by snailspeed NairaLand
It is pertinent to put the records straight on the current
agitations of the Niger Delta so that we do not deviate from the issues as
usual and continue to pursue meaningless shenanigans and circus shows.
In the last few days, we have had the media awash with news
that the President is launching the Ogoni cleanup exercise. This has been
celebrated with the usual photo ops and selfies for which this administration,
in the last one year, is well known. But amidst all this Nollywood drama, we
must not lose track of the clear agitations of the Niger Delta people.
Irrespective of who is talking in the press, whether it is
Tompolo or the FG or state Governors, no one can change the genuine agitations
of this region that has spanned over four decades and no one can trade it off
with a morsel of political meal. First, Let us state here clearly what the
agitations are not.
1. The agitation is not the cleanup of Ogoni land
2. The agitation is not paying of salaries to militants
3. The agitations is not pipeline protection contracts
4. The agitation is not NDDC
5. The agitation is not even government positions
The agitation is and will continue to be the non-negotiable
restructuring of Nigeria that returns the country back to full resource control
by the regions. There must be a complete change of the status quo. Any other
action or option is only going to postpone the peace and tranquility of the
Niger Delta and as we can see from the happenings in recent times, the peace of
the entire nation.
You cannot have a status quo where some persons, all the way
from Zamfara or Kano or Adamawa or Osun, own the oil wells in far away Bayelsa
or Akwa Ibom or Delta and makes diabolical billions of dollars from it and then
attempts to offer the people of the land stipends and candies and call that
peace. It is a waste of time. The agitation is not about the Niger Delta
Avengers. They might be at the forefront of the struggle today to push the
agitations but they are only a product of the grave injustice that has gone on
for decades. We should realise that even if you catch and kill all the members
of the NDA today, more groups will contiue to spring up and the militancy will
never stop.
It is important to make this clear as the president and his
team attempts to do an Ogoni cleanup photo show with the thought that that will
asuage the people of the Niger Delta. It will not. It is a meaningless exercise
as far as the Niger Delta demands are concerned. The demand is full resource
control. Any other thing is considered a greek gift and at worst, an insult to
the real yearnings of the region.
[12:44 PM, 6/2/2016] +234 813 873 6848: After the
president takes his selfies on thursday and leave, will the owners of the oil
wells change? Will the injustice and fraud have changed? To think that the same
president who budgeted over 60 billion Naira for the rehabilitation of the
North East that just got devasted in the last few years from insurgency is
celebrating a government counterpart cleanup contribution of Ten Million
Dollars ($10m), which is about two billion dollars for the Ogoni land cleanup
in a Niger Delta that has been plundered and devasted over the last 40 years is
laughable. Why do you think the Niger Delta people will take him seriously?
Ogoni is a small area in just one state of the Niger Delta. How will the Ogoni
cleanup solve the environmental devastation issues in Delta, Akwa Ibom, Edo,
etc?
It is like a man who comes to your house and steals all your
money and food and then attempts to offer you breakfast and he claims he is actually
doing you a favour? This is the argument. This is the injustice. This is what
must change. No one is interested in handouts and candies. We are not begging
the president for gifts and incentives. We want a total restructuring of
Nigeria and full resource control. At the least, we can have true federalism.
Let every region go and develop their own and pay a contribution to a weak
center. The present unitary system is a leech and it must stop.
It is also laughable that a president, who just days ago declared
openly that he didnt even bother to read the last national conference report
also claims he is interested in fixing the Niger Delta. That report, though it
doesn't completely satisfy all the agitations, is the closest thing yet to
fixing the perenial issues. But the president in his usual arrogant way,
believes he can offer candies to the region in place of real solutions. He is
definitely chasing shadows.
It is also laughable that a president who just went to Ogoni
land to humiliate a paramount king thinks he can go back there to shoot photos
of himself cleaning up the land and the people will clap for him? We do not
seem to have learnt anything from the Ken Saro Wiwa tragedy. You cannot arm
twist a whole region. You cannot bully them. If you do that, you will only have
temporary victories. The agitations will only grow. The people will only
disdain you more as the years go by. The president has shown he doesnt respect
the Niger Delta. He seems to think he can also bully the region. But he is
making the same fundamental mistake many before him have made. Generations will
always rise and ask questions.
Ironically, this same President Buhari was chairman of the
Petroleum Trust Fund (an agency whose funds were exclusively sourced from the
oil drilling in the Niger Delta), between 1994 and 1999 and there is no record
of any tangible thing he did for the Niger Delta region. Nothing! Even worse is
the fact that the late Saro Wiwa was murdered by the Nigeria government while
he was the PTF chairman. He cheered it on. He has since gone on to celebrate
the same Abacha, even declaring openly that Abacha was not corrupt! So any
story that tries to twist history and present him as a lover of the Niger Delta
is futile.
What the Nigeria government do not realise is that they have
actually had a big window of opportunity with a very reasonable set of people
from the region over the last two decades but they are throwing that goodwill
away and the new set of people that will come after them will be as resolute
and dangerous as have never been seen, ever!
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