Posted by By George Etomi on
So the National Political Reform Conference (NPRC) has come and gone. It has gone signifying another chapter in the unending disappointment of fellow Nigerians of the aspirations of the peoples of the Niger Delta (now loosely referred to as the South South).
So the National Political Reform Conference (NPRC) has come and gone. It has gone signifying another chapter in the unending disappointment of fellow Nigerians of the aspirations of the peoples of the Niger Delta (now loosely referred to as the South South). I watched without surprise NPRC's chairman, Hon. Justice Niki Tobi declare the conference a huge success notwithstanding the protest walkout of the delegates from the South South over the vexed issues of fiscal federalism as it pertains to derivation and their demand to produce the next President of Nigeria come 2007.
To Niki Tobi, since delegates of 30 out of 36 states i.e. 90 per cent were in support of the continued oppression of the Niger Delta they must be right and so be it. Since we are in a democracy and majority of our brothers have said we should continue to suffer under the iron boots of oppression and the unconscionable denial of our right to decent living we should accept it and possibly submit ourselves to even more abuse. This way we can continue to enjoy the privileges of being honorary citizens of this country. I do not blame chairman Tobi. How many times will history record illustrious sons of the Niger Delta balk in the face of the truth so that Nigeria can remain one? Hon Justice Tobi could not have walked out no matter how much sympathy he has had for his brothers. He would most likely have been stripped of his honorary referee's badge in a game he neither knows nor understands the rules. However, this is not the way justice works as the respected justice only knows too well. Justice is not decreed by the majority. It is immutable and finds its roots in Nature.
Prof Auwalu Yadudu is very surprised at the way the North is being portrayed by the press as the greatest antagonists of the yearnings of the Niger Deltans. He is amazed that what the representatives of the South-west and the South-east say in caucus meetings is very different from what they say outside. In other words, it is not only the North that supports the continued oppression of the Niger Delta but they have willing allies in the Southwest and the Southeast. This sounds so much like the parliaments in England and the U.S in the years leading to the abolition of the slave trade when they finally recognised it as the most dehumanising spectacle to which mankind can be subjected. In public, slave owners acknowledged this evil but in private were afraid to lose the free labour and other privileges that came with it. They had morbid fear of soiling their hands to till the soil (or indeed pay for it) yet they desired that this grave injustice would somehow correct itself. Prof. Yadudu, you are right and there is nothing new about your observation.
Our history has revealed how fellow Nigerians have missed the opportunity to end what our colonial masters finally recognised as undeserving human conduct and formally abolished the trade in human lives for financial gains. Unfortunately they did not stay long enough to dismantle the structures that so well served their needs for centuries. And so, when independence was finally given to us, the structures that helped perpetuate colonialism were never truly dismantled.
The feudal system, the European quarters (later govt. reserved areas - in more recent times 'ministers quarters'), the Police with the colonial mentality of "we" versus "them", law enforcement agencies primarily targeted at "dissidents" etc became the hallmark of our "independence". Since these structures must feed on the weakness of fellow humans, we have now replaced white colonial masters with black colonial masters. Where in the countries of our erstwhile masters do concepts like GRA, repressive policing etc exist? Nigerians took over but left these colonial structures intact and they have produced a country so prostrate and full of contradictions. We are the best-educated in the black race, yet least developed in mind and spirit. The story is told of a meeting where a newly issued
federal license for "exploitation" was being "shared". At the head of the table (chairman) was a Nigerian from the South-west (the political arrangement favours that now). He recognized his Northern brother in what he termed a "patrimony" and offered him something. A bit of haggling here and there and they settled for something. Then came the turn of his South-east brother who after showering unending praises at the sagacity of the chairman, gratefully accepted what he was given. A Nigerian from the South-south present at the meeting then whispered to a southwestern friend of the Chairman, what about the Niger Delta? Without even bothering to look at him, he told the chairman, hear
what this fellow from the Niger Delta is saying. I thought when Nigeria was created there were only three regions and the Niger Delta fell into one or two of them... what is their problem? That ended the interjection and the business of sharing continued. Whether or not we admit it, it is this mentality that has invaded every aspect of our national lives and like a cancer, is threatening to eat us up. In an interview I granted to THISDAY, I had posited that all Nigerians share collective guilt for the plight of the people in the Niger Delta. Two years after that interview, nothing has changed and the confab has simply driven the point home.
I would like to remind our masters that it took former slave owners to abolish slavery. They led debates in parliaments where slaves had no place or voice. It took a civil war in America between former slave owners and unrepentant slave owners to finally end this travesty. No slave owning nation or master became poorer by ending this unmitigated disaster in human history. To the Nigerians in the North, West and East, I urge the brave ones amongst you to stand up today for the defenceless Niger Deltans. You must not allow the ghost of slavery resurrect in this country. You will be richer in mind, body and spirit if you stand against this injustice. Living fat and sumptuously on the downtrodden and mercilessly-abused people of the Niger Delta, believe me, will not make you richer even though you might have an appearance of it. The devastation to humans, animals, plants and environment in the area is not exaggerated. Loss of traditional means of livelihood (fishing and farming), disruption of family and social lives due to teenage pregnancies, AIDS, mulatto booms, engineered communal strife etc. have become the lot of the Niger Deltans arising from oil pollution and gas flares.
You must rise up today and treat this problem as a National emergency. Relocating these peoples to the Nigerian hinterland as suggested by some confab delegates will not solve the problem. What is needed is a Marshall plan. The urgency with which the Abuja dream was realised must be taken to the Niger Delta. We must re-train the people to acquire alternative skills so as to restore their dignity. Social programmes to heal dislocated families must be instituted. To ignore these would simply mean radicalising millions of youths who are at the epicentre of this disaster. The likes of us will be guided by the simple philosophy that if we do not fight we WILL die, if we fight we MAY live. It is only logical to take that slim chance at LIFE. Grant the Niger Deltans true Nigerian citizenship and see if we would not all be the richer for it.
Etomi, an attorney, lives in Lagos