Introduction
If by modernism we mean an organised system of economy, then pre-colonial Ijaws were modern with social hierarchy. Manilas, Bars, Coppers Crows and the Trust system of trading served as currencies for local and international exchanges. Diplomatic and trade treaties between Ijaw monarchs and Europe protected their interests; just as Ijaw trading houses maintained middle man position between the coast and hinterland.
Littoral City-States of Andoni, Nembe, Bonny, Opobo and New Calabar enjoyed comparative advantage in shipping. Into their ports sailed in supercargoes like HMS Forester Esperenza, HMS Scout Gala, HMS Bonett Temperario and HMS Buzzard Atalay, just to note a few. This was the golden era of Ijaw civilization made possible by a bourgeoning maritime sector.
But the unhealthy rivalries among Ijaw kingdoms provoked countless wars. In what Ian Morris called paradox of development, the same rivalries that pitted one state against its neighbor had the unintended consequences of promoting individual creativity within each kingdom. Instant and just reward for industry galvanised the entire society into one efficient machine. The king got his royalties imposed on foreign vessels. The chiefs collected their Topping that served as export/import tax. Foreign traders made their monster profits and labourers their wages.
In “Oil Rivers is Coming to Limelight,” Harold Dappa-Biriye profiled a Bonny in transition from a slave-based economy to one in palm oil, “In this transitional period say up to about 1840 the average annual (tonnage) of British ships visiting Bonny Rivers was 9,540 and the annual value of goods imported to Bonny was 238,000 pounds. The annual quantity of palm oil exported from Bonny to England was 14,200 ton(s) and the duty derived by the British Government on palm oil from Bonny was 18,150 sterling.”
British colonialism brought all that to a brutal end leaving Ijaws reeling from unemployment. The royalties paid Ijaw monarchs by foreign vessels were abolished by the British and a stipend called Comey was strained out to them instead. Even this Comey was almost abolished in 1955 by the Eastern Region House of Assembly when a bill to that effect was tabled.
By 1900 three things happened in Ijawland. One, the British prohibited Ijaw monarchs and trading houses from exporting directly to Europe. Two, Ijaw ports of Twon Brass, Akasa, Age and Bonny were starved of business, and subsequently collapsed, in favour of the newly built Port Harcourt seaport. And three, mass poverty occasioned by the above factors triggered an Ijaw exodus hinterland. The budding train station towns of Aba, Umuahia, Afikpo and Enugu played hosts to migrating Ijaws.
For instance, the Finima-born ace pilot bothers, Bara and Ibikare Allwell-Brown, grew up in Aba where their father was a big time importer. The Brown family were skippers who steered foreign vessels into the Bonny port. When this port became redundant they migrated. Ijaws entered colonial Nigeria as losers but this cannot be said of other tribes whom colonialism liberated from Ijaw monopoly.
The striking of petroleum in Ijawland in 1958 did not bring Ijaws prosperity. Apart from resuscitating the lone port of Bonny used for crude and gas export, very little in terms of development is registered in the more than sixty years of oil economy. But the brief administration of Commander Alfred Diete-Spiff gave Ijawlanda spell of economic prosperity. The Waterlines logistics, Superbod conglomerates and a brand new capital were built and put in place.
However, with the overthrow of Commander Diete-Spiff in 1975, Ijawland relapsed once more into inertia as non-Ijaw military governors were posted to man balkanized Ijaw territories. With the world thinking beyond petroleum to sustainable energy, one is forgiven concluding that 20th Century Ijawland only provided the energy that fired the world industries without developing its own industry.
The point is, pre-colonial Ijaws rose to greatness on the strength of a Blue Economy by other names called. It was the destruction of this economy by colonial predatoriness that marked the end of a lofty golden era. Southern Protectorate, amalgamation, Regionalism, independence, military intervention, Land Use Act of 1978, etc, all had a hand in the destruction of this indigenous economy traceable to 1464 when Portuguese sailors first made contact.
Ndutimi Alaibe, governorship aspirant for the Ijaw state of Bayelsa, anchors his manifesto on a Blue Ocean Economy favoured by the United Nations, UN, Commonwealth of Nations and World Bank. If we agree that Alaibe’s forebears like Kings Perekule of Bonny, Jaja of Opobo and Koko of Nembe, used the same Blue Economy to menace Europe that resorted to kidnappings and assassinations, then what we might be seeing could be a continuity in an area where Ijaws have comparative advantage.
What is Blue Ocean Economy?
Alaibe’s Blue Ocean Economy is the same thing as the World Bank Blue Economy. It is a new concept that encourages wealth creation through the exploitation of maritime and marine resources like shipping, commercial fishing, oil, gas and mineral mining without destroying the coast, seabed, marine life and the sea itself.
