Emma Amaize
10 January 2009
analysis
BORN January 9, 1959 at Ezebri in Bomadi LocalGovernment Area of Delta State, P. Z, as foremost Ijaw activist, philanthropist, orator and acting Executive Director, Finance & Administration of NDDC, Elder P.Z. Aginighan is fondly called by admirers clocked the golden age of 50, Friday, January 9, 2009.
To a very large spectrum of youths in the Niger Delta and Nigeria, he is a role model. As a public sector finance manager, Aginighan represented the defunct OMPADEC as a member of the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC).
Militants have made their point
He has received very wide exposure locally and internationally, participated in the prestigious and the Executives Leadership Course at the Manchester Business School, University of Manchester, United Kingdom and the Executive Briefing Session at the International Civil Service Commission of the United Nations at New York, United States of America.
Aginighan, also an ordained Elder in the Apostolic Church Nigeria and happily married to Amerikaere for 25 years is blessed with four boys and three girls. In this interview with Saturday Vanguard, he speaks about his life, his job with the NDDC, his pains for the Niger-Delta, militancy and the way forward. EXCERPTS:
The pains I have is that we have largely self inflicted wounds. We the people of the Niger Delta have not adequately taken our destiny in our hands, we have not demonstrated a will to redress our ugly past.
The water in which I was bathed in Ezebiri where I was born in 1959, which very dirty water is still where the people drink from but it is now even more polluted with oil unlike in my days.
Fifty years of my life on earth has brought me immense favours, but, the pains I have is a situation whereby the resources given to us are not properly utilized by us. From local governments to state governments, a situation whereby our sons and daughters cannot swear that they have been faithful to themselves, that is a challenge.
There is no good government and righteousness in government, which is why you can still find schools in the Niger Delta where pupils learn on bare floors with leaking roofs, which ought not to happen.
Do we expect the federal government to renovate classrooms for us in our villages in the Niger Delta? The result of this is that we have short changed ourselves as a people. If what we have received from various governments, if only one third of it has reflected in the lives of the people, the Niger Delta people will not be where they are today.
Challenge for FG
I still have a challenge for the federal government, from 1957 when the minority commission of inquiry was set up by the colonial government in response to the cries of marginalization by the ethnic minority, particularly the Niger Delta people, and the commission was given among other terms of inquiry, to inquire into the affairs of the minority in any part of Nigeria and to propose a safeguard for allaying those fears whether well or ill-founded.
This is number one term of reference of the Willinks Commission that is being quoted today. The commission made elaborate recommendations on how to address the issues of the Niger Delta.
For instance, it stated in one of its recommendations that it is not easy for a government or legislature operating from far inland to fully understand or appreciate the problems of a territory where communication is so difficult, building so expensive, education so scanty.
He also went further to say that it requires the co-operation of the Western, Eastern and the federal governments, not because it concerns only these regions but because the whole of Nigeria is concerned. This is part of Willinks report. And it further said "the area is poor, backward and neglected".
Itsekiri, Ilaje are most devastated
In August 1959, James Robertson proclaimed the Niger Delta special area to comprise the territory of the Ijaws and the Ogoni's because that proclamation defined the special areas for the purposes of the Niger Delta development Board. Not all the ethnic minorities were part of the board. The Board has representatives from Eastern region and western-Ijaw division, the southern Ijaw of the Mid-West. The Ijaw land was seen as the most deprived part and still the most deprived territory in Nigeria.
These facts were acknowledged by Prof G.G Darah in his public lecture "Niger Delta from Bondage to Paradise". This scholar is not from Ijaw land but he acknowledged the fact that the most disadvantaged territory in Nigeria is Ijaw land in terms of human capital development, physical infrastructural development, etc.
If all the indices of development are taken, the most devastating territory amongst others are the Ilajes in Ondo State and the Itsekiri's in Delta State, living in a territory that produces so much wealth for a nation yet it's a paradox of pervasive poverty.
The central governments of Nigeria have not demonstrated sufficient sincerity. The Willinks commission report led to the establishment of the Niger Delta Development Board, which was to carter for the special area for a period of 10 years.
Within 10years, the territory was to be developed to bring it into parity with other parts of the country but the 10years were not completed before the military struck in 1966. At the period when the military struck, the board had not done anything, except endless feasibility studies. Then, from 1966-1976, a period of 10 years, there was a cry resuscitating the Basin Authorities, the then military government set up River Basin Authorities for all rivers, and all creeks in Nigeria.
Indeed the Niger Delta Development Basin Authority was created after the 10 River Basin Authorities. The 10 Basin Authorities were created in June 1976 while the eleventh which ought to be the first was created in August 1976 and when the Basin Authorities were categorized from A-D for the purpose of discriminatory funding, the Niger Delta Basin Authority was kept in category D, the least funded.
Elder P.Z. Aginighan
The question we ask is if this is fair? I remember the words of Winston Churchill at the height of the war; he said "never in the fields of human conflict, has so much been taken away from so few by so many". In Nigeria, we can say never so much been taken away from so few because the wealth that has been taken away from the Niger Delta is reflected in the quality of lives of these people. This area would have been a tourist attraction for this country.
I had the privilege of attending the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) meeting as a representative of OMPADEC. In my three years, twice they reversed their calculation due to some observations I made when they excluded OMPADEC from sharing excess crude oil money. I raised objections and the then Minister of State for Finance upheld my observations and the allocations were reversed and more monies were given to OMPADEC at that time.
Even then the 3% OMPADEC allocations were never correctly calculated. The 3% was calculated after removing payment for federal government priority projects like Aluminum Melting Company at Akwa Ibom State, NNPC priority projects, NNPC Joint venture cash-calls; all sorts of deductions were removed. So what remained was 3% of nonsense that was given to OMPADEC.
