‘Development of Niger Delta is our utmost need’

Well, if you look at what is happening very well, you will discover that the amnesty programme, managed by Kingsley Kuku, was not meant for Ijaw people alone. The Ijaws are the majority tribe among the tribes in the Niger Delta that are enjoying the amnesty programme. We are also aware of the monumental fraud that was going on in the programme. But I don’t think that is enough reason to reduce the budget to the level it has been reduced to now. As a budget, they are supposed to look at the needs of the programme and the desire to ameliorate the suffering of the Niger Delta people. You will agree with me that if you go down to the Niger Delta, there is nothing to write home about. And the fact that they pay stipend of N65,000 to some few youths is not the kind of development the Ijaw people want; instead, they are reducing the budget. Because if you look at it from the aggregate, what is allocated to the amnesty programme compared to the general budget is too small. What the Ijaws and the Niger Delta people need in particular, is the development of the area and the amnesty programme is supposed to focus on that development. So, if you look at it holistically, the reduction of the budget of the amnesty programme is not in the interest of the Federal Government, nor is it in the interest of the people of the Niger Delta. For me, if it is a mistake or misdirection, the president should look at it again. If you talk of other programmes that affect the Ijaw people, the proposed or alleged cancellation of the Maritime University coupled with the fact that the initiator of the university, who we know was going to get a licence anyway, like E.K. Clark did from Goodluck Jonathan to run that university, but was made to forget about his idea of a university and hand it over to the Federal Government, being made the subject of investigation. We are not saying that people who commit crime or who are corrupt should not be dealt with, but the way the government is going about the Tompolo issue is as if he is being targeted as an individual because of his role in the Goodluck Jonathan government. Not just because he got money from the government to do anything, but because of the influence he had and that is not how to go about fighting corruption. If you look generally, Akpobolokemi is a victim of that kind of approach. Yes, you can tell me that Dasuki is being held, but me I see that one as a personal vendetta on the antecedent of Dasuki and Buhari. So, the best thing is if they want Tompolo they should invite him because what we read from the papers, they just did not invite him and the next thing was that he should appear in court. In our system, you first investigate before you decide. I don’t know why, in the case of Dasuki, it took so many days for them to investigate before they finally went to court while in the case of Tompolo, it is court first, then investigation. They should not make Ijaw people to feel marginalised because the way I am seeing it, it is because we are a minority. So what we were suffering before is what people are using Buhari to want to achieve. And it is not in the best interest of stakeholders. Tompolo should be handled like every other person that they are investigating. And if it is found out that he misappropriated money or he is corrupt, he should be dealt with like the others too. But he should not be made to look like, because he is an ex-militant and because he had contract that was military-related or maritime-related and otherwise, that should not be enough reason to make him look like a non-Nigerian. He is a Nigerian. And as a Nigerian, the laws of the land should be applied to him.

As far as I am concerned, he is saying that he is being witch hunted because he didn’t join APC. He is neither here nor there. He should have told us who told him to join APC, and at what time, and from where. Because there are others who are facing allegations like he is facing. I don’t believe that anybody will say unless you join APC, that they will make life uncomfortable for you. But if it true, he should tell us who they are and where and how they approached him so that we will know how to confront them or talk to them. I see that statement be as a face saving device, to get the sympathy of Ijaw people.

Looking at the issue of the reduction of the budget of the amnesty programme, you are beginning to see the effects right now. Because there are some boys that thought that, at least, they will still be accommodated, who have been hoping. Some of them are in court, boys that dropped their arms, who hoped that they will be assimilated into this programme. And of course, I am not losing sight of the fact that about 17000 ex-militants dropped their guns in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State about two or three weeks ago. They were incorporated into the amnesty programme. And the money for the programme was reduced by about 60 percent. So, what are we talking about? You can hear of the bombings in places like Brass, in Delta State. The boys are becoming restless because it is dawning on them that this reduction in the amnesty budget, they are not likely to be accommodated again in the programme. So, soon, the Federal Government talks of having sophisticated surveillance of the pipelines, but these are boys whose situation is hopeless. Some of them will tell you that even if they die, it is better than how they are living now; they don’t care about dying. So, in the not too distant future, if things continue the way we are going now, the government should be prepared for another round of militancy. Because, so long as the environment is not conducive for the young men, they will always fight, especially, when the pipelines are just at their backyards. They do not need to do much to burst any pipeline. We agree that it is not good for our economy, but these are boys who don’t know economy, they don’t understand all the grammar, English Language we speak. What they know is that this thing is here and if they destroy it the Federal Government will know that they are active, that is just their motive. This budget issue can lead to lots of things; in fact, it will lead to the resurgence of arms struggle. The Federal Government should look at it very well. Most people that tell us that these things are economic sabotage, that they are going to deal with the boys, they don’t stay in the creeks. These boys are in the creeks in their villages and the only way is to make sure that through the amnesty programme the get a better deal. There is a Niger Delta Ministry, but the boys in the creeks don’t know those ones. They don’t believe that they are doing anything, and really we don’t see them doing anything. What they know is the amnesty programme, and it is a pity that this reduction in the budget, the elites of the Niger Delta decided to keep quiet. Nobody is doing anything about it. But, if you look at it very well, it is the elites that are suffering it. For example, this is February and January allowances have not been paid. Why do you think that kidnapping is now becoming rampant in places like Bayelsa, Delta, Rivers, and so on? It is because the boys are hungry. These same beneficiaries of the amnesty programme don’t get their money. And the easiest way they know how to make money is to kidnap their fellows, the elites. But those that have money in the Niger Delta, as far as they keep quiet, it is gradual: this is the way it started the other time. Now, it is coming back that way. People are not comfortable in their houses again because they know that if they have little money, they are after you. The time their payment was regular, it was not like that. If you want to look at statistics, look, the time these boys just went for training, the time when they were enjoying the dividends of the amnesty programme, kidnapping, armed robbery, all those things were less particularly in Delta, Bayelsa and Rivers. So, we don’t need a soothsayer, it is not because Goodluck Jonathan is no longer president and that the man that is there now is not an Ijaw man; it is because the boys are hungry, they have this feeling that enough is not being given to them.

