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Strategic Factors and Options: Using the Ijaw to Destroy the
Ijaws
By Priye S. Torulagha
It seems that some Ijaw people are now becoming apprehensive about having
an Ijaw person heads the Nigerian Army. It is gratifying to know
that people from the ethnic nation are now realizing the implications of
the appointment. One could vividly remember that many members of
the ethnic nation jubilated and thanked President Olusegun Obasanjo for
appointing their son to head the army. At the time, people
failed to pay attention to the strategic reasoning behind the appointment.
Arguments Presented
There is no doubt that Nigeria did not mean well for the Ijaws when the
leaders appointed Lt. Gen. Awoye Azazi as the Chief of Army. It was tactically obvious that Nigeria
wanted to use an Ijaw to destroy the Ijaws and put an end to the resistance
toward oil exploration. It should be
noted that the need to neutralize or pacify the Niger Delta through political
subterfuge has always been the desire of those who exercise power in the
country. Therefore, almost all the
high-level political appointments made by the Federal Government to place Ijaw
sons and daughters in certain national positions have been directed by the
strategic need to control the Ijaws and the people of the Niger Delta. In this regard, the following arguments are
made to demonstrate the strategic and tactical implications of the appointments
of Gen. Azazi and other Ijaws to federal positions: (1) Increasingly, the Niger Delta and Nigeria
do not see things from the same perspective due to divergent political and
economic interests, 2) the appointment of an Ijaw as an Army Chief of Staff is
designed to use an Ijaw to destroy the Ijaws as the Niger Delta drifts in a
different direction, 3) the appointment of Ijaws to the federal oil bureaucracy
is always intended to deceive the Ijaws and the people of the Niger Delta, (4)
the nomination of Dr.Goodluck Jonathan as a vice presidential candidate for the
Peoples Democratic Party is designed to neutralize the South-South and the
South-East effort to gain the presidential ticket of the party. The following reasons provide the rationale
for the arguments made:
1. Divergent
Interests
First, Nigeria and the Niger Delta have divergent political
interests. Nigeria wants to exploit the
mineral resources of the region to develop other parts of the country while
intentionally margining it so as to reduce its ability to resist
resource-transfer schemes. The Niger
Delta wants a total or significant control of the management of the mineral
resources so that it can develop itself and improve the lives of the
inhabitants. Nigeria is afraid that if
the region gains total or significant control of oil and gas exploration and
management, the region would become too powerful, thereby, threatening the
national security of the country through an effort to secede. Niger Deltans want Nigeria to go back to the
arrangement which existed during the heydays of groundnut, cocoa, palm oil, and
palm kernel. They argue that when these
cash crops were the mainstay of the economy, the regions were allowed to manage
the resources. Nigerian leaders argue
that national control is needed to spread the wealth coming from oil and gas in
order to ensure the common good. The
divergence of view between Nigeria and the Niger Delta is most profoundly felt
in Ijaw areas of the region since Ijaw territory is the most deprived,
marginalized and underdeveloped. The
Ijaws are indeed afraid that if they do not do something about the situation
now, they could up with nothing after contributing generously to the development
of Nigeria. Each time they visit
Oloibiri, they are reminded of what could happen to them if the oil runs
dry.
Second, fearful that the citizens of the oil-producing
region might get smart and demand control of their resources, Nigerians from the
non-oil producing regions want to grab as much as possible of the oil revenue so
that they can develop their regions and enrich themselves. Unfortunately for the Niger Delta, those
making decisions for Nigeria come largely from the non-oil producing
regions. These Nigerians twist national
polices and programs to favor their regional and selfish interests. These Nigerians are the owners of most of the
oil blocks in the country. Similarly,
they are the greatest embezzlers of the oil wealth, after all, the oil is coming
from someone else backyard, not theirs.
Since oil is flowing from someone else backyard, the looters have no
moral qualms about stealing as much as possible.
Third, due to the divergent interests, any Ijaw who accepts a high-level
Federal Government appointment at this time automatically puts himself/herself
at a political crosswire. The person is caught between trying to serve Nigeria
and still being loyal to the Niger Delta.
As a federal official, if he/she shows extensive loyalty toward the oil
region, the person would be accused by Nigeria of treasonable conduct. On the other hand, if the person tilts toward
Nigeria, he/she would be castigated for being traitorous. Ijaw high-level federal officials must play a
balancing game in order to avoid being accused by either side.
2. The appointment of an Ijaw as
an Army Chief of Staff is designed to use an Ijaw to destroy the Ijaws as the
Niger Delta drifts in a different direction.
Thus, there is a tug of-war going on between Nigeria and the Niger
Delta. Consequently, it is difficult not
to read political meanings into the actions of the Federal Government of Nigeria
whenever an Ijaw is appointed to a certain national position at a certain
time. This being the case,the following
provide the probable reasons which led to the appointment of an Ijaw to head the
Nigerian Army:
First, an Ijaw was appointed to head the effort to
crackdown Ijaw youths at a time when the armed forces were having much
difficulty subduing the armed fighters.
This indicated the fact that the power wielders were cooking up a dirty
game against the Ijaws. Machiavelli
suggested in the Prince that leaders should appoint others to do their dirty
work for them so that they would not be blamed.
Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin, Saddam Hussein, and many leaders in the world
have closely followed the advice of the Florentine political guru. Powerful nations routinely apply this tactics
to subdue those they conquered or are conquering. The British appointed Warrant Chiefs from
various ethnic groups to lead the effort to pacify the groups in Nigeria. They also created the West African Frontier
Force (WAFF) and recruited Africans to subdue the African people for the British
colonial effort. The Christian missionaries used converted Africans to convert
the African people.
Second, at the time of the appointment of Lt. Gen. Azazi,
Nigeria was having difficulty penetrating the riverine areas of Ijawland. The country needed someone who understand the
terrain and could map out a strategy to enable the armed forces to operate
successfully. An Ijaw who had lived in
the region will definitely understand the terrain much better than any other
Nigerian.
Third, the power-wielders wanted an Ijaw face at the front of the army in
the event that an Odi or Okerenkoko or Odiama-like violations of human rights
were to take place as the military tries to subdue the fighters. If an abuse takes place, the powerwielders
and other Nigerians would point to the fact that an Ijaw is the head of the
army, thereby, deflecting international criticism. You remember, the Ijaws pointed an accusing
finger at Maj. Gen. Victor Malu because he was the head of the Army at the time
Odi was destroyed.
Fourth, the decision-makers wanted an Ijaw son since the Ijaws were
becoming proactively oppositional toward oil operations. They hope that an Ijaw at the helm of the
army would reduce Ijaw resistance to the Nigerian effort to subdue
them.
Fifth, since the Ijaws seem to be very proactive in opposing the status
quo, having an Ijaw at the helm of the army would serve Nigeria very well. If the army cracks down real hard against
any other ethnic group in the region, Nigeria can instigate other ethnic groups
in the region to attack the Ijaws since their son is the head of the army. The Federal Government can incite action by
pointing out that the Ijaws are using their son to accomplish their desire to
dominate the entire region. This would
frighten other ethnic groups in the region to align with Nigeria against the
Ijaws. It is very easy to manipulate
information in the region due to territorial concerns.
Sixth, an Ijaw as the head of the army serves Nigeria
well by enabling it to penetrate the inner circles of the Ijaw movements through
planting of spies. It is much easier for
an Ijaw to recruit and plant other Ijaws to penetrate various groups in the
region than a Yoruba or an Igbo or a Hausa or a Tiv. Already, the story being circulated that
the State of Bayelsa and Agip helped a Lebanese captive to escape clearly
demonstrate what can happen if the Federal Government and the oil companies
really want to disorganize the Ijaws.
They would simply use Ijaw sons and daughters by paying them generously
to create confusion in the ethnic commonwealth, thereby, defeating the political
effort at resource control. If the story
circulated by the Ijo Awome Investigative Organization on the Oil Block Owners
Association and the assigned role of Gen. Azazi is believable, then the Ijaws
who are clamoring for resource control must open their eyes and watch every
situation like an eagle.
Seventh, the Federal Government wants to reduce international criticism
of the management of the situation. By
having an Ijaw head the army, it would be very difficult to sue or go to the
International Court of Justice or International Criminal Court because the Ijaws
would also be charging their son along with other Nigerian officials if
violations take place.
Eighth, Lt. Gen Azazi is between a rock and a hard place. He is answerable to President Obasanjo and
the Nigerian Government and not to the Ijaw nation. This means that he is responsible for
carrying out the defence policies and orders of the Government of Nigeria. Consequently, if he is instructed to buy arms
that would be used to suppress the Niger Delta, he cannot object to the
order. If he does, he would be
court-martialed for insubordination. He
could even be tried for treason for indirectly supporting the armed fighters
against the sovereign state of Nigeria, if he refuses to carry out an order to
use maximum force to eliminate threats to the national security in the Niger
Delta.
Even if he carries out the orders of the president to the
last letter, he is still in danger of tactically being neutralized or eliminated
for being an Ijaw. Already, he knows so
much about the secret plans and deals that are being concocted. To survive, he must constantly demonstrate
his loyalty to the president and Nigeria by taking tough measures against the
fighters. In this regard, he could even
be forced to make misleading statements intended to create a certain
understanding so as to ensure the national security of Nigeria. The power-wielders would always watch him
through secret agents to make sure he conforms to what they want him to be. He is really in a terrible situation. If he carries out the orders of the
president, he would be leading an army to destroy his own people and the people
of the Niger Delta. If that happens, the
Ijaws would accuse him of being a traitor. If he refuses to do that, the Federal
Government can arrest him for conniving with the fighters.
3. The appointment of Ijaws to
the federal oil bureaucracy is always intended to deceive the Ijaws and the
people of the Niger Delta.
It should be noted that due to the importance of manipulating and
controlling the Niger Delta, Nigeria has always appointed the sons and daughters
of the region based on strategic and tactical reasons. In this regard, the appointment of Dr. Edmund
Daukoru as the Minister of State for Petroleum and Dr. Abbiye Sekibo as the
Minister of Transportation followed the same strategic script that have been
used by the national power-wielders in the past. Dr. Daukoru is intended to put a Niger Delta
face on the tumultuous oil palaver. It
is Nigeria’s effort to trick the people of the region into believing that they
are well represented in the Federal Government.
It is also intended to create the false impression that their son is
directly involved in the administration of oil and gas management in the
country. However, the trick is not
working because Dr. Daukoru’s appointment has not made any difference in the way
oil blocks are distributed. Similarly,
those who have access to the oil wealth continue to embezzle undisturbed. In addition, there is no doubt that a
majority of those who own oil blocks are from the non-oil producing
regions. Likewise, there is no doubt
that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation NNPC) is still as porous as
before in its management of the oil and gas industry. In short, Dr. Daukoru is simply playing the
role which other Niger Deltans have played in the past over the management of
oil and gas bureaucracy in the country.
He is a figure-head intended to create a certain political image. Otherwise, if he tries to change the oil
block system or the management of the NNPC in a way that threatens the powers
that be, the president would kick him out.
He should be very careful to avoid being set up the way Gen. Ibrahim
Babangida attempted to have Dr. Tamuno David-West arrested for corruption and the manner in which Dan
Etete is being hounded. Dr Sekibo was
used to politically control a section of Rivers State. After he did an excellent job, he was
rewarded with a federal appointment.
Later, he was removed after the national players had gotten what they
wanted. To avoid being set up, Dr.
Daukoru must keep records of every transaction carried out under his
supervision. He must also keep records
of every order or request from the president and other national officials
requesting the transfer of funds, in case of a future effort to probe
him.
4. The nomination of Dr. Goodluck
Jonathan as the vice presidential candidate for the PDP is designed to
neutralize the South-South and the South-East effort to gain the presidential
ticket of the party.
The rationale which led to the appointment of Gen. Azazi also led to the
nomination of Dr. Goodluck Jonathan as the vice presidential candidate of the
Peoples Democratic Party Similar to the
joyous celebration which occasioned the appointment of the general, millions of
Ijaws also rejoiced when Dr. Jonathan was nominated as the vice presidential
candidate of the PDP. There is no doubt
that the same invisible people who selected Lt. Gen. Azazi are also responsible
for selecting Dr. Jonathan. Again, they
wanted an Ijaw person who could be used to pacify the Ijaws. The following provide the probable strategic
reasons which led to the nomination of Dr. Jonathan:
First, those who are gaining tremendously from the present oil
arrangement are frightened by the developments in the Niger Delta. They know that most of the armed fighters are
Ijaw youths. They are convinced that an
Ijaw vice president would help to reduce the armed resistance.
Second, if the PDP were to win the coming presidential
election, Dr. Jonathan would become the vice president. This means that he would be legally and
politically obligated to carry out the national security goals of Nigeria. Part of that goal would be to crush
resistance in the Niger Delta if peaceful means do not lead to de-escalation of
tension emanating from armed resistance.
He could actually become the political front-man to lead efforts to
pacify the region.
Third, as an Ijaw man, Nigeria would expect him to cough out information
about those viewed as “troublemakers’ in Ijawland. Whatever information he provides would be
used to map out a strategy to launch attacks if peaceful negotiations do not
yield a desirable end. To succeed in
compelling him to cough out information, he would be promised an oil block if
everything goes as anticipated.
Fourth, as an Ijaw man, he would make it much easier to penetrate various
movements in Ijawland because many Ijaw men and women would serve as his
assistants. Some of the assistants would
be assigned to gather intelligence for the Federal Government of
Nigeria.
Fifth, Dr. Jonathan could be
forced to engage in deeds that he would ordinarily oppose through threats. It should be noted that he did not showed any
interest in the vice presidential position.
He was campaigning to become the next governor of Bayelsa State when the
Abuja players called to pick him as the vice presidential nominee for PDP,
instead of Dr. Peter Odili who was a front runner for the job. Consequently, as a vice president, in the
event that the PDP wins the presidential election in April 2007, Abuja would
remind him that he was only a small political fish in the back waters of Bayelsa
State when they elevated him to the vice presidential position, so, he must pay
back for the kindness rendered to him by Abuja.
Please, watch the Yoruba-based Nigerian movie titled
“OYATO.”
Sixth, another factor which probably influenced the selection of Dr
Jonathan as a vice presidential candidate was a plan to destroy the South-South
and the South-East efforts to grab the top job in the country. It appears that the powerwielders are not
ready yet to allow someone from the South-South or the South-East to become the
president of Nigeria. The unwillingness
to allow someone from the deep south to become a president could be prompted by
the fact that most oil is found in the South-South and sections of the
South-East. The PDP powerwielders, it
seems, made a secret deal to give the top job to the North. In order to make the transfer of power to the
North palatable, they decided to pick an Ijawman. They
reasoned that other ethnic groups in the region would not be too eager to
criticize an Ijaw for taking the vice presidential position. In fact, the powerwielders predicted Ijaw
response very well, hence, as soon as Dr. Jonathan was given the vice
presidential position, the Ijaws immediately stop demanding for the top
job. As the Ijaws stop demanding for the
top job, other ethnic groups too stop demanding for the top position. This made it easy for the PDP to hand over
the presidency to the North.
Seventh, Dr. Jonathan, it also seemed, was chosen to knock off Dr. Peter
Odili as the number one contender of the PDP.
It appears that the president did not want Odili to become the flagbearer
of the party. However, he did not want
to show publicly his disapproval of Odili.
