Tag: Niger-Delta

I still don’t get the argument of those who want me dead, buried and forgotten. For goodness sake, I am only five. I will be six on June 25, if I am not killed by then. I am a child of necessity, whose purpose in life is far from being achieved.

For some time now, I have been attacked by people who feel I am useless. They say I have only been the means for some people to roll on the lap of luxury, enjoy the extravagancies of women of easy virtues and turn champagne to hand-washing liquid. They are quick to add that I have provided easy cash for some men with brawns and no brains.

May be I should go down memory avenue so that you can appreciate my agony. Decades before my birth, the Niger Delta, where Nigeria derives the bulk of its revenue, witnessed agitations. The people expressed unhappiness over the way they were neglected. Their farms were polluted by oil spills. Their streams were taken over by crude oil. Their health worsened. And their existence was seriously threatened.

Close to the year of my birth, the agitation had taken a new twist. Before the deadly twist, Ken Saro-Wiwa had been judicially murdered by the military junta of Gen. Sani Abacha. Several other people had been killed by security operatives under one guise or the other. With intellectual activists like Saro-Wiwa out of the way, another generation of activists took over. This set believes if you make peaceful change impossible, you make violent change inevitable. They also believe it is illegal to be lawful in a lawless environment. So, they took to arms in their quest to prove a point.

In no time, oil pipelines were damaged at a devastating speed. Military boat houses were bombed. Barrels of oil were siphoned.  Oil installations were blown up and oil workers were afraid to go to the rigs and others. The economy bled. The country was losing billions daily.

By that time, the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) had been created. Its mandate was to develop Niger Delta. But, its activities meant nothing to the militants who were set to bring down the country unless the region was given control over its resources. The impact the NDDC could have made was limited by the fact that its dues were not given to it. The statutory payments that should be made to it were withheld by all arms of government. It ran into trillions and all efforts to get the money released for the betterment of the people did not work.

Things were getting worse by the day. They were still in that terrible statewhen the administration of the late Umaru Musa Yar’Adua was inaugurated on May 29, 2007. That the then president was uncomfortable with the state of war in the Niger Delta soon showed. First, he created the Ministry of the Niger Delta. Pronto, the government set up a technical committee to review all existing reports on the region. The committee, headed by ex-President of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), Ledum Mittee, recommended an increase of the derivation fund from 13 per cent to 25 per cent. It also recommended open trial for one of the faces of the arms struggle, Mr Henry Okah who was then in detention in Angola. Another of its recommendation, which led to my birth, is that youths in the region must be disarmed through a credible Decommissioning, Disarmament and Rehabilitation (DDR) process.

The late Yar’Adua knew something urgent must be done to rescue the situation. Aside his love for peace, he also needed to save the country from international embarrassment that the arms struggle had become. By then, there had been reports of militants partaking in piracy activities on the Gulf of Guinea, a development which had seen the governments of Equatorial Guinea and Angola complaining to Yar’Adua at international meetings. Okah, I was told, was mentioned by the two governments as being responsible for the piracy activities against their countries. Okah was a leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), which had claimed responsibility for many of the kidnappings and the attacks on oil facilities in the region.

Fast forward to April 2009, the then president dissolved the board of the NNDC. Timi Alaibe, who was the Managing Director, however, got another job. He was appointed Special Adviser on Niger Delta Affairs. His major job, it turned out, was to midwife the birth of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, which I am.

Two months after Alaibe’s appointment, Yar’Adua breathed life into me. So, I am not wrong if I say that in the beginning I was without form until Yar’Adua said let there be light.

My birth did not immediately bring excitement. Okah’s detention was a major factor for the insurgency’s leadership’s apathy to embrace me. Yar’Adua recruited Chief Tony Anenih, Dr Koripamo Agary and Dr Ferdinand Ikwang, among others, to assure the agitators that he was truthful about not victimizing them after dropping their guns.

Alaibe traversed the creeks persuading hard-line militant leaders to embrace me. He did not do it alone. He got Kingsley Kuku, the Arogbo-born ex-member of the Ondo State House of Assembly, who had worked with him as Special Assistant at the NNDC, to get Government Ekpemupolo (Tompolo), Mujahhid Dokubo-Asari, General Shoot-at-sight and many other leaders of the arms’ struggle to sign up to Yar’Adua’s offer.

Okah, who had by then been repatriated from Angolan and was standing treason trial at the Federal High Court, Jos, was a major issue in the refusal of many militant leaders to accept me. But, because Yar’Adua wanted me to live, he agreed to drop charges against Okah and on July 13, 2009, Okah became a free man. Okah’s release did not go down with many in the military circle and elsewhere and it did not convince some militants leaders to embrace me until hours before the deadline of October 4 set by Yar’Adua for them to accept me as the only alternative to lasting peace in the region and more prosperity to Nigeria.