Well, if you are talking from the Ijaw perspective, as at today, the Ijaw man does not have any voice. Which INC are you talking about? For me, I don’t know the role of INC in the Ijaw struggle again. In fact, the INC has been factionalised because of the personal ambitions of few of the leaders and money. That is not the INC we used to belong to. This is not surprising because at the time of Goodluck Jonathan, the INC leadership was looking for ways of getting money from the leadership of the country, so it has been politicized to such an extent that even now that Buhari is there, the INC dares not say anything for fear. So, it is not out of anything but greed that the elite of Ijaw land cannot talk, particularly the Ijaw National Congress. If you talk of Ijaw Youth Council, you know youths as they are, the leadership will always make youthful statements. And it is a pity that they do not have the clout for people to listen to them because they’ve not done anything significant as Ijaw youths to make others realise that they’re fighting a course, and a course that is just for the Ijaw youths. At the end of the day you see that there is no Ijaw voice at all. If you’re talking of INC and IYC, I can also refer you to a body that calls itself Ijaw Okosu whatever, and if you look at their pedigree, the things they write on the pages of newspapers, you can say that the people are just seeking attention, so that they will be carried along in the Nigerian context. There is no group, there is no body that is articulating and that is making a case for Ijaw land in Nigeria now. I say it boldly.

When I was in the secondary school, I remember there used to be a rice project at Peremabiri and the communities around there. The Niger Delta and in particular, the Ijaw land has a lot of potential in agriculture. We see the Federal Government talking about reviving agriculture and so on and so forth, but I don’t see anybody talking about reviving Peremabiri rice project or establishing even bigger projects in Ijaw land when, of course, the topography is such that agriculture will thrive very well. Those are the things we should look at; how to make agriculture work in Ijaw land. We hear about a lot of money that has gone into the development of the Niger Delta, but we don’t see anything. It is our fault, the fault of our leaders. At the time former president Goodluck Jonathan was in power, he could have done a lot for the Niger Delta where he is from. The coastal road is a road he could have given priority and could have been done by now. Seriake Dickson has done a road to Nembe, going to Brass, but the Federal Government road from Etegwe to Ogbia, there is nothing to write home about. And the ports they said they were going to develop, the modular refineries or green field refineries: I saw that they cleared land somewhere in Oloibiri. That is the only thing I know about the refinery project. If these projects are developed or the Federal Government can be good enough to tell the people that collected our money that they were going to do those things to return them, we use the money to develop the projects. In fact, on paper, Goodluck Jonathan said he was going to do a lot and the projects were known, those are things that if they were done, the Ijaw land would have been a good place for the youths and the old. So, it’s not a matter of taking new feasibility studies. There are projects that have been identified that can keep our youths in the villages. Money was provided for some of them; let us look for the people that are holding the money and recover them, like the case of Dasuki. Let us recover them and use them before we start asking for the president, that ‘Oga’, we too, we are not far better than the northeast even though Boko Haram is doing a lot there. That, at least, carries us along. But when our brothers and sisters who were ministers and so on have used the money to build mansions and others, and we keep quiet, then we won’t make any progress. The progress as I am saying is not far-fetched; let those that have embezzled NDDC money bring it, those from Niger Delta Ministry, let’s have it. The East-West Road is a money conduit for anybody that has opportunity from this area. We know how much they were going to pay to land owners to acquire the lands and how much they paid. We also know how much they said they have spent, and we also know how we are managing that road due to lack of progress in its construction. We have to face reality, and that reality is that people should return the money they have taken and let us start from there. Then we can tell the Federal Government to treat us like the northeast, because from the way the country is structured and the reality on ground, it is now considered that we have enjoyed everything we should under former President Goodluck Jonathan, that we should go back to the position we were before Obasanjo. It is unfortunate, it is not supposed to be like that; even if the price of the crude oil has gone down, the crude oil is still coming from this place with the attendant suffering of environmental degradation and so on. So, that is the best way we should approach it. We should not be seen as though Goodluck was president and they have enjoyed everything they are entitled to. That is a very wrong reasoning.

