Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta and Coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, Brig. Gen. Paul Boroh (Rtd), was part of Vice President Yemi Osibajo’s team that visited Delta State as part of ongoing efforts to resolve the lingering crisis in the region. In this interview with select Editors in Abuja, Boroh expressed optimism that the visit would yield the expected results. He also spoke on his plans to ensure that all ex agitators under the Amnesty Programme are gainfully employed. Our Deputy Editor, Yomi Odunuga, was there. Excerpts:
RECENTLY, Vice President Yemi Osibajo was in Delta State as part of efforts to restore peace in the Niger Delta. As a member of that team, would you say the visit has yielded any positive results beyond the normal promises made by political leaders during past visits?
The visit was meant to be a confidence building mechanism towards the restoration of the crisis in the Niger Delta and the first point of call, on arrival by the Vice President, was to Gbaramatu kingdom where the most critical oil facility was located in the South-South in Delta State. Thereafter, there was a visit to Warri to see the Itsekiri tribe that are also within the general area of Warri, South South and then the other three major tribes. While in Gbaramatu kingdom, it was important to note that the Vice President said the Maritime University would take off. Before now, some persons did not believe the university existed and that it was not true. But it became abundantly clear after the Vice President’s visit that it is true that the university exist. They also have a Vice Chancellor in that state and all that people from the region were asking the government was to formalise it, to allow it to function. The vice president confirmed that it would start in the next academic session. The visit did not just happen by accident. Recall that, in November last year, traditional rulers, stakeholders, interest groups of the Niger-delta visited the president and they submitted their 16-point agenda as their request for the resolution of the conflict in the Niger Delta and Mr. president asked the Vice President to go on a fact-finding mission to actually find out and confirm the request by the stakeholders. The consent was given and the vice-president made it clear that the Federal Government would accede to all their requests. I must say, on my part and because I was involved in the meetings and the visits, that the Vice President’s made to the Niger Delta particularly to Delta State was imperative and was a critical factor to be considered in the resolution of the conflict in the region. Before now, there were also some doubts regarding if the Federal Government had the political will to resolving the issues or whether they were talking for the sake of talking. It has become abundantly clear that the Federal Government is committed to the resolution of the conflict and the stability as well as development of the Niger Delta region. As I speak to you now, we are close to accompanying the Vice President for his next trip sometime in February.
Some persons have expressed worry that key government officials were not on the Vice President’s entourage during his visit to Delta State. They believe this could affect the synergy that is needed in the efforts to end the crisis. Would you say this omission was deliberate?
I was not involved in the preparation of the Vice President’s itinerary and so I cannot speak about that aspect. It could be an oversight. If it was, I believe the next one would be corrected following this observation.
With all these meetings, you have listed, are you confident that the Niger Delta would soon experience peace? If so, can you put a timeline to it?
Resolving conflict of this nature is not a mathematical thing, it is procedural. It is peace and confidence building towards the resolution of the final conflict. It is an ongoing thing. After the meeting with Mr. President, there was another one two weeks after I met with the Vice President. I was also involved in that meeting. There have been meetings within the region. There were meetings in Port-Harcourt and Warri. All these are peace building efforts towards the resolution of the crisis in Niger Delta. Until we get there, we would not stop. All we want to ensure is stability, development and to prevent the crisis and the tension in the region which is manifesting. Based on meetings here and there, diplomatic shuttles are also going on and that is why there is some calmness and I appreciate what is happening so far. It is because people are meeting and talking. There is communication going on between the various groups and the government, that is why there is calmness.
From the clips of the Vice President’s visit, it was clear that he sounded politically correct, he addressed the issue like you expect every politician to do by trying to allay fears, trying to give confidence like you said. But in Nigeria, we have never lacked leadership in terms of giving the right speeches at the right time and when you were speaking and you said it gives you some confidence that this particular government is serious. Considering what we have witnessed in the past, what is that thing that makes this particular administration different from the others?