So, he waited until the last moment before staging the political coup to
offstage the ambitious governor of Rivers State. It should be recalled that the arrival of the
EFCC to Port Harcourt to probe public corruption coincided with the PDP
primaries and Dr. Odili was busy trying to win support nationally. The arrival of the EFCC immediately destroyed
any chance of Dr. Odili getting the presidential nomination. Why did the EFCC arrived Port Harcourt at
the time the South-South, South-East and
the North were competing to produce the next presidential candidate for the
party? The probable answer is that the
decisionmakers concocted the plan to destroy Dr. Odili since he was a major
contender directly and indirectly representing the SS and SE at the same time
against the Northern choice.
In any case, the appointment of Ijaw officials to
critical national positions would not really make much difference in the way
Nigeria treats the Niger Delta. The
wielders of power view the region as an easy means to accumulate personal
wealth. Consequently, they would simply
appoint Ijaws to create false impressions and hide their actual motives. This is not an understatement, after all, the
appointment of Ijaw sons in the past to lead the NNPC and the oil bureaucracy
did not make any difference in the way the Niger Delta was treated.
The danger lurking ahead is that the Ijaws could end up having two of
their prominent sons leading the Nigerian efforts to persecute them with Gen.
Azazi as the head of the Army and Dr. Jonathan as the political front-man if the
PDP wins the next presidential elections.
In the event that the PDP wins, there is a high probability that the
powerwielders could make a strategic decision to keep Gen. Azazi as the head of
the army. In such a scenario, other
ethnic groups would laugh uncontrollably at the Ijaws for being too greedy to
grab power without seeing the traps laid against them.
Therefore, Ijaw people, be more analytical in your examination of
Nigerian politics. Whenever an Ijaw is
appointed to any national position, do not jubilate until the implications are
analyzed exhaustively because Abuja political lords are very tricky political
players. It was really unfortunate that
when Vice President Atiku Abubakar revealed that the president had allocated $2
billion to purchase arms, some Ijaws could not wait before criticizing him for
inciting the region. Increasingly, it
appears that the vice president was correct in saying that arms were being
purchased. The Ijaws should appreciate
the fact that the vice president is talking.
The more he talks, the more the inner workings of the Abuja political
machine are revealed to the public.
However, despite the bleak analytical view of the reasons for appointing
Ijaw public officials at the federal level, it is unwise to jump to conclusion
regarding their conduct. The reason is
that God works mysteriously. May be, it
was by divine intervention that Lt. Gen. Azazi and Dr. Jonathan should be placed
at the corridors of national power at this critical juncture. It is quite possible that they could work
quietly to change things in Nigeria. In
fact, they can actually change the situation in the country since they have a
first hand knowledge of the issues.
Working together, both can persuade Abuja to take the political rout
instead of focusing on the military option.
After all, who ever thought that some of the youths who were recruited by
national and regional political tycoons to cause havoc during the elections of
2003 in Rivers, Bayelsa, and Delta States would turn out to be the leading
exponents of regional resource control today.
They are now the forces to be reckoned with and those who attempted to
use them are now scratching their heads in an effort to contain them. Indeed, Ijawland is filled with
godly/spiritual mysteries, hence, those who think that they can use Ijaw sons to
destroy the Ijaws could end up scratching their heads if Azazi and Jonathan
turned out to become forces for positive development, not only in the Niger
Delta but throughout Nigeria.
Furthermore, it could be visualized
that, perhaps, those who wield power in Nigeria have finally decided to do the
right thing. Doing the right thing means
appreciating the contributions that the Niger Delta has made toward the
development of the country and treating its citizens as equal partners in the
Nigerian project. In this regard,
perhaps, the appointment of two sons of Ijawland to very critical national
positions could be a step toward repaying the damage done to the Ijaws for
decades. On this aspect, it is
necessary to wait and see.
In any case, the best the Ijaws can do is to be very attentive by
investigating, probing, analyzing, visualizing, theorizing, and acting to
achieve concrete positive results.
Therefore, be wise, think deeply, and do not be misled by superficial
actions and inactions
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Strategic Factors and
Options: Defining Ijaw Goals and Objectives
By Priye S. Torulagha
Nigeria is at a critical point in time.
Due to failure of leadership and hopelessness, there is a scramble among
the members of the polity for the piece of the akara, by any means
possible. Therefore, the importance of identifying strategic goals
and objectives for the Ijaw nation becomes very essential.
In continuation of earlier discussion, there is a need for further
elaboration on the goals and objectives.
1. The Ijaws must clearly identify their goals and
objectives. The ethnic goals must be separated from the regional
goals and objectives. This is to avoid misdirection and
overextension. Misdirection and overextension can lead to
innumerable political and military problems.
2. This does not mean shying away from
regional goals. It simply means that the Ijaws do not confuse the
two. Regional goals should be pursued in alliance with other
ethnic groups in the region. At the regional level, the Ijaws
should work cooperatively and not try to dominate or overwork themselves to the
point of exhaustion. Moreover, it is necessary to avoid the
perception that the Ijaws are trying to take over the entire region.
National powerwielders would not have any hesitation in exploiting such a
perception and turning other ethnic groups against the Ijaws, as stated
earlier. That was what happened to the Igbos before and during the
civil war. The Igbos lost more than a million people.
3. The Ijaws must take steps to create an international
understanding and support. In this regard, it is necessary to
communicate directly to the US, Britain, France, Canada, Venezuela, Brazil,
Italy, the United Nations, African Union, and ECOWAS what are Ijaw goals and
objectives, as well as Ijaw experience. Events in the last seven
years have shown that the Ijaws are the most abused citizens of Nigeria.
They are being abused physically, politically, economically,
psychologically, and environmentally. There is no hesitation on
the part of the Federal Government of Nigeria to violate Ijaw
rights.
4. It could be said that after the Igbo ethnic group (
immediately before and during the ciivl war), the Ijaws have been the most
violated. Whenever the military is sent into an Ijaw community,
there is a tendency to destroy everything and kill everybody. The
members of the armed forces generally do not exercise caution when intervening
in Ijaw communities. For instance, In Eastern Ijawland, supposedly
to contain Dokubo Asari, military air raids were conducted. Again,
to supposedly stop oil bunkering, Ijaw communities were bombarded from the air
in the Western zone.
Generally, when an Ijaw community is ravaged through malicious military
operation, there is no national clamor for compensation. The
president has never said that Nigeria will compensate the people of Okerenkoko,
Odi, Odiama etc. for what federal security forces have done. If
not for the hostage crisis, it is doubtful whether Gov. James Ibori of Delta
State would have mentioned anything about supplying anything to the victims of
the air raids in Gbaramatu. The attitude is that it is a fair game
to kill an Ijaw, hence, there is no national will to compensate any Ijaw
community. Even the National Assembly has never appropriated any
money for compensation after military attacks. Why are the Ijaw
negotiators not demanding compensation for the air-raids and the destruction of
Ijaw communities as part of the deal?
5. It is necessary for the Ijaws to speak with one voice
and warn that the ethnic nation will not tolerate any more military incursion
into Ijaw territory that results in unnecessary killing of innocent Ijaw
people.
Since President Obasanjo became president, the Ijaws have never killed
anyone just for the purpose of killing. The only circumstances
which led to Ijaw fights involved territorial disputes with its
neighbors. On the other hand, in the North and West, people have
been killed many times for no justifiable reasons. The Airforce
has never been used to stop the constant carnage resulting from religious
riots. Yet, in response to any slight altercation in Ijawland, the
military is sent to devastate entire communities.
Only in Ijawland is the policy that an entire community
could be punished for the transgressions of the few is being carried out
repeatedly in Nigeria.
The notion that an entire community could be bombed from air for oil
bunkering is simply unacceptable, after all, the major oil bunkerers are some of
the power-wielders in the country who have become multimillionaires and
billionaires for stealing oil.
6. The Ijaws must insist that Nigeria
include budgetary expenditures for programs intended for Ijaw
development in the national budget. It is rather surprising
that since 1960, Ijawland has never received any budget allocation for any
national developmental purpose.
On the other hand, the Federal Government allocates money regularly to
various parts of the country for projects and ignore Ijawland entirely as if it
is not part of Nigeria. For example, the Federal Executive Council
recently voted to allocate money for infrastructural enhancement in some parts
of the country without providing anything for Ijawland or the Niger Delta, the
breadbasket of the country’s economy. Look at the following list
of items approved by the Federal Executive Council:
a. N1.66 for construction of
lecture theaters, faculty and administration buildings at the permanent site of
the University of Abuja. This is the same Abuja that received
billions of oil money to turn it into a glamorous city.
b. N58 million for a science building at
the University of Agriculture in Abeokuta, Ogun
State.
- N2.4 billion multipurpose dam at Ilesha, Osun State.
d. N96.2 million for engineering
design for Palagari-Alawa-Bassa-Galadima-Kogo-
Shiroro in Niger
State
- N791.6 million to construct marine fenders for safer jetty smoother
landing in
Various ports.
Nothing for Ijawland or the Niger Delta.
The Niger Delta is always forgotten in national appproriations.
Yet, Niger Delta Public officials remain quiet. Of course,
most of the money for all these projects comes from the Niger Delta.
The Ijaws have been too quiet and allow the power-wielders to bypass them
and distribute financial and capital budget resources to other regional areas of
the country.
The Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) is not enough to handle the
situation. Therefore, the Federal Government should not assume
that the NDDC is sufficient enough to meet the developmental needs of the
region. The Federal Ministries of Works, Health, and Transport
need to be more actively involved in the development of the Niger
Delta.
7. Demand the creation of at least two Ijaw states.
Right now, the Ijaws are being short-changed. The Ijaws
receive only one share of the national budget in the form of Bayelsa
State. The Ijaws in other states do not receive any direct
financial allocation. On the other hand, the Yorubas, Igbos and the
Hausa-Fulanis receive at least five shares, based on the number of states in
their ethnic areas. For example, the Yorubas receive a share of
the national budget through Ekiti, Lagos, Ogun, Ondo, Osun, and Oyo States, plus
a chunk of Kogi or Kwara State. The Igbos do so through Abia,
Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu, and Imo States, plus a chunk of Delta State.
The Hausa-Fulani gain most through more than seven states.
Almost all the revenue comes from oil. This means that the
Ijaws receive only a fraction of revenue from the national budget while the
total revenue of the three big ethnic groups outnumbered those of the
oil-producing states. Of course, the Ijaws were one of the
earliest groups to demand the creation of states and they are the last to
receive a state.
8. Ijaw public officials who are serving at the local,
state, and national levels should be more proactive in bringing resources to
their areas. It is unfortunate that Ijaw elected officials did not
scream when the Federal Executive Council approved the recent budget allocation
for the infrastructural development of Western and Northern areas
of the country without anything for Ijawland or the Niger Delta.
Ijaw public officials seem too eager to please or kowtow
to the national power-wielders. Whenever the president dictates,
Ijaw public officials bend over heels to please him, even though he is
responsible for some of the political problems in the Niger Delta.
For example, when Chief DSP Alamieyeseigha was the governor, the
president almost scolded him for Odi without replying vigorously to defend the
Ijaw position. The president made an ultimatum and broke it in
order to hurriedly sent troops to Odi. After devastating Odi, Ijaw
public officials sheepishly remained quiet. The same repeated
himself at Odiama. The Delta sub-region has been invaded so many
times. The same is happening again with the hostage situation and
the attack on Ijaw communities.
For once, why not tell the president that he is the cause of the
crisis. For instance, after the four hostages were released, the
president and his advisers decided to send helicopter gunships to attack Ijaw
communities, thereby, precipitating the current hostage crisis.
Why not tell him to act right or let him be solely responsible for
solving the problem? He continues to scream and give orders as if
regional public officials are military officers that must obey his order without
dissension. By the way, under a federal system of government,
power is supposed to be divided between the national government and the
states. Thus, state public officials are supposed to be elected
directly by their own people just as the president is also elected by the
people. Consequently, the president constitutionally does not have
the power to order state elected officials around as if they are employees of
the federal government. Yet, public officials in Bayelsa and Delta
States are falling over the place to please the president who is responsible for
creating the current crisis by sending the Airforce to provoke
retaliation.
It is surprising that Ijaw public officials and public figures are not
using the negotiations to demand for compensation for forty years of
exploitation and the destruction of various Ijaw towns and
villages.
9. Put pressure on Shell to pay the $1.5 billion
compensation that it owed the people of Bayelsa. Similarly, the
oil companies should be made to pay for destruction of farmland and fishing
grounds throughout Ijawland. These things can be negotiated
peacefully if ethnic leaders are committed.
10. Put pressure on the Federal Government
to stop the distribution of oil blocks (blogs) to highly connected
individuals. If oil is a national resource, why not allow the NNPC
to manage it instead of allowing individuals to own the shares.
The existing system leads to massive corruption and deprivation of the
rights of the oil-producing states. Those who have been feasting
on the oil blocks should be made to refund the incomes earned since the oil
blocks were illegally distributed without the knowledge of the indigenes of the
oil-producing region.
Demand 50/50% shares between the Federal Government and
the oil-producing states. In other words, the government should
have a 50% share and the oil-producing states 50% in oil block
distribution.
11. It is time to reenergize the Ijaw
National Congress.
- The first step is to make sure that the leadership
position is rotated accordingly. This means that no leader should
be allowed to serve more than one term. It is destructive to the
strategic interest of the ethnic group when three zones compete for the
position. Proper rotation would eliminate what happened when Dr.
Kimse Koko decided to manage the organization after his time had expired.
- The INC and IYC must operate as neutral bodies. This means
that they should not be closely identified with any political party or
individual. They should not tie their identity with that of any
public official. This is to avoid polarization as had happened
when DSP Alamieyesiegha got into trouble.
- The INC and IYC must always consult the leadership of the three zones
before taking any position on any matter.
- It is the responsibility of these two organizations to monitor the
activities of state governments so that budgets are used wisely to benefit the
people.
12. Again, differentiate ethnic goals and objectives from regional goals
and objectives. Mixing both together is the easiest way to court
political trouble for the ethnic nation.
13. Any activity intended to achieve the goals of the
ethnic group must be limited to Ijaw territory so that other ethnic groups do
not feel threatened.
14. The government of Bayelsa State must always look beyond
the boundaries of the State and include Eastern and Western Ijawland in making
certain decisions. Similarly, the people of Bayelsa State should
not differentiate themselves from Eastern and Western Ijawland. To
do so is to play into the hands of those who specialize in divide and conquer
tactics.
In this regard, it was very shameful that during the
first hostage crisis, Bayelsan public officials tried to blame Western Ijaw
citizens and some Western Ijaw leaders tried to blame Bayelsans for the
crisis. That was indeed shameful. It meant that
they were not equipped to become ethnic leaders. Instead of
blaming each other, the strategy should be that whenever there is a crisis, the
leadership of the three zones (both youths and elders) must come together to
devise a strategy in confronting the problem, instead of blaming each
other. After all, the suffering affects all Ijaw people, not just
people in Bayelsa or Rivers or Delta or Ondo or Edo, or Akwa Ibom
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Strategic Factors and
Options: Fighting Legal Fire with Fire
By Priye S. Torulagha
On the surface, it appears as if the Ijaw nation has been stricken by two
major lightening bolts, following the
arrests of two prominent Ijaw citizens, Chief DSP Alamieyeseigha and Asari
Dokubo. For the politically and legally uninitiated player or
amateur, such actions are enough to convince the person to give up the
struggle. Similarly, the two cases are sufficient enough to rock
the foundation out of any ethnic group that is not equipped to handle two major
legal and political battles at the same time.
There is no doubt that Nigeria desired to deliver a knock out blow, like
Mike Tyson, in his heydays. Hence, it plotted with the British
Government to ensure the arrest of Governor Alamieyeseigha while simultaneously
arresting Alhaji Asari Dokubo in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. By such
steps, Nigeria intended to inflict legal and political body blows to the Ijaw
nation, hoping to defang and neutralize it for good in an effort to ensure
uninhibited flow of oil from the Niger Delta. In the past, Nigeria
had
intentionally inflicted military blows by devastating many towns and
village, including Odi and Odiama.
