| Wednesday, November 24, 1999 Tonye David-West, Jr., Ph.D It's halftime in this furious and energy-sapping soccer game between the federal government and the people of the Niger Delta----so far, the federal government has managed to score a goal in the first half of the encounter through its strong reinforcement at the striker position. But it seems the people of the Niger Delta are on the offensive as they too struggle to get on the score board and gain some recognition for their efforts and sacrifices. The home team [the people of the Niger Delta] believes that they must win this game since its being played on their land and they will not allow anyone to come to their land and defeat them and take away their pride and the grand trophy/prize of money, money and more money. In the meantime and as we await the commencement of the second half, we must give thought to some daring issues affecting the home team which is still behind in this furious game as the visitors have denied them every opportunity to score and enjoy some recognition as well. Having just watched the first half of this red-card filled game where many of the players have been carted away from the field in stretchers due to rough play, I must aver that I continue to be immensely perplexed at the events in the Niger Delta, particularly, in Bayelsa and the impending cloud of a state of emergency threatened by the federal government in that state. Of particular interest to me is the siege from the federal government which seems to be immune from the irks of this newly created state, its towering natural oil resources and bread-winning status, regardless. I read the other day with untold twinge the interview of the state governor Chief Deprieye Alameyeseigha. Bayelsa state is indeed one of the most impoverished areas in Nigeria, not to mention Africa. That state is devoid of any higher institutions, any meaningful hospitals, only a 28 kilometers road in the entire state, no water transportation [95 percent of the state is water], the state capital, Yenagoa is engulfed in darkness after 6 p.m. putting a halt to all activities, no institutions worthy of note and no infrastructures of substance. A stroll on the dungy, muddy and pot-hole filled streets of Yenagoa would reveal the hallow shell of a state Bayelsa is with virtually no resemblance of a state. Even the remotest villages in Haiti [one of the poorest countries on earth], which I visited a while back would boast of better amenities than a state which can feed the entire country of 108 million and has produced more than $30 billion in oil profits in the three years it has been in existence. The roads in Bayelsa are so bad that travelers often take long measuring sticks with them to measure how deep the ponds and muddy waters on the roads are to adequately judge whether they could drive through them without getting stuck. Thus, it is with a deflated countenance I write this piece, especially when, the almighty federal government rather than assisting the state in meeting its security needs which was and still is due to the federal government's wanton neglect of the plights of the people and pure insensitivity to its long term needs is engaging it with assorted threats of the declaration of the state of emergency. Such declaration is better reserved for states like Zamfara which has since violated the constitution of Nigeria with more than a passing impunity for its adoption of Sharia Law in all its fullness. Such temerity and wanton disregard for the rule of law by Zamfara has not been met with the disperse of soldiers but rather, greeted with muted response even from the highest quarters. The soldiers currently deployed to Bayelsa have definitely been given the wrong map as they ought to be headed for Zamfara. The authorities in Bayelsa without the massive deployment of soldiers are capable of arresting the situation as promised by its governor. Our elders say that history repeats itself because no one listened the first time it spoke. Its obvious that we have learned nothing from the struggles of the Ogonis and the ensuing movement of MOSOP. In the harshly worded letter sent by the president to the governor, the president indicated that the governor was responsible for maintaining/restoring law and order in his state and then he gave him two weeks to restore same or face a state of emergency in which both the governor and the state legislators would all lose their jobs, not to mention the commissioners. Not only was this letter grossly inappropriate in content but it in essence told the governor that "this is your problem and you better deal with it or else I will deal with you." This is sheerly undemocratic and tacitly portrays the governor as responsible for the breakdown of law and order in his state. Such logic portends on a great disservice to the democratically elected governor of Bayelsa and the citizens of same while ridding the feds of any responsibility for the unholy mess in the Niger Delta. What we have witnessed is a most pathetic attempt by the feds to inculpate the