Roland Ogbonnaya
20 November 2008
interview
Lagos — Former governor of Akwa Ibom State, Obong Victor Attah was one of the South-south governors that championed the cause for resource control and development of the Niger Delta area. In this interview with ROLAND OGBONNAYA, he looks at the area which has become a hot bed of crises and the panacea to end the restiveness.
The Niger Delta has continued to be a hotbed of crises. How did we get to this level and how do you think it would end? It started when the people were neglected. I am going to very blunt here and I know that some people will not like to hear this. But it started when some people felt that they could treat the people with ignominy and it would not matter because they are minority.
Repeatedly we heard, "Oh difficult terrain, difficult terrain" and I was forced at different occasion to ask whatever that meant. The terrain is not too difficult for you to go in and bring out the oil, but it now becomes too difficult for you to go in and develop the area. That was the beginning of the problem.
Somebody has written a book and accorded me the privilege of proof reading the book. He has a very strong point. He calls the book "License to And he traces the history of even the palm trade, how they used to set up the places and because one had contact with the Whiteman and he was used to creating tension. So there was always divide and conquer, not even divided and rule but divide and conquer.
And they applied that through out that period; they felt that they could succeed by taking these people whom they thought were in subjection of their ruling. But it won't work that way until you give the people their due and there is a simple way to end it. Just give the Niger Delta its due, if you give the Niger Delta its due with massive development that has not gone on since so many years that it should have been. They do not believe in the fact that the place was neglected, but that the terrain was too difficult.
They are bringing out this thing (oil) out from there, the thinking should have been if it would cost me so much to develop a road in this area and so much less there, when I doing my area, it is simply the question of allocation.
In a Federation, there should not be a question of somebody sitting and deciding how to allocate funds. What we must not forget is that the region themselves even have their constitutions, but we have failed to approach Federalism as it were and that is part of the problem. Until we can re-examine some meanings of true Federalism we can't get it right. We are thinking towards it and gradually we would get there.
But is there any political will on the part of the present government to address the problem?
That is why I said that some people will not like what I am going to say. The military really also contributed to the problem, seriously aggravated this matter because they made no effort to develop the area. They could not understand democracy or federalism; they were just to command you and then left everything and decide their allocation. And when they are allocating, they were not using the goodwill of justice and fairness as in to which much is taken much is given back.
And so they aggravated this thing seriously. But thank God that the government of President Umaru Musa Yar'adua is doing everything it can to try and give back, not just for people to go and chop, but give back so that the place can be truly developed. When there is development going on, there is going to be employment and once you have employment, you are going to have empowerment and people would be contented with what they have.
Once they have done this, change will come. Who does not want to live a normal life? It is not as if they are enjoying the restiveness but they are doing it because they do not have an alternative. The day the have an alternative, they would abandon such life.
Where you at any point in time regretted championing for the resource control issue?
I am really sure because there are people who think that resource control means you want to take all their resources and go away. Resource control just simply means that people should have a say on what comes from their area or backyard.
Because every part of the country has got some strong resource in which it can be developed, sooner or later the whole country will become developed. But in Nigeria we feel that we can't do that, we have to take it from one place and develop every part equally, and it cannot work that way.
It is like sharing poverty rather than sharing wealth. If we concentrate on there sources in various part of the country, we would see development every where but when we say we want to take the resource of a particular area and share to the whole country and when that's one is finished, we go and find another one and share it every where, it means we are spreading poverty.
Some people believe that the real problem started with communal/ethnic clashes and if we have to solve the problem once and for all how do you think it can approached?
There is structural lack of political organisation and economical impact of the place, which in turn bring lack of development. Because when there is economic problem it results in tension and restiveness, so that's why I am saying that we need to have a situation where there is economic improvement in that region.
How do you see the handling of Bakassi issue?
I honestly believe that our approach to the issue of Bakassi was wrong and Akwa Ibom was kept out of it entirely in spite of our determined efforts to be involved but for whatever reason, we were kept out of it and so, we lost Bakassi. I really believe that we have to be responsible. If we never went to the International Court may be we would not have lost Bakassi but the government chose to go and then we lost.
If you have an opportunity as a governor again, what are the things you did wrong that you may want to correct?
I really don't know, you see, this is a difficult question because there is no way you can say I completed my ambition. In process of doing these things, you may have done a few things wrong because you are not super human and you are not God. But may be if I had the opportunity to be a governor again I will do certain things differently. I don't really know because every time I tried to do something, I made sure that the people of Akwa Ibom agreed with me and that is why we had the slogan, "Akwa Ibom Project" and not "Victor Attah's Project".
What was the Akwa Ibom Project? We wanted to improve our wealth, our technical status as well as our development projects; we no longer wanted to be regarded as second class citizens, we wanted to make sure that our people enjoyed all the other things that people were enjoying in other states.
So we held one economic summit after another where people brought their views, the agenda was that of Akwa Ibom. May be I would have been more generous but I don't know whether that is even required. I used to feel offended by certain things that have happened and I would tell you.
I came from a private sector where you knew that in certain proposition there are shareholders, but I came into government, where part of governance include marrying a wife for somebody and if you marry a wife and you take a baby to christening the governor should be there, that it is the governor's responsibility to give money to bury your parents or take them to hospital.
It was like government was expected to be a big God Father. Until I went into government, I did not realise that role, that demand of government, I did not know that because I never expected that's of governance, but I see people expecting government to buy them Jeep, house and all that. Who are you? Why must you wait for government? But I see that is now fashionable to throw money all about. I did not know that aspect of government before I went in and that is why some said they don't seem to be satisfied with my government.
May be for them that is the fashion but for me I still say it is part of the corruption that we are suppose to be fighting. But if we say that is our own way of doing politics, I have to say I did not master that aspect. So I would not say that I regret not doing that because others did.
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