Instead of being shaken, the Ijaws should take the two cases as a
blessing in disguise. In fact, they should even welcome more since
such actions are needed to wake them up and enable them to realize that they are
a in a drawn-out politico-legal guerrilla warfare in which Nigeria is determined
to win at all costs. Only such bodily blows will enable Ijaw
public officials, public figures and the elites to stop misbehaving and realize
that they must mobilize politically and legally to take the necessary actions to
untangle the ethnic nation.
Nigeria used the two cases to send clear messages, one to
corrupt public officials that the era of blatant corruption is drawing to a
close and the other to warn armed elements that any threat to the territorial
integrity of the country would be seriously dealt with. Of the two
cases, the one in London seems to be a little more complicated due to the money
laundering charges. At the present time in the world, anyone who
is arrested for allegedly committing embezzlement or misappropriation of public
funds or illegal transfer of funds is not very likely to receive a warm
reception from the generality of the public since such acts tend to penalize the
general public more than the elites. It is not a secret that the
Niger Delta has been devastated by massive corruption emanating from local and
national public officials. On the other hand, in Dokubo’s case, although treason is alleged, nonetheless,
it seems to provide the best opportunity for the Ijaw people to legally
liberate themselves, if they really want to be free in making decisions
about the control of natural resources on their lands.
The Dokubo’s case has a universal implication, not only for the Niger
Delta and Nigeria since almost all the contemporary African, Asian, Middle
Eastern, Caribbean, and Latin American countries were created through foreign
military aggression. If the Ijaws legally fight this case to the
highest level possible, they would help to set political and legal precedents
concerning the legality of states created through foreign military aggression in
Africa, Asia, Middle East, and Latin America. In other words, the Ijaws should
help to raise the question of the legality of a state created by forced
incorporation. Is it legally proper or legitimate for such a state to gain
sovereign status when the citizens were forced at gunpoint to accept
the arrangement? Since the implication of the Dokubo
case is far more reaching, the Ijaws need to mobilize all their resources to
fight it. A forced incorporation is an illegal act, therefore, can
an illegality become legal under international law?
In fighting the treason case, the Ijaws need to do the
following:
1. Assist in recruiting a very competent legal team.
Of course, Festus Keyamo is a legal warrior and cannot be easily
intimidated. He needs all the financial and material support from
the people of the Niger Delta and well-wishing Nigerians.
2. The defense team must insist, as Keyamo has already
intimated, the right to cross-examine the prosecution’s witnesses.
Part of the cross-examination must include examining the circumstances
under which the witnesses became the eyes and hears of the
government. This is necessary in order to find out whether they
were fifth columnists or paid hands of the federal government.
3. Part of the strategy must be to challenge the treason
charge by arguing that it isimpossible for an Ijaw to commit such act against
Nigeria since the Ijaws did not sign any document which transferred their
sovereignty to the British Government or Nigeria. If the Ijaws did
not sign any agreement which transferred their sovereignty, technically, it
means that the Ijaws are still sovereign. Since Asari Dokubo is an
Ijaw, he enjoys the sovereignty of the Ijaw ethnic nation. To
argue this point successfully, it is crucial to produce all the colonial
documents and treaties which the Ijaws signed with the British. Keyamo has already
made reference to this possibility. Mr. Orubebe too had made a
statement that the Ijaws never signed any paper to be part of Nigeria. These
documents must be produced as evidence.
4. It is necessary to argue that the Ijaws
were forcefully incorporated into Nigeria by aggression, therefore, they did not have the
freedom of determinining whether they wanted to be in Nigeria or not.
Based on this logic, the Ijaws, being a colonial subject of Nigeria, have
the right to seek self-determination based on the United Nations Declarations
concerning Decolonization and Human Rights. This being the case,
the defense can add that Asari Dokubo acted in accordance with UN declarations
and thus did not commit any treasonable offence against Nigeria.
In this case, it is necessary to tender UN treaties and declarations
concerning self-determination for colonized people, as evidence.
5. To demonstrate the fact that the Niger Delta has never
been treated as part of Nigeria, refer to the Willink’s Commission report
which recommended that the region should be treated as a “Special
Area.”
6. Further, argue that the case should be thrown out due to
its selective and discriminatory nature. There are hundreds of
people in Nigeria who have made comments similar to the one made by Dokubo but
they are not arrested or charged for treason. To support this
argument, provide newspaper clippings made by others in the country.
Show that there is a pattern of discrimination against the citizens of
the Niger Delta, thereby, demonstrating the fact that the region and its
inhabitants are treated as colonial subjects. Further, show that
by systemically discriminating against the citizens of the Niger Delta, Nigeria has shown that it does
not regard the citizens of the region
as Nigerians. Otherwise, Nigeria would have treated all
Nigerians equally under the Constitution and
laws of the land.
7. An argument can also be made by maintaining that Dokubo
could not be charged for treason since he is from the Niger Delta and Nigeria
has treated the Niger Delta like a colonial enclave by discriminating against
the region in infrastructural development throughout its existence.
Further, add that if Nigeria truly believes that the Niger Delta is part
of the country, it would not have neglected the region throughout its
existence, despite the recommendations of
the Willink’s Commission in 1958.
8. Concerning the charges that Dokubo is a
member of an armed group, using the argument above, compile a list of such
groups in the country. After doing so,
argue that if belonging
to such groups constituted treasonable offence, then question the prosecutor on
why Nigeria has not arrested and charged the leaders and followers of all such
groups in the country. Add that since Nigeria is not arresting and
charging leaders of such organizations in the country, it means that belonging
to such organizations does not constitute a crime, otherwise, such
groups would have been banned and all members would have been arrested and
charged for treason.
9. Based on the logic above, argue that the arrest of
Dokubo was politically motivated, if not, every group of such nature would have been banned and the leaders
arrested and charged for treason.
10. To demonstrate the fact that the arrest and charges
were politically motivated, let the court know that Nigeria is today a
democratic nation. Generally, in a democratic nation, freedom of speech is allowed.
Show that in the US, Canada, Britain, and many other democratic countries,
individuals have spoken about secession or the right to break away without
being charged for treason. Cite Canada, in particular, where politicians and citizens from the Quebec
Province have freely spoken about breaking away from the country.
Inform the court that in Canada and other democratic countries, the
ballot is used to deal with such political issues and not truncated political
charges intended to intimidate citizens.
11. Also cite the fact that in the US and other democratic
countries, armed interest groups
operate freely. Thus, Asari Dokubo was exercising his democratic
right to express frustration over the manner in which Nigeria had treated his
people for more than four decades. Cite instances where he said
that he was going to fight for the freedom of his people by using democratic and
legal means. In fact, he was one of the first leaders in Rivers
State to agree to negotiate the surrender of arms. Since then, he has operated openly like any other law-abiding individual.
12. While this case is going on, either the Ijaw National
Congress or the Ijaw Youth Council or a legal body, so constituted, should sue
the federal government, demanding reparations and interest from all the monies
earned through oil exploration in Ijaw territory. The suit should
be based upon the view that Nigeria expropriated Ijaw lands without permission
through intolerable and abusive military decrees. To support this
assertion, demonstrate that the Niger Delta has been militarily occupied to make way for forceful expropriation
of the region’s resources.
The issue of expropriation must be demonstrated by showing that the Ijaw
people did not sign any paper surrendering their sovereignty to either Britain
or Nigeria. The evidence tendered in the case above can also be
used in the suit to justify reparation and or compensation.
Another Ijaw group or a section of the INC or IYC should be responsible
for publicity. As the Dokubo case is
going on, it is important to publish the documents signed by the Ijaws in an effort to educate the Nigerian
public and the entire world about the fact that the Ijaws truly have a legal
ground to demand compensation for expropriation of land and resources,
environmental damage and economic loses on agriculture and fisheries emanating
from oil exploration.
The publicity group should also send copies of such documents to theUnited
Nations, the African Union, Economic Community of West African States,
the European Union, the United States, Britain, France, Italy, Japan, and
Germany.
The suggested legal options might sound outlandish and nonensical, nevertheless,
it should be noted that other groups have been deploying similar tactics. For instance, the Masai in Kenya are trying to reclaim all the lands that
were forcibly taken away from them during the colonial era. Similarly, the San people who have been tremendously discriminated against in South
Africa , are working to reclaim their
lands. They are also working to get compensation for the use of the resources on their lands. In fact, the
Native Americans in Ecuador successfully used such legal arguments to win
cases against oil companies which operated in their
territories.
While the Dokubo case provides an excellent ground for the Ijaws to
challenge the notion of
the sovereignty of a state created through foreign military aggression,
the Ijaws should take a wait and see attitude on the Alamieyeseigha case. That case involves money laundering of misappropriated public funds. The people of Bayelsa, like other citizens of the Niger Delta, have suffered
tremendously due to massive corruption perpetrated by indigenous public
officials. For
instance, according to financial
figures posted by brother Francis Udisi on Ijawnation website, Bayelsa
received the following
amount from January to June, 2005:
January 2005 ===9,683,195,968.85
February 2005===9,581,588.555.61
March 2005 ====9,294,384,550.67
April 2005 =====8,864,426,419.67
May 2005======8,912,480,940.60
June 2005======7,758,286,156.05
It is very doubtful whether Bayelsa State officials can give a correct
account of what was done with all these monies. In fact, there are
still Bayelsan state workers who have not received their salaries for months, despite the
monthly federal allocations to the state. Therefore, it is in the best interest of the
people of Bayelsa and the Ijaw people generally that the case in London goes through the legal process so that
all the facts are uncovered.
The governor’s case provided an excellent opportunity for the Ijaw nation
to play high level diplomatic
politics internationally. However, the ethnic nation, through the
INC and IYC leadership, failed to do so. Instead,
the politics of reaction was manifested. Reactive politics has a
negative implication and does not seem to boost the image of the ethnic
group. For instance, sending someone to Aso Rock to plead with
the president and other power-wielders was both strategic and tactical
mistakes. It portrayed the ethnic group as people who cannot
stand on the principle of Izonism (truth). The president and other
power-wielders knew immediately that they had gotten the Ijaws, so, they ignored the Ijaw entourage who trooped to
Abuja. Moreover, why did any Ijaw leader think that the president
would make an exception on the case of the governor, taking into consideration
the fact that the president did not make an exception in the case of Chief Tafa
Balogun. Chief Balogun is a Yoruba and a close associate of the
president. Similarly, threatening British interest was a
diplomatic blunder internationally since it sent a wrong message to the world
that the Ijaws could not be trusted to fight corruption.
Think about it for a moment; one major reason why the Niger Delta always
seem to take one step forward and two steps backward is the high degree
of corruption among indigenous and national public officials.
The region’s public officials have always worked in tandem with the national public
officials to exploit the region. As a result, ordinary citizens of
the region have never benefited from the oil windfall. On
the other hand, the region’s public
officials have tended to act with impunity, believing that they can always be
above the law, as far as they work cooperatively with the national
power-wielders. If one carefully examines the political actions of
Bayelsa and Rivers States, in
the last four years, a conclusion can be drawn that the political leaders of
these two states spent massively to reward outside interests without doing so to
the citizens of their states. It is rare to hear of Bayelsa or
Rivers State donating millions of naira to any village or community within their
borders, yet, they have never hesitated to spend millions of nairas to outside
interests, in an effort to woo national power-wielders.
Indeed, the governor’s case is a blessing in disguise because public
officials in the South/South and throughout Nigeria have since become very
cautious. In Bayelsa, some public officials are terrified of being
arrested while some are in hiding. Why are these officials taking
cover or hiding if they have not engaged in criminal activity?
The governor’s case also provides opportunity for Ijaw communities to
launch a silent but peaceful revolution in the three zones. As the federal government, through the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission
(EFCC), intensifies its effort to apprehend embezzlers, Ijaw
communities should file cases in the courts to claim public ownership of any
property that was built or purchased with embezzled money. For
instance, if a local government chair or secretary had embezzled money allocated
for the development of the community, as the people of Patani were able to
demonstrate, the community should use legal means to seize the properties. If the properties
involved houses, such facilities could be used for public libraries, community
centers, health clinics, and schools. If the properties involved vehicles, the vehicles should
become the properties of the local government. If the properties
involved business ventures, they should be converted to publicly owned community
cooperative enterprises.
Similarly, the communities of Tombia, Buguma, Okrika, Andonni, Abua etc,
that were ransacked by armed elements should sue the political elites and the
governments that supported the armed elements to cause various mayhem.
Of course, the people of Odi and Odiama must not fail to act legally for
the massive abuse of their rights.
Due to the sudden change in the climate for embezzlement, those who have
critical information about misappropriated public funds should report such
incidents so that the authorities can investigate. It is the only
means to clean up Ijawland of charlatans and plutocrats who parade
themselves as patriots while exploiting and pauperizing the people.
These actions are necessary to let it be known that public funds belong
to the people and not the
public officials entrusted with the responsibility of administering the
funds. In
Nigeria, elected officials behave as if they have an inalienable right to
convert into their personal use public funds intended for the management of
public goods and services. In the process, citizens have been reduced to paupers
while the public officials and their families become super-rich.
As can be seen, it is politically obvious that the stake-holders on the
Niger Delta question, including the indigenes, international oil consuming
nations, the oil companies, and Nigeria’s powerwielders are increasingly
concerned about the situation in the region. Thus, concerned by
the lack of development, despite billions of nairas being allocated to the
oil-producing states monthly, President Olusegun Obasanjo and the British
Government decided to act. Instead of taking a diplomatic position
which supports the anticorruption effort, the Ijaws threatened to stop the
effort because their prominent son had fallen prey to the dragnet.
It will take a while for the Ijaws to repair the political damage caused
by failing to support the anticorruption effort, regardless of the manner, in
which the war is being prosecuted. In the future, when the Ijaws
demand a fair play, others would say, “ you people are not serious.
You scream about marginalization, deprivations, and oppression, yet, when
your son is caught , you screamed and threatened for his release.”
It is a political suicide to take the position that fighting corruption
is the right thing to do when people from other ethnic groups are caught but it
is unacceptable when an Ijaw is caught, especially considering the fact that
Ijaw public officials have caused the greatest amount of damage to the Ijaw nation
through selfishness, narrow-mindedness, and forming unholy alliances.
In fact, it is arguable that the behavior of public officials in the
oil-producing region led to the
failure to get more than 17% during the National Political Reform
Conference. It did not make any sense to ask for more than 13%
when public officials in the South/South could not account for the increased
federal allocation provided to their states. Democratic politics
involve give and take based on justifiable logical arguments.
Therefore, the governor’s case must be allowed to run through the legal
process inorder to bring respectability to the Ijaw demands
internationally. The British acted swiftly because they wanted to
protect their investments via the Shell Petroleum Development Company. They reasoned that massive
corruption was preventing the oil dividend to flow to the Niger Delta masses,
thereby, fueling the militancy that was threatening the SPDC and other
multinational companies. They are convinced that if public
officials in the region are prevented from misappropriating funds allocated for
development in the region, then the masses would benefit from the oil
dividend. If the masses benefit directly through infrastructural
development, the need for militancy among the youths would de-escalate.
President Obasanjo too feels that militancy among the youths can be
reduced if the people in the oil-producing region are allowed to enjoy the
fruits of increased federal allocations.
For the time being, the deputy governor should be congratulated for
resisting outside pressure to violate the constitution of Bayelsa State.
It is important for him to unite the people by not violating the
constitutional process until the London situation clears up. He
can serve as an acting governor but not the governor until the case is decided.
