The imperatives of Delta's  'Road Map' to peace

By

Mike Ikhariale

Contrary to some viewpoints that the problems amongst some communities in Delta state are intractable, my own gut feeling is that, as things are now, the parties to these needless internecine wastages are themselves already tired and are only waiting for someone to say that very scarce but much expected word – “stop”.

For all intents and purposes that is precisely what the state Governor, Chief James O. Ibori, did when he unfolded the historical blueprint for a permanent and just peace for the conflicted people of Delta State. Those still beating the drums of war are those who constantly profit from the carnage, and whose families and siblings are far away from the theatre of mayhem that they callously fuel with money and petty clannish incitements. What is needed now is the mature spirit of give and take, no more, no less.

As a matter of fact, those ordinary people who suffer daily from the needless crises are prayerfully waiting for an immediate cessation of hostilities and the new Road Map to peace is therefore a much welcome path to salvation for them. It is only an individual under the influence of Satan that would want to scuttle a mechanism designed to attain lasting peace in a land littered with misguided hate and proxy acrimonies. Misguided, because, strip of all lies and exaggerations, these historical neighbours  have no good reason to fight each other but for what their irresponsible elite has falsely put in their heads.

Come to think of it, the various ethnic groups have lived together peacefully from time immemorial and like all human neighbours, have had some quarrels but were promptly settled in the interest of the commonwealth as well as the subsisting fraternity amply solidified by marriages, businesses, culture and kindred affinities.

The real wealth of the Delta consists of its variegated peoples and their aggregate corporate possibilities as well as the enormous natural resources within. Many of those who want to negatively highlight these differences should take a cue from Switzerland that has built its strength around its multiplicity of peoples and languages. Anyone who knows of the potency of tourism in modern economy would know that, apart from oil, the future bone of the Delta economy is ultimately tourism as the world is itching to have a taste of the proverbial fun of Sapele and Warri. But that prospect will remain postponed as long as misguided militias rule the streets and hateful advertorials continue to fill the pages of newspapers. 

Come to think of it, what these people are fighting over are issues that they have on their own made unnecessarily important or as it may well be, others have made more important for them, namely, space and hegemony. In other words, these brothers and neighbours might well have unknowingly been fighting other people’s war all along because it is now obvious that there are distant interests far outside of these areas that are benefiting from these crises.

Another important point to note is that this is just another clear case of outsiders’ dominion through the mechanism of internal division  - divide et imperium. Of course, a thoroughly debilitated Delta is an easy prey for those who greedily eye her resources.

In many respects, I believe that the combatants in the internal conflicts in the Delta are themselves already aware of this very crucial fact and the Gov. James Ibori initiated Road Map to Peace would, no doubt, serve as a welcome lasting foundation on which to restore their brotherhood and return to the happy status quo ante in which they were are at peace with themselves.

Anyone with some knowledge about the way oppressors operate would know that it requires the kind of self -destructive activities that have just taken place there to delay the just war against those who have brought about the immiseration of this region through reckless oil exploration that was, from all indications, well in the offing. Everyone seems to know and, indeed, expect that some day, these people, as a natural survival process, would react to that unfortunate situation of oppression and, naturally, the oppressors, who in this case, are those holding on to the oil wealth of these people in Abuja are not going to find that funning.

I cannot take it beyond those presently profiting from the misery of the Delta to have engineered factions of these victimised population to be warring themselves out of effective contention in the larger battle for resources control ahead. Today, the people of the area would just be waking up to the reality that while they were busy killing themselves, the federal government took advantage of their hostile engagement with each other to further worsen their misery by pushing for a reduction of the derivation funds that were meant for them from fifteen percent to ten percent. This is possible because the same materials, intellectual and communal, that were involved in the larger resource control struggle were the same now deployed to the killing of each other, ostensibly on behalf of their real enemy. This much we have alluded to in the piece we entitled “A Just Cause Betrayed” a few weeks ago on this same page.

Of course, it is inconceivable that people would still remember the origins of their sufferings if they were actively holed into their trenches, training guns and cudgels on themselves. The greatest weapon Deltans have for the war on resources control is UNITY. But when they have so allowed themselves to be divided up to the point of killing each other, there will be no room left to talk about the real war that must be fought collectively. So, it is such a tragedy that people who had been exploited so badly have to again misdirect their anger on themselves to the great relief of their enemies. I found it strange that the elite of the Delta are unable to see through this irony right from the word go.

For God’s sake, the communities in Delta are not fighting over religion or some deities handed over to them by their forefathers; they are not fighting the war to defend their religion or belief systems, as it is the case in most part of the troubled world. In other words, there are no sectarian disagreements there, and I am pretty clear in my mind that these people are too intelligent not to want to fight for the almighty God or little gods by proxy as we see in other lands, a process that habitually tap on the deep energies of the heart, emotions and sentiments as against solid reasoning and cold logic or reality of the brain.

It is wrong, indeed, misleading, to reduce the crises in this area to the same level of helplessness that attend sectarian gladiators. Our people are no freaks of a theocratic illusions; they have their heads firmly on their necks and that is why I have a great deal of hope in the Ibori formula on terminating the root causes of the self-inflicted disorder in the area.

I am aware that there is the Danjuma Panel in the works but it is still an outsider’s input when compared to the homegrown one designed by the children of the land under the leadership of the state government. I must not be heard to be dismissive of those distant efforts to bring peace to Delta state. It is however the prayer that it should not  be the case that those who set our house on fire should not be those who would still sell us the building materials to rebuild it. Needless to say here that the mu mu don do!