PROACTIVE UNITED IJAW: A Perspective
By
Part I. Issues Of Consideration
I.a Kashmiresque Ijawlands
I.b Intelligence Hegemony
I.c Unity Impasse
I.d The War Inertia (edited subtitle)
I.e Fallacious Exculpations
I.f In Conclusion
Introduction
The concept of nation/country as applied to Denmark, Sweden, or even Belgium does not apply to that geographical region of Africa
identified as Nigeria. Rather, the concept of country as applied to that swat of African land identified as Nigeria is "an alliance of
convenience" of three inner countries: The Hausa/Fulani Country, The Yoruba Country, and The Igbo country. The currently adopted
singular object of this alliance is the exploitation of the less established or smaller inner countries, as well as the prevention of such
countries from ever becoming well-established.
The Ijaw Group of Nations is one of those not-so well-established inner countries of Nigeria. In this segment of this article, I examine
some of the obstacles erected on the way of the Ijaw peoples by both the Ijaws and by the three inner countries that prevent Ijaws
from becoming well-established.
I.a Kashmiresque Ijawlands
The Ijaw nations have become in Nigeria the equivalent of the Kashmir region of the India-Pakistan circumstance. Nigeria is "an
alliance of convenience" of three inner countries: The Hausa/Fulani Country, The Yoruba Country, and The Igbo country, and with the
singular object of this alliance being the exploitation of the less established or smaller inner countries, as well as the prevention of
such countries from ever becoming well-established, has repeatedly attacked at will these minorities at slightest of objection of these
minorities as to the de struction of their habitat.
Even more disturbing, which the Ijaw must necessarily reckon with, is the prospects of a large scale struggle between the inner three
countries. These countries have shadow governments, operating under ethnic names, together with respective arms of operatives:
The Arewa Consultative Forum of the Hausa/Fulani Group and the pliable disenfranchised fundamentalists; The Afenifere of the
Yoruba Group and the Odua People's Congress; The Ohana Eze Ndiigbo of the Igbo Group and the MASSOB and the Bakassi
Boys.
Clearly then as the crude oil reserves dwindle and the revenue short fall begins to bite, these inner countries will begin to rapidly
position themselves for the outright occupation of the motherland, Ijaw-lands. Military engagements will flare up more frequently, and
more Ijaws will be summarily terminated as mere inconveniences. This was the experience during the Ojukwu rebellion, and it will
happen again unless the Ijaws commit to preventing it. Actually, quite obviously, the positioning has already started, although the
positioning now seems to be for the benefit of the three countries. Close examination however shows that the positioning is being
implemented for the benefit of the Yorubas. Consider that Olusegun Obasanjo has dismissed most of the senior officers of the
Hausa/Fulani inner country, and the Igbo inner country officers’ rank is kept low, and all Ijaw officers from the rank of major and
higher have been dismissed. The bulk of the officers then are Yorubas. Further consider that the Ijawlands have been militarized by
Olusegun Obasanjo, and he has also called in the US forces under the guise of protecting US investment interests; clearly then in
the event of regional hegemony between the inner countries, the occupation of the Ijawlands will be fait accompli for the Yoruba
country.
Such occupation of the Ijawlands will result in a massive invasion by the other inner countries. The motherland, Ijawlands will
become the battlefield of these countries. The invasion will have to be repelled by the previous occupants and so on. The number of
deaths of Ijaw citizens will be countless. Ijawlands is the potential Kashmir of Nigeria, unless the Ijaws preemptively prevent it from
ever happening.
The militarization of the Ijaw-lands therefore is an obstacle on the way of the maturation of the Ijaw country of Nigeria; and if the Ijaws
want to become an inner country of that "alliance of convenience" called Nigeria, then the Ijaws must marshal all their collective
creative energies to that end.
I.b Intelligence Hegemony
However, the Ijaws have also put in place obstacles of their own on their way to becoming a country. One such obstacle is the belief
that simply because one has attended college, that person is more intelligent than those who have not attended college, or because
one has attained a higher degree in college the person is more intelligent than the one who only acquired a first degree; and even
worse, is the flip side of the coin, where some believe that everybody is equally intelligent.