This is necessary to have a smooth transition from one leader to another without
Ijaw people fighting each other for the governorship position. In
fact, it is important for Ijaw leaders to be wary of the PDP
system. It is a very negative and unprogressive political force in
Nigeria. Consequently, the Ijaws must try not to be entangled in
its deadly politics. The Bayelsa governor, it appears, was too
close to the center of gravity of the PDP system, hence, his
predicament.
This is time for serious political and legal gamesmanship.
Playing big time politics involves certain risks.
Consequently, those who fall prey to the risks must accept their fate as
part of the rituals of playing in the big leagues. The Ijaws must
learn to play in the big leagues if they are serious about their political
intentions. If the federal government is willing to attack with
all legal guns blazing, the Ijaws must counter by using all legal
means available.
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Strategic Factors and
Options: Opportunity for a New Beginning
Priye Torulagha
As I have stated many times in the past, a substantial number
of Ijaw people are not aware of the international implication of their
plight. Being situated at the center or core of the oil belt
automatically exposes them to regional, national, and international political
intrigues. The reason being that oil is a much sort after commodity in the
world. The Black Gold is the fuel that drives the world
economy. Therefore, it is a strategic commodity for which
nation-states are willing to devise any means necessary or go to war in order to
secure its uninterrupted supply.
Since the Black Gold is a strategic commodity, the Niger
Delta is automatically a strategic region. Unfortunately, most
Ijaws are not conscious of this political reality. The sad thing is
that even Ijaw public officials, those who call themselves the political elites
do not seem to comprehend the implication. Hence, as
soon as they get into power, they forget that they are being watched, trapped,
tricked, manipulated, bribed, co-opted, defanged, and compromised.
As soon as they acquire some political recognition from the
power-wielders in Nigeria, they begin to act as if they have acquired national
wings to do as they wish, believing that their national godfathers and
godmothers will be able to rescue them. As soon as they test
power, they forget the Ijaw masses, begin to wine and dine and with the
power-wielders, dance in circles, and ferret the peoples money away as if the
people are nonenties, falsely believing that they no longer need the Ijaw masses
to protect them since they have acquired national wings to fly to Abuja, Kano,
Lagos, London. New York or Paris etc.
Another sad part of what has been going on in Ijawland is the
fact that when some of these so-called leaders assume power, their wives and
children begin to display the looted wealth as if their husbands, fathers, and
uncles actually work for the money. The children begin to live in
very expensive houses and drive very expensive vehicles. They
travel all over the world and advertise the handiwork of their husbands and
fathers, thereby, making it easy for the Ijaw public to know what is going
on. The unfortunate thing is that those associated with looters
often forget their sense of morality and pretend as if everything is
proper.
There is no doubt that Bayelsa State in particular and the
Ijaw nation in general have not been governed well. Throughout the
ethnic nation, the reported Patani Local Government financial drama seems to
play itself out daily as Ijaw political leaders literally convert the financial
resources of their communities into personal accounts. In Bayelsa
State, since the arrival of an indigenous chief executive,
numerous incredulous events have taken place. The list of
incredulous dramatic political scenes and events include (1) the unexplained
bombing of the Bayelsa House of Assembly, (2) the destruction of
Odi, (3) the crippling of the Niger Delta University project even before it
began, (4) the award of contracts to fake firms, (5) the administration and
operation of the state through Britain, the United States, and South Africa (6)
the conduct of legislative business by members of the legislature through
Britain and the United States, (7) the personalization of government, (8)
excessive conduct of government business through a massive spoil system or
political cronyism, (9) the utter lack of financial accountability, (10) the
destruction of Odiama, (11) excessive unexplainable foreign trips by the chief
executive, high level public officials, and members of the legislative branch,
and (12) a general state of restlessness emanating from the lack of political
representation, financial accountability, and genuine infrastructural
development.
In Bayelsa state, like many others in the country, the
political system is highly malfunctioned, hence, the constitutional framework
only exists in paper and not in reality. In theory, under the
presidential form of government in which Nigeria operates, the three branches (
legislature, executive, and judiciary) of government supposed to be
equal. They supposed to provide checks and balances on each other
so that no single branch of the government can dominate the other two
branches. In Bayelsa State, the executive branch totally dominates
the legislative and judiciary branches. In short, there is no such
thing as a legislative branch in Bayelsa since the governor (the executive
branch) does whatever he wants and every public official is answerable to
him. Generally, the power of the purse supposed to lie with the
legislative branch and the governor always suppose to go to the legislative
branch to ask for money through budget requests. In Bayelsa, the
governor is the executive, legislative, and the judiciary put together.
Consequently, the legislature goes to the governor to ask for money,
instead of the other way round. The same pattern could be found in
Rivers, Delta, and Edo States.
The so-called members of the legislative branch in Bayelsa
State surrendered their constitutional powers to the chief executive for reasons
best known to them. It is therefore, understandable why members of
the Bayelsa legislature frequented overseas, just like the chief
executive. It would not be an overstatement to say that the
operational capital of Bayelsa has been London and not Yenagoa.
In Bayelsa State, commissioners and high-level government
officials exist at the mercy of the chief executive. Thus, instead
of playing their roles professionally as technocratic advisers, they serve more
like praise singers. They run their administrative units based
entirely on the whims of the governor. Every effort is made not to
criticize or offend the chief executive.
Having described the sad state of affairs in Bayelsa State
and in Ijawland generally, it is very important for Ijaw people to watch very
carefully what is going on regionally, nationally, and internationally.
The politics involved in the arrest of the governor is much bigger than
the issue of corruption. There is no doubt that money laundering
is a major reason for the arrest. However, throughout the Niger
Delta, the Ijaws are viewed as the greatest threat to the flow of oil.
A concerted effort is being made to cripple any real or imagined threat
that could emanate from them. The same reason accounted for the
arrest of Asari Dokubo. In fact, one could say that traps are
being set to actually provoke the Ijaws to take certain actions in order to
justify their being crushed in such a manner as to wholesomely deny them the
ability to have any influence on the issue of oil.
It should be noted that recently, the price of oil has
escalated beyond imagination. Such a dramatic increase has a
negative effect on the economy of many countries in the world.
Moreover, the Iraqi situation is not improving, in terms of oil
production and commodity stabilization. Added to the Iraqi
uncertainty is the Venezuelan political situation which does not guarantee
supply reliability. Thus, pressure is being put on Nigeria to
stabilize the Niger Delta so that the region would become the oil stabilizer in
the world. The region cannot be stabilized if the Ijaws are
allowed to roam free.
As can be seen, the Ijaws are being pressured from many
fronts. An increasing number of foreign defence ministers and military chiefs
have visited Nigeria. Part of the strategy is to provoke the Ijaws
to take certain actions. There are also those who want to pay back
in kind, for being insulted. Unfortunately, many Ijaw leaders and
youth groups are falling for the traps by talking too much in an unguarded
manner.
To avoid being trapped, the Ijaws need to increase their
diplomatic and legal efforts, instead of constantly screaming and
threatening to do this and that. Be legally adventurous and sue
both nationally and internationally for sins committed against the ethnic group
and the region. The Ijaw nation today needs leaders who are
politically and legally creative, bold, and determined. Similarly,
Ijawnation today needs leaders who are financially responsible and cares about
the plight of the masses and not actors who parade themselves as leaders.
Concerning the arrest of Governor Alamieyeseigha, the Ijaws
should exercise caution in uttering condemnatory or supportive
statements. Caution is needed since the facts surrounding the
matter are not very clear. Moreover, if the Ijaws protest
unnecessarily over the arrest of their son concerning the issue of corruption,
then they cannot turn around and condemn other Nigerians for corruption.
After all, one of the reasons why the Niger Delta is highly marginalized,
deprieved, and underdeveloped is due to corruption perpetrated by both local and
national public officials. If the Ijaws protest unnecessarily
because their son has been arrested or held for trial, then they would loss all
moral authority to complain about their plight. In other words,
they would short-change themselves and deprive themselves of the opportunity of
getting empathy and support from the national and international publics.
No group in the world can sustain a struggle without support from
national and international groups. Thus, using the political
principle of proportionality, it is obvious that fighting corruption is much
preferable and beneficial than to stand on the fence.
There is no doubt that corruption has
devastated, not only Ijawland but the entire country, therefore, it is much
preferable for the legal system to take its cause. Those Ijaws
who believe that the governor is being sacrificed as a result of the dispute
between the president and the vice president can quietly mobilize their
political and financial resources to hire reputable lawyers fight the case and
put pressure on the appropriate quarters to have the governor released.
Apart from that, some wait and see approach is needed. In
other words, let the matter runs its course. If the allegations
against the governor have no evidentiary truth in them, the governor will walk
away without any problem. However, if some of the allegations turn
out to contain some truth, then the Ijaws would be shooting themselves if they
ever try to take a position against corruption because other Nigerians would
scream that the Ijaws are not serious about fighting the vice. It
is actually an advantage that the arrest took place in Britain rather than in
Nigeria. The trial has the potential of unraveling many secrets.
In addition, it increases international interest, thereby, focusing the
limelight on the Niger Delta situation and the corruption in Nigeria.
Despite the embarrassment of the alleged arrest for money
laundering, the incident actually provides a great opportunity for Bayelsa
people in particular and the Ijaws in general to redefine and rejuvenate
themselves and start all over again. The reason
being that in the last five or six years, things have not gone well in
Bayelsa. Expectations were shattered by lack of performance on all
fronts. Being the most underdeveloped state, Bayelsa provided an
opportunity for the Ijaw people to come up with a different model of political,
economic and social development that would have served as a new model for the
entire country. Instead of taking a new direction, Bayelsa stuck
to the old Nigerian ways of grand-standing, ineffectual leadership, unrestrained
misappropriation of public funds, abuse of power, political and financial
irresponsibility, and lack of caring for the masses. There is a
very wide gulf between the state’s public officials and the masses.
In short, the representatives do not represent anyone but themselves.
In a way, the London incident is a blessing in disguise to
the Ijaw people. First, it shows that no condition is permanent.
Second, those who think that they have national godfathers and godmothers to
protect them now realize that godfatherism has its limits. Third,
those who have financial skeletons in their cupboards would be very restless,
fearful that they could be arrested or compelled to testify.
Fourth, many Ijaw public officials would stop trooping to London and
other European countries and stay home to conduct the peoples businesses.
Fifth, it provides opportunity for the masses to ask questions about the
conduct of their local government officials. Sixth, it provides
opportunity for communities to sue and claim the right of ownership to
properties that were built with looted wealth. In fact, other Ijaw
communities should adopt the legal action taken by the people of Patani to force
their political representative to account for his expenditures. In
other words, the people should pursue a legal doctrine which justifies the
communal seizure of any property that was built with embezzled public
money. It is much better to adopt a legal strategy to deal with
corrupt officials than to resort to violent means. No matter how
long a case may take, a legal ruling tends to have a permanency to the
decision. Moreover, it can set a precedent for future legal
actions. Those who think that they are above the law will now be
more cautious for fear of being caught in the dragnet.
As the governor is temporarily incapacitated by his arrest
and possible trial, the opportunity for new direction is great.
The deputy governor should, if he has nothing to fear, be bold enough to
form a government with people who are dedicated to the development of Bayelsa
State and the Ijaw nation.
First, he should form a committee of advisers drawn
from various parts of the state to come up with a plan for strategic development
of the state.
Second, issue a financial report to the people of the
state about how much the state had gotten, how much has been spent, and for what
purpose.
Third, make sure that the monthly appropriations
coming from the federal government are properly accounted for and well spent for
programs that directly benefit the people.
By now, Bayelsa should have operated both land and riverine
public transportation systems. A riverine transportation system
should have boats plying from Andonni/Opobo to Lagos, cutting through Okrika,
Kalabari, Nembe, Akassa, Ekowe, Amassoma, Odi, Elemebiri, Patani, Bumodi,
Burutu, Arogbo to Lagos. Smaller boat should have been connecting
Bonny, Ogbia, Tereke, Tungbo, Ukubie, Koluama, Foropagha etc. to the main
transportation artery. Similarly, a road transportation system
running from Port Harcourt to Lagos through Patani and connecting Warri would
have been in full operation today. In addition, , Bayelsa would
have served as the center for the development of ultra modern hospitals where
Ijaw people and other Nigerians would have been coming to receive treatment.
Fourth, avoid concentrating developmental activities
in one place. Projects should be spread all over the state to
ensure access to the government and provide employment.
Fifth, plan for a free primary and secondary education
in the state. Reintroduce the dormitory system in order to reduce
pressure on parents.
Sixth, build the Niger Delta University completely and
devote sufficient money for the accreditation process.
Seventh, stop traveling overseas and ban any public
official from traveling overseas, unless the trip is critical for
the development of the state. This is intended to increase
trust. It is obvious that most people have no faith in the state
government.
Eight, develop the technical and business manpower of
the state so that Ijaw citizens stop being mere consumers of other peoples goods
and services.
Ninth, develop an environmental policy
to help guide the people and the oil companies. Such a policy
should include steps that a company must take if there is an oil spillage.
10. Set up a policy and
procedures by which communities can negotiate with an oil company if a
particular land is to be used for oil exploratory purposes. This
is very critical to ensuring stability throughout the entire Ijawnation.
Quite often, the scramble to get money from the oil companies leads to
violent confrontations between communities.
11. The Ijaw nation must be bold enough
to adopt policies that are not dictated by the overreaching Mafia-like
PDP. For a highly underdeveloped ethnic nation, following the very
corrupt PDP format is like committing developmental suicide. The
PDP system is highly corrupted and anyone who associates with it becomes
tainted.
Right now, the situation in the Niger Delta is very
critical. Tremendous pressure is being mounted to compel the Ijaws
to react violently so that the powers-that-be can use such opportunity to crack
down violently on the ethnic nation. I say counterattack by using
every available legal means. Prof. Sagay and Ben Nwabueze
made very creative legal suggestions concerning Chief
Alamieyeseigha’s predicament. They said that the governor still
enjoys immunity. Thus, the Ijaws need to apply creative legal
means. The same applies to Asari Dokubo’s situation.
Instead of going haywire, apply every legal and political means
possible. Let the world realize what is going on in Nigeria.
Indeed, Bayelsans have an opportunity for a new
beginning. Do not blow it away due to unnecessary expression of
emotion.
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Strategic
Factors and Options: The Need for Skillful
Diplomacy
By Priye S. Torulagha
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These are very
trying moments in Nigeria. It is particularly a very delicate
period for the Ijaws. Therefore, the Ijaws need to develop and
master the art of diplomacy in order to manage the multifarious events that are
threatening the Ijaw nation. In short, this period calls for those
with diplomatic skills and strategic thinking capability to paddle the ethnic
group across the tumultuous ocean of political mind-fields. The
following areas demand skillful diplomatic and negotiating skills.
1. Rivers State: Mr. Felix
Tuodolo wrote an interesting piece in which he attempted to find a reason why
almost all Ijaw groups in Rivers State are experiencing destabilization under
the governorship of Dr. Odili. The once very peaceful state is
embroiled in all kinds of conflicts including bloody rivalry between cults,
armed groups, Nigeria's security operations to flush out Ijaw fighters, and the
alleged Nigerian use of biochemical weapons to attack forces belonging to Asari
Dokubo.
To understand the Rivers State situation, on must go back to
the periods immediately before, during, and after the Civil War.
The reason why almost all Ijaw communities in Rivers State are embroiled
in some kind of conflict has to do with oil and the need to control Rivers
State. One major factor which contributed to the Nigerian civil war
was the need to control the source of oil. Port Harcourt is a
major strategic location if one really wants to control the flow of oil.