Lee Kuan Yew’s Singapore, Deng Xiaoping’s China and Mohammed bin Rashid Al Muktoum’s Dubai are the flagship of this economic model. The amazing stories of these countries inspired supranational bodies to rethink how developing nations can create wealth from the sea in the absence of scarce dollar, land mass and cutting-edge technology.
Ijawland is rich in ocean resources. Alaibe hopes to pick the same Chain of Energies fashioned by precolonial Ijaws to create wealth for everyone. That is why commentators see his economic blueprint as nothing short of economic nationalism. By the time he added sixty berths to the deep ports of Age, Twon Brass and Akasa and made them economic free zones, Apapa and Tincan would be left with the crumbs in shipping and maritime activities.
Alaibe is creative in his definition of the maritime. He privileges commercial fishing because his people are descendants of ancient mariners. To this end, large and medium size fishing trawlers would be procured for deep sea fishing. The multiplier effects of this would create thousands of jobs in the supply chain. His preference for Age as fishing and marine engineering terminal may not be unconnected with his drive for self-reliance in non-military technology.
Professor Turner Isoun’s inaugural lecture at the University of Africa, Toru-Orua, UAT, makes a lot of sense to Alaibe. Nigerian universities must go beyond their traditional role of research and teaching to production and commerce. Alaibe’s vision is for the UAT, Niger Delta University, NDU, Bayelsa State College of Health Technology, etc, to have functional industries. A university that manufactures veterinary medicine, for instance, will rely less on government for funds.
In “The Twelve Day Revolution,” the chemist called Isaac Jasper Boro said that the sand in Ijawland was full of silicon used in the making of glass. He died without putting his findings to practical use. Alaibe hopes to use the same silicon in manufacturing solar panels for renewable energy. Bayelsa can attain self-reliance in energy if the panels are produced locally. Steady and cheap energy will stimulate tourism and development.
The 1959 World Bank report stated that the Niger Delta could feed Africa with wetland rice. Dr. Lawrence Baraebibai Ekpebu, Commander Diete-Spiff’s Commissioner for Finance, tried to implement this report when he conceived the East-West Road as a way of opening up the Ijaw country for commercial rice farming. The road was built but no rice was farmed considering the abrupt manner the Rivers First Eleven left office. In collaboration with the World Bank, African Development Bank and World Food Programme, Alaibe hopes to turn flood-prone Bayelsa into a food basket.
Managing waste, dredging of creeks to attain draft depth, and the building of trunks roads connecting Bayelsan seaports and airport with Yenagoa are integral to his modernisation drive. Alaibe’s hopes to create favourable conditions for anyone, Ijaw or non-Ijaw, to start a business in Bayelsa and make profit. He counts strongly on Diasporan Ijaws to lead as investors.
Alaibe’s ways and means
Alaibe’s exploration, exploitation and utilisation of the natural resources of the sea and its sub-soil could bring him into direct confrontation with the Federal Government and even powerful Western nations. The sea is mankind’s rich frontier and the scramble for its wealth has caused countless wars.
In ‘Africa and the International Political System,’ Lawrence Baraebibai Ekpebu talks about the mounting tensions between nations prompting the United Nations Conference on Law of the Sea, UNCLOS, “However, against Post World War II background of heavier sea traffic arising from faster and more destructive war ships and submarines as well as quickly multiplying merchant navies, exhaustion of fish and other sea foods in the wake of increasing demand by increasing populations, growing awareness of the riches of the sea and its bed by advances in modern technology; and fearful of the consequences for world peace of possible international clashes that might arise from the above considerations, the United Nations International Law Commission which was establish by the General Assembly through its resolution No 174 of 1947 took an immediate interest in the development of an acceptable regime of the sea. UNCLOSES I, II and III developed out of that interest and concern.”
UNCLOSES I, II and III have not stopped the tensions between China, Japan and other South Asian countries over the ownership of some disputed islands in the South China Sea. America and Israel are also locked in a deadly struggle with Iran in the Strait of Hormuz. Critics ask: What would Alaibe do if the Federal Government through the instrumentality of the proposed Water Bill claims half of Yenagoa, Age, Twon Brass, Nembe, Akasa or even his own village of Igbainwari in Opokuma? That would be the end of his Blue Ocean Economy that relies heavily on Bayelsa-owned ports.
But Alaibe is optimistic of success without colliding with the controlling centre or foreign powers. He has a sound understanding of the tenets of local and international instruments governing Nigerian waterways and international waters. For him, Bayelsa had right over 12 nautical miles and an additional Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of 200 miles of its waters. The Nigerian state and UN must understand that as a people, Ijaws relied on their land, creeks, rivers and the Atlantic Ocean to survive. Taking away these sources of livelihood was genocide to be resisted, rest assured. He is confident of creating wealth from the sea without conflict.
CHIGACHI EKE
EKE: Email: [email protected]
