousands of lives were threatened. He called on President Muhammadu Buhari to act fast to have the road reconstructed and dualised to save the Southsouth, Southeastern states who are the most affected from accidents, death and waste of man-hours every day.

    Luke, however, commended Governor Udom Emmanuel for steps taken to have some remedial works done to save lives. He said the steps taken by Udom should be taken further by the Federal Government by having the whole road reconstructed into a dual carriage way.

    Members representing Etinan, Nsit Atai, Mkpat Enin, Esit Eket/ Ibeno state constituencies called on the President to help the Akwa Ibom people and other Nigerians who daily take the risk of going on that road because there is no alternative route to or from Calabar open to them.

    The Speaker, Hon. Aniekan Uko,  set up a five member committee to visit the road and report back to the House next week Tuesday.

  • Akwa Ibom youths to learn mechanised farming

    Akwa Ibom State government plans to train its youths in mechanised farming. It also intends to train 1,000 youths in Oracle Database Software Management.

    Governor Udom Emmanuel, who made this known Sunday at Qua Iboe Church, 2 Abak Road, Uyo, noted: “I am in discussion with Oracle to train at least 1,000 youths in Akwa Ibom State on Oracle Database Software Management System.”

    Emmanuel, who noted that most of those employed by banks and companies are those with Oracle certifications, said Akwa Ibom youths must be imbued with relevant skills that would make them self-reliant, pointing out “I want to make sure that our youths acquire skills so that they can mostly be on their own. We want to facilitate this to help some of our youths to also acquire skills. One thousand is a good number and we can see how we can train them in Uyo to reduce the cost instead of moving them to Lagos,” he said.

    The governor further hinted that the state government would send 100 Akwa Ibom youths to Israel by the end of July to acquire training and skills in mechanised farming, and described Israel as an outstanding country in the world with track-record in agriculture, saying: “By end of July, we will send about 100 youths to Israel to acquire some skills and also at the same time do pilgrimage as well. Those people that will come back are those that will actually back up our mechanised farming in agriculture. We know when it comes to agriculture today, Israel is one of the greatest. These are some of the things we will do in human development that will actually enhance the quality of life of our people but we need your kind prayers.”

  • Oil mining leases: Emami makes case for communities

    A Niger Delta activist and one of the leaders of the oil-rich Ugborodo Community in Warri Local Government Area of Delta State, Chief Ayirimi Emami, has accused the Dr. Goodluck Jonathan administration of sidelining communities in oil mining leases.

    He called for a probe into ‘secret oil blocs’ operatorship’ contract allegedly entered with some private companies in the immediate past administration.

    Emami said there is the need for a critical look at the period of Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke’s headship of the petroleum industry.

    His position was contained in a petition to President Muhammadu Buhari, a copy of which was made available to Niger Delta Report.

    Emami, who is Chief Executive of A&E Petroleum, said many contracts entered into by the last administration flouted the open and competitive bid practice mandated by the Public Procurement Act.

    He said host communities were sidelined in the sales of the oil firms, noting that the Minister flouted an order that bidding for Oil Mining Leases (OMLs) 4, 26, 30, 34, 38, 41 and 42 be thrown open with host communities granted right of involvement.

    “The Federal Ministry of Petroleum flagrantly disobeyed the directive and surreptitiously granted the leases to non-indigenes against the Local Content Act or rights of preemption and /or first refusal by people of the host communities, who had the financial/technical capability to acquire them.”

    He faulted the sale of such assets to Atlantic Energy Drilling Concept Limited, which he said neither tendered nor bidded for the bloc, as well as the sale of Shell Petroleum Development Company’s stakes in OML 42 to Neconde Energy Limited.

    In the case of Atlantic Drilling Concept, Emami said “the company only paid upfront cash payment of little more than $50 million initial entrance fee, for a lease that should ordinarily cost no less than $ 800 million.

    He suggested the probe should provide insight into: “Why the immediate past Minister of Petroleum furtively approve Oil blocs’ rights to companies without due process and the yardstick for regulating the discretional allocation of Nigeria’s National Oil and Gas assets.

    “How does these ridiculous undervalued secretive allocations of Nigeria’s most lucrative Oil and Gas assets support or strengthen Nigeria’s economic and political integrity?