Between June 25 and October 4, 2009, I am told 20,192 militants embraced me by handing over arms in excess of 20,000. Others who did not hand over their weapons initially because of the fear of the unknown later did before the deadline expired. Even after the deadline’s expiration, 6,166 more people, I understand, associated with me.

Alaibe, who took on the task of managing me as the Chairman of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, left to contest the 2011 governorship in Bayelsa State.  President Goodluck Jonathan saw no one else to continue other than Kuku, the man from the fringe of the Niger Delta, who had worked closely with Alaibe.

Through me, over 30,000 ex-militants have been given a new lease of life. Through me also, not less than 2,000 students are abroad studying for one degree or the other. One of them is 21-year-old Gabriel Odidison, who is majoring in Business and Finance at Marist College in the United States.  There are several others who have been trained as pilots, marine engineers, underwater welders and experts in various oil and gas fields. And thanks to my existence, brazen criminalities that were before me are no more.

I will be the first to accept that no one is perfect. Yes, bunkering still persists. Oil pipelines are still sabotaged and Nigeria still loses a lot to the activities of illegal refineries and the likes. I also understand that some people claim to be ex-militants but are not enjoying the benefits. There are also others who claim that the leaders of their various camps have robbed them of their entitlements.  Still, there are those who feel that the Ijaw have benefitted more. In life, there will always be issues and issues are meant to be resolved but you don’t throw out a baby with the bath water.

Please don’t kill me. You can remold me. You can better me. You can restructure me for enhance performance. Make available more cash for my use. But please let me live and not leave. I am just five and far from achieving my purpose. Killing me may kill the like of Odidison, who are the future of not just the Niger Delta, but Nigeria. So, let me not leave yet.

Guns no longer boom in the Niger Delta as they used to, especially during the time of militancy. Instead of guns and bullets, books appear to be gradually taking over a region hitherto known as a centre of violence.

Like the late Douglas Oronto, an environmentalist, former presidential aide and human rights activist  advocated intellectual dialogue during his earthly voyage, the violent phase of the Niger Delta agitation is systematically being replaced with sound scholarly reasoning.

The region has given birth to literary geniuses who prefer documentation of the troubles in the region in books and demanding equal opportunities from the Nigerian project to preaching violence. So it is with Don’t Die on Wednesday, a literary masterpiece authored by the founder of Yenagoa Book Club, Mr. Michael Afenfia.

Members of the club gathered at the Prof. Steve Azaiki Library in Yenagoa recently to peruse and read aloud from the book which is described as fast-paced, intriguing and suspense-filled. The theme of the book highlights the turbulent waters of marriage, parental responsibility, challenges of raising children and youth restiveness especially among people of the Niger Delta no matter where they reside.

With a plot set partly in the United Kingdom and Nigeria, the author a lover of football, fan of Manchester United FC and Bayelsa United FC used the game of football to tell his story.

The book reviewer, Mrs. Denyefa Ekade, said the narrative is devoid of vagueness and explores the rich and exhilarating world of football which hitherto was an on-screen event.

He said: “The book juxtaposes the lives of a mentor and mentee (Bubaraye and Sese).The former is raised by a single parent, rises to the peak of his career with support from his mother and then suffers a setback at the peak of his career while the latter though raised in a closely knit family receives little or no support in his chosen path, becomes a prodigal son and meets his waterloo at the genesis of this same career.

“Most Niger Delta children face having no relationship with their fathers and the author tactfully brought in this in his book.

“This is a kind of story you would want to tell every teenager. Your parents may not always be right but they definitely want the best for you and giving you the best on their context may not conform with yours. If you bow out angrily, you learn the hard way and the hard way most times isn’t the best way to learn the lessons of life. All of this is found in this book.

“The salient theme is contentment and sacrifice in marriage. Marriage is more about the content than the container. It is more than a pretty face, fame and class.

Don’t die on Wednesday is a book that would make an interesting reading any day, anytime. It cuts across borders and is not gender specific. everyone can read and bask in the euphoria of the captivating storyline, simple and rich diction.

Though a work of fiction, he said the book is as real as a true life story. Beyond highlighting the challenges in the Niger Delta, he said the events, places and names of characters make the book an indigenous work written for an international audience.

According to him, the title explores the inevitability of life’s eventuality. “The title of the novel is like a mother’s cry. It was a plea for that particular Wednesday not to come. The woman in the story would have preferred for that particular Wednesday not to come at all.

