Resource Control, Beneficial to Nigerian State

By

Dappa Biriye 

Chief Dappa-Biriye is considered the father of Niger Delta Nationalism. In this interview with IGNATIUS CHUKWU of the Post Express, Nigeria, he gives insight into the politics of state creation, resource control and minority rights issues.

Excerpts:

YOU formed the Ijaw Rivers Peoples League in 1941. What was the background to the formation. Was that the beginning of minority politics?

The Ijaw Rivers Peoples League was formed in 1941 because as Ijaws, we were scattered into several provinces. The Ijawman was in Calabar Province. He was also in Owerri Province, Warri Province, and each of these names were names of smaller ethnic units. So certainly, people like us from college felt with we needed a home base from which we could get our people together and give them a sense of belonging. It was not that we were competing with anybody but the British who made the country had neglected us. So, I told my fathers age group that was not good enough, that we Ijaws must have to have a basis for co-existence. So, they formed what was called Ijaw Rivers Peoples League. You can see those two names ? Ijaw, then Rivers because all of us near the waterside are called Rivers by the hinterland people. Those two names came into the name of the organisation they formed ? Ijaw Rivers Peoples League. And that league now applied in 1942 for a Rivers Province. The application took five years to mature for the Rivers Province was created in 1947. So, it was not a question of anybody telling us that we were minorities. We felt that we were neglected as a tribal unit, so we must find our feet, find our way.

What was the philosophy behind the quest for creation of states?

First of all, my fear was that the provinces now started to mobilise into groups. If you know, we are now a province and everybody accepts it, we were in the group of Eastern Province and another group of provinces was in the West. The third was in the North and now it was very clear that in grouping people into provinces, you have to find your way by right. The right way out in a group of six or seven provinces in the East was not sufficiently powerful. So I decided to move on from province to states. I decided to ask for Rivers State. That move, now from the 1940s into the early 1950s, moved into the London Conferences, where my case was now developed in the angle of ecology-the Niger Delta ecology was different from the rest of Nigeria and I built my case on that.

Sir, could you enlighten us on your roles in the Lagos, Lancaster and London Constitutional Conferences. What were your major contributions and achievements to these pre-independence conferences?

First of all, the conferences started in Ibadan. The 1950 Conference in Ibadan was intended to now change governance from white man to the black man. Black man was admitted now to take part in governance, otherwise before then, it was all filled with the white men. But the 1950 Conference in Ibadan decided that there should be another conference in 1953 which should take place in London. So, the 1953 Conference was also on how to formalise the regional groupings, so that the regional settings should now have authority to rule themselves internally. This was why you had, instead of the Eastern group of provinces, an Eastern Region, with the Western Region and the Northern Region. And each of these regions had a government, executive governments to do their own job on residual issues. So, the 1954 Conference, it was at that point that a man like Awolowo decided that the savings in London for Nigeria which had amounted to £100 million, those savings must be and the savings should be divided on the basis of the contributions from the produce of this country. It was conceived that cocoa was the largest producer of the savings, followed by cotton and groundnut. So, Awolowo was able now to enunciate this concept of derivation which gave him £53 million out of the £100 million. The Northern people had £24 million. In the Eastern Region here, we had only £16 million. But of course, a man like (late Dr. Nnamdi) Azikiwe, an Igbo man, Igbo people don?t eat their capital, they produce it. Watch an Igbo man, that capital he doesn't touch it. He must make it to make profit for him to now eat the profit. So, Azikiwe now made sure that the $16 million he had was built into £22 millions at independence whereas Awolowo who has £53 million pounds had used it in building Cocoa House in Ibadan, Western House in Lagos, and of course, the money was there to spend and he spent it. He had a party known as Action Group, the motto of which was 'Life More Abundant'

Why was the same principle of derivation not applied when crude oil became a major revenue earner for the country?

It is a question of whether you have the power to compel others to agree with you. The Rivers man, the minorities in fact, have never got into power to rule. They were mere minions in political parties that were ruling. Up to now, you can see that (President Olusegun Obasanjo), when he became head of state, decided to, in fact, have just three languages called constitutional languages.  Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba. These languages are in the constitution and we the Ijaws are not there yet, and we, Ijaws are feeling that we must build our language into that constitution like others, whether there is merit in it or not. Other people are also pressing like the Kanuris, Efiks and Ibibios. See the minorities, they have not been able to grab government and use it to rule the country and direct themselves. Until you get that done, you go nowhere!

What do you suggest as the solution to the fears and crises of the Niger Delta?

