People of the Niger Delta
By
If Chief Obafemi Awolowo would refer to our great giant in the African sun as a mere geographical expression, it is most unfortunate that attempts made to attend to its multiple ills have worked more to divide it than to unite it. In 1914 when the journey to now started, we had one entity, a centralized administration. Then we began to tinker with the geographical space. So, we had three regions before independence, then four in 1963. In spite of the fears of the minorities that they should be granted autonomy in their enclaves, we were given independence where three dominant groups held sway. They were in a position to give leadership to all other groups, as would happen in a family where love binds. But these were people who did not trust themselves. They thought they could reduce the number to less than three and it is the impossibility of this venture in a Nigeria that must be one that has given us the headaches and heartaches. Yet, each of them would allege being marginalized when those they collectively marginalize and dehumanize are the minorities who are left to lick sores that have developed into ulcers.
The creation of the Midwest Region was not an act of love. In creating the Midwest Region, the NCNC and the NPC did not want to give freedom to people who
had asked for it and fought for it since the Forties. If they did and really wanted an arrangement that would work for the benefit of the country, would
they not have created one other region in the East and at least one in the North? We would have had the Middle Belt Region and the Midwest Region and the
Cross River/Ogoja/Rivers Region. But the diabolical manipulators of the Nigerian Enterprise knew what they wanted. They wanted to destroy the Action Group
of the Western Region so that the NCNC would control the Midwest since it had a majority hold there. Later in a period of extreme emergency, and therefore
without due process, we sat on a table and split the country into 12 states; then 19, and 21, and 30 before we settled for 36 which now constitute the
geographical space of the country. But each time there were adjustments to the geographical space, the seeds of disintegration were inadvertently sown.
Those who had lived together serve notice on their kith and kin who had just won autonomy to pack their things and go, even pull down, if they could, the
houses they had built and lived in!
Not one day have we fashioned a viable policy of integrating our people. Before we chose the road we have taken, we walked another road, in fact other
roads. Since we achieved political independence in 1960, we have had effective civilian presence in government only for a little less than twelve years -
from 1960 to 1966, from 1979 to 1983, and from May 1999 to date. Even before 1966, we tasted the absence of due process during the West Regional crisis
when the Federal Government declared a state of emergency in the Western Region. That was during the Action Group crisis of 1962. Between 1966 and 1970,
this country fought a devastating war which has come to be seen for what it was - the control of the resources of the Niger Delta. Those who were more the
canon fodder of that war they did not cause were the people of the Middle Belt and the other minority groups in the country. The war zone was more the
Niger Delta than anywhere else. Once the Niger Delta was free, it was a question of time before the war would end for there was nothing Ndigbo would have
gained in a venture that would have landlocked the most itinerant people of the Federation. The claims and counter-claims at the Oputa Commission have put
everything to do with the civil war in the correct perspective. The paper presented there on Tuesday, October 16 under the auspices of the South-South
Peoples Conference is in my view a commendable first and last word on what the Niger Delta has been through, and the worldview it should imbibe in
presenting its case of denials by those who ought to have understood more the need to live in peace one with another, and especially in order to ensure
the survival of the goose that lays the golden egg, than scheme to destroy the goose.
The 1952 census claims that there are 51 nations in Nigeria. These nations, as reflected in chapter 10 of Chief Obafemi Awolowo's The People's Republic,
are 10 major tribes and 41 minority groups. The major ones are the Hausa/Fulani, Yoruba, Igbo, Efik/Ibibio/Annang, Kanuri, Tiv, Ijaw, Edo, Urhobo, and
Nupe. Of the then population of 56 million, the 10 accounted for 45 million. The remaining 11 million was distributed among the remaining 41 nationality
groups in which there were nine in the East and 32 in the North. From the listing, it is obvious that only the Ijaw, Edo, and Tiv are listed in the first
10. But the problem of identity is evident in the claims made by Chief Awolowo in his book. While we regard the people of Kogi and Kwara as part of the
Middle Belt and the Yoruba- and Igbo-speaking areas of the then old Midwest Region as part of the Niger Delta Region, Chief Awolowo, in promoting his
argument that people should come together on the basis of their linguistic grouping, would want the Igbo-speaking area of Delta State to be merged with
the East, and the Yoruba-speaking area of Edo and Kwara States to be merged with the West. The Arewa Consultative Assembly does not seem to accept that
there is an identifiable piece of territory called the Middle Belt. Even where these are settled, there is the problem of who is a native of where in the
Middle Belt. The problems in Nassarawa and Plateau States with nationality groups mainly centred in Benue State and the Core North States create a problem
of acceptability even where there is clamour for belonging in a minority region. The case is not any different from what we have had in the Niger Delta
itself where the Itsekiri and the Ijaws have had to reach out at each other's throats because of the citing of local government areas.
