Posted by Paul Ibe in London on
Governor Diepreye Alamie-yeseigha of Bayelsa State has said that only a better deal based on equity, fairness and justice could assuage the people of Niger Delta for the long years of neglect and environmental degradation from oil and gas related activities.
Governor Diepreye Alamie-yeseigha of Bayelsa State has said that only a better deal based on equity, fairness and justice could assuage the people of Niger Delta for the long years of neglect and environmental degradation from oil and gas related activities.
The Bayelsa Governor spoke weekend at the inaugural commemorative lecture organised by the Ijaw People's Association of Great Britain and Ireland (IPA) at the Acton Town Hall in London for the late Major Isaac Boro, a first generation, environmental rights activist.
Alamieyeseigha said in his keynote at the well attended event that the peoples of the oil-rich Niger Delta are anxiously awaiting the outcome of the process that has offered a window for redressing the criminal neglect and the expropriation and destruction" of the resources of the area.
He paid tribute to Boro, who in 1966 launched a campaign against the Nigerian state and oil multinationals saying that the injustice, which he staked his life for, still persists 37 years after.
He said that the vision of a free and egalitarian society, which Boro and others canvassed, cannot be attained "without the enthronement of justice as the political, economic and social order."
He said that Boro remains an inspiration to the battle against injustice in the Niger Delta because his quit notice to the oil multinationals and his demand that they compensate communities for the environmental damage caused by them, had echoes in the ultimatums of the late Ken Saro-Wiwa and the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP), the Ijaw Youth Council's Kaiama Declaration and the numerous Bills of Rights and charters issued by various Niger Delta minorities in the 1990s.
Alamieyeseigha used the case of Bayelsa State to illustrate what he said is obvious political, economic and social marginalisation of the peoples of the zone.
He regretted in his keynote entitled 'Let Us Rebuild Izon Land' that the Ijaws, with a population of over 20 million making it the fourth largest ethnic group in the country, has just one state in Bayelsa to reflect this.
He observed that the rest of the Ijaws are scattered into five separate states of Rivers, Delta, Edo, Akwa Ibom and Ondo.
He said that of the 774 recognised local government councils in the country there are only 24 reflecting Ijaw interests compared with 44 for Kano State alone.
'Thus out of the 774 local government councils in the country today, the Ijaw have no more than 24. They are: Bayelsa, 8; Rivers, 9; Delta, 4; Akaw Ibom, 2; and Ondo, 1. This contrasts sharply with the situation in a state like Kano that has 44 local government councils.
'Since states and local governments form the basis of revenue allocation in the federation, we are being cheated everyday," he said.
He said, 'Federal government presence in Izon land is virtually zero" and regretted that 'Bayelsa remains the only state of the federation not connected to the national grid."
He said that the central government has over time employed the use of obnoxious laws such as the Land Use Act, Petroleum Act, National Inland Waterways Authority Act and Lands (Title Vesting, etc) Act among others to deny the people of their rights to control and own resources.
He described as unacceptable the Federal Government's 'obliteration of the principle of derivation in revenue allocation at a time when the country depends mainly on oil mineral resources, which are mainly derived from Ijaw land," and the onshore/offshore dichotomy, which he said is 'unjust and demands a fair and a democratic resolution."
He faulted the government's privatisation programme saying it has been 'structured to deepen the economic enslavement of the Ijaw and other oil-producing nations of the Niger Delta with its allocation of marginal fields to non-indigenes of the region."
He said that the deregulation of the oil and gas sector should be targeted at benefiting individuals, communities, corporate bodies, and, where necessary, the governments of the zone in which they are located.
He noted that it was in its bid to reverse the injustices to the zone that they embraced the opportunity offered by the National Political Reform Conference (NPRC) and hoped that the country will seize the moment 'to renew, remake and reinvent its federalism, so that no component unit or ethnic nationality will feel cheated."
And as 2007 approaches, the governor said that the Ijaw people should close ranks, avoid infighting and base their choice of the 'next governor of Bayelsa State on the core attributes of competence, integrity, courage, initiative and focus."
Prof. Kimse Okoko, university don and leader of the Bayelsa State delegation to the NPRC used the occasion to update indigenes of the state in the United Kingdom about the goings-on at the national conference.
President of IPA, Mr. Roland Ekperi said in his welcome address that the group was honouring Boro for his dedication to the pursuit of the common good, an essential attribute of a committed leadership.
Present at the occasion, which colour was added by Asu Ekiye, award winning gospel musician and the Bayelsa State Cultural Troupe (which began a two-week tour of Europe weekend) were Alamieyeseigha, Mr. Roland Ekperi, President of the IPA, Executive Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Chief Timi Alaibe, Okoko, Senator David Brigidi, Mr. Steven Davies, chairman of the occasion, Bayelsa State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr. Oronto Douglas, Captain Samuel Owonaru (Boro's right hand man) and Dr. Owens Saro-Wiwa and Mr. Ken Saro-Wiwa, brother and son of the late environmental rights activist.