    “Why were companies which have interests in each other, such as, Seven Energy, Septa Energy, Seplat Energy and Atlantic Energy were favoured so much in the award of rights in OML 4, 26, 30, 34, 38, 41 and 42, and why did the former Minister of Petroleum violate industry guidelines and the Procurement Act to favour these companies?”

  • It’s Urhobo’s turn to head amnesty office

    It’s Urhobo’s turn to head amnesty office

    The President, National Coalition Niger Delta Ex-Agitators (NCNDE-A) , Israel Akpodoro, in this interview, explains why the Urhobo-speaking people should take charge of the Amnesty Programme of the Federal Government.

    You have been in the forefront of engaging a technocrat to lead the Amnesty Programme, what informs your position? 

    Well, a technocrat would certainly manage that laudable programme of the Federal Government  much better than a politician would do. While a detribalised administrator seeks ways to better the lives of the people, a hedonistic, fraudulent and tribalistic politician will want to loot the Amnesty Office dry and sustain the lopsidedness already existing in the distribution of the benefits of the programme.

    In this regard, the amnesty programme was designed by a detribalised, well educated Urhobo man whose track record is that of honesty and sincerity. He came up with the template with which originally the amnesty took off until the looting cabal of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) ýcame on board to hijack and messed up the programme. This Urhobo man drew the road map for today’s amnesty programme without bias. This is why I am of the opinion that the management of the amnesty programme goes to another ethnic nationality and not the ijaw nation any more.

    Why not the Ijaw nation? 

    At the risk of sounding tribal, I wish to state categorically that the Ijaw monopolised all the positives in the programme . About 85 per cent of the beneficiaries of the programme overseas are mainly Ijaw people. Other nationalities in the region noted the same pattern of tribalism ýbetween the duo because they are ijaw people.

    It behoves on President Buhari to look beyond the Ijaw and remember that the Delta region is not for the Ijaw alone. We have the Urhobo, Ndokwa, Isoko, Itsekiri, Akwa Ibom, Ibiobio, Ikwere, Ogoni, Kalabari, Andoni, and Efik tribes in the region. The urhobo are the 5th largest ethnic nationality in Nigeria and should therefore be considered by the president for the job.

    Talking about security of the oil facilities in the country, what’s your position on the revocation by the Federal Government of the pipeline surveillance contracts recently?

    The Federal Government, through the NNPC, took the right step in the cancellation of those pipeline contracts. The Federal Government should consider re-awarding the contracts to the ex-militants in their different domains to complement what the security agencies would do. While the conventional security apparatus have the needed expertise, the non conventional securities mostly the ex-militants know the terrains and could in a synergy with conventional security achieve the desired protection for the oil facilities. Surveillance contracts should, therefore, be awarded to the oil facility bearing communities. The security of pipelines in Urhoboland should be awarded to Urhobo man ditto other tribes.

    Equity should displace discrimination in the distribution of the positives of the amnesty program. During the past administration, the people of the Niger Delta region witnessed the worst marginalisation as it concerns the amnesty programme. Except you were connected to the powers that be, even if you are an Ijaw man, nothing comes to you let alone be ing from another tribe.

    Aside from Urhobo nation, what other tribe would you readily recommend for the job?

    A man from Ndokwa or Isoko nations will equally assuage the people of the region because these are tribes that have suffered various degrees of marginalisation. My major take, however, is that it must not be an Ijaw man this time. Any other tribe from the region will be okay, Ijaw must learn to know that the amnesty office is not their exclusive preserve.

    How do you think the current peace in the Delta region can be sustained?

    If the right people are put in the right place, peace would certainly prevail in the region and nobody would threaten the peace under any guise. Let’s try other people in the management of the amnesty and we would all see the difference. Past administrators saw the amnesty as their baby feeder and what I am saying is that they should be probed. How can an office be gutted by fire a day or two before or after your exit as head of that office? Recently, youths barricaded the East-West road over unpaid allowances but further investigation proved that the boys were incited by a man who was reluctant to handover the office. He actually called the boys and ordered them to block the road to stampede the FG into payment of the allowance because he wanted to loot the office that month. A new administrator would ensure adequate payment of the ex-agitators across board without discrimination, d?evelop the boys according to laid down rules honestly and with utmost sincerity. ?Meeting the needs of the people of the region is another thing this administration should look into. Environmental degradation, gas flaring, pollution, poverty, unemployment…are still plaguing the region and all these ought to have been addressed by the immediate past government but for sleaze occasioned by wanton corruption. Peace, no doubt will reign supreme in the region because the people now know better who their enemies are. Our common enemies are the looters of the amnesty office whose priorities are to acquire property all over the world, fund girlfriends, buy aeroplanes at the detriment of the people. Our common enemies in the Delta are those who submitted fake list of names purportedly from the region to dupe the Federal Government in its amnesty programme and monthly they smile to the bank while the downtrodden and the masses of the Niger Delta people died in pains and anguish from acute poverty and common ailments. The people of the Niger Delta region now know that the state governor who loot the treasury rather than use it to better the lots of the people is the enemy of the region/people and not the Federal Government. We now know better that the people of the Niger Delta are its own worst enemies and not the man in Abuja.