If language and worldview cannot bring the groups within the Niger Delta together, it is unfortunate, but they cannot also be separated because they are
territorially concentrated and contiguous. Can we not programme our affairs to ensure that what God has linked together on the soil, no man puts asunder
through schemes of whatever description!
In our home front, among the Niger Deltans, we have not succeeded in accepting that geography has tied us together in a piece of land, and that this is
what we can do nothing about, especially in relation to the Nigerian landmass. We have not therefore learned the lesson of cooperative living by rising to
the danger to our Region from those forces that have used us over the years, that have deprived us of what we have, and in doing so destroyed our land and
impoverished our people. They have not done it secretly. They flaunt their ill-gotten gains in our faces, and ensure that every proposal to entrench a
fair deal in our relationships within the Nigerian Union is twisted to their advantage. They have over the years changed the rules of association to suit
their whims and caprices. They have even used us against ourselves and have been watching with delight as we sacrifice our young ones in battles that are
reckless and unnecessary in the face of arrangements that will leave us as slaves for years.
We must therefore paint a picture that must focus our relationships with ourselves within the Region. We have to fight for our place in the Nigerian
homestead. For this reason, we are an irreducible unit, a Region called the South South or the Niger Delta or whatever name we want to focus our
irreducible minimum presence on the Nigerian Terrain. But the guideline is that we are the Ethnic Nationalities of the Niger Delta Region. Territory and
closeness define us. The major groups may be part of us because they are part of the geographical space. We would therefore not be afraid to call
ourselves a Mini Nigeria. But our relationship with others must be defined by space, too, not by tribe because those who claim that relationships must be
by tongue would be asking for a Pakistan where Bangladesh would be a thousand miles away. We do not want outposts of major groups in our locations.
Instead we should see the presence of those major groups as proof of our minority status because they are minorities within the Region. They must be part
and parcel of the integration programme of the Region for the evolution of a worldview such as was evident in the presentation of the South South at the
Oputa Commission. But it cannot be denied that within the Region, the groups must know themselves as units, but must always look at the larger interest of
the group in the Nigerian context, and the larger interest of Nigeria in the comity of nations.
We must therefore be able to locate areas of healthy competition within the Region, not such competition as would destroy the dream of a unit that should
channel its energies to be the key actor in a union that must respect the component parts. So, to drive home the point I am pushing, we are one part of
the Nigerian Union. But within that one part are groups, the many parts of the one Body. We must accept that these many parts must work together if we
must be relevant in the Union. Where however there arises a situation where states are involved, there the level of activity is reduced to that level of
competition. I will struggle to achieve for Edos as a people and as a state within the Region as I would have struggled to achieve for the Niger Delta
Region as a Region within the Nigerian Union. Within Edo State, I will struggle to achieve for the Afenmai people as a sub-ethnic group within Edo State
as I would for Edo State in the contest among states within the Niger Delta Region. Within Afenmailand, the level of competition is reduced to three - the
Etsako, the Akoko Edo and the Owan sub-units in Afenmai. I am Etsako and I will fight for a share for Etsako in an Afenmai sharing scheme. Within Etsako,
I am from Auchi Clan and I will fight to achieve for Auchi where others from the other 12 clans in Etsako will fight for their areas. The clan has towns
and villages and competition can and does move to such levels. Within Auchi Clan there are 24 villages and I come from one of them and will fight for it
in that context. Within the village are families and in my family are different sections. The struggle at the family level will see me fighting for my own
wing of the seven compounds in my family.
We can see therefore that competition is legitimate at the level it is located. But where we kill ourselves and leave the larger dream of unity in a
Nigerian Union, we are not helping matters. This is why we must start a deliberate programme of integration of the peoples of the Niger Delta to accept a
dream of the Region in a Nigerian setting and pursue that dream through all areas in which life can be manifested in the Region. This is a challenge to
the Conference.
We know Nigeria is a concentration of thousands of communities, 97,000 of them, which trace their habitation to a piece of acre in the vastness of the
terrain. Every metre of the more than 98 million hectares of our geographical space is traceable to people who claim that it belongs to them. This is in
spite of the Land Use Act which vests ownership of land in all Nigerians and its administration in government. I come from Auchi, and so can all of us
trace their permanent abodes to a piece of territory. The point is often lost on us that the defence of this little acre is the most important commitment
I can have, that you can have. You can never feel more at home than the little acre, from where you radiate outwards to the clan, to the sub-nationality
group, to the nationality group, to our Zone, to the nation, to the race, and finally, to mankind. So be you Afenmai, Annang, Bekwara, Bini, Egbema, Efik,
Ejagam, Ekpeye, Esan, Ibibio, Ijaw, Ika, Ikwerre, Isoko, Itsekiri, Ndoki, Ndokwa, Ogba, Ogoni, Oron or Urhobo, you have your little acre within that
sub-nationality grouping from which you will refuse to retreat when circumstances drive you to the wall because there is nowhere else to run to.