Of course, nothing can be farther from the truth. The truth is we are not all equally intelligent, and someone with a first degree can be
absolutely more intelligent than the one with a higher degree. Intelligence is not the same as brilliance. Hence the egotistical attitude
of some of the higher degree holders of the Ijaw-lands has become an impediment to the maturation of the Ijaw country. Very often,
the higher degree holder would refuse to become a member of an Ijaw organization where a first degree holder has become the
president. The former believes that he has a higher degree and therefore he/she should be the head of the organization, without any
consideration of the fact that the latter is, in fact, relatively more experienced or quite possibly more intelligent.
A buttress of this diversity of distributed intelligence is provided by the Myers-Briggs Psychological profiling of people. By this
psychological segmentation of people, there are four primary categories of people and four sub-categories per category; effectively
resulting in sixteen categories of people. Now this is interesting. The interesting part is that only one of the four categories breeds
dreamers. In this category you meet the creators, the creative thinkers, the innovators and the optimizing thinkers. These are the
builders and developers. Equally interesting is that the creators and the creative thinkers constitute 25% of the group and hence
6.25% of the whole populace. The innovators constitute about 50% of the group and hence 12.5% of the populace. In effect, only
about 18.75% of any group of people are founders, and founders are by nature dreamers. This assessment is substantiated even if
indirectly when one considers the observations in “Corporate Cultures” by Deal and Kennedy about the successful CEOs of the most
successful American companies. It was determined that only about twenty percent (20%) of the CEOs, at any period in time, can
plan twenty years into the future. Needless to say that planning twenty years into the future of course requires “dreaming” and being
perceptive of things that others could not. Once again we are back to this twenty percent (20%) a number that is just 1.25% higher
than the Myers-Briggs number of 18.75% but below the 25% of the dreamer category. Then there was this research in this country
sometime ago, about the quality of published papers. It was determined that only about twenty percent of all published papers are
truly innovative, and of this percentage only about twenty percent truly pushes further, the frontiers of knowledge. So consider that
we are back to this twenty percent (20%) o f innovators and 4% (twenty percent of twenty percent) who are true “inventors”. Notice
once again that we are looking at 4% a number that is very close to the 6.25% of the Myers-Briggs profile. Of course, needless to
say that people of the Myers-Briggs dreamer category are the true leaders, and I mean leaders, not despots.
Of course, there is then the question of the evolution of the mind, in psychological studies. A school of thought holds that, there are
eight levels of evolution of the human mind; the eighth being the most evolved. Then there is also the additional issue of whether or
not a particular person on a given level of evolution has even developed a bicameral mind, which is also an entirely different matter. In
summary then, there are at least 128 different categories (16 categories of Myers-Briggs and 8 categories of mind evolutions) of
people.
Now then, turning attention once again to Ijaw nation issue, clearly by the above argument then only twenty-five percent (25%) of the
citizens of the Ijaw country are leaders, founders, nation builders, and thinkers; some of whom may have developed bicameral minds.
The other seventy-five percent, are followers. Quite obviously, the Ijaw peoples, like other peoples, have varied categories of
psychological and mental evolution and that we can not all be equally intelligent; and brilliance in school has nothing to do with
intelligence.
I.c Unity Impasses
The unity of the Ijaws has also been hindered by different obstacles all of which have not been erected by the three existing inner
countries. Yet all these obstacles must be surmounted if the Ijaws truly want to become a matured country within the alliance of
Nigeria. In any event, for the Ijaws to surmount these obstacles, the citizens or at least, the leaders and nation builders of the Ijaw
country must become cognizant of these obstacles. There are two types of these obstacles; and the more vexing of the two forms of
obstacles to the Ijaw unity is of the type that the Ijaws have erected inadvertently, intentionally out of expediency, or from a lack of
strategic analysis of state resulting in a lack of recognition of a state of incongruence.
One such instance of self-erected obstacles due to the lack of recognition of incongruence of action is the creation of duplicate
organizations by Ijaws. An obvious case is the one in which the INC Nigeria sends an emissary to the USA to set up INC-USA as
her satellite organization; and to recruit Ijaws in the Diaspora into the INC membership. A group of Ijaws, from whatever personal
perspective, then organizes another body, seemingly as the compliment of the INC, in the Diaspora. So now the Ijaws have two
competing parallel organizations. Particularly thought-provoking in this development is that this new INC-rival organization then writes
to the INC Nigeria to tell her that this new organization wishes to work with her, in place of the satellite organization which she, INC
Nigeria, had actually authorized to be instituted as her incarnate in the USA; and th is arrangement was being sought
notwithstanding that such an arrangement, in fact, is incongruent with the strategic goals of the INC Nigeria.