There have always been attempts to claim Port Harcourt. To
be able to do so, the first goal is to destabilize the Ijaws by turning them
against each other. While they fight among each other, the outside
forces can quietly lay siege to the area and claim it at a minimum cost.
The capture of Port Harcourt will open a major seaport for the
consolidation of power by those who want it. The Ijaws should not
forget that there are those who believe that the Ijaws were responsible for the
downfall of Biafra. There are also those who believe that the Ijaws
humiliated them during the Abandoned Property issue. There are also
those who believe that the Ijaws must always be marginalized in order to reduce
their ability to resist exploitation. Do not forget that Isaac
Boro was killed as the federal forces were about to capture Port
Harcourt. He was killed so that he would not arouse the Ijaws to
action and pose a threat to the power-wielders in Nigeria as Rivers State was
being liberated. Consequently, the Ijaws would be making a
strategic mistake to ignore the political events of the epochal
1960s. In fact, the Ijaws have been behaving politically as if they
had forgotten the geopolitics of the civil war. Those who felt
humiliated do not forget. Therefore, what happened then indirectly
contributes to the Port Harcourt situation today.
It can even be said that Bayelsa was created to weaken the
Ijaw presence in Rivers State so that those who want to take control can do so
quite easily. If not, the creation of Bayelsa would have been done in such a way
that would have resulted in boundary adjustments involving Rivers, Delta, Edo,
and Ondo States. In short, two Ijaw states would have been created
to reduce balkanization of the ethnic group.
In international diplomatic and strategic military games,
nation-states and groups sometimes pretend to support groups that they really
hate. By doing so, they gain the trust of their foes, study their
weaknesses and lay the traps to get them annihilated. Thus, the
Ijaw groups in Rivers State are being treated similarly. Those with
ulterior motives come in as friends, supply arms to various factions and
encourage them to fight and destroy each other. While they are
fighting each other, land grab is taking place to consolidate economic and
political power by the outside interests to the disadvantage of the
Ijaws. In short, the Ijaws are being decimated politically,
economically, and militarily in the state to make way for the outside interests
to take over.
Another common tactics often deployed in political stratagems
is the use of public officials from targeted and disadvantaged groups to justify
official decimation of their strategic interests. Increasingly,
Rivers officials from Ijaw areas are being used as spokespersons to announce
strong-arm military tactics against Ijaw interests. These tactics
are always intended by political and military leaders to legitimize the
perpetration of unacceptable or abusive acts against targeted or disadvantaged
groups in order to create the impression that the government is working very
hard to protect them from harm, when, in reality, the government is actually
working to destroy them. In other words, if you want to destroy the
Ijaws, use Ijaw public officials as spokesmen and women to justify actions being
taken against their own people.
2. The time for Rapprochement among Rivers
State Ijaws: The Ijaws in Rivers State are not helping themselves,
to a great extent. They have not been able to patch up age-old
rivalry. It is not a secret that the Ibani, Kalabari, and Okrika
have been at both Cold and Hot Wars for decades. This means that
they have previously fought each other physically and have developed a certain
level of animosity which makes it difficult for them to work together.
The outside forces have studied the relationship and comprehend the
age-old animosity. As a result, they are exploiting the Cold War by instigating
violent rivalries to keep the Ijaws busy while they incrementally gulp up Rivers
State. An extensive resocialization of thought is needed to make
them become aware of the threat from the outside if they do not consolidate
their interests.
If the three sub-groups and Andonni/Opobo were to join
forces, no outside force would be able to penetrate the
sub-region. Can you imagine if Dokubo, Ateke, and others were to
join forces?
3. The Federal Attack on Asari Dokubo:
The Ijaws need to think very deeply about what is going
on. The Ijaws are considered to be the greatest impediment to the
grabbing of the oilfields in the Niger Delta. The national strategy
is to weaken the Ijaws by any means possible. If the allegations
concerning the use of biochemical weapons against the Ijaw fighters led by
Alhaji Dokubo were true, it definitely confirms the suspicion that the Federal
Government is trying to do to the Ijaws what Sudan is doing in Southern and
Western Sudan. Southern and Western Sudan has oil and there have
been attempts to drive the original inhabitants out of their own territory to
make way for total nationalization of the resources. There have
been such designs on the Niger Delta, hence, oil is totally nationalized in
Nigeria. This accounted for why the Federal Government wickedly
tried to destroy the Ogonis. This is why the Federal Government
does not hesitate to use excessive force in the region.
The Ijaws should be appreciative of the ongoing negotiations
between President Obasanjo and the leadership of the Niger Delta Peoples
Volunteer Force to lower tension but they must remain very
vigilant. The president decided to negotiate after making so many
attempts to kill Dokubo. The president realizes that an all out war
would defeat the purpose of the national power-wielders. The
power-wielders realize that a total war would result in the stoppage of oil
operations. If oil operations are stopped, Nigerias economy would
collapse and those who want to become multimillionaires and billionaires would
not be able to achieve their objectives. The position taken by the
Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force also threatens the international economy of
the industrialized countries, hence, the president decided to act nice instead
of unleashing the full weight of the Nigerian military. In
addition, it appears that the president was advised by his foreign allies
against launching a total war on the Niger Delta armed groups, knowing full well
the potential negative economic and political impact on the world economy, of
such effort. This accounted for the president's desire to make
peace by negotiating with Dokubo and Ateke.
One should add that it is strategically and tactically
impossible for an outside force to provide total protection of the oil fields
and flow stations, no matter the level of force deployed to do
so. The tactical difficulty is caused by the terrain and the
refusal or unwillingness by Nigeria's leaders to develop the Niger Delta while
taking from it to build other parts of the country. Due to the
highly underdeveloped nature of the region, it is inaccessible to a mechanized
military force and there are hundreds if not thousands of creeks, islands,
lakes, and rivers in the region. The oil facilities are scattered
all over the region, thereby creating logistical problems for the military to
mobilize its forces. The Navy cannot penetrate the region with
large gun boats. It can only do so with lightly armed speed
boats. Since the region is not developed, airforce bombing would
not make much difference, apart from causing massive explosions of the oil
facilities and killing thousands of innocent people. On the other
hand, it is very easy for an armed group to destabilize any oil pipeline or
flow-station. In the event of a major conflict, the soldiers and
navy personnel guiding the flow-stations would actually be endangering
themselves since those oil facilities are like kicking time
bombs. Ijaw people, all these tactical and logistical factors
forced the president to negotiate rather than try to use heavy-handed military
tactics. He has not change his view of the Niger
Delta. He is placed in a situation he cannot win militarily, hence,
his decision to act in a non-threatening manner, for now.
Having negotiated, Ijaw youth leaders must now be
watchful. The reason being that since heavy-handed military
operation would likely cause an international uproar and severe economic damage,
the power-wielders could now decide to rely on tactical elimination of Ijaw
youth leaders by sponsoring assassination squads, intra-group rivalry among the
Ijaw groups, and fifth column activities. This scenario is not
far-fetched, after all, Isaac Boro, Dele Giwa, Dr. Obi Wali, Pa Rewane, Chief
Ken Saro-Wiwa, Mrs. Abiola, Chief M. K. O. Abiola, Chief Marshall Harry, Chief
Dikibo etc. were eliminated tactically. Mr. Dokubo hinted that on
many occasions, when the president sent a team to negotiate with him and his
boys, thereafter, the military would attack their positions. This
indicated that presidential negotiations in the immediate past with Dokubo were
decoys intended to locate his specific position so that he would be
eliminated. Thus, Dokubo of the Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force
and Ateke's Niger Delta Vigilante should particularly watch out and not make
careless mistakes. They should make peace and work politically for
the cause.
4. The Warri Situation: The Delta
State situation is not improving despite peace efforts. The reason
being that a determined effort is being made to drive the Ijaws out of the Warri
area. Each time the Ijaws agree to certain peace terms, the other
side would come up with diplomatic and legal tricks to outfox the
Ijaws. Like in Rivers State, the Federal Government does not
hesitate to use strong-arm military tactics against the Ijaws in the Western
zone. Obviously, on both zones of the heartland,
there is a concerted effort to neutralize the Ijaws politically and
militarily. The Joint Tasks Forces are particularly directed
against the Ijaws and not to protect lives and properties.
5. Federal Attitude Toward the Ijaws:
The Federal Government has repeatedly mobilized air, naval and ground
forces against the Ijaws. Yet, in the North where most Nigerians
have been killed, the Federal Government, led by President Obasanjo, has never
mobilized the forces in an extensive manner to counter the
killings. Likewise, even though the Sharia Law is a major
constitutional violation of the national sovereignty of Nigeria, President
Obasanjo is willing to tolerate it. He will not tolerate such an
affront on the national character of the nation if the Sharia had originated
from the Niger Delta. The Federal Government has never been
willing to rehabilitate Ijaw victims of various crises. Yet, the
Federal Government often eagerly rehabilitates victims of crises in other parts
of the country. President Obasanjo thinks that he can get away with
decimating the Ijaws and make himself a hero of those who put him in
power. According to the World Bank Report, two
officials within Obasanjo's administration are capable of paying off the $34
billion foreign debt that Nigeria owes. Where did these two
officials get the billions? How did they accumulate such wealth in
a country where individuals rarely generate wealth from serious economic
investment? What kinds of investments do they have that can
generate wealth amounting to about $20 billion each? If these
Nigerians are so rich, why is it that Forbes Magazine had never listed them as
some of the richest men in the world? It is obvious that they
stole the money from the oil revenue.
As the Nigerian situation becomes desperate, there is a
scramble to grab even more of the oil wealth. Therefore, those in
position of power want to grab as much as possible in case the country
collapses. This further adds to the urgency of neutralizing the
Ijaws in order to make way for the oil to flow undisturbed. It should not be
surprising that President Obasanjo who has been talking about fighting
corruption refused to release the list of public officials alleged to have
ferreted away $170 billion between 1999 and 2003. It should not be
surprising that the scramble to grab the oil wealth will continue, regardless of
what the president or any body says about fighting
corruption. There is a strong feeling among the power-wielders that
soon or later, the Niger Delta people would eventually succeed in obtaining
resource control. To beat that time, there is an uncontrollable or
pathological desire among the high and mighty to loot as much as
possible.
It is understandable why large ocean going ships such as the
M. T. African Pride and M.T. Jimoh that were in the custody of Nigeria's
security forces, particularly the Navy, easily disappeared from sight (Iighodaro
& Agande, 2004, September 24). Rear Admiral Antonio Bob-Manuel,
the former Flag Officer and Commander of the Western Naval Command made an
interesting revelation about how highly connected Nigerians scrambled to free
the ships from the custody of the Navy. The most consistent thing
about President Obasanjo's leadership has been the perpetual fear of locking
horns with the high and mighty who are primarily responsible for wantonly
embezzling the wealth of the nation. Since the beginning of his
presidency, President Obasanjo has done everything possible to avoid challenging
and forcing the high and mighty to comply with the laws of Nigeria.
6. It is obvious that President Obasanjo is
becoming very desperate. Before this time, he had convinced himself
that he was God sent to save Nigeria. After the World Bank Report
on the $170 billion and persistent criticism by many Nigerians about his
lackluster regime, he has finally realized that his stewardship of the nation
seems to be the worst that Nigeria has ever had. He does not want
to go down in history in such a disgraceful fashion. The only way
he can pretend to be doing something tangible is to get tough on the politically
powerless. He has consistently picked on the politically
powerless. He does not shy away from unleashing the military
against the politically powerless groups while ignoring the transgressions of
the powerful. Desperation is forcing him to behave as if he is a
military dictator and that Nigeria is still under a military
regime. Chief Ojukwu's refusal to kowtow to the SSS has shaken the
foundation of the PDP imposed authoritarian system, thereby, exposing the
illegitimacy of the regime, after all, the 2003 elections were stolen through
Ghana Must GO Bags and manipulation.
Due to desperation, the Ijaws must understand why President
Obasanjo will not hesitate to use strong-arm military tactics against
them. He thinks that by acting tough against the Ijaws, he can
restore his reputation as a no no-sense effective leader. However, since he is
acting under desperation, each time he tries to act tough, he creates more
problems for himself. For instance, the attack on Odi actually
damaged his reputation. His order to attack Zaki Biam
internationalized his ineptitude. His inability to
stop corruption or stop the high and mighty embezzlers from further looting the
nations wealth portrays him as a man without courage to serve as a
leader. He is no longer calling for debt reduction or forgiveness,
having been told that Nigeria's public officials have more than the entire
national debt in their foreign bank accounts. He is afraid to tell
them to return the money.
The Ijaws need to be careful and avoid serving as cannon
fodder for his desperate attempts to show that he is a tough
leader. Therefore, it was a very smart political move when the Ijaw
Youth Council decided to intervene and resolve the dispute between Asari Dokubo
and Ateke Tom. It was a very smart diplomatic move for the IYC to
insist that the Federal Government should not rely on military operations in the
Rivers State to stop conflicts (Ighodaro, 2004, September 8). It
was an excellent political move when the Ogbeh-Ijoh Volunteer Front (OVF) warned
that the peace accord between the Ijaws and the Itsekiris was faltering and that
the process needed to be fairly implemented by the state government.
It is always better to communicate in advance before engaging in
action. By warning in advance that something needed to be done, the
Ijaws sent a clear message that they were not happy with the situation in
Warri. The Ijaws also responded marvelously when the National
Association of Gbaramatu Students (NAGS) responded very quickly to the Itsekiri
demand for the convening of elections in the three local government councils in
Warri (Amaize, 2004, September 28). Asari Dokubo and his
associates too have been diplomatically skillful in not taking very rigid stance
on the Niger Delta issue. This enabled them to listen to various
concerns and to negotiate when the opportunity offered itself. In
other words, talk first and fight later as a last resort. If you
fight before you talk, even if you are right or justified, the propaganda war
would be directed against you. To avoid that, explain to everyone
your feelings about a situation. If the situation is not resolved,
then you have a right to engage in action, whether constitutionally or
otherwise.
7. Eagerness to Negotiate: While
it is always preferable to leave the door open for negotiation and to
compromise, in diplomacy, it is not always wise to give in too
quickly. Giving in too quickly can easily result in the defeat of
the original intent or objective. It is necessary to use the
window of opportunity since the entire world is now focused on the Niger Delta
to (a) compel the Federal Government to release the names of those who embezzled
the $170 billion between 1999 and 2003, (b) compel the Federal Government to
either increase revenue accruing to the oil-producing states or grant resource
control, (c) compel the Federal Government to allocate a substantial sum of
money for the environmental cleaning of the region, (d) compel the Federal
Government to seriously commit to investing real money in developing the Niger
Delta, (e) compel the Federal Government to abolish the Land Use Decrees, (f)
compel the Federal Government to give back to the oil-producing states portions
of returned embezzled funds and (g) compel the oil companies to negotiate with
the communities in which they do business.
In diplomacy, a window of opportunity is the best time to
press on necessary demands, even if not all of them are
realizable. The convening of a National Conference should not be
the only point of initial demand, after all, a risk was taken in the first place
to challenge the status quo. The Federal Government can easily
agree to the convening of a National Conference and later politically dribble
the Ijaws by working with other political zones to confound the National
Conference. The Ijaws should not forget that there are more Non-oil
Producing States (NOPS) than Oil-Producing States (OPS). This
means that politically, the peoples of the Niger Delta are in for a long
political duel. Consequently, it is wise to use every window of
opportunity to clearly state Ijaw demands.
