त्रिविअलिसिंग थे नाइजर DELTA DEMANDS

TONY ITA ETIM

TRIVIALISING THE NIGER DELTA DEMANDS

In recent times, there have been provocative statements from politicians, groups and people of parts of Northern Nigeria in reaction to the agitation in the Niger Delta region. The Secretary to the Federation, Ambassador Babagana Kingibe obviously fired the first salvo when he, at a conference organized by the Nigeria Bar Association and the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) accused Niger Delta leaders of mismanaging funds meant for the development of the region. His accusation has now become a refrain for all the Northerners.

When Kingibe laid his accusation in Port Harcourt, the capital of Nigerian oil and gas industry, I said then in this column that his was the opinion of the Northern oligarchy and recent utterances by people of Arewa stock have confirmed this opinion. They are now shifting the blame to Niger Delta leaders in order to cause disaffection between these leaders and the people in a bid to weaken the agitation. About N50 billion is to be spent on the construction of a boulevard in Abuja and I ask, where is that money coming from? While a paltry N79 billion is the budget for NDDC. How can they develop the region with such meager amount, taking into consideration the difficult and peculiar terrain of the area and the amount of work to be done?

It is surprising that it is people from the North that are talking about mismanagement of fund. For about 48 years since Nigerian Independence, except for General Olusegun Obasanjo’s eight years as President and his earlier passage as a military head of state and the interim administration of Chief Ernest Shonekan, the North have been in power for a longer time and see what they have done to Nigeria. Politics or power is all about the allocation of resources - who takes what, how and when, according to Laswell. How much has come to Nigeria since the exploitation of oil started in commercial quantity in June 1956 and how much has been allocated to the development of the delta region. I don’t believe in labeling people or judging them because of where they come from but the North have produced more, in fact internationally infamous and, corrupt leaders than any part of the country. Politicians from Arewa stock have elevated corruption to an art and instrument of governance. All the retired generals, civil servants who are today billionaires should tell us how and when they made their money. They have stolen the nation’s resources so much that any suggestion of reducing what comes into the nation’s coffers frightens them stiff as they are afraid that they may not have enough to steal. This does not mean that Niger Delta leaders are immune to corruption. NO! They are thieves, damned thieves. They steal our money and abuse our trust in them.

The Northern politicians and federal civil servants are the wasters of the nation’s resources. They wasted our international goodwill. They wasted our political fortune and today we are stunted politically. They looted and wasted our resources and today we, 90 per cent of Nigerians, are living in abject poverty in the midst of plenty. The deprived poor only see or hear about the nation’s wealth but cannot enjoy it. Our universities are now glorified secondary schools. The public school system that produces our leaders is near extinction. Teachers are on strike nationwide. The power sector is in crisis, on the brink of collapsing. Our public health facilities are today clearing houses for the dead, who make a stopover before they died as they cannot afford treatment abroad or exorbitant fees of private hospitals.

Nigeria is today a failed state because of years of misrule and miss-governance by Arewa people. For five decades they have wasted our oil resources and now they want to pass the buck of their failure on hapless political leaders from the Niger Delta. In all honesty, allocation to the region merely improved in the last eight years out of 50 years of oil wealth. What magic can the leaders do in eight years to revert a neglect of five decades? If the Niger Delta people should ask their leaders to account for allocations from federation account to the region, please can our Northern leaders give us an account of their leadership of the country in the past 48 years and what they have done with oil revenues for the past five decades? Can they tell us why our power situation is getting worse daily despite the huge amount spent on it? Can they tell us what has happened to the federal institutions across the nation? Can the Northerners show us one northern state that can be used as a model for other parts of the country and Africa to copy from?