  • Dear Otueneh

    Dear Otueneh

    I do not know how to start this epistle. My confusion stems from the fact that you, Otueneh, are dead and I am alive. How does the living communicate with the dead? They say it takes the deep to call to the deep. But, I will go ahead and write you and take solace in what my wife Abimbola once told me while trying to convince me to do a newspaper obituary for my late father. She had told me my father would love it and I asked her: “how will he see it?” Her reply: “He liked newspapers and who knows there may be a way they get to read newspapers there.”

    Otueneh, I take it that you liked newspapers and read many of them before last Friday when four gunmen suspected to be assassins invaded the home of Emmanuel Bristol Alagbariya, your boss, the National General Secretary of Ijaw Youths Council (IYC) Worldwide in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, and killed you– Sylvanus Otueneh.

    It was your boss, the man whose Personal Assistant you were they were looking for. But, the assailants felt that since you were good enough to personally assist him then you could personally die for him.

    At the time they got you, you were busy with your boss  on the upcoming Rivers State Ijaw Summit, in commemoration of the 58 years of the Henry Willinks Commission Report and celebration ofIjaw  heroes for their contributions to the Niger Delta. It was for this purpose that you and others were gathered in your boss’s home that Friday.

    The planning committee’s members were waiting for your boss to join them when one of his buses drove into the compound. It was followed by the assassins, who thought he was in the bus. They obviously had been waiting around. Upon entering, they encircled the place, apparently thinking your boss was in the bus.

    But they soon discovered that their target was not around. They went into the room where the committee members were waiting and ordered them to lie flat. They were angry when they did not find Alagbariya. And they vented their anger on you. Now, you lie cold in the morgue.

    I am told you were a frontline youth leader campaigning for a better life for the Ijaw and Niger Delta youths. Now, you are gone and will not participate in the June 26 summit where the likes of the late Chief Harold Dappa-Biriye, Major Jasper Isaac Adaka Boro, Dr. I. J. M. Fiberesima, Chief U. O. Ekeneokot and Chief P. J Warmate will be honoured for their contributions to Niger Delta, Rivers State and Nigeria. Instead, you and these men you were part of the plan to honour dwell in the same plane. I hope you will see them and tell them what you were planning for them before death took you.

    But, that is not all you should tell them. Let them in on the situation of things in the Niger Delta. Tell them that in the Niger Delta,  luxury is still a stranger to many. It is something they hear about and see when the rich choose to throw their weight about.

    For so many in the region, Otueneh, tell the elders you now share the same enclave, sending their children to school is a big deal. Tell them the people are still poor in this rich region, where the oil of Nigeria’s prosperity is drilled.

    Tell them that close to many’s homes is a constant reminder of their sorry lives: the Residential Area or RA, as we are wont to call it, of the multinational the government gave the licence to drill oil on its behalf. When compared with the RA, what many call homes in the region cannot be described better than saying “heaven and hell, side by side”. Many’s homes are hell; the RAs are heaven.

    Tell the elder gone past that it is as though the bulk of the inhabitants of the region have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Or, how does one explain the excruciating poverty?

    Otueneh, tell the elders gone past that in many Niger Delta communities, oil pipelines are not underground. They are in the open. And often they burst or are burst and the soils and people’s means of existence are damaged in the process.

    They have shouted, protested and threatened violence over their fate, yet change has refused to come. It is as if the multinationals also has another licence: to send them all to their early graves. Yet, their leaders, the men who lay claim to being elected to lead them, are least bothered about environmental genocide.