8. Ijaw Public Officials: Ijaw
public officials serving either at the national or state levels should be more
diplomatic in their expression of support for Federal Government action that
appears to be controversial and contradictory. For instance, the SSS effort to
talk to Chief Ikemba should not be supported by a public official of Ijaw
ethnicity for the simple reason that if such a position is supported, it creates
a room for others to support any destructive policy or action that the Federal
Government might take against Ijaw interests. In other words, it is
diplomatically not sound to support an unpopular policy since the same could be
used against your own people. Let the power-wielders who made the
policy decision in the first place explain to Nigerians by showing their own
faces why they take the action.Let the Inspector General of Police
or the SSS director speak on the matter. It is a very popular
Machiavellian tactics for political and military leaders to make someone else
bear responsibility for carrying out an unpopular act. Machiavelli
had advised in the Prince that leaders should make others carry
out their dirty deeds so that they can claim to be innocent. Both
Gen. Ibrahim Babaginda and Sani Achaba used others to carry out their dirty
deeds. The PDP system relies heavily on using others
to carry out their dirty deeds, hence, assassinations are common and the police
authorities are not too eager to properly investigate assassination cases.
9. Ijaw Public Officials and the National
Debate: There is no doubt that Ijaw elected public officials
continue to be inactive participants in debating the great issues that affect
the nation. Their extreme quietness continues to be disturbing,
since in politics, those who talk the loudest seem to command more political
attention than those who do not speak. In short , those who have no
opinion in critical matters are like those who do not vote. They
nullify their importance politically by not contributing to the
debate. In fact, in diplomatic traditions and parliamentary
procedures, those who do not contribute to a debate or abstain by not voting or
taking a position, indirectly give away their political
significance. Comparably, when elected Ijaw public officials do not
make serious comments about public policies and actions that affect the body
politics of the country, they are viewed as actually supporting the government's
positions. In other words, when elected Ijaw public officials do
not make comments about actions taken by the Federal Government against the
Ijaws or the people of the Niger Delta, their quietness is viewed upon as a sign
of support for the federal actions. This encourages the Federal
Government to be even more suppressive of the rights of the Ijaws.
On the other hand, one must congratulate Gov. DSP.
Alamieyeseigha of Bayelsa for increasingly speaking out. He spoke
for millions when he lambasted the Federal Government for its double standards
and lack of political will. He advised,
Government should initiate the
political will to engage the stakeholders for peace
and secuirty in the Niger Delta
area, especially the youths, with frank discussion
on the way forward.
programes and policies need to be intitiated to address the
rising tide of youth unrest in thie
beleaguered region. I dare say that the Niger
Delta has experienced the worst
human rights violations in Nigeria. (Andor &
Okocha, 2004, September 17).
He also did not minced words in condemning the oil companies
for their destabilizing activities in the Niger Delta. He said, "
These oil and gas multinational corporations encourage militias, sponsor
communal crises, breed sectional interests and conflicts in their host
communities, and are believed to purchase firearms and ammunitions for the
youths" (Ibid; Ojeifo, Septemebr 17, 2004) If all Ijaw elected public officials
begin to speak more loudly, Nigeria's policymakers and the oil companies would
become more cautious in violating the rights of the Ijaws. On the
other hand, if Ijaw elected public officials continue to remain quiet while the
Federal Government and the oil companies continue to carry out activities that
are in violations of the rights of the people, it diplomatically means that they
support the actions against their own people.
Apart from the governor, other elected Ijaw public officials
must speak out. After all, they claim to be the representatives of
their people. It should be noted that since 1999, non-public
officials, who are nonetheless public figures, have been primarily responsible
for speaking out while the elected public officials tended to act timidly as if
they are afraid of something or do not have the intellectual foresight to
influence public policy in Abuja. One could even argue that due to
the failure of the elected public officials to speak out, Nigeria's policymakers
are not really aware of the seriousness of the Niger Delta
situation. If Ijaw representatives had put sufficient pressure and
encourage representatives from other parts of the country to take organized
trips through the Niger Delta, resistance toward increasing money for the
development of the region would have lessened. Thousands of
innocent Ijaw people have been killed by federal security forces due to the
failure of Ijaw elected public officials to speak out and condemn the
unwarranted killings. Of course, it is not too late for Ijaw
representatives to suggest in the National House of Assembly that members take
organized special trips through the Niger Delta and see things for
themselves.
Non-elected Ijaw public figures and private citizens who have
taken the risk to voice their opinions or take action should be congratulated
for their efforts to change the intolerable situation in the
region. They should continue to voice their opinions and act to put
pressure and internationalize the struggle. As destructive as the
rivalry between Ateke and Dokubo has been, it has re-internationalized the Niger
Delta struggle by linking what goes on in the Niger Delta with the international
economy. The price of crude oil reached $50 per barrel as soon as
Dokubo announced an intention for arms struggle. The Warri wars
first connected the Niger Delta directly with the world economy when oil
production in Nigeria was reduced by 40%. Chief Ken Saro Wiwa
brought international respectability to the Niger Delta struggle.
10. Speaking with one voice: If
there is any period in Ijaw history which requires every one to speak with one
voice, this is it as the Niger Delta gradually slides into a Darfur-like
situation. The Ijaws must learn to speak as one and stick
together. They should begin to view the Niger Delta situation in
terms of a collective security system in which an attack against one Ijaw
community is treated as an attack against all Ijaws. Strategically
speaking, it is no longer appropriate to view an incident in one part of
Ijawland as a disconnected event that does not have bearing on the entire ethnic
nation. In other words, the Ijaws should no longer view Warri as a
Western Ijaw affair or the fighting around Port Harcourt and Andonni as an
Eastern Ijaw affair.
To continue to do so means playing into the hands of the
national power-wielders and the oil companies. These stakeholders
want the Ijaws to feel and believe that Warri, Bayelsa, and Port Harcourt are
isolated cases. It is a divide and conquer tactics to make the
Ijaws think provincially or clannishly. In fact, the Rivers State
Chairman of the Nigerian Advance Party (NAP), Mr. J. Sodienye, played into this
game when he attempted to explain that the problems in the Degema area are
unconnected to his own area (Bonny). According to him, there has been no
casualty in Bonny, where he hails from. By separating Bonny from
the Degema situation, he fails to acknowledge the big strategic picture about
the intentions of the national players who want to dominate the entire Niger
Delta. What happens if what is happening in Kalabariland were to
suddenly take place in Bonny, would he be so eager to have federal forces come
to Bonny and shoot recklessly? Unfortunately, there are many Ijaw
public officials who still cannot grab the strategic implications of various
federal actions. The federal use of heavy weaponry against Odi,
Asari Dokubo, Ateke Tom, and in the Warri area are intended to totally render
the Ijaws incapable of any form of resistance. Therefore, to permit
any federal military incursion is to encourage the destruction and annihilation
of the Ijaws.
Regardless of gang rivalry, it is not wise for any Ijaw to
tolerate the deployment of heavily armed federal forces in Ijaw
territory. After all, despite thousands of killings that had taken
place in the North, President Obasanjo had never deployed ground and air forces
against armed gangs in the North, apart from Plateau State. Even
the ongoing military operation against the Taliban in the North-East region
bordering Cameroon is cautiously executed in order to avoid unnecessary civilian
casualties. In the Niger Delta, the military is ordered to shoot at
anything that moves. So, the security forces shoot recklessly and
drop bombs with total disregard for innocent people.
To speak with one voice, the Ijaw National Congress and the
Ijaw Youth Council should now become the official mouthpieces of the ethnic
group. Anyone who wants to make a public statement should try to
consult first with these bodies so that contradictory statements can be
avoided. The INC and IYC leaders must speak more often in
expressing the Ijaw position. As soon as an ethnic consultation has
taken place concerning any matter and an official position has been taken, no
high-level Ijaw public official should counteract the official position,
regardless of whether the person is in government or not. The
exception to this rule would be in situations where these bodies are viewed as
being compromised or corrupted. In such situations, it would be proper for an
individual or a group to speak by taking a contrary position, even if such a
position does not agree with the INC or IYC.
Likewise, it is time to remove the geographic categorizations
(Eastern, Central or Southern, and Western) from the discussion of
Ijawland. Such application hinders the ability to work
together. An Ijaw should be an Ijaw and not Eastern or Central or
Western Ijaw. If the people regard themselves in totality as one
indivisible unit, then the national players would become more careful in dealing
with the Ijaws. When any part of Ijawland is attacked, all Ijaws
must come together and condemn it, not just those affected by the
operation. This is the only way to achieve collective security.
11. Unifying Symbols: To bring
the people together, it is time to design an Ijaw national anthem and a
flag. After all, every Ijaw village, town, and clan has an anthem
as well as a flag. An anthem and a flag would become unifying
symbols of the oneness of the entire people. Let Ijaw songwriters
develop an anthem while the artists design a flag. The Igbos
demonstrated a high degree of oneness when they took one day off to celebrate
Biafra Day. They have also showed that they can come together to defend
strategic interests when they supported Chief Ikemba on the SSS
matter. The Ijaws did not pursue the assassinations of Marshall
Harry and Dikibo with determined efforts.
12. Oil Charter: It is time for
the Ijaws to make an international declaration saying that Ijawland belongs to
the Ijaws and only them can decide who comes to their land to invest or explore
for oil. In this regard, an Oil Charter should be declared saying
that any company that wants to explore for oil in Ijawland must first consult
with the Ijaws and gain approval before it engages in oil or gas
exploration. This does not mean that Ijawland is not part of
Nigeria. It simply means that they will decide in their own part of
the nation how to manage the land. After all, if a person were to
go to Abuja or Lagos or Kano to set up a business or build a house, the person
must first negotiate with the land- owner. Generally, it is only
after an agreement has been struck concerning the value of the landed property
before the business is actually set up or the house
built. Ordinarily, the government does not tell a landowner how
much he/she should charge for a land. In the same vein, the Ijaws
should have a right to negotiate with an oil company the value of the land
before the company begins to do business on the land. The most
judicious thing for the government to do is tax the landowner for the income
earned through renting the land for a business purpose.
There should be no need to engage in confrontational tactics
against Nigeria. Instead of focusing on Nigeria, focus on the oil
companies. Let them know that they cannot do business in Ijawland
without first negotiating with the Ijaw people. When both the Ijaw
National Congress and the Ijaw Youth Council make this declaration, the oil
companies will take note and change their tactics. They would
begin to take the Ijaws more seriously, knowing full well that unauthorized
presence in any land would not be appreciated.
It is obvious that Nigeria is not capable of being a good
steward of Ijawland. To continue to entrust Nigeria with the right
to be the guardian of Ijawland is to commit political, environmental, and
economic suicide. It is unnatural for any group to entrust the
guardianship of its territory to an entity whose leaders are only driven by the
desire to acquire wealth by any means possible. Nigeria does not
regard the inhabitants of the Niger Delta has people who have rights.
Nigeria has no regard for the Niger Delta environment. In
short, Nigeria has behaved as the British during the heydays of British
colonialism in the 13 American colonies. When the British enacted
the Intolerable Acts, the Americans reacted by saying that "There is no taxation
without representation". Nigeria cannot account for the oil wealth
that it has forcibly grabbed since the enactment of the Intolerable Acts, namely
the Land Use decrees and the Pipeline Vandalization Acts. Nigeria
is a country in which an ocean going vessel can literally disappear in the
presence of the Nigeria Navy. President Obasanjo is not eager to
prosecute those who ferreted away $170 billion during his presidency but he does
not hesitate to unleash the military against those who have been suffering due
to governmental mismanagement of resources.
After the declaration, go to court and file an injunction
ordering Nigeria to stop claiming that it has an inalienable right to trample
upon the Niger Delta. If Nigerian courts are ineffective in doing
so, seek counsel in US courts. If that does not work, go to the
United Nations. Likewise, pursue or explore multiple diplomatic
avenues in order to internationalize and maximize results of the struggle for
economic rights and political respectability..
13. An Ijaw Oil Company: As soon
as the Oil Charter is declared, an oil company should be established in Bayelsa
State. This company will be responsible for monitoring, managing,
and engaging in oil exploratory activities.It should serve as an
economic and a social bridge to connect the Ijaw people with Nigeria, the oil
companies, and their home countries. It will help to provide manpower training
and development in the areas of management and technical know-how to Ijaw
youths. This company should be able to compete for contracts and
engage in shipping activities. If other oil-producing states wish
to join the effort, then the company can be called the Niger Delta Oil Company
of Nigeria. Otherwise, simply call it Ijaw International Oil
Corporation.
14. The United Nations: If
Nigeria continues to military occupy Ijawland and use very harsh military
tactics against the people, they should go to the United Nations and seek
protection against Nigeria. It is obvious that for a majority of
Ijaw people, Nigeria has repeatedly demonstrated a desire not to protect
them. The Niger Delta is dying environmentally, agriculturally,
topographically (erosion and floods), economically, and
medically. In this regard, the Ijaw organizations in the diaspora
should work toward laying the foundation for establishing a Memorandum of
Understanding between the Ijaws and the US, Britain, France, Japan Russia, and
the United Nations.
15. Asari Dokubo: Although very
destabilizing and militarily dangerous, Asari Dokubo's action appears to be a
blessing in disguise. The reason being that it is now forcing
Nigerians to discuss candidly their treatment of the Niger
Delta. There is no body who can justify Nigeria's policies,
attitude, and actions towards the Niger Delta. How can the richest
part of the country be the poorest? Why is it that those who do
not have oil in their backyards should be the ones making decisions about
oil? How is it possible that those who are not from the richest
part of the country are the greatest beneficiaries of the oil
wealth? This is a moment that the Ijaws must seize upon to impress
upon Nigeria that they will no longer tolerate the Land Use decrees
anymore.
Mr. Dokubo is not only an able Ijaw son, he is also
diplomatic, hence, his flexibility and willingness to discuss the
situation. He should tell all about the secret deals that the high
and mighty in Rivers State concocted in order to destabilize the
indigenes. God and the ancestors work in mysterious
ways. The sudden emergence of Dokubo reminds one of the sudden
appearance of Isaac Boro at critical moments in Ijaw history.
16. Civil Action: If it is proven
that the politically high and mighty were responsible for
sponsoring the violence that killed Chief Harry and Dikibo and
victimized innocent people in Rivers State, a class action suit must be filed
against the sponsors. In particular, the Okrika, Kalabari, Andonni,
Abua/Odual, Ikwerre, and Ogoni people have suffered
extensively. They should not hesitate to file civil suits claiming
damages for the mayhem that state political authorities sponsored to victimize
them. Let a legal ruling be made on the matter. For
the Ijaws, the IYC should take the lead in filing charges.
17. Dredging of the Niger River:
Ordinarily, it makes an economic sense to dredge the River Niger and make
it possible for bigger vessels to ply the river and expand economic
activities. However, strategically, it does make any sense for the
Ijaws to allow the dredging of the river. The intended dredging is
not directed at benefiting those groups inhabiting the Niger
Delta. Secondly, it is a ploy for anyone to raise the argument that
dredging the river would bring economic benefits to the Ijaws or others living
in the delta. It should be recalled that the same reasons were
advanced when the Kianji Dam was being constructed. nstead of
economic benefits, as was promised, the groups in the delta have suffered
tremendous economic and agricultural losses. Thirdly, the dredging
at this critical moment in Nigeria's history would simply open up the Niger
Delta for much bigger naval vessels to move back and forth in the
region. The Ijaws would make a very serious mistake to allow
dredging to take place because it would enable their territory to be totally
militarized. Right now, Nigeria is finding it difficult to
penetrate the Niger Delta because of the shallow rivers and creeks.
Thus, apart from the environmental reasons for opposing
dredging, the Ijaws should also make a demand that until the resource control
issue is resolved, they will not allow any alteration of their
territory. Let Nigeria dredge other portions of the river but
not Ijaw territory. After, all, more than any other
ethnic group, the Ijaws have paid the highest price to make Nigeria come to
fruition. Unfortunately, Nigeria's leaders do not
appreciate the sacrifice.