I can still remember one of the Vice-Principals at the Government Secondary School, Koko in Koko Besse Local Government Area of Kebbi state during my National Youth Service Corps year begging us (youth corpers from the South) to go back home and join politics and the federal service. According to the Mallam, there is no hope for Nigeria and there will be no progress and development (social, political and economical) as long as people from the North are in control of the federal civil service and the political system. That only Southerners could salvage the country from mismanagement and miss-governance. The Mallam, who had his first and second degrees in one of the universities in the South West, was of the view that the Northern elites by their orientation are anti-people and would never do anything that promotes the interest of the commonwealth. In short, they are anti development. This is a verdict by a true son of Arewa, of the Hausa/Fulani stock, though a patriotic Nigerian who wishes the nation well.

Another laughable remark is one that when the North had groundnut pyramids and the West cocoa, Niger Delta people shared in the revenues from these resources. But they deliberately choose to ignore the truth as well that palm produce was produced by the people of Niger Delta during that period. This is an indication of how daft those who hold this opinion are, they have little or no knowledge of Nigeria and why the Northern and Southern protectorates were amalgamated to form what is now known as Nigeria. The reason for the amalgamation was simple, the Northern economy could not sustain the colonial administration in the North and the burden was passed to the Southern protectorate, a burden which we still bear till date.

Let it be known that God in his infinite wisdom knew what it would have been the fate of the Niger Delta if there were no resources in the region. During and after the colonial era the Niger Delta exported palm and rubber produce to Europe and earned foreign exchange for the country. And also for over 500 years now the region has been involved in international trade with other parts of the world. So we have never been dependent on any part of Nigeria for our economic sustenance. In this business call Nigeria the Niger Delta has been a financial member and not a silent partner. I can point to infrastructures and facilities that oil money from the Niger Delta region were and are still being used to establish them in the North and ask my Northern brothers to show what their groundnut revenue was used for in the Niger Delta region.

Our brothers have even argued that the petroleum resources in the Niger Delta are from centuries of accumulated debris that flowed through River Niger in the North down to the Niger Delta. One will not argue this one but will they accept that the environmental degradation in the region should be blamed on the North because the debris came and is coming from there. If this argument is accepted as they want us to do, do they share in the negative environmental, climatic impact of oil exploration and exploitation as they share in the oil wealth? Let the truth be told if the oil was found in the North, resources control would be 100 per cent. There would have been strict implementation of fiscal federalism in Nigeria. Others states without oil would have been admonished to look inward and use what the have to develop their areas. Employment and appointment in the federal civil service and other parastatals would have been strictly on the basis of a state contribution into the national coffers. Employment in the oil industry and allocation of oil blocks would have been strictly for people from the oil bearing states. Even some political positions would have been reserved for states and regions that contribute more to the federation account. The country would have been run like a business venture where the core investors dictate what and what should be done, simply “no contribution no chop.” It is the oil from the Niger Delta that is uniting us, it is the lubricating factor. Take away the oil and it would be “to your tent oh Nigeria.”

But we have always been liberal and accommodating while Southerners are killed in the North at every slightest opportunity, Arewa people and even their cousins from Niger and Sudan are everywhere in the Niger Delta, unmolested. When Southerners are killed in the North it is attributed to street urchins but no leader of the Arewa stock has come out to condemn these unprovoked attacks. They hide under religion to discriminate against other Nigerians only to turn around and sue for peace when they are at the receiving end. We are willing to continue in sharing our resources with all Nigerians, though tribe and tongue may differ but we want 50 per cent derivation. Whenever we remember Oloibiri, that cradle of oil exploitation in Nigeria, we shiver at that thought of what may befall us if the oil dries off without infrastructural development of our region and empowering our people. We need development whether from NDDC or federal government: give us roads, bridges, potable water, good schools, give us oil blocks among others. You can’t beat a child and stop him from crying, you cannot deprive us of what belong to us and we would not agitate for our rights. Give us development and there will be peace. Expect no peace without justice. We love peace, we love Nigeria but our struggle continues until we get what we want. We shall not be cow or intimidate to keep quiet. God bless Nigeria.