helpless governor who inherited nothing but poverty and dilapidated infrastructures when he came into power on May 29th. The previous military administrator [MILAD], in the last days of military rule, became a janitor as he judiciously and assiduously swept and cleaned the treasury of the state before he took the last salute on May 29th in Yenagoa and jetted out to his home state to live happily thereafter. What then does the federal government expect a financially strapped state to do? How does such a state create jobs for its jobless youths? How does it create social programs to engage the youths in meaningful activities? As the governor stated, the state gets N200 million naira, a mere drop in the bucket in light of the avalanche of demands for development. The state remains the only one out of the 36 not to be part of the national grid. A gallon of gas is about N65 as opposed to N16 in neighboring Rivers state and other states and even in states as far as Plateau. The federal government recently gave Lagos state a whopping N5.6 billion for shoreline protection when Baylesa could not get a kobo to pay for repairs of its 40 megawatts gas turbine generator which it sent to Scotland for repairs. The generator, if I may add, was and still is the only source of electricity for the entire state. Rather than obliging the request of the state, the federal government asked that it borrow the money and repay it in a year. How is this possible in a state which gets N200 million and the feds asked it to borrow 17 million pounds to pay for the refurbishment of the generator? This is simply absurd and yet, Bayelsa has given Nigeria more than $300 billion since 1958 when oil was first discovered. Which other region in Nigeria has provided such robust windfall? The north? The west? The east? Which? This is a country which can spend $8 billion to prosecute a war in Liberia and yet cannot spare a couple million dollars for Bayelsa for development purposes. This is a country which can build a new federal capital from scratch with more than $30 billion and yet cannot assist a new state in its bid to get electricity and make life easier for its citizens. The successive federal governments are hereby likened to a grown and irresponsible man who goes about fathering babies but when it comes time to be a "daddy" and nurture and supervise the development of those babies, he says to them, "you are on your own." Successive federal governments have been all too happy to liter the country with new states only to abandon them at the crucial time of their development. Why will a state like Bayelsa get N200 million yearly allocation and Lagos state gets N5.6 billion for shoreline protection which is above and beyond its yearly allocation of more than N3 billion? Is this equitable? Is the land in Lagos polluted from oil drilling? Has Lagos produced more than $300 billion in oil revenue? Have Lagosans lost their lives due to oil pollution and incessant and hapless drilling? Do Bayelsans not deserve N5.6 billion for shoreline protection as well? Are there no shorelines in Bayelsa which is engulfed by the south Atlantic ocean? Whom are we really kidding here and whose eyes are the wools being pulled over? I take nothing from the great state of Lagos and its industrious citizens, but I'm sure the point here is not lost. It is often said when a sheep is chased and it cannot run anymore, it will turn around and bite its chasers. The reaction in the Niger Delta is only natural as the Ijaws have been hearing for more than forty years of "this development plan for them" and "that development plan for them." Every new president or head of state has a new and grandiose plan for them but none has materialized. In the meantime, their lives are been destroyed and their land eroding to the sheer gain of everyone else but them. The federal government is all too happy to grow in the Niger Delta but when it comes time to harvest, its exports all the yam crops to others and ask the people of the Niger Delta to be content with the yam pills. I trust that this administration will hasten its plan to address this volatile issue expeditiously and without much ado. Consequently, I would implore the Ijaw youths not to take the law into their hands. They should continue to espouse their demands in a most responsible manner without resorting to violence or cajolery. Too many lives have been lost and untold damage done to properties. We must collectively put an end to this cesspool of blood and degradation and this revolving violence to ensure our unity as a nation and achieve justice for all through meaningful negotiations and viable development of the Niger Delta. Only then will the final score of this fierce, furious, red-card filled and energy-sapping soccer game which is still currently played in the oil fields of the Niger Delta read--federal government, 1, The Niger Delta, 1, in a show of equality and an achievement of economic, political, social and cultural equilibrium and parity. A truly win-win situation for all. Tonye David-West, Jr., Ph.D |