18. Mobilization of Resources:
The Ijaws must mobilize their resources. Youth groups should
consult one another more frequently to acquire strategic and tactical
skills. There is a need to lay the groundwork for an Ijaw Red
Cross. This is critical in the event that villages and towns are
destroyed through military bombardment, as had happened in Opinya, Okerenkeke,
Odi, and recent incursions into Andonni, Okrika and Degema. Those
individuals and organizations that have connections to international
humanitarian organizations should continue to do so in case medications are
needed to treat the wounded.
One could recall that during the civil war, many towns and
villages had youth groups organized to enhance the protection of the
communities. The time has come again for similar
groups. The oil and regional struggle is going to be long.
19: Ancestral Resources: As
stated in an earlier article, the Ijaws should not be afraid of utilizing the
vast ancestral resources at their disposal. These resources, when
instituted accordingly, can contribute greatly to achieving goals and
objectives. One could recall stories being told about a lake around
Okoloba/Sabagreia/Oyobu in Kolokuma clan. It is often
said that the lake is sacred and is connected to the ancestors.
Fishing on it can only be carried out when it is officially sanctioned to
do so after prayers have been offered to the ancestors. It is said
that anyone who secretly goes to fish in the lake when it has not been
officially sanctioned would encounter a mishap or experience stomach ache for
consuming a fish caught in it illegally. It is also said that when
the lake is officially declared open for fishing, dangerous creatures such as
crocodiles would not harm anyone. Likewise, in the same area, there
is an ancestral deity, it is believed, that is capable of energizing anyone who
is swimming and feeling exhausted. During the civil war, there was
a persistent tale about some people in Okrika who were capable of remaining
under water for some time. Tales have also been floated around the
Nembe/Akassa area about an ancestral force that can rescue someone from
shipwreck or drowning. At Odi, stories were speculated about an
ancestral force that had opposed oil drilling activity. As a
result, whenever a drilling pipe was installed, it would bend. A
similar story had been told about a site between Nembeland and Kalabariland in
which an effort to drill for oil was frustrated. At Odi again,
before the Ogori Uba Uge festival begins, the town is ritually closed and
serious economic activity is banned. It is believed that after the
ritual has been activated, any indigene of the town who tries to engage in
serious economic activity during the festival could experience a
mishap. Therefore, during the festival, the indigenes can only farm
or fish or engage in any economic activity very lightly.
These kinds of stories can be found in every
clan. They need to be verified and
reinstituted. Thus, the Ijaws can use such processes to reduce
intrusion into Ijawland if the Ijaws do not desire such
visitations. Be proud of what you are.Be proud of what
you have. Be proud that the colonial system did not destroy
traditions laid down by the ancestors thousands of years ago. Use
them because the forces allayed against the Ijaws are massive and
continuous. Do not allow yourself to be defined by
others. Negotiate with your eyes open and think very deeply before
acting. Traditions that have existed for thousands of years are far
more reliable than newly emerging cultural practices that seem to be merely
social fads.
This is indeed a period that requires profound diplomatic
skills so that political traps and minefields set by political detractors can be
avoided. It is very easy for the Ijaw people to be embroiled in
situations that can tear them apart. The strategy is to deflect the
pressures that are coming from all angles as the scramble for oil goes
on. Therefore, the Ijaw National Congress and the Ijaw diasporic
organizations must continue to represent the diplomatic face of the ethnic
nation while the Ijaw Youth Council should continue to represent the activism of
the nation. The elders should watch over the youths and the youths
should watch over the elders. This is necessary to create a
political counterbalance and thereby maximize efforts. In addition,
Ijaw non-establishment leaders must watch over Ijaw elected public officials and
the elected public officials should watch over the non-establishment
leaders. The weakest link involves elected public officials who
have not performed according to expectations, thereby, forcing the
non-establishment leaders and the youths to come to the fore of the political
struggle.
In a nutshell, the Ijaws should seize the
present window of political and diplomatic opportunity to demand the
following:
a. 100% resource
control
During negotiations, this can be broken
into either 40/60% or 50/50% sharing of revenue.
b. The creation of another
Ijaw state.
c. The publication of the
World Bank Report
d. The return of looted
wealth with 50% going back to the Niger Delta States.
e. The abrogation of the
Land Use Decrees.
f. The declaration of an
Oil Charter in which no oil company will do business in Ijawland without first
negotiating with the community in which it wishes to do business.
g. The establishment of an
Ijaw Oil Corporation to manage petroleum activities
h. No dredging of the Niger
Delta until resource control and environmental issues are addressed.
i. The withdrawal of
military forces from the Niger Delta.
j. The inclusion of the
Niger Delta in the national budget and not just as merely a special
area.
k. The establishment of an
environmental fund in which the federal Government and the oil companies would
clean the Niger Delta.
|
Instead of each Ijaw group or faction clamoring for its pet
project, putting out a total ethnic package of demands and action points is
necessary to let Nigerian authorities and the international community become
aware of the Niger Delta situation. The CNN Africa Report on
Saturday, October 1st, 2004, put a pictorial face on the extreme
poverty that characterizes the Niger Delta, particularly Ijawland.
Petroluem is an international strategic
asset due to its extensive influence on the worlds economy. Use
it as a diplomatic tool to achieve your goals.
References
Agande, B. (2004, August 29). $170 billion
alleged alarms Obasanjo. Vanguard. http://www.vanguardngr.com/articles/2002/nationalx/nr229082004.html.
8/30/04.
Amaize, E. (2004, September24).
Ijaw threaten outbreak of hostilities in Warri.
_______, (2004, Septmeber 28). Ijaw students
faults calls for polls in Warri LGs. Vanguard. http://www.vanguardngr.com/articles2002.niger_delta.nd428092004.html.
9/28/04.
Andor, D. & Okocha, C. (2004, September 17).
This Day News. http://www.thisdayonline.com/news/20040917news02.html.
9/17/04
Ighodaro, J. (2004, September 8). IYC wades
into Rivers crisis, contacts warlords. Vanguard.
http://www.vanguardngr.com/articles/2002/niger_delta/nd308092004.html.
9/9/04.
Ighodaro, J. & Agande, B. (2004, September 24). Missing
ship found in P-Harcourt Naval chief alleges $.1m bribe, indicts serving
minister. Vanguard http://www.vanguardngr.com/articles/2002/cover/f324092004.html.
9/24/04.
Ojeifo, S. (2004, September 17). Bayelsa gov
slams FG, oil firms for Niger Deltas woes. Vanguard http://www.vanguardngr.com/articles/2002/nationalx/nr117092004.html.
9/17/04.
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Strategic Factors and Options: The danger of taking one step forward and
two steps backward
By Priye S. Torulagha
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It is inferable that a
large proportion of Ijaw people still find it exceedingly difficult to
comprehend the implications of being situated in the BLACK GOLD belt of Nigeria.
As a result, they continue to express amazement and or bewilderment at events
directed against them. It is almost as if they are living in a dream world. The
lack of serious understanding of their political and economic situations cuts
across all socioeconomic levels of Ijaw society, including ordinary citizens and
high-level public officials. In other words, many Ijaw people continue to think
that the national power-wielders will treat them justly if they act nicely in a
condescending manner without having to mobilize their efforts to achieve their
goals. As a result of this naivete, they allow themselves to be manipulated and
exploited. They also allow themselves to become defenceless.
As stated
many times in previous writings, it is argued here again that the Ijaws will
never be treated equally or justly in the scheme of Nigeria power politics. The
reason being that Ijawland in particular and the Niger Delta in general contain
the BLACK GOLD which the industrialized countries, multinational companies,
Nigeria's power-wielders, and Peoples from the Non-Oil producing States of
Nigeria want. In other words, the decks are stacked against them and other
ethnic groups in the region due to the strategic importance of oil. Other ethnic
groups in the region also face the same fate. Knowing full well that the decks
are stacked against them, Ijaw public officials cannot and should not play
politics the Nigerian way. In order to achieve victory, they must be vigilant,
dedicate themselves, strategize, focus all their energies, and speak with one
voice at all times. They must use every Naira in their possession for the
development of Ijawland so as to create internal, national, and international
impact and garner more support for the demand on resource control. Right now,
Ijaw public officials, especially in Bayelsa cannot convince anybody in Nigeria
that they deserve more money since they cannot willingly account for the monthly
allocations that go to the state. Rivers State too cannot properly account for
its monthly allocations since the citizens have not experienced any marked
improvement in their standard of living. In addition, Rivers State is like an
armed camp in which some notable high-level government officials recruit the
services of armed thugs to cow the people into submission.
The
international and national stakeholders want an uninterrupted flow of oil from
the Niger Delta. They also want to get it cheaply so that they can make
multibillion dollars profits. Moreover, there are still some Nigerians who want
to make their own niche in wealth through oil. This being the case, they would
make it almost impossible for the citizens of the Niger Delta from achieving
resource control. This explains why the Niger Delta is a military occupation
zone. The security forces are stationed in the region for the sole purpose of
enabling the exploration and production of petroleum. Other reasons such as
stopping criminal activities, sea piracy, oil bunkering, cultism, militant gangs
etc. are diversionary stratagems to make the policy of military occupation
digestable to the indigenes of the region.
The Ijaws are treated harshly
because the international and national power-wielders view them as being the
greatest threat to the uninterrupted flow of oil from the Niger Delta. In
particular, the emergence of armed groups within the ethnic group is viewed with
much alarm by those who want an uninterrupted flow of oil. As a result,
President Olusegun Obasanjo's policies, tactics, and actions since he came to
power have been to try to defang the Ijaws by whatever means necessary so that
the ethnic group would not be able to prevent oil exploration in their part of
the Niger Delta. Again, it should be recalled that the fighting between the
Itsekiris and the Ijaws during the months of March, April, and May 2003
drastically reduced exploratory activities on the Southwestern part of the
region. In fact, it was reported that oil export was reduced by 40%. If fighting
within a tiny part of the region resulted in income reduction by 40%, what do
you think will happen if fighting were to engulf the entire region? In such a
scenario, Nigeria's economy could grind to a halt. Likewise, the multinational
companies would suffer extensive financial loss. If such a thing were to take
place, their stock values would go down. If their stock values go down, the
economies of their home countries will experience recession. To avoid the
possibility of such a cataclistic occurrence, which could seriously damage their
national security, political leaders and policy makers in these countries have
formed an alliance with the power-wielders in Nigeria to stop any indigenous
threat to the flow of oil in the region.
Since the financial and economic
stakes are high, President Obasanjo will use whatever means necessary to put the
Ijaws in their place. Therefore, the recent military incursions are not
coincidents or intended merely to fight crimes. The actions were intended to
show the Ijaws that if they threaten oil exploration, the federal government
would not hesitate to use harsh measures to deal with them. The sending of
soldiers to Amadi-Ama and Tere-Ama to ferret out armed gangs in Okrika (
Ighodaro, 2004, July 21)and the search and destroy mission in Western Ijawland
near Warri were not coincidental. They were strategically designed to attack the
Eastern and Western Ijaw flanks and thereby send a shock wave to Ijawland.
Hence, Ogbogbene, Ogbudugbudu, Ayoungbene, Asantuagbene, Azama Zion, Idebagbene,
Odigbogbene, Opia and villages in Egbema were invaded and ransacked by troops
belonging to the 'Operation Restore Hope', under the command of Brig. Gen. Elias
Zamani (Okafor, 7/17/04). In both cases, the official position was that the
forces were sent to deter or wipe out crime. In reality, the actions were
intended as a demonstration of force by the federal government and to weed out
Ijaw militants. For the federal government, Ijaw militants present the greatest
threat since they have the capability to mount military operations against the
national interest. Consequently, destroying them is a top priority. As a result
of the operation, all those who regard themselves as fighters, including members
of the Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force, the Niger Delta Vigilante etc. would
now either give up or face very serious consequences.
The unfortunate
thing is that even some high-level Ijaw public officials who supposed to grasp
the strategic intentions of the national power-wielders have repeatedly failed
to do so. Hence, on many occasions, they have indirectly accepted or bought into
the rationale often given by the national players to supposedly stop crime
activities in the Niger Delta. Crime rate in the Niger Delta is probably less or
equal to crime rates in other regions but the security forces have never been so
mobilized to fight crime in those regions. Only in the Niger Delta are soldiers
and naval personnel used to fight crime, not the police. Another peculiar aspect
of Ijawland and the entire Niger Delta is that public officials from this region
easily accept the rationale for the deployment and use of force against the
interest of their own communities. For example, after the Amadi-Ama and Tere-Ama
operation, a Rivers State official, Mr. Magnus Abe, the Commissioner for
Information released a press release saying:
"There was a joint operation
by security agencies in the Amadi-Ama and Tere-Ama axis of Port Harcourt Local
Government Area as part of the on-going efforts to rid the state of
cultists."
"The people of the state are therefore, advised to go about
their normal businesses as the raid on cultists in the interest of everybody.
Such raids will continue by security operatives who are determined to ensure
that Rivers State remains peaceful. I wish to call on the people of the state to
co-operate with the suceiry agencies to ensure that their efforts yield the
desired result" (Ighodaro, 2004, July 21).
The Rivers State commissioner
did not mention the eleven innocent people killed during the military operation.
So, the implication being that it is acceptable to have several innocent people
killed in order to stop crime. Will the state pay compensation for the innocent
people killed? The justification reminds one of the rationale given for the
invasion and destruction of Odi and many other towns and villages in Bayelsa,
Delta, and Rivers State. In the Odi case, some Ijaw public officials tacitly
agreed to the plan, disregarding the destructive tendencies of Nigeria's
security operations.
Like Bayelsa and Rivers State, Delta State public
officials always appear to be very eager for deployment of security forces in
the state. Instead of working honestly in a committed manner to resolve thorny
political crises in the state, they assume that they can use the security forces
to intimidate and force the settlement of inter-ethnic and intra-ethnic
conflicts. The Delta State Commissioner for Inter-Ethnic Relations, Mr.
Ovuozorie Macaulay, went as far as saying that community leaders would be held
accountable for actions in their communities even when they are not responsible
for any felonious deed (Ogefere, 2004, June 4). Such a blanket statement by a
public official provides and encourages unrestrained use of military force.
Evidently, it did not take long before the men of Operation Restore Hope
unleashed their destructive force on Ijaw communities in the state. Now, the
commissioner is defensive, having realized the fruits of his blanket statement.
In order to avoid taking blame for the military operations against Ijaw
communities, he went as far as to say that if proven that the security forces
were involved in the killing of people, he would resign.
Public
officials in the North and the West generally oppose the deployment of troops as
a means of fighting crime. Likewise, one could not recall any official from the
South-East region requesting the mobilization of troops to fight crime, even
when the crime rate in the region escalated beyond acceptable limits in the
1990s. Instead of inviting the national security forces, the officials in this
region encouraged the creation of a home-based anticrime outfit (the Bakassi
Boys) to weed out the criminals. Even when a coup was plotted and carried out in
Anambra State, national military forces were not mobilized. If that coup had
place in Akwa-Ibom or Bayelsa or Delta or Rivers State, the armed forces would
have been fully mobilized, properties would have been destroyed, and a number of
innocent people would have been arrested or killed. In addition, public
officials from the victimized state would have made public statements justifying
the need for such destructive operation.
The Northern States hold the
national record for the number of citizens killed as a result of ethnic and
religious conflicts since 1999. Thousands of innocent Nigerians have been killed
and properties worth billions have been destroyed. Yet, Northern public
officials rarely call for military mobilization to stop the killings and the
destruction of property. In the most recent outbursts, an emergency was declared
in Plateau State and nothing of that sort was declared in Kano State. Plateau
State officials continue to oppose the emergency declaration and are putting
pressure to have it removed.