Here yet is another way, albeit more graphic way, of looking at this scenario: A mother sends her child whom she had schooled in a
war she had fighting, who therefore has a first hand experience about the state of the war, to a foreign country to represent her. Her
adopted child who is abroad in the country, to which she sends the emissary, then decides that he/she is better qualified to
represent the mother, and then writes to her demanding a validation of the usurpation of the mandate to represent her. Naturally, the
mother will tacitly rebuff the request of her adopted child while still working to maintain her relationship with that errant child. Equally
to be expected is the reaction of the allies of the mother. Such allies having the interest of their ally at heart will be non-responsive to
requests from this errant child to be accepted/recognized as a legitimate, genuine, and altruistic supporter of the war, or even as a
selflessly trustworthy member of the family. Clearly then non-responsiveness, of the allies of the mother to such requests of the
errant child, advanced by the child as an explanation for non-effectiveness would be neither exculpatory nor a revelation. This
assessment of the errant child by the allies is further given credence when this child opts to fight the war in cyberspace while the
mother and her allies are fighting the war with "bricks and mortar".
A somewhat easily surmountable obstacle is the type erected inadvertently from within; and a good instance is the lack of
coordination between the Ijaw organizations fighting the war with bricks and mortar. By current assessment, there is the INC Nigeria,
Ijaw Council of Elders, Ijaw Youth Council and the Egbesu Boys. While each of these groups of ardent warriors have reasonably the
same strategic thrust, facilitate the Ijaws to be able to play within Nigeria by the same standards as the existing inner three
countries -- in effect becoming a matured inner country of the alliance, their strategies have not been thoroughly coordinated. The
Ijaws must coordinate the strategies, tactics a nd implementations of the underlying common strategic thrust.
Then there is the obstacle erected, in 1960 by the British Government, and now being ruthlessly exploited by the three inner
countries. This is the distribution of the Ijaw peoples into several government units within the alliance of Nigeria. This distribution, a
classic example of the direct attack strategy of divide and rule, keeps the Ijaw units in the states, where they are in the minority,
preoccupied with their immediate problems and therefore less concerned with the global ethnic issues.
For the pedestrian Ijaws, the daily pre-occupation is the answer to the question of how could I feed myself today. This question is so
all consuming that the pedestrian Ijaw expends no thought energies worrying about the Ijaw next to him/her. Yet the Ijaw peoples
must collectively address the long term question of how can the Ijaw country be nurtured into maturity within the context of the
alliance called Nigeria. Finding the answer to this latter question must become all consuming to the Ijaws who do not have the former
all consuming question to answer, that is if the Ijaws want an Ijaw country to come into maturity.
I.d The War Inertia
In the struggle of bringing to fruition an Ijaw country within Nigeria, the Ijaws must overcome the inertia of contentment and
complacency. Getting started on anything is always very difficult, however, once started the commitment to sustain it is easily
mustered. However, very often some Ijaws embrace a sense of helplessness at the slightest of obstacles to the achieving of a
set-goal, and begin to cater to self. For the successful conduct of this struggle one must not necessarily expect to see the
conclusion of the war during the person’s lifetime, rather the struggle must be undertaken as it were a process; h ence, one must not
give up the conduct at some point in time of the one’s life. Of course, it is usually easier to do so when the spirit of the struggle is
diffused into and vested on an entity such as an organization, which has the capacity to outlive its founders.
Recently a crisis came up: the 15 billion Naira bill that Alamieyeseigha tried to ram through the Bayelsa Assembly, presumably, to
enable him fund his campaign or to abscond with into oblivion in the event that he did not get reelected. A campaign needed to be
mounted to stop the bill. The task was undertaken by one man here in the USA, Mr Titoe Miriki. While I commend this brother for a
fight well fought, this situation of one man carrying this load should not be. An Ijaw organization that has the mandate of representing
all Ijaws should have been at the head of the program or promptly come to the aid of Mr. Miriki in full force. Of course, this should not
be. Given a well-organized all Ijaw representative organization, Mr. Miriki, would not have needed to shoulder the task. Instead such
organization would have initiated and borne the charge of instituting a nd implementing the campaign against Alamieyeseigha. True
this was a Bayelsa affairs some would say, and true the inception of the campaign started out with a Bayelsa-centric smell, yet the
fact remained that the issue affected a large swat of the Ijaw community, and as the Kalabaris say when you dip a finger into a
pool of oil, sooner or later all five fingers become soiled with the oil.