Not just constitutional obligations or statutory obligations to the Niger Delta, they have failed morally, their moral obligation to the people. The obligation to provide for majority of Niger Deltans the basic needs of life, they have failed woefully. Rather, everybody that has been there was concerned with how much he put into his pocket. You can see a lot of uncompleted projects by NDDC. Why not build particular projects, complete them before going into other ones? NDDC and the Niger Delta Ministry are for contracts for the boys and babes, and of course to be a boy and babe you have to be connected politically to some people or otherwise, by blood. So, the result was that the common wealth went into the pocket of few people who frittered our wealth away, to the detriment of the ordinary man. The money they stole, you can’t see them build good houses with it in their communities, most of the abandoned houses in Abuja that they are looking for the owners of, many of them are owned by Niger Delta people of NDDC and Niger Delta Ministry and those who were lackeys in the time of the former President Goodluck Jonathan. That is the reason why it is difficult for the Federal Government to look for the owners of those houses in Abuja. If it had been money meant for projects in the north or west that were used in acquiring those houses, you will see they will go after them. Since this corruption matter started, where have you heard anybody being arrested for embezzling Niger Delta money?

My take on this is what have they done with the money that was given to them? Yes, it is a different thing that their statutory allocations were not given to them for several years. There were short payments and so on, but what have they done with the ones they received? Our struggle should be that they should show us what they have done with the ones they received, then the Federal Government should give them the remainder because it is statutory. Yes, give them the ones that they did not pay all these years, they know the amount. We are not asking for a favour, we are asking for our rights. And we are asking for what we are entitled to. So, help us recover those ones that people have stolen, then give us the backlog of the ones that the law says should be paid to us that have not been paid. Is it forbidden for us to have a rail system in the Niger Delta? Is it forbidden for us to have a university in Okerenkoko? Can’t the Niger Delta framework take care of projects like that? We don’t need to beg a super minister or anybody – the resources of the Niger Delta, even with the dwindling price of crude oil, is still enough to do enough for the region. If the coastal road was started, and if we are sincere to ourselves, it would have gone far by now. The East-West Road, you know, there is like a mafia that has said this one will not come to fruition. Until we find a leader that will deal with that mafia for us, and conquer them, it will continue to be on and off like it has been. There was a time people used to say that East-West Road from Warri to Yenagoa is now very good. At that time I was telling them that you are looking at it as good because you don’t know what it is intended to be. But now, it has gone bad and even worse than before. While the quality of the road is suspect and, of course, the politics of the road is not ordinary, so, we have to go back to the drawing board and decide to make the Niger Delta independent. In the sense of, at least, we should be able – like it it’s being done to the North-East now. In fact, if there is any Christian development bank somewhere, we should be able to go there and get loans as the Northern states or the Federal Government is trying to get money from the Islamic Bank, to do the things we need to do. We are not second class citizens, we are Nigerians too, we are human beings like every other person. Why are we being treated differently?

Yes, if you look at it properly, it seems like before coming to power, President Muhammadu Buhari had a grudge, scores to settle with the Ijaw people in particular and former president Goodluck Jonathan. And that agenda, he is not hiding it at all. I don’t think that there is any other ethnic group that has been vilified or that has been harassed as much as this government has harassed Ijaw people. And,unfortunately, the Ijaw people are very few. Even those that were with President Goodluck Jonathan, very few. In fact, it is as if President Muhammadu Buhari became president for the sole purpose of dismantling or destroying any gain that the Ijaw man has gotten from Nigeria. And that approach is not good for him, and it is not good for Ijaw people too.

As a people, even though President Muhammadu Buhari has shown that he does not want to be our friend, he is in government; so, we should support his government. And make him to understand that at all times we should be treated like all other Nigerians. It is now in the place of Ijaw people to redirect the way we reason. We have shown the country and the world through Goodluck Jonathan and by the way he ruled this country that we are good people. And the world also see us as not just good people but good and careless people. So, it is now in the place of the Ijaw people to rally round, forget about the personal riches and all of that, put the Ijaw course at the forefront and rearrange ourselves to a level better than the way the Ijaw National Congress was before Goodluck Jonathan became president of the country, so that we will be able to articulate the Ijaw position in such a manner that others will listen to us, cooperate with us in this our controversial contraption called Nigeria.