If we as a people are united and we are doing well with the resources given to u, of course, we have all the moral courage, moral grounds to confront the centre where we feel we are short-changed.
Militants have made their point
Every opposition has the right to resist. It's a natural law for the oppressed to resist oppression. When constitutional means prove ineffective, it is always open to oppressed people to resort to extra -constitutional means to ensure that there is equilibrium in the polity. In the Niger Delta, I will say from Isaac Boro, Ken Saro-Wiwa, Asari Dokubo to the Kaiama declaration, all these I will say are legitimate expressions of the anger of a people.
They have made their points and the other part is for the government to have dialogue with representatives of the militants and this shows that they recognize that there is a problem in that place. Otherwise, carrying guns when you are not authorized to do is illegal because one of the charges against Isaac Boro was treason and illegal position of fire arms and for which he was sentenced to death.
So if the government of the day declares war on militants in the Niger Delta, it will be counter- productive, instead they should opt for the path of dialogue and any government that takes this path should be commended and be given a chance.
Unending militancy not the solution
I do not think that unending militancy can solve the problems of the Niger Delta. You must have strategic or tactic withdrawal and it will create room for dialogue. There is always post-conflict dialogue everywhere, it is time for us to discuss now. Just like de Klerk in South Africa, "the time to negotiate is now". This is not the time to say we will continue to be in the path of carrying arms.
The federal government has the military might; they might want to descend on the people of the Niger Delta with that but where will it take Nigeria to. If Nigerians take up arms and declare war on their own citizens simply because of oil, the country will be only paraded as an insensitive nation that wants to take the people's wealth by force and that will definitely incur anger from the international community.
But the path of dialogue chosen by this present government is the best path and we the people of the Niger Delta have no other option but to call on our sons, particularly those who have been genuinely angry over our underdevelopment. I heard of when the federal government delegation visited one of the camps of the militants and the militant leader gave bullets and dirty water as gifts to Mr. President. Very symbolic, the leader said bullets symbolize the anger of the people and the dirty water symbolizes their sufferings. I think that is instructive enough.
Yar'Adua needs correct advice on N-Delta
What I want to say is that all the advisers of the federal government should not give half hearted advice, they should say the truth and nothing but the truth.
The Niger Delta question must be holistically addressed by Mr. President as he has said and those of us occupying public offices like ministers, officials of NDDC must all give the president the correct advice, so the President will not be led into taking the wrong decisions in solving the Niger Delta problem.
Rather than use the military, use the people and the police, equip the police and restrict the military to the role of defending the territorial integrity of this country.
They can only be brought in when it is beyond the capability of the police, crime cannot be fought without the involvement of the people.
There is clear demarcation between outright criminality and agitation for better deeds. That's why they are using the carrot and stick diplomacy.
They use the stick where there is a clear case of criminality that must be addressed. No responsible government will allow criminality to go unchecked.
What I am saying is that the military is not trained to fight crime; it is only the police that are trained for such. In the Niger Delta situation, crime fighting is a bit difficult because the people are not involved in the management of the oil wealth.
If the people of the Niger Delta are given sufficient stake holding in the running of the oil industry, they will protect the oil wells, they will have a sense of responsibility instead of having a feeling of alienation and this makes them believe that oil-wells are structures that must be vandalized as a means of venting their anger.
I advocated, sometime ago, that if we engage willing youth of the various host communities and the communities with pipelines to form security squads under the control of the police to guide these oil wells instead of the military, which presence is conjuring different images of our foundation.
If the youth of the host communities are involved and they are paid good salaries to guard the oil wells with non-military security men, the military should only be called upon to perform their constitutional function not crime fighting.
The present levels of government efforts is not adequate, all hands must be on deck, the federal government, the NDDC, the new ministry of Niger Delta, the State governments, the Local governments, the oil companies must all come together to perform their parts and anybody who does not perform their parts must be shown the way out. Everybody must be held accountable for their deeds.
Challenges before the NDDC
There were several challenges, challenges of human capital development, challenges of a teeming population of unemployed young men, who become ready recruits for crime and militancy.
Challenge of getting these people to change their world view, that greatness, good life does not come from the easy way, it must come from the way of hard work, they must acquire for themselves skills that must be employable.
How can we give skills to these people so that they can be employable wherever they are and as such carrying of arms will not be attractive to them? And this can only be achieved by opening up the area through a network of roads and bridges.
The challenges are reversing the over 50 years deprivation of the region; destruction of their ecology and environment; a place where it cost you six to 10 times constructing a similar length of road in upper land area - how can we in the strength of the present reality because the land is in a hurry to develop, move and match with this haste of our people? How can we ensure that the master plan is implemented?
Where is the legislative agenda for the Niger Delta master plan? I am happy all the governors of the nine Niger Delta States have given their endorsement to the master plan.
But until the houses of Assemblies in each of the States pass a law to see the master plan as a point of reference so that any government that comes into power can say I am going to work with the master plan, and then our request for integrated development becomes a reality, the whole thing will still be uncoordinated. I want a situation where there is partnership, collaboration, NDDC cannot do all.
A great challenge of constructing roads and without roads, we cannot move development to that area.
Today, there is a road to Tuomo and it has brought about a lot of economic activities in that town. And by the time we commission the Trofani road, Ogbia/Nembe road and others, these areas will open up. Construction of roads and bridges requires a lot of money even if the provisions of the NDDC acts and the funds are adequately released; we still have a challenge of additional need of the federal attention.
There are so many challenges but we need a well funded and managed NDDC working in collaboration with other stakeholders and service providers within the Niger Delta and this country. Then of course the Niger Delta crisis will be a thing of the past.
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