Niger Delta Avengers, citing the unfair allocation of oil blocks as part of their major grievances blew up Nembe Brass to Bonny trunk line belonging to Agip and Shell about last Saturday. This is the latest in the economic war that has reduced Nigeria oil production from 2.5million to 1.5million barrels per day. Delta State Information Commissioner, Jonathan Obuebite said ‘the activities of the group were adversely affecting Ijaw people whose only source of livelihood is the environment’. The Ijaw boys are shooting themselves in the leg. The communities affected will suffer the effect of pollution for the next few years. Investors are already moving to safer environments like Cross River and Akwa Ibom at a critical period when the area needs to get ready for the challenges of post oil period which globalised economy searching for renewable energy sets at 2030. Already Warri has lost its shine with the entertainment industry taking the greatest hit. In 14 years, oil as source of energy consumption will be near zero.
The Ijaw unfortunately are Ijaw’s worst enemies. They have on account of a culture of entitlement been unable to compete with other ethnic groups such as Ikwere, a minority Igbo ethnic group that has dominated the politics of Rivers State producing the likes of Peter Odili, Rotimi Amaechi and Nyesom Wike. And while the Kalabaris showcase their Tam David-West, the Tamunos, Douglases, the Ijaw advertise the likes of Asari Dokubo who vacant-mindedly and without a sense of history denies the collective contribution of the rest of the federation to the liberation of Ijaw during the civil war and ex-militant, Government Ekpemupolo alias ‘Tompolo” who according to Chief Edwin Clark, lacks enough education to secure government job.
But the fault is not in neither in Dokubo or Ekpemupolo’s stars but in the conspiracy of their leaders who in the past traded in their name in order to satisfy their greed. Most of the Ijaw leaders were in alliance with the north when Awolowo and his AG embarked on free education in the old Western Region. They were in politics in the Second Republic when Ambrose Alli of the old Bendel, Olabisi Onabanjo of Ogun State, Michael Ajasin of old Ondo and Lateef Jakande of Lagos established public universities to accommodate products of their free primary and secondary school programmes. But the Ijaw political elite and traditional rulers described by Saro Wiwa as ‘vultures’ denied their youth good education so that no one questions them as they collude with multinational oil companies to feed on the blood of the poor.
What ill-educated Ijaw youths are now doing is nothing but a misdirected aggression. Their enemies are not Hausa-Fulani owners of oil bocks but their corrupt leaders and politicians who instead of confronting their past recently claim ‘Buhari’s war against corruption will lead to anarchy’. Ijaw leaders were part of past governments including that of Abacha regime alleged to have traded oil blocks to buy legitimacy. President Jonathan was Vice President for two years and President for six years. He had an opportunity to correct the mistakes of the past. But like many other Ijaw leaders, he merely empowered ill-educated Ijaw youths useful only for proxy war.
Before him was Alfred Papapreye Diete-Spiff, a Naval Lieutenant Commander who in 1967 at 25 years of age was appointed the first military Governor of Rivers State. His greatest legacy was the shaving of the head of Nigerian Observer newspaper’s reporter who had published a story about an impending teachers strike in Rivers on Spiff’s birthday. When Murtala Mohammed toppled Gowon government in 1975, Diete-Spiff who could not pay teachers in Rivers was cruising in the high seas in his private ship named ‘OginaBereton’ later seized by Murtala Mohammed who also allegedly stripped him of his rank. Spiff was later detailed to forfeit a total of 18 properties located in the Government Reserved Area, Trans-Amadi, Borikiri layout, Recreation Layout and Ogbunabali, all in Port Harcourt. He is today the Amanyanabo of Twon Brass in Bayeslsa State, a throne he ascended in 1996. When Umaru Dikko during the Oputa Truth Commission called attention to marginalization of Ijaws by their leaders, Spiff before staging a walk out with Rivers delegates insisted no one would dictate to them on how to spend their own money.
Melford Okilo who later became governor and senator served as Minister for Commerce and Tourism during Sani Abacha regime when most of the controversial oil blocks were allocated.
Chief Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, ‘Governor General’ of the Ijaw was said to be the mastermind of the then rampaging Niger Delta militants. His involvement in corruption and money laundering was exposed by governments of Britain, United States, South Africa, Bahamas and Seychelles as well as the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and the World Bank under the Stolen Assets Recovery Initiative’. They revealed his portfolio of foreign assets which included accounts with five banks in the UK and further accounts with banks in Cyprus, Denmark and the United States; four London properties acquired for a total of £4.8m; a Cape Town harbour penthouse acquired for almost £1m, about £1m in cash stored in one of his London properties. When Britain’s Metropolitan police charged him to court, he jumped bail and escaped to Nigeria. He was later convicted in Nigeria but granted amnesty by President Jonathan, another Ijaw leader.
Rivers State under Peter Odili (1999-2007) saw a surge in attacks on the oil industry by militants demanding greater benefits, kidnappings by ransom seekers, political violence and deadly robberies by gangs armed with AK-47 rifles. EFCC in a 2007 report accused his government of ‘fraud, conspiracy, conversion of public funds, foreign exchange malpractice, money laundering, stealing and abuse of oath of office’. Human Rights Watch also issued a report detailing pervasive patterns of corruption and mismanagement at the state and local levels under Odili’s administration. In March 2007, Justice Ibrahim Buba gave “a perpetual injunction restraining the EFCC from arresting, detaining and arraigning Odili on the basis of his tenure as governor based on the purported investigation”. Odili was alleged to be the brain behind the split in Asari Dokubo-led IYC which led to the formation of MEND headed by Ateke Tom, Dokubo’s deputy in order to settle scores with Chief Edwin Clark.
James Ibori was alleged to have spent Delta State money to fund Yar’Adua’s presidential election. On December 17, 2009, a Federal High Court sitting in Asaba, Delta State discharged and acquitted Ibori of all 170 charges of corruption brought against him by EFCC. Ibori was later found guilty of 10 counts of money laundering and conspiracy to defraud at Southwark Crown Court, London and on April 17, 2012, sentenced to 13 years. Some of his properties confiscated include a house in Hampstead, north London, a property in Shaftesbury, Dorset, and a mansion in Sandston, near Johannesburg, South Africa.
Edwin Clark, 86, has been part of government since he was about 32. Kaita recently reminded him during one of his tirades against the north that he has always been a northern ally. Clark shortly after a society wedding at age of 85 finally established Edwin Clark University in his village where students will pay about N400,000 per session. His response to critics of official looting by custodians of Niger Delta commonwealth was ‘‘who are they to tell us how we spend our money’?
Ijaw youths, behold thy leaders.
Credit: Jide Oluwajuyitan, Ekiti Forum