It is obvious that military incursions into
the Niger Delta are not designed to protect lives and properties but to secure
the region for oil production. The federal rationale for attempting to destroy
armed gangs in the region too is not motivated by the desire to stop crime. The
reason being that armed groups in Nigeria are directly and indirectly sponsored
by politicians and public officials. They used the armed groups to intimidate
the citizenry and potential challengers. Therefore, if the federal government is
truly committed to fighting crime by mobilizing security forces, why does it not
arrest the financiers of the armed groups in the country? Why go after the
little fishes when the big fishes are wining and dining and accumulating
ill-begotten wealth from the public treasury? After the military invasion of
Amadi-Ama and Tere-Ama to supposedly stop armed gangs from terrorizing the
citizens, revelations are being made about those who created and sponsored the
armed gangs in the Rivers State. Allegations point to some of the highest public
officials in the state for being responsible for most of the armed gangs. For
example, Mr. Samuel Horsfall was alleged to have been implicated in some of the
murderous activities in Buguma. He was arrested by the police but was let go due
to the intervention of a very big political fish in the state. The political big
fish was said to have been fearful that if Mr. Horsfall were to open his mouth,
the entire state would have been shaken. Thus, if President Olusegun Obasanjo
and the PDP led government is truly committed to the elimination of armed gangs
in the country, he should order the police and armed forces to arrest the big
political fishes that sponsor the armed gangs. If the Amadi-Ama and Tere-Ama
operation in Okrika were really intended to wipe out armed gangs, the president
would have ordered the soldiers who carried out the operation to also go after
the sponsors of the gangs. The Nigerian military is capable of arresting anybody
in the country, no matter how big he or she is. However, in a democracy, the
military must take orders from civilian authority. This being the case, the
president would have ordered the soldiers to arrest the creators of the armed
gangs, regardless of how big they are.
Quite often, the political
financiers of the armed groups would abandon the fighters as soon as they
achieve their goal of consolidating their political positions. Now that the
elections are over, the boys are left to feign for themselves. For example,
rumours abound that the Odi Boys were supported and encouraged by some political
tycoons in Bayelsa state to intimidate opponents. As soon as the elections were
over, they were abandoned, so, they turned to other means to maintain
themselves. John Togo. The leader of armed group in Delta State that was
recently apprehended, made confessional statement indicating that some political
and business heavy weights were responsible for germinating them in Delta State.
Soon after the goals of the financiers were achieved, the boys were abandoned.
Eventually, they turned to other means to maintain themselves.
Why are
officials in the Niger Delta so eager to play along with national schemes that
are intended to suffocate their struggle for resource control? Why do they
always accept un-critically national reasons that are intended to subjugate
them? Why are they always condescending to the national power-wielders? Why do
they behave as if they are doormats of the national players? Why are they so
eager to romance with Nigeria's security forces when they know that military
operations often cause more harm than good due to the excessive use of force?
Could it be that these public officials owed their political careers to national
godfathers and godmothers? Could it also be that they do not have the mandate of
their people since they were put in power by the outside forces, hence, are
fearful that the people could turn against them, without the presence of
national security forces to protect them? Could it be that some of these
high-level public officials have an ambition to run for national political
offices and are therefore willing to sacrifice the interests of their own
citizens in order to satisfy personal ambitions? These are questions the
citizens of the Niger Delta must try to ask their public officials.
For
the Ijaws, the situation is worse than anticipated. As stated in an earlier
article, the Ijaw struggle for political and economic emancipation seems to be
characterized by 'full tide and ebb tide" cycles. During full tide, the Ijaws
seem to work furiously in an effort to achieve their goals and objectives.
During ebb tide, the Ijaws tend to slow down in their efforts and thereby forego
the goals and objectives that were achieved earlier. During this phase, they
tend to fight among each other and make series of political blunders. Instead of
focusing their energy toward confronting their enemies, they turn against
themselves. In other words, the Ijaw struggle seems to be characterized by a
phenomenon in which they take one step forward and two steps backward. It
definitely appears that the Ijaws have resorted to the ebb tide cycle again as
they engage themselves and create blunders that portray them
negatively.
Therefore, in terms of playing power politics, one can
venture to say that the Ijaws are very amateurish in the game of politics. Even
though they command the most critical element in Nigeria, they do not know how
to apply it successfully in attaining their goals. Generally, in politics, it is
wisest to use or utilize one's greatest strength in confronting political
competitors. For the Ijaws, oil is their greatest strength. They supposed to use
it wisely to attain their goals. Instead, they go to beg those who do not have
oil by kowtowing to them and thereby render themselves powerless. As repeated
many times before, Ijaw national public officials from the Eastern, Central, and
Western zones are faceless and voiceless. They are either afraid to speak boldly
or do not know what to say. They are ever ready to make deals with the national
power-wielders, even if such deals are intended to thwart the progress of their
own people back home.
The Ijaw leaders also seem to suffer from
perpetual short-sightedness. Instead of adopting a long-term strategy that will
yield the greatest benefits, most of them go for short-term goals that often
backfire against their citizens. It is easy to recite many instances in which
political blunders were committed due to either greed or political
immaturity.
a. It is not a secret that the Ijaw front in the Warri
conflict has unraveled as the leadership breaks into two factions recently. One
faction opposes the recently made peace deal because it did not include the
creation of separate local governments for the Ijaw, Itsekiri, and Urhobo while
the other faction supports the deal. The acrimony between the two factions is so
profound to the extent that charges and countercharges are made publicly to the
embarrassment of the Ijaw nation. It is puzzling that the Ijaws would go for
such a peace conference without strategizing and adopting crucial negotiating
points. It is shocking that the Ijaw National Conference did not take the lead
in articulating the Ijaw position. It is also a great blunder that the Ijaws
accepted to participate in the peace accord in which the central issue, i.e.,
the creation of separate local governments for the Ijaw, Itsekiri, and the
Urhobo was not included in the agenda. Meanwhile, the Itsekiris have never
disagreed openly among themselves. They always put up a united front, regardless
of occasional political setbacks. They are constantly theorizing and coming up
with strategies to outfox the Ijaws and the Urhobos. The Ijaws react constantly
instead of adopting strategies to preempt the other side. The peace blunder
provided opportunity for the federal and Delta State governments to unleash the
security forces against Ijaw communities.
c. The Ijaws have never
treated their fighters with respect. Those who fight risk their lives
unnecessarily because there is no ethnic support mechanism to maintain and
sustain them. After being used by some politicians in Bayelsa, the Odi Boys were
left to feign for themselves. They are still detained and there is no concerted
effort to end the case. In the North and in the West, fighters are left off
tactically to continue their lives as if nothing had happened, even when
thousands of people are killed and maimed. The Ijaw political leadership cannot
even summon enough courage to resolve the Odi Boys case. The boys are in a state
of legal limbo. In the Warri area, the same fate awaited the fighters. John Togo
and his Boys would encounter a fate similar to the Odi Boys. At least, in the
Rivers State, the big political fishes who helped to create the armed gangs are
able to protect the leaders of the gangs when trouble knocks at the door, as in
the case of Mr. Horsfall.
d. On the other hand, due also to short
sightedness, the fighters are not helping themselves at all. By engaging in
intra-ethnic, intra-communal, and interpersonal fights, they make it easy for
the national power-wielders to justify using heavy-handed military means to
crush them. There is no doubt that the Bush Boys and other elements created the
opportunity for the federal government to launch attacks against them. If these
armed groups actually believed in the cause of the Niger Delta, they would have
not terrorized their own communities through engaging in turf wars. Bakana,
Buguma, Okrika town, Ekeremor, Kaiama, Odi, Yenagoa, Ijaw traders etc. have
experienced heart wrenching violence initiated by armed gangs. Recently, John
Dede, a member of the Ijaw Youth Council was assassinated in Borokiri, Port
Harcourt. Knowing full well the high political stakes concerning the Niger
Delta, Ijawland and oil, one would have expected various fighters and groups to
consolidate their resources, train sufficiently, become disciplined, remain low
and serve as the backbone of the ethnic group. Instead, they decided to
advertise themselves in a negative way through unnecessary violence and thereby
allow the national power-wielders to justify the need to weed them out by force.
Meanwhile, armed groups belonging to other ethnic groups remain untouched and
continue to consolidate their resources, in the event of war. Despite the
gravity of the situation in Plateau State, security forces have not been
directed to weed out militant elements. The behavior of the hired hands
demonstrate clearly the fact that some people are willing to destroy their own
communities and sell their souls to the highest so that they can live the good
life.
d. Again, it must be repeated that Ijaw public officials are just
too passive. They have never raised serious national political questions to
influence national debate. Whenever national figures tour Ijawland, Ijaw
officials tend to bend backwards and do not ask any serious question about the
issues. For example, President Obasanjo has toured Bayelsa and Rivers State many
times. Each time, Ijaw leaders work so hard to make him feel at home, without
raising any serious question. Vice President Atiku too has visited the Niger
Delta States and experienced the same overcompensating attitude on the part of
the public officials. Thus, national power-wielders do not seem to have respect
for the Ijawnation. They view Ijaw leaders as people that can be bought anytime.
The lack of respect is directly responsible for the president's willingness to
use force against Ijaw interests any time he feels like doing so, even after
promising not to do so. He gets away with it because he knows that Ijaw public
officials 'have no teeth and neither can they bark' to cause serious political
problems for him. If any Ijaw person makes noise, he invites the person to Abuja
and before you know it, the person immediately becomes a praise-singer and
active backer of the president. This condescending behavior can also be found
among public officials in other Niger Delta States.
Since the president
and other national power-wielders do not seem to have respect for the Ijaws, the
security forces are very trigger happy at shooting at them. They know that
nothing will happen to them if they kill Ijaws. Recently, high-level Bayelsan
officials, including Capt. Walter Feghabo (rtd.), former governor of Delta and
Ebonyi States, Messrs Augustine Lugbenwei, Azibolanari Nelson, and Gideon
Ekeuwei were touring the Bayelsan West Senatorial district to inspect state
projects. Also included in the entourage were mobile policemen and some
information officers. Around the Forcados River, near Toru Ndoro, a border town,
security forces from the Operation Restore Hope opened fire indiscriminately
without any warning. Fortunately, no one died from the loose cannons (Oyadongha,
2004, June 28). Despite the gravity of the action, Ijaw leaders failed to
express their anger in the gravest terms possible and warn the president from
killing or attempting to kill Ijaw people unnecessarily. If that incident had
taken place in the Northern or Western or South-Eastern States, their leaders
would have raised hell
and call on the federal government to withdraw
those security forces forthwith. In Ijawland, there is no will to speak loudly,
so, nothing happened. The lack of activity implies that Abuja might have called
some Ijaw personages for consultation, hence, the quietness.
Ijaw public
official ignore one cardinal rule of politics, that is, never kowtow to your
opponent or give away your political assets without a corresponding behavior on
the part of the opponent. Politics is a struggle for "who gets what, when, and
how? (Dye, 1999).
This means that you must stand your ground and
compromise only incrementally as the other side also compromises. When you give
up your assets in order to be on the good side of your opponent, your opponent
will most likely regard you as a fool. Ijaw public officials give up their
political assets whenever national leaders visit with them. As a result, there
is a silent rumor going around that the Ijaws are a bunch of stupid
trouble-makers who do not know what they want.
f. The fact that Ijaw
public officials have not been able to create substantive infrastructural
development in their communities, despite the increase in revenue allocation
also colors the perceptions of other Nigerians. The national players wonder why
Ijaw public officials have not been able to spread developmental activities in
such a way as to create a positive impact on the Ijaw citizenry. Due to the
failure, Nigerians from the Non-Oil Producing States are convinced that the
'sons and daughters of the Niger Delta' are responsible for the poor state of
affairs in the region. They believe that financial resources are siphoned off at
such a great extent that development in the Niger Delta, particularly in
Ijawland, is thwarted. Due to this national perception, others are puzzled by
the failure of Ijaw citizens to vigorously challenge and compel their public
officials to use money wisely and be accountable.
The Ijaws have to do
better or otherwise, they will continue to remain as paupers in the midst of
plenty. They should stop destroying themselves and work together.
Shortsightedness must be replaced with foresighted long-term goals. Due to lack
of respect, Ijaw citizens have increasingly become training targets for
Nigeria's security forces.
They need to be more careful in choosing
their leaders. They need leaders who are patriotic, dedicated, sophisticated,
have a mastery of the art of power politics, have teeth, and can bark if
necessary. They need leaders who think big, are selfless, and are not easily
corrupted by Ghana Must Go Bags. They need leaders who will be able to stand
their grounds and not be mesmerized or intimidated by the national political
players.
Since the political decks are stack against them, they cannot
afford to be sidetracked by irrelevant events. They must reinforce their
resources and wage the political battle in a very serious manner. The strategy
of taking one step forward and two steps backward is very counterproductive . To
avoid taking two steps backward, they need to become sophisticated in the art of
politics and be able to sustain their victories for the long run. The tendency
to feel contented as soon as Abuja calls or when some bags of Ghana Must Go are
given to some leaders, is indicative of the lack of dedication. As can be seen,
it is arguable that frequent squabbles by Ijaw leaders of various political
groups has so much to do with the scramble to get some Ghana Must Go bags from
the big players at Abuja. Many youth leaders have failed following the fact that
they were easily corrupted.
Ijaws! Please stop taking one step forward
and two steps backward. Stop acting like houseboys to the Abuja political
machinery. Think deeply, strategize, opt for the long run and become
sophisticated political players.
The fact that some individuals among
the Andonnis, Ikwerres, Kalabaris, Okrikas, Ogonis etc. eagerly accepted to
become the hired-guns of wicked and blood-thirsty politicians show that the
Niger Delta is in for a long rough time of political and military occupation and
domiination. Likewise, the fact that these individuals willingly terrorized
their own communittes in order to feather the nest of political leaders who do
not wish their people well indicate that the Ijaws and the other ethnic groups
continue to be ignorant of the great political danger they face becuase of the
availability of oil in their territories. It also means that they are not
strategically aware of the big national and international effort to enslave them
politically, hence, the eagerness to serve as political house maids and
hired-hands of other peoples political masterplans.
Reference
Daily Independent (2004, July 27). Odili's
men: an outside's account. Posted on Ijawnation@yahoogroups.com by Binaebi
Benatari. 7/29/04.
Dey, T. (1999). Politics in America. Upper Saddle
River, new Jersy: Prentice Hall.
Ighodaro, J. (2004, July 21). Crime dons
bowler hat in Rivers. Vanguard
http//:us.f607.mail.yahoo.com/ym/ShowLetter?Msgld+5087_9120420_143644..7/21/04.
Ogefere,
S. (2004, June 4). Delta Monarchs to answer for communal crises. The Guradian.
Htpp://www.guardiannewsngr.com/news/article10. 6/4/04.
Okafor, C. (2004,
July 17). Ijaw demand probe of military raids..The Guardian. 7/21/04
.
Oyadongha, S. (2004, June 28). It was fear of pirates, now it's fear of
soldiers on Bayelsa waterways. Vanguard.
http://www.vanguardngr.com/articles/2002/niger_delta/nd328062004.html. 6/28/04.
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Strategic Factors and Options: Defining Ijaw Goals and
Objectives
Strategic Factors and Options:
Opportunity for a New
Beginning
Strategic Factors and Options:
Fighting Legal Fire with Fire
Strategic Factors and Options: The Need for Skillful
Diplomacy
Strategic Factors and Options: The danger of
taking one step forward and two steps backward
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