Then came another crises that had the potential of causing the death of many of our intelligentsia, and I mean the employment rally.
Mr. Felix Tuodolo brought this to our attention. If there were a united Ijaw representative body with a foreign office, that office and the
home-body and all Ijaws, so interested would have called a meeting to immediately perform critical analysis of the situation, arrive at
a crucial decision and make known its position. Rather, concerned Ijaws were analyzing the situation, and expressing their
positions, but without the benefit of a coordinating body with the mandate and potential of coalescing the analyses into a safe
actionable decision.
This disconnect due to the absence of a pooling of the resources, both intellectual and financial, of the Diaspora Ijaws and the Ijaws
at home, yields lack of insight, lack of foresight, lack of understanding, and consequentially, lack of appropriately coordinated
strategic response, that defined an indirect approach to attacking the issue surrounding the employment rally. In actuality, this crisis
should never even have arisen, if there had existed a think tank dedicated to the coordination of the strategic positions of the Ijaw
organizations, because a global strategic approach based on an indirect attack vested with all conceivable dislocations would have
been preemptively adopted by such a think tank, to address these fundamental issues of an Ijaw country.
Now then, for the Ijaws to bring into fruition an Ijaw country, the Ijaws must get started and sustain a Dynamic War Inertia, that is
continuously examining all the issues, both anticipated and contrived, that may threaten the security and survivability of the Ijaw
country, within and without the context of that alliance called Nigeria.
I.e Fallacious Exculpations
Another impasse to the Ijaw unity has been the wanton use of sophism, fallacy and outright deception by Ijaw citizens who operate
with expediency. Critical analytical or relational thinking is always required for the identification of sophism and fallacy. As is true of
every struggle, there will be elements, who would be bent on taking advantage of circumstances for personal gain; and the Ijaw
struggle should not be expected to be any different. So there will be formed organizations whose founders' personal missions would
never start out with the interest of the Ijaw peoples, but would based on expediency and selfish reasons, even though the founders
would attempt to represent the original objectives as of such lofty goal.
The Ijaws must therefore measure, during this struggle of nation building, camaraderie not only by whether a specific Ijaw sent
money to the INC Nigeria through a specific organization, sent money to the IYC through same organization, but whether the sum
total of actions of the said Ijaw is free of expediency and contribute to the nation building to the extent that the actions do not
constitute intelligence hegemony or enervate the dynamic war inertia or create a unity impasse, and that said actions unequivocally
support the Kaiama Declaration.
I.f In Conclusion
This year, this day, this moment, in this article, in the interest of the unity of the Ijaw peoples, I propose that all the well-meaning
Ijaw organizations in the Diaspora begin to consider a realignment directly connecting the organizations with the at-home Ijaw
organizations so as to effect a pooling of Ijaw resources. Such realignment, I contend, would better serve the advocacy of all Ijaw
causes, and also better facilitate the progress of the Ijaw peoples. Moreover, I would suggest --and here I implore the attorneys
amongst us to supply the correct right legalese -- "the fruits of the poisoned apple tree?" should not allowed to thrive in our midst for
the elements of such fruits would continue to sabotage the efforts of the Ijaw struggle as is historical.
OGB, USA
...........Next posting: Part 2........
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Table of Contents
The Prologue
Part I. Issues Of Consideration
I.a Kashmirisque Ijawlands
I.b An Intelligence Hegemony
I.c A Unity Impasse
I.d The War Inertia
I.e Fallacious Exculpations
I.f In Conclusion
Part II. Unity Proposal
II.a Re-Alignment Proposal
II.b Post Re-Alignment IYC Role
II.c New Functionalities
II.d Ijaws Political Empowerment
II.e Role of the Diaspora Ijaws
The Epilogue