Emma Amaize
4 July 2008
WHILE the fury over whether to attend or not attend the planned Niger-Delta Summit and tension build in the creeks over the attack and counter attacks by both the militants and security agents are still on, the Northern group, Arewa Consultative Forum, ACF, last weekend, stoked the fire when it accused the Niger-Delta leaders of being responsible for the militancy crisis in the region. As expected, Niger-Delta leaders flared up, replying the Northerners point by point.
The militants who are carrying the guns also spoke, exonerating the leaders of the Niger-Delta and pointed accusing fingers at the Federal Government. Cynthia Whyte is an authoritative voice in the Niger-Delta struggle and is the spokesperson of the Joint Revolutionary Council, JRC, an amalgam of the fighting units of the Movement for Emancipation of the Niger-Delta, MEND, the Reformed -Niger-Delta Peoples Volunteer Force, RNDPVF, and some other militia groups in the Niger-Delta.
The talking head said the "greater than before agitation" in the Niger-Delta today is as a result of the "greater than ever impudence" of the Nigerian state in dealing with the socio-economic and environmental problems of the Niger-Delta. Also the spokesman of the MEND, Jomo Gbomo, in response via electronic mail to an enquiry said the North is to blame. Vanguard captures the machinations in this report.
IT'S an aphorism that to mediate in an argument, the mediator does not come with a knife that cuts - but a needle that sews. And so, when the Northern group, Arewa Consultative Forum, ACF, last weekend, hopped into the conflict between the Federal Government and militants in the Niger-Delta at a time Niger-Delta leaders were also sweating it out with the Federal Government over a planned Niger-Delta Summit with a Northerner, Prof Ibrahim Gambari, as the chairman of the Steering Committee, it was sensibly thought that they would come with a needle to manage the tense state of affairs.
But shockingly, the Northern leaders exacerbated the matter by accusing their Niger-Delta counterparts of being responsible for the worsening militancy problem in the region.
In a communiqué issued at the end of its national executive council meeting in Kaduna, the influential group slammed leaders of the region for wasting the huge resources accrued to their people in the last couple of years and failing to invest in developmental projects for the enhanced standard of living of the people.
Though, it sympathized with the people of the region for the environmental degradation due to oil exploration without commensurate efforts at mitigating their sufferings, it noted that recent regimes have embarked on spirited efforts to address the Niger-Delta region and pointed at the defunct OMPADEC and the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), aside the 13 per cent derivation formula.
It said it was because of such a formula that ... "a state in the Niger-Delta region would have a budget of N377 billion while another state in the same country would have N53 billion as its budget".
According to the communiqué, which dripped with venom, as fresh as last month (May) "some states in the Niger-Delta took home as much as N42 billion while many of the non-oil producing states went home with a paltry N6billion".
It submitted, "If these huge resources have not translated into developmental projects and enhanced standard of living, then it is simply not fair to blame the national government alone; the managers of these resources in the Niger-Delta region are more culpable".
It then embarked on a voyage of sermonisation to the people, that they should "have a rethink of their manner of agitations with a view to improving on their management practices of resources made available to them as well as to embark on constructive engagements with the rest of the country in the national interest of fairness, socio-economic justice and for unity of the country".
Speaking to the Niger-Delta youths, the group said:
"Taking up arms against one's fatherland in an endless manner can never solve problems", adding also that the insecurity being visited on the region by violent militants was internecine in the sense that it scares away foreign investors at the collective peril of the entire nation.
It was not clear whether the upbraiding of both the youths and elders of the Niger-Delta region, who, they literally accused of not giving their wards home-training was meant to test the depth of the river. But if that was the intention, you do not test the depth of a river with both feet.
In deed, it was like the ACF ignited a spark of fire in the creeks of the Niger-Delta with its communiqué because no sooner did they rise from the Kaduna meeting than the leaders and youths of the Niger-Delta poured their own venom. As the wound inflames the finger, so the caustic words of the Arewa inflamed their minds.
Veteran politician, Senator Francis Okpozo said it was wrong of the Arewa leaders to blame Niger-Delta leaders for the militancy problem in the region, pointing out that the problem was caused by the North, which has exploited the wealth of the region without thinking of how to ameliorate the sufferings of the people.
He recalled that Abuja was a forest some 20 years ago but with oil money from the Niger_Delta, it has been transformed to a sprawling city while the people of the Niger-Delta from where the resources that developed Abuja are plundered, are living in squalor with no good water to drink and no road to go to their homes in the creek.
Okpozo who was clearly livid with anger on the matter was to call Vanguard some hours later to say, "Look, it is unfortunate that the Arewa will say that huge amount was given to the NDDC and same thing for the defunct OMPADEC. What are these people talking about, do we not know what happened, is it the OMPADEC, which they set up and gave the major contracts to themselves through some cronies; contracts that were never executed but they siphoned the money, which they used to build their marbles in Abuja and other Northern cities".
"Tell me, what magic do they want the NDDC to perform? Are they not living witnesses that over N242 billion, belonging to the NDDC, which is meant for the development of the Niger-Delta had been seized by the Federal Government on the illegal grounds that it had expired.
The Federal Government under President Olusegun Obasanjo gave the NDDC N17 billion sometime ago for infrastructures in the region but before the commission would deploy the money to its planned projects, the same Obasanjo asked for the money and diverted it to the rehabilitation of the East-West Road, which is a federal project, so what are they talking about? He queried.