What is my message to this Conference? I commend the structure settled in my little booklet, Thoughts on Governance Without Tears which I had revised for
this occasion to all the participants at the Conference which is rightly dubbed Unity 2001. I have copies of the booklet for distribution to the various
delegates from the different nationalities. I say that we must integrate the communities of the Niger Delta and keep them busy by pushing for some funding
of the senatorial district assemblies of the states constituting the Niger Delta. The organizing will be left to the traditional institutions of the
district as hosts and by the end of the second quarter of next year, the committees to do the work would have been in place. There can be a Niger Delta
Body which should be the overall monitor of the activities of the assemblies.
We can ask the Niger Delta Development Commission, the state governments, the local councils and international bodies to provide part of the funding, as
the emphasis on integrative programmes are on skills acquisition in different areas. Before the end of the next two years, we would have had in place in
all the states within the Region, people who are committed to the security of their area, to self employment-generating projects, to skills development
for the youths, to sports development and the establishment of respectable contact groups that would be the bridge between the people and the funding
bodies, including the oil companies prospecting for oil in the Region and the big contractors that earn their keep there-from. The gains from this simple
taking advantage of the cultural aspect to governance can only be imagined both in savings and integration.
We must tell the Nigerian Union what we want. Yes, we are the goose that lays the golden egg. Those who are sensible protect the source of their
livelihood. The Niger Delta has never been protected. We will have to force the hands of those who should provide the protection to do their job. But
since this area is more in the arrangements that are documented, then we must revisit the document. That document is the Nigerian Constitution,
specifically that of May 29, 1999. People say the document is a fraud. But it is the one we have. This document contains powers of the people delegated to
those who perform legislative, executive and judicial functions, supposedly on behalf of the people. Those who claim rights must refer to that document
where those rights are listed. Aside of the fact that there are opportunities for abuses and misuse of the powers in the Constitution, the truth is that
the Constitution was doctored to satisfy the greed of a few. It was not a document that would ever favour the people of the Niger Delta Region. We have
not the population to force the Nigerian Union that we must provide the President. It is a document that will make us the appendages that we have been,
the hewer of wood and the fetcher of water to satisfy the gluttonous appetites of people who do not know there can ever be a mission to serve. We want a
national conference that would determine a more credible and lasting arrangement among federating units of the Nigerian nation. We should advocate the
entrenchment in a constitutional document of the present Zones which God has allowed to emerge. No one seems to have deliberately planned for them. They
just emerged, and so they are the handwork of God. These Zones are Regions which can be identified as the constituent groupings deem fit, but which for
purposes of the proposal have come to be known as the North West, North East, North Central, South West, South East and South South. Our Conference has
identified the South South and the North Central as the Niger Delta Region and the Middle Belt Region.
The Federal Structure should be decongested. A better word is Deregulated. We must thus call for the Political Deregulation of the Federal Structure as at
present constituted. There are 67 areas in which the National Assembly has exclusive legislative competence and 26 in which it has concurrent powers to
make laws as the states. But because the National Assembly Acts override state laws where there are inconsistencies, it is reasonable to say that the
National Assembly has Exclusive right of lawmaking in 93 areas. The only area of exclusive legislation by the State Government therefore is residual
areas. And who can identify any? If we want a Federation that has meaning, we should decongest the centre and leave with the Federal Government no more
that a dozen areas for exclusive legislation. These areas must be restricted to our areas of national striving. Everything else should go to the
Parliaments of the Zones which can make their own arrangements for internal administration. Resources automatically reside in the regions which will have
to contribute to the distributable pool.
Local government must be an affair of the Region, and should be the affair of the traditional institutions. No political offices should be created at the
Local level. There can be elected councilors who should earn a sitting allowance. The council should be manned by civil servants who are professionals and
who will guide the elected and selected members. A Clan head should be the chairman of the Council, and this position should be rotated. It will reduce
the heavy cost of running councils today. Those who want to create more councils can do so, but the burden of the cost must rest with the Region or the
Zone.
The Presidential System must be revisited. We needed it to give us a sense of belonging in a Union. But it is generating so much heat that if we are not
careful in restructuring it, we may be packaging this country for explosion.
December 2001