    Aggravated asthma, increases in respiratory symptoms, chronic bronchitis and decreased lung function and premature death are not uncommon. I beseech you Otueneh to let the elders gone past know this. Things have changed but not much since they left.

    There is a message you must bear to the elders gone past for me. It is the fact that multinationals go about painting a picture of being an asset to the people, when it is, indeed, a curse. Tell them that many brains are still being flared out by the gas flares from flow stations, which are at the centre of many a town.

    Tell them that findings have revealed that the oil companies are more interested in the oil than in the people’s well-being. The people can die for all they care. They seem to be saying that oil is more important than man. Forget other mantras they bandy around.

    Worse still, Otueneh, don’ forget to tell the elders gone past that governments in the region are accomplices in this man’s inhumanity to man. The royalties and levies are what matter.

    You must not forget this important message too: our youths have gone mad with the way they are now looking for easy money. They now see militancy, kidnapping, illegal bunkering and armed robbery the best professions. They need leadership and direction.

    Even after the proclamation of the Presidential Amnesty, criminalities have not fully abated. Tell our elders the blood of the innocent was shed in Rivers before, during and after the last general elections. The madness has gone down now, which confirms that they were politically-motivated. I beg you in the name of everything you held dear Otueneh, tell our elders to declare that whoever lives by the sword shall die by the sword; whoever sheds the blood of any fellow human-being will know not peace for the rest of his or her miserable life. He or she will look for sleep and no find; he or she will search for joy and it will flee from him or her; he or she will wish for good health and it shall not be well with him or her; and to wrap it up, woe unto evil doers. The pain your parents, loved ones, friends and well-wishers have known in the last seven days that you have been killed will be the lot of your killers in multitude.

    Otueneh, let me call it a day on this note: Soon, you will be buried and like we do in this country, your case file will be buried not long after. Many who have been assassinated like you have had their files buried almost along with their bodies. So, you own won’t be the first. Your death further diminishes our humanity. It calls to question the right of some people to answer human-beings. They are actually animals. The sort of fate that befell you brings to mind This Animal Called Man, the title of a book written by ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo. The people who killed you in place of your boss are animals of the lowest breed.

    The great Shakespeare once said: “Truth sunk into the earth shall rise again.” I wait to see if this will be true in your case. If the truth your killers think they have buried will rise for us all to see and know. I know you cannot rise. You are far gone. But, it will be a balm if the truth about your death is unearthed.

    Bye, dear Otueneh, the man with a name so poetic I could not resist repeating it again and again.

  • Ibeno monarch to Akwa Ibom govt: fix our road

    The Paramount Ruler of Ibeno Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State, Owong Effiong Achianga,  has urged Governor Udom Gabriel Emmanuel to revisit the abandoned Eket-Ibeno road.

    He said completing the road was one of the governor’s pre-election promises to the area, saying the people face untold hardship daily by  on the road.

    He spoke in his palace during the week:  “Ibeno remains the major revenue base of the state” and appealed to him take more than a passing interest.

    The monarch also dismissed the allegation of fraud leveled against him in the disbursement of the N1.3 billion oil spill palliative fund given by ExxonMobil to cushion the effect of oil spill in his domain.

    The Paramount Ruler described the allegation as a total blackmail aimed at disparaging his office, adding that such attack could be the handiwork of mischief makers and non indigenes of Ibeno.

    He said the recent palliative fund was paid to E&T Consultant, with the brief to expend the cash to improve social infrastructure, including education and other life-touching projects.

    The monarch dismissed as unfounded, report that restive youths in his domain were spoiling for war over the alleged mismanagement of the funds, recalling that he had been using his office as the traditional ruler of the area to attract peace and other incentives to the people and urged his subjects to disregard such incitement.

    Achianga, a successful fisherman and contractor to some oil companies including Chevron, Addax, Total E&P, Conoil and NDDC, said he had attracted jobs and scholarship to no fewer than 60 Ibeno youths and craved for peaceful environment for more developments to thrive in his domain.

    Meanwhile, youth leaders under the aegis of the Ibeno Youths Council

    Forum (IYCF) dissociated themselves from the reported impending violence in the area over the disputed funds. The President, Comrade John Bassey David and others expressed confidence in the monarch’s leadership style so far, adding that such funds have been properly managed to impact positively in the affected communities.