Niger Delta: We Must Be Deliberate
First published: 26 May 2009
It is a fact that the Niger Delta has suffered neglect and has been marginalized but our agitation must include a deliberate effort at developing ourselves with what we have and not tie our destiny to “RESOURCE CONTROL”. The receipt of this demand for resource control should be viewed as a “bonus” and not a condition precedent for our self emancipation.
Obama’s visit to Ghana is not out of love for Ghanaians but to project the USA’s strategic objectives maybe to counter the rampaging Chinese (Ghana stable & transparent political process, minimal corruption, steady power and recent commercial oil find is a beautiful bride to be associated with.. Ghanaians it themselves).
The failure of the Nigerian state gave rise to the entrenchment of these “camps” and revealed the inability of the security agencies to protect the citizenry from the brigandry that overcame the region & the struggle.
Our operators with guns called the shots (1) violently prevented us from making our elected leaders accountable (2)determined who was a Niger Delta leader or not (3) killed or maimed those that were in disagreement with them or their Godfathers (4) kidnapped our sons at will. And all this happened because we (Ijaws) must admit that there was no deliberate strategy for this "struggle" but we have earned some "mileage" politically and economically.
We must stop the blame game and admit our failings by conniving and allowing criminality to reign in our "houses" under the cover of agitation. We saw it coming and warned, even the duly elected Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) asked that all camps be closed and “these operators” challenged our prominent youth leaders and branded them sell-outs.
The way forward is to rehabilitate our people and begin to liberate ourselves from this "oil mentality" , hold our elected officers accountable (without the support of the FGN) clearly state our objectives/milestones, reduce the number of self appointed spokesmen for the region (who feed from the process as they did in the past from apartheid & military rule) who deliberately confuse the issues.
In this failed system Lagos State is receiving accolades not that more funds have been received from the federal government but that under Governor Fashola they have resolved that “Eko must not fail” and they are working on it.
No other ethnic group will do it for us but ourselves and we must also respect our neighbors whether riverine or not, izon speaking or not, as we (Ijaws) cannot be an island but need all the friends we can get.