I was involved in this particular visit and I know what happened at every point of the visit. We did not just come, talk and leave. We had interactions and there have been follow-ups even after the Vice President’s visit. One of such is the visitation by the political adviser to the area as well as to Warri town itself to meet with some groups within the area to drive home all that the Vice President has discussed. It did not just stop at the Vice President’s meeting. There have been two visits thereafter. Sometime ago, the Federal Government tasked some bodies and they came up with a development plan for the Niger Delta. The visit also revealed to me that some people are trivilaisng the issue, different tribes would come and talk about their interests. That is not the point. That is not what the Federal Government wants to do in that region. The government would rather pursue a holistic development plan. This is the Niger Delta regional master plan. It is there. I have found it and I would be submitting it with a cover letter to the Presidency. The implication is that people should stop asking for their tribal and personal interests; ask for something that would be beneficial to the Niger- Delta. It could be in the form of infrastructural development. By so doing, human capacity development would come up and job creation would be achieved. This is way I see the resolution of the Niger Delta crisis through the master plan development. That is why I say the Vice President’s visit is not tribal or individual. If you put yourself in the place of the government, you would like to go to some place not to take sides but to listen attentively with the aim of resolution. So if individuals have come to say we did not meet with them, he could not have been going from tribe to tribe or individual to individual, I think we should just look at it holistically.
When is the Amnesty Programme coming to an end?
The presidential Amnesty Programme is an intervention for the resolution of conflict. It is a security programme and you cannot be mathematical about it. If we achieve our results in the region, if not, let us try to do all we can towards the resolution of the conflict. There are many bodies involved including the Niger Delta Development Commission, the Niger Delta Ministry, the Ministry of Environment, Ministry of Works. They are all involved in the resolution of the conflict in Niger Delta. If you look at it holistically, every ministry is involved in the resolution of the conflict in the region. Let me say that, as a result of my experience in conflict and difficult situations, there is no amount of time, effort or resources you spend to resolve conflict. It is better to resolve than to allow conflict. Look at what we are experiencing in North East, if we knew it was going to be this bad, we would have stopped it immediately. We are going to spend so much money now to rebuild, reconstruct and rehabilitate. It is better to resolve than to allow it to happen. Destruction is the worst thing that you can allow to happen. Let us do everything we can to prevent rather than allow it to happen. The Presidential Amnesty Programme is on course, it is going on well. It is intended to stabilise the region to allow for development. It cannot be stopped immediately. If you have a very good idea that you think that can add value towards resolution, you are most welcome because it is a conflict and we need a lot of information which we would analyse towards resolution. This is the reason I spend a lot all day listening to advice from people because it is not just a national issue. The international community’s interest is there such as America, European Union, and Asia. Individuals have interest in it too. It is a regional effort that can resolve it.
One of the major causes of this problem is unemployment. If these people have work to do, they will not have time for the conflict. In what has the programmed helped in facilitating employment and job creation for these restive youths that have be trained under the programme?
In line with the policy thrust of this administration, looking at alternative ways to revamp the economy, the two areas of focus are agriculture and solid minerals. The Niger Delta area does not have much of solid minerals but aqua and agriculture. This is the area of focus for the Presidential Amnesty Programme for now and there are people who are ready to support us in achieving peace and agricultural alternatives to revamping the economy. A group from United Kingdom and Vietnam came to discuss how they can partner with this office towards achieving our efforts of agriculture. We had meetings with them and all they are asking for is provision of land space and on my part I have written to all the nine governors of the Niger Delta oil producing states to provide 10,000 hectares each to allow interest groups that want to support the programme in deploring delegates for agriculture. On our part, we are looking inwards. We have collaborated with the Bio-Resource Development Centre. That is a modern scientific research institution for agricultural development. They have field offices but their headquarters is in Abuja. They have started training. They are going to train 500 ex agitators in agricultural development. We started the training with 100 and by next week the next batch would resume training.
FROM fourth generation to new arrivals, Lebanese Nigerians describe their connection to the country
Multiple generations of Lebanese have made their home in Nigeria. Some are the descendants of migrants who arrived in West Africa as early as the 19th century, leaving behind their small Middle Eastern nation in search of opportunities elsewhere.
Members of this Lebanese diaspora – from fourth-generation Nigerian nationals to recent arrivals – share their experiences of life in Africa’s most populous nation. Tatiana Mousalli Nouri, 38, is fourth-generation Lebanese, raised in Nigeria. She is the deputy group managing director for Aim Group, a family-run conglomerate with offices across the country, which includes broadcasters Cool FM and Wazobia FM.
She also heads Wazobia TV, which is the only Nigerian channel to broadcast exclusively in pidgin English. Tatiana is married with three children.
Her words: “I was born in London, in the UK, but was conceived and raised in Nigeria. I have been here all of my life because my mum’s family has been in Nigeria for a very long time, since 1886. My great grandfather, Michael Lelias, left Lebanon in 1886 on his way to Brazil.