Okpozo submitted, "The point is that NDDC funds are not released as and when due and so, the ACF misdirected itself about the disbursements to the NDDC. There is no reason to blame leaders of the Niger-Delta. They should also know that what it takes to build one kilometer road in the Niger-Delta can build a 20-kilometer road in the North because the terrain in both places are not the same".
According to him, "The money that comes to Niger-Delta in one year is not up to what Abuja gets in one month and if the Federal Government really wants to develop the Niger-Delta, it is a simple thing, they can bring bulldozer to put roads in the creeks and the tension will ease".
If Senator Okpozo emptied his mind, former Deputy Premier of the defunct Midwest region, Chief James Otobo was sarcastic. "The outburst of the Arewa is not worth my comments", he told Vanguard emphatically.
Chief Otobo who is one of those involved in the packaging of the political solutions to the Niger-Delta problem, which is to be presented to the Presidency and the National Assembly for passage into law by the Conference of Ethnic Nationalities of the Niger-Delta in place of the rejected Niger-Delta Summit said that Arewa verbiage was meant to distract him and "I tell you, I refuse to be distracted because I am doing a more serious thing that will affect the destiny of my children and others unborn".
He, however, said that the Niger-Delta people should unite and learn to speak with one voice like the Arewa, adding that a situation where every individual in the region rises up and speaks on issues affecting the region without proper consultation with the leaders was not good.
President of the Ijaw National Congress (INC), Prof Kimse Okoko could not comprehend why the Arewa people were vibrating as if looting by public office holders was the exclusive preserve of people from the Niger_Delta, recalling that the Economics and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) once alleged that over 30 governors were corrupt, asking where are the others from for we know that we have only six governors from the South-South region.
He said the Arewa leaders were speaking from both sides of the mouth, "These were the same people that once said oil does not belong to the Niger-Delta but to the entire country, today, they are talking about Niger-Delta leaders being corrupt. I am surprised, that is typical of them. It is part of those indecorous and outrageous utterances that often comes from them".
Prof Okoko asserted that with the ongoing revelation of fraud in Abuja, it was as clear as crystal that "these people have always been part of the looting and sharing of the national wealth".
Coordinator of the Ijaw Monitoring Group (IMG), Comrade Joseph Evah found it strange that the North is telling the Niger-Delta that is carrying them that the people are stinking.
He said it was unfortunate that the Vice President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, who is from Niger-Delta, is sitting there in Aso Villa like a lame duck and allowing the Northerners to stage-manage him.
His words, "We salute the Arewa Consultative Forum for reminding us of our rotting political legacy. There is no doubt that we are ourselves enemy in Politics, Military, Civil service and even the Oil industry where Niger Deltans well placed deprive others from benefiting while politicians loot their state and local government treasures to please the North and Oversea countries. It is true we have traitors in every tribe or region including the north, past heads of state of northern extraction, despite looting oil money did nothing for poor masses of the North.
"We expect Arewa to salute the gallantry of the Niger Delta people for using violence that every part of this country has used to get attention and fix them at the center.
"In 1966, the North ganged up against the rest of the country and killed General Aguiyi Ironsi, the then Head of State and forced General Gowon, a junior officer above his seniors after killing Igbo officers and millions of other Nigerians in the North.
"In 1976, there was a crack in the northern block and the identity struggle led to the killing of General Murtala Mohammed by Middle Belt officers, which led to the elimination of core Middle Belt officers in the military and created a vacuum and self destruction that has affected the strength of the Army to this very day.
"In 1993, Chief Abiola, a Yoruba man's election was annulled, the Yoruba nation rose up against the rest of Nigeria and paralysed Lagos and South-West, the economic nerve-centre of the country and the rest of the country negotiated with the Yorubas with Obasanjo Presidency using only two Yorubas in 1999 to contest election on formality basis.
"Today, we are up in arms against Nigeria and instead of facing the facts of the matter they are manipulating the Vice President to divide us and prolong the anarchy and oil war. If Arewa leaders love Nigeria they should stop using their agents in Aso Rock to deceive Vice President Goodluck Jonathan in order to portray him as enemy of his people and homeland.
"If we allow Gambari to lead that fake summit, the spirit of Isaac Boro and Ken Saro-Wiwa will not forgive us. We know they are pressurizing Ken Saro-Wiwa's son to support Gambari's nomination. Arewa should stop the evil plot. We know it is not new for some children to conspire with evil people to kill their father to inherit his property. We want the Arewa to prove that their criticism of Obasanjo government policies and actions were to save Nigeria", he said.
All the same, a PDP chieftain in Delta state, Chief Adolor Okotie-Eboh said the comments of the Arewa leaders were not meant to degrade the Niger-Delta people but to rally them to action so that they will put their house in order and manage the resources accruing to the region well.
He said the important thing is that the Niger-Delta people should organize themselves, look at the points that the Arewa leaders raised, critically analyze them and find out how they would correct the anomalies and better the life of the ordinary man in the creek who cannot find potable water to drink.
Former member of the House of Representatives, Hon. Emmanuel Arigbe-Osula who corroborated Okotie-Eboh's position that people should not rush to condemn the Northern leaders went a step further, saying, "The Niger-Delta leaders deserve the condemnation by the ACF and they cannot deny that they are not part of the problem".
He asked where the leaders of the Niger-Delta were when the youths started terrorizing people, investors and foreigners in the region with arms, positing that some of the these youths were armed by some leaders in the region to execute some sinister political schemes for them, and turned them into monsters that the nation cannot tame.
"There is no need to castigate the Arewa people for telling us the home truth. We are the cause of this problem because we were the ones that allowed our youths to go violent", he added.
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