The anger of Niger Delta women
By
EACH time I ruminate on the plight of the Niger delta people, George Orwell's classic, Animal Farm, that novel in which the ruling class declares, "All animals are equal but some are more equal than others", comes to my mind. Sometimes, anger follows the feeling of injustice, unfairness and exploitation, which the relationship between the oil-bearing areas the Central government represents. Of course, we are aware that the current revenue allocation formula was concocted only after oil was discovered, in order to keep the Niger Delta people permanently at the mercy of the Federal authorities. In a way, the formula which did not hold sway when the three big regions sustained the national economy with cocoa, groundnut, and palm oil, tells the Delta people that through all animals are equal, some are more equal than others. It is bitter pill which had been endured till now. However, there are indications that the days of docility are over. Old men ad women had joined in the liberation struggle.
As an academic and a critic, my disenchantment is expressed through my creative works and occasional newspaper essays. But the women and old people of the Delta, deep in the pain of social deprivation and a hostile ecology arising from oil exploration and economic exploitation, have decided to take their destiny in their hands. On July 12 women in Aruntun and Ugborodo, two hitherto unknown Itsekiri communities, set off the apparently uncoordinated non-violent confrontation with the companies which suck away the juice of their earth. In Warri, young and old women combined their forces to hold oil giant Chevron, to ransom for about nine hours on August 8th, 2002. In The Guardian newspaper of September 12th, it was reported that old people, aged between 60 and 90 years, "invaded the Shell Petroleum Development Company sub-station at Ughelli in Delta State". What should we make of this in a continuously restive federation? Does this have any link with the Supreme Court resource control verdict? As a nation, how may we expect the government to respond to an emerging trend which is likely to grow in the months and years ahead except something is done about how resources are generated and shared in the country?
Women are a potent if dangerous force to deal with in any social uprising. If armed men representing the awesome power of the State fire shots at men, the world may look the other way. However, the perception would be different if unarmed women are gunned down for asking that their husbands and sons get some compensation for the fruit of their land. This is why the cry of the Niger Delta must be taken seriously at this time. It is easy to dismiss the action of the women as being inconsequential, knowing our national penchant for chasing shadows instead of substance. However, it the truth must be said, these actions have grave consequences on the survival of our nation. Of course, they threaten the very base of our mono-product economy. A widespread, co-ordinated resistance would certainly affect our ability to meet our production capacity. This would affect how much we are able to generate to sustain our money-sharing economy. Even if the States reacts with enormous force and violence, it might win the battle, but not the war. Public opinion against a government that can mow down women would be counter-productive to the goals of the foreign-attention-seeking Obasanjo administration.
The reaction of government to the last peaceful protests by women is indeed instructive. According to The Guardian report of Friday 6th September, "Tear gas canisters were thrown at the women who began to run back from the security men at the gate. The armed men followed, chasing the women into the water-logged area, (and) whipping them with horsewhips, cable wires and gun butts". This attitude is typical of brutal military regimes in Africa and our security forces have not forgotten their antecedents. I imagined the litigation that would have followed if any of the women had died as a result of the action of the security forces. In fact, the women who suffered injuries should be encouraged to seek redress in the law courts. With coordinated efforts, it should be possible to pin down the men who carried out the assault on the women. All hands should be on deck to strengthen the culture of peaceful protests, one of which would be to provide legal and health support for the women who dared the state.
The resource control matter must be placed in proper perspective if we must make progress or claim to believe in equity in the country. What the oil-bearing States want is true federalism, what has been called fiscal federalism. When States were created by the regimes of Generals Murtala Mohammed, Ibrahim Babangida, and Sanni Abacha, respectively, the argument was that they were economically or financially viable. Some popular demands were rejected because official wisdom reasoned that they were not likely to stand on their own. Now, we know better. Now we know the States were carved out of areas that the federal government at that time thought was politically strategic enough to get allocation from the centre. Most states today depend on the Federal government to meet their basic needs, like paying salaries and rendering social services.
Going by this logic, any area could have been carved out as a state. Delta State was reluctantly created, and given an amorphous shape that continues to bewilder Deltans. At the core of States creation therefore, is a grand desire to perpetrate injustice. The enlightened people of the Niger Delta, old and young see this, and continue to hope and pray that some day the chickens will return home to roost. The discarded national anthem, among other dreams, hoped for a land "where no man is oppressed", a sentiment that has been fittingly dropped from the current highlife disco which we call the national anthem. In Nigeria, the minorities are oppressed.
The oil producing companies must not continue to live in the illusion that they have built around themselves in the last thirty years or so. As business concerns, they should realise that the greatest security for them is a harmonious relationship with their immediate neighbours. The Federal government is far, and almost non-existent in the remote areas of the Delta. Shell, Chevron and Mobil are the organisations known. It is time therefore for these organisations to begin to think ahead about how to live and work in harmony with the people of the Delta. Tokenism must be avoided. Concrete steps such as massive employment deliberately tilted in favour of indigenes of these areas must be seriously considered. As part of this grand plan, the headquarters of all oil-exploring and marketing companies should be in the Niger Delta. Liaison offices should be built in Abuja and Lagos. At the moment, the feeling in the Delta is that the Yoruba, Hausa and Ibo dominate the oil companies, including the NNPC. This must be checked, at least by the concept of Federal character. The sheer number of idle youths whom I see in Warri and Port Harcourt frightens me. In times of crisis, they become ready-made firewood.
The oil companies must look ahead and be more proactive than the government, as they often do in their home countries. The creeks of the Delta can really be transformed if the will is there. It is true that the NDDC ought to be a facilitator of that process. But the politics of allocation and the struggle for individual survival seems to have become primary in the focus of the organisation. Certainly, the oil producers as profit-seeking outfits must realise that the success of their organisations, is predicted on peace in their area of business, not forced peace, but a genuine one. To achieve this, both the Federal government and the companies which suck the oil, must stem the feeling of dissatisfaction which the resource control verdict has caused. The President must vigorously pursue the political settlement which he and his advisers ought to have thought of in the first place.
May 2003