“The boat stopped by Nigeria before heading to Brazil. Back then I think it was fashionable to go to Brazil.
“The story goes that he did not have enough money to make the trip to Brazil, so he basically stopped in Nigeria and made it home. He worked for many years as a cattle trader. Then he went back to Lebanon, got married and brought back his wife. That’s how my grandfather was born here.
“My grandmother on my mother’s side of the family was born in the Republic of Benin, in Porto-Novo. My mother grew up here when she was a child as well, left for secondary school and then came back.
“My father always says that we are civilised nomads because of his and my mother’s heritage. We’ve always been nomads, going from one place to another.
“I’m Lebanese maybe by blood, if I can use that word. When people ask me, ‘Where are you from?’ I will say Nigeria, because this is what I know, this is where I grew up, this is where my memories are.
“We are not ‘real’ Nigerians, according to some people. When people tell me, ‘No, you are not Nigerian,’ I can defend my Nigerian roots more than everyone. But we’re usually embraced.
“In Nigeria there is a code that says all media owners must be Nigerian. We are Nigerian, meaning my parents are Nigerian, my sister and I are Nigerian. My brother-in-law is Nigerian – he was born and raised in Kano, a city in the north of the country. We feel very much Nigerian. However, the colour of our skin is very different.
“When we launched Wazobia FM, in 2007, and it was in pidgin English, no presenter out there wanted to audition to be a pidgin English presenter, because it was not done in Nigeria. We used cleaners and cooks from our cafe, Chocolat Royal. We said, ‘Just go and talk.’
“We still have some of the cleaners that have grown with the station. It’s gone further than we expected.
“Everybody has embraced it. Even though we still get some criticism, by a small amount of people that tell us that we are teaching pidgin English to the future generations. If you want to be educated, put your kids in school. Wazobia is really a medium; it’s just a language that we use to communicate a message.
“Nigeria has this vibe, this thing that when you come here there is something that hooks you to the country. I don’t know what it is.
“A lot of my friends that live here feel the same way. The potential that there is in this country, there is nowhere else. There is this dynamism, and there is hope. There is a very bright future for the generations ahead.”
Loubna Fakhri-Baker, 32, is the executive chef of the Lagos-based restaurant Craft Gourmet, which she co-founded with her husband, Anu Baker. Loubna was born and raised in Senegal but moved to Nigeria in 2008. She has a daughter.
She said: “In 1939 my grandfather moved to Senegal along with a big community of Lebanese people. My father told me that they were supposed to go to South America, but the boat stopped in Senegal and they started doing business there and stayed. Senegal is a very nice country to live in and the population there is very welcoming.
“I was born and raised in Dakar. We consider ourselves Senegalese. Every Friday or Saturday the family would sit around a thiebou jen (a spicy stuffed fish served with rice), which is the national dish. We cook yassa (a spicy chicken or fish dish) every day. We speak Senegalese, we eat Senegalese, I travel with the Senegalese passport, and we bury our dead in Senegal. We became Senegalese.
“French is my mother tongue. I also speak English, Wolof, and Spanish. I don’t speak Arabic well. When I go to Lebanon and I open my mouth and say “Bonjour” or “Marhaba”, people say, “Oh, she’s from Africa” because of my accent.
“I want to go back to Lebanon to live – go back to my roots. Whether it’s a good or bad experience I don’t care. I want to understand where I’m from.
“I’m Lebanese by blood but I sometimes feel closer to my Senegalese friends than my Lebanese friends from around the world. However, there’s still something that doesn’t make me feel completely Senegalese. I had a complex about it. When I talk to Lebanese people I’m not Lebanese, but when I talk to Senegalese, I’m not quite Senegalese for them. I’m still ‘the white girl’in their country.
“I met my husband in Lebanon when I went there for holidays. He was living in Lagos and then he moved to Abuja. When he moved to Abuja we got married and I followed him. After I got pregnant, Boko Haram attacks started to happen in Abuja so when I wanted to deliver we went back to Senegal. We stayed a bit, but we were missing the energy of Nigeria.
“When we first came to Lagos my husband was working as a financial controller and I was thinking about what I wanted to do in the food industry because I have a diploma from Ecole hoteliere de Lausanne (a Swiss hospitality management school). I knew that I wanted to work in that field.”
Source:Al-Jazeera
