Annkio Briggs is a civil rights activist and national convener of Niger Delta Self Determination Movement. She was a member of the defunct national conference where she wrote a minority report. In this interview with Tony Akowe, she speaks on the politics of Rivers State and why the Ijaw people will not vote for former minister of state for education, Nyesom Wike.
YOU were a member of the National Conference. Apart from the pronouncement by the government that it has set up a committee to study the report of the conference, nothing has been done and there is an indication that the report may go the way of others before it,especially considering the fact that the opposition was not favourably disposed to the conference.
Nigeria, being what it is the report does stand the risk of being kept to gather dust. Many things have gone that way in Nigeria. More so considering the fact that what is constituted as opposition today, right from the beginning was totally against the issue of convening the conference. But there is no doubt now that the conference was made up of genuine Nigerians and we discussed at large and came to some very critical conclusion of some issues that will move Nigeria forward. In my opinion, it is up to Nigerians and not just the few of us that constituted that conference. It is the responsibility of Nigerians to make sure that those recommendations are followed through and hold whoever becomes the President accountable for implementing them. It should not be an issue of I did not support it so I am not going to implement it. It is Nigerians that sat down and made these demands.
There is some form of division among those that attended the conference with the emergence of groupings loyal to different political divides. Don’t you think that will affect the implementation of the report?
Well, that was very clear from the beginning. There was no way that the whole conference will be made up of people that will all be supporters, or sympathetic to the present government. So, for me, that was never an issue and can never be an issue. There are some very critical people in Nigeria today who had no choice. There are some of us who, at the end of the day had no choice than to support the Jonathan government. We are morally obliged to support his government because of the way things are in Nigeria. I am from the Niger Delta and Jonathan is from my ethnic group. There is no way, in today’s Nigeria that you will expect that I will not support Jonathan. I will support Jonathan at all cost, under any circumstance. That the conference is divided along those lines was already very clear during the conference itself, especially the way the blames were coming for and against Jonathan. But the conference is not about Jonathan, but about Nigeria and the future of Nigeria. Whether Nigeria will stay together or not depends on the ethnic groups that make up Nigeria. It depends on what people are prepared to do for their selfish reasons. Nigeria is at a cross road, split down the middle, into Christians and Muslims. It is split down the middle between our power and somebody else’s power. But the power belongs to Nigerians and not to a region. But there is a grave massive injustice that has gone on for so long that some of us felt that we have been neglected and there are issues that are very critical to the existence of Nigeria. It is about Jonathan’s re-election, it is about Jonathan becoming or not becoming President. So, Nigeria is at a major cross road.
There is this allegation that the final report of the conference was doctored by the leadership of the conference. Are you not worried about this?
Of course, we are worried about it, but each of us has a copy of the report and I believe that every Nigerian should have a copy of that report. But to be very fair to Nigerians, I will say that I am not surprised if any part of the final document is doctored. It is not the delegates that have written the report. It is other people that sat down to write the report. So, there will be areas that people object to. What I am saying however is that in general, this thing is not about one region alone, but about the six regions that make up Nigeria. It is not about one ethnic group, but about all the ethnic groups that make up Nigeria. Whether Nigeria survived as a nation is dependent on each and every Nigerian. If we can hide behind Jonathan government, Obasanjo government or any government that we choose, let us not forget that since independence, Nigerians have accused their leaders of being corrupt. The civil war was because of an excuse of corruption. Till today, we are talking about corruption. Nigeria as a nation was brought together on the foundation of corruption. The British government packaged Nigeria for its own purpose and not the nations that make up Nigeria. The northern part of Nigeria has different people in it while the southern part of Nigeria has different people in it. You brought a whole area together and call them Nigeria. What is happening in Nigeria today is a complete fall out of the amalgamation of 1914. If we continue to say that the faulty amalgamation does not matter, then we are stapling that Nigeria does not matter and then, what we are saying is that we accept that we cannot live together. So, why are we insisting that we must stay together if we cannot live together? There is a clear indication that we are not prepared to live together when somebody will say, we must take power back. Why must you take power back and where are you taking it from? This power you want to take is a collective power owned by Nigerians which they give to you to exercise on their behalf. People have grievances and we must address these grievances if Nigeria is to survive. Nigeria is at a very critical crossroads and it is not about America’s prediction. There is nobody in Nigeria who does not have identity. We are different people, but can live together. How we live together has always been the question which nobody is prepared to answer. We keep saying we are one people when we are not. You cannot understand me when I am speaking with my brother, but that does not mean that we cannot live together in peace.
There is this argument that some of you from Rivers State are not happy with the choice of Wike as the governorship candidate of the PDP.
For me as a person, my position has been very clear. Nigerians do not understand the politics of Rivers State and they need to understand it before they can make judgement. Nobody can tell me about my state. My state has always operated politically on the basis of Riverine and Upland. Riverine consists mainly if Ijaws and upland consists of the Ogonis, the Ikwerres, Okrika and others. That is how, politically, it has been accepted. When Obasanjo became President, Dr. Peter Odili, who is from upland, became the governor. We, the Ijaw people supported him to become governor. Our leaders made him the governor of Rivers State. They include Marshal Harry, who was eventually killed, Alogbo Graham Douglas, among others. The Deputy Governor, Tobi, was an Ijaw man justifying the upland, Riverine arrangement. The second time was Celestine Omehia who was also upland, Ikwerre to be specific. He lost the argument to Amaechi who is also upland and also Ikwerre. Amaechi has finished as an Ikwerre, meaning that upland has governed for 16 years. For another Ikwerre man to take over from an Ikwerre man is offensive to say the least in a state where there are Ogoni people, Ikwerre people. The Kalabaris are Ijaws. This is another mistake that some people make. Ijaws are the largest ethnic group in Rivers State, because we make up nine and half local government areas of the state. Okrika people are Ijaws, Opobo people are Ijaws, Andoni people are Ijaws, Bonny people are Ijaws; the three Kalabari local government areas are Ijaws and you also have Ijaws in Ahoda. The Ikwerres are about four local government areas, the Ogonis are about three or four local government areas. When you look at it, the Ijaws are larger, but within the Ijaw people, you have the Okrika people, which is where the First Lady comes from, you have the Kalabaris, you have the Bonnys and the Opobos. When we are doing anything politically, we all join as Ijaws, irrespective of which divide you belong. Amaechi as governor has Terre Ikulu as his deputy. He is an Ijaw man. Now, for an Ikwerre man to take over from another Ikwerre man would mean that the Uplanders would have governed for 24years in a state that is Upland and Riverine. That is unfair, especially considering the fact that Ikwerre people would have governed for 16 years in a state that has Ogoni people, Ijaw people, Ekpeye and Egi people, who are also producers of oil and gas. So, when you take a state like Rivers State, which is very much like the Nigerian nation where the north is saying it is their turn and the south saying we must finish our eight years.
My offence primarily is with the PDP. Their constitution says it clearly that there is rotation. What they have done in Rivers State is that there is no rotation and the excuse they are giving is that Wike is fighting Amaechi and that PDP wants to remove APC. Amaechi is one person governing Rivers State and it was not APC that won the elections in Rivers State. The PDP won, but Amaechi crossed over. If they don’t want it, they must find another way of resolving it. But sacrificing the Ijaws in Rivers State for a political party that can go any time does not make sense. Action group came and went, NCNC came and went.