“If you read the novel, you will understand why her child shouldn’t die on Wednesday. It is a plea to whatever forces she believes in. The title is a deliberate one,” he said.

He further spoke about the need to revive the dying reading culture in Nigeria and the region in particular. To do this, he advocated building of more libraries, revisiting tariffs on books imported into the country and reduction in prices of books.

“The dream of every author is to see his or her book being read by a wide audience, but what happens when this is not achieved? He queried.

“The reading culture in our society is dead. It can be revived if the interest is there. The Yenagoa Book Club is also helping in this sense. Education is the bedrock of progress in every society.

“The government is really trying in this sector. In fact, a state of emergency was declared in the education sector in Bayelsa. This shows that the government is interested in education.

“We should also have libraries scattered around our communities. Just like we have churches, we should have libraries like that so that people will not have excuses of not going to the library. lets take step to build community libraries.

“I am optimistic that people will read the book. Writers should also go out with their books and let people see it. If you want to encourage people to read, do not make it expensive. The government should make the policy more friendly. Tariff on books coming into the country should be revisited.”

Also, a guest at the book review, Mr. Franklin, aligns his thought with Ekade on the dying reading culture. He said: “The reading culture is declining. Youths are no longer reading. The policy we have on ground now is not for education.

The author advises parents to play crucial roles in helping their children embrace the culture of reading. He said: “Parents should buy their children educational toys, more books, pay attention to their academics, monitor their homework when they get back from school.

“They should have conversations with their teachers, that is the only way they can know how well they are performing at school. Parents should also expose their children early to education, things that will broaden their interests and quest for more knowledge.”

One of the founding members of the club also gives insight into how the activities of the Yenagoa Book Club have encouraged reading.

He said: “Our activities include monthly reading session, annual writers’ conference, literary games, field trips and community service projects.

“The book club was established in February, 2013 shortly after the President Goodluck Jonathan’s ‘bring back the book’ campaign was launched in 2012.

“We saw the ‘bring back the book’ campaign as a dream that must not die and decided to create a platform through which the much needed awareness would be created to keep the campaign alive. And this necessitated the establishment of the club.”

Since the results of the Presidential election were announced with the emergence of the General Muhammadu Buhari, many people have voiced one form of concern or another. In particular, the results took many people by surprise, especially in the South-South and South-East. Although many of them knew that the incumbent President was unpopular, they were expecting that some last minute rigging and manipulative magic could happen that would turn the tide in favour of the ruling party. For me, I knew it long ago that such a thing would be difficult to pull off. Many of us had publicly supported the need for Nigerians to experience a change in government this time around, and told anyone who cared to listen that the re-election of President Jonathan was mathematically impossible. As someone from the Niger Delta region (whether you say oil producing state or NDDC state), I was called all sorts of names being called including, unpatriotic, betrayer, sell-out, traitor and others. Even some of the prominent leaders who promoted other political parties were described the same way. I remained and still remain unmoved. However, as I have done in the past, I am once again forced to ask – what, exactly, is the true Niger-Delta cause? How did we contribute to betray it?

I cannot claim to be an authority on the underlying problems in the region. However, anyone who attempts to reduce the Niger-Delta struggle or cause (whatever that means) to the Jonathan presidency is at best being simplistic and at worst being unfair to the people of the region. With a flashback, I remember the early days of the agitation for resource control which initially crystallised into the symbolic Ogoni Bill of Rights sometime in 1990, and the centrality of environmental concerns to the people of our region in that document. One will not forget the sacrificial role of many persons, including the late Ogoni political activist Ken Saro Wiwa, who brought international attention to the issues at that time.

Then almost eight years later in 1998, representatives of communities of Ijaw extraction met, re-echoed and amplified the same issues of neglect, environmental devastation and resource control raised earlier and agreed to the Kaiama Declaration. The Declaration called for increased infrastructural attention to the people and ecological rehabilitation of the region. Those were the two issues uppermost on the agenda at that time. In between these years, many of leaders were actively involved and made important contributions to keep the issue on the front burner, both locally and internationally. Others paid with their lives in many peaceful protests and non-violent struggles against the military and the high-handedness of multinational corporations.

Put together, the period of the Ogoni Bill of Rights and the Kaiama Declaration still represents the most intellectual and non-violent phase of the struggle. This was before the ‘struggle’ was hijacked by miscreants, criminals and conflict entrepreneurs in the name of armed struggle and militancy. Given the descent into nearly absolute anarchy, which grossly affected, in the negative, on the economies of the various producing states witnessed under this era, it remains debatable whether this phase of the struggle was really worth the while. Many observers agree that this era of the struggle, despite its “nuisance value” of further escalating the message about the plight of the Niger-Delta people, remains the darkest days of the struggle. This era is characterised by increased oil theft, rape and kidnapping-for-ransom (in many cases of the same Niger-Delta people whose interests the militants claim to be protecting or furthering), and by disruption of oil installation and production.

One must admit that the Obasanjo administration gave some attention to the people of the region by establishing the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC). Subsequently, the late Yar Adua extended an amnesty to the militants, which led to the cessation of the escalating conflict and hostilities.

What about our own son? With the emergence of Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. First as Vice President and later as President, the Niger-Delta people heaved a sigh of relief. While the outgoing President could be said to be one of the biggest beneficiaries of the struggle, he could not do much. Many people who took it for granted that the issues of the region would be given priority attention under him, are now completely disappointed. After almost six years of the Jonathan Presidency, the same issues contained in the Ogoni Bill of Rights and the Kaiama Declaration still persist. During his campaigns a few weeks ago, he claimed that he deliberately did not give attention to the region until he is re-elected. Is that a sufficient explanation for the neglect? Now that he has lost the election, what are the options open to the Niger-Delta people?

As I write, the most important road in the region, the East-West Road is yet to be completed. The coastal road project is still a pipe dream. No concrete effort has been made to clean up the heavily polluted communities in Ogoniland or elsewhere in the Niger-Delta. Even with the effort of the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP), which published a comprehensive report with clear recommendations. The proposed clean-up programme mas marred by selfish politics, and the US$1 billion counterpart fund reportedly provided by Shell and other partners has not been utilised. The reluctant establishment of the Hydrocarbon Pollution Restoration Project (HYPREP) was staffed with incompetent people and starved of operational funds. The consequence is that no clean-up activity has taken place to date. Not in Ogoniland and not anywhere else.

It is sad to recall that there were sons and daughters of the Niger-Delta like Chief Edwin Clarke, Mr Kingsley Kuku and even Ken Wiwa Jnr. that became cheerleaders for the President, but hardly pointed him in the right direction. I remember that Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State once raised alarm about the danger in continuous neglect of the East-West road. He was later confronted by the then Minister of the Niger-Delta, Elder Godsday Orubebe who quickly branded the governor a betrayer of the Niger-Delta cause. Now, which cause was Orubebe referring to? The one that has brought public resources into the pockets of the few to the detriment of many?

Now that the Jonathan administration is coming to an end, it is safe for observers try to find out who are the real betrayers of the Niger Delta struggle. Is it President Jonathan, the chief beneficiary of the struggle, who neglected the region for almost six years? Or is it people like Edwin Clark, Godsday Orubebe, and Government Ekpumepulo aka Tompolo, Ateke Tom, Asari Dokubo, Ann Kio Briggs, and others, that benefitted from the neglect? Or is it Mrs. Patience Jonathan who made NDDC a personal farmland (or is it fishing port or Bori-Kiri) rather than an interventionist agency operating in the general interest of the people in line with its mandate? Or Governor Godswill Akpabio who knew where the President was headed yet kept cheering him? Or others like Governor Amaechi and Senator Magnus Abe who kept raising concerns about the issues of non-development of the Niger-Delta and warned about the unpleasant consequences? Or is it a few of us citizens that believe in change and managed to vote for General Buhari and his All Progressives Congress amidst intimidation?

Having lost the Presidency from the region, we know that our problems may likely persist, because we no longer have the morality to complain about marginalisation and neglect to other Nigerians. Everyone assumed that President Jonathan had all the time in the world to attend to our teething problems, but he refused, failed, and/or neglected to do so, preferring instead to pursue and advance his personal ambitions.

Many argue that if the outgoing president had spent half the energy and zeal that he exerted in the pursuit of his re-election bid in the pursuit of the Niger Delta cause, the Niger Delta would have been an El Dorado. Here we are with gaseous and often carcinogenic hydrocarbons still being flared all over the region, with the Petroleum Industry Bill still pending, our ecosystem still heavily polluted, and our people inexplicably impoverished.

So back to the question – who are the real betrayers of the Niger Delta people? We must take an excursion into history and set the records straight for our children and the coming generations. We must answer that question for the sake of posterity. In so doing, we must be truthful to ourselves. We have been, thus far, untruthful and hypocritical to ourselves. We elevated sycophancy to the next level and, in the process, missed yet another opportunity to move our region forward. It will be self-destructive to turn around now to continue to blame others for our misfortunes, for the heavens help only those who help themselves.

•Igwe wrote from the Department of Politics at the University of Sussex.