Well, if we can now get the constitution adjusted in such a way that the constitution makes authority different from the processes of ruling. And if you want to get to rule, then you have to join the political parties and be effective there, not to go and hang on there like a minion and you can never rule.
So, it is a question of the minorities now taking effective part in governance on one hand and in getting the constitution to favour everybody equally on the other, which is not so yet. In our own South South Peoples Conference (SSOPEC), we are trying to understand how to make our people feel concerned and since we the South-south are the Kernel of Niger Delta Development area, if we all agree, we may be able to convince ourselves and get the head of state to agree too that some corrections are required to create perfect unity of purpose and peaceful existence. I am sure that when that is done, many of our boys and girls who are restive will no more be restive.

Has the creation of the various boards and commissions for the development of the Niger Delta such as the Niger Delta Development Board, the Oil Mineral Producing Area Development Commission (OMPADEC) achieved the desired goals, that is, have they solved the problems of neglect, and marginalisation of the Niger Delta area?

OMPADEC did not do so because OMPADEC went into office and was still subject to direction from far away outside the area of OMPADEC. If you get to know the fact that beleaguered OMPADEC, you find out that many of the contracts OMPADEC handled were not directly from the board of OMPADEC. They came from people who were not part of this area. I won't give you a name. But I will tell you to ask those who were there, they would tell you that many of the notes they worked on were not from their own zone. They were complying with directive from other people. The Niger Delta Development Board was an advisory board. It started as an advisory board and it got used to that and it has not changed its looks. The Niger Delta Development Board was made to be advisory to the Federal Government, to the government of Eastern Nigeria, to the government of Western Nigeria and with that conduct, they felt they are not entitled to orders. So, the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), is expected to have full executive powers not limited to some time. It is supposed to start and to go ahead indefinitely, provided, of course, the head of state, who is with the master key of the system will agree to land the thing and operate. Our problem with him now is that he is still undecided as to what he ought to be able to do. But he had told me personally that he would like it to start before October 1, 2000 AD. Okay, saying it is one thing but doing (it) is what we want to see. So he has said so but he has not yet done it. We are hoping that he would, probably, agree to wake up from bed and do as he has promised. That's what we hope but it could be a wishful thinking if we are not in a position to make him to do it.

Resource control now seems to be the political solution to the problems of the Niger Delta. Is that also the firm view of the SSOPEC?

Well, the governors in the South-south have decided to say that such control is their desire. Well, if they say so, I think they are right. As I have told you before, Awolowo decided to use a formula that traced the savings of the nation to his own article of trade which was cocoa. So, anybody else who has any formula to apply to benefit him is free to do so. I told people who have asked me this type of question that they should go to Chief Bola Ige. When Bola Ige was governor of Oyo State, he made what was called Igbeti Marble Formula. In that formula, he said that the company that was making marble was entitled to have its profits. But from its profits, some percentage must go to the indigenous owners of the area of the substance. Then, after the indigenous people and the company, the local, state and Federal Governments should also have there own percentages. That was the formula. I think that formula was fair and it is going on in their favour. It should be adopted by other parts of the country who have resources to offer. And if it is adopted in the South-south, naturally, nobody would quarrel with his neighbour. Personally, I wouldn't quarrel with anybody who said that the indigenous people should have their rights to the property in their area and then other people, of course, can come and share with us.

Sir, I want to draw you to the point that it is a popular saying that minority politics in Nigeria has its own elements of stability to the national polity and unity. How true is this?

That is true because I forced this country to accept statism.  Whiteman imposed regionalism on us. Biriye said no, that it was going to lead to clashes of interest among the major groups and then, it would involve the minor groups accidentally. So, I said well, we must have states. The states must be a minimum of 12 and a maximum of 26. That was what I postulated and eventually when a man called General Yakubu Gowon came into office, he bought my idea. He said chief go to the North, if your friends agree, come and I will create the states. And I did so. I went to the North. Hassan called all the Emirs and chiefs and so on and we discussed and they agreed with my policy of statism that we should now drop regionalism and go into states. Six in the south at that time, and six in the North. So, I went back to Gowon at Dodan Barracks and told him that well, your people have agreed. This is why Gowon on May 27, 1967, created the first 12 states of this country, followed by other military rulers like General Ibrahim Babangida and others. Today, we have 36 states in Nigeria and one central government. These 36 states have 36 governors, 36 deputy governors, 36 governments and so on and so forth. So, political knowledge has expanded. It gives us the opportunity to know more than what we would have known if we were only in three regions.

What of resources control?

Resources control? Well, it is a constitutional issue. Since the governors have said they want to control it, you can't shut them up, they have the right of say but they may not have the right of way. So there is need for us to have a constitutional conference to bring us all together and those who have knowledge on the subject matter can now throw it out. I know what to say. I know what to say but I won't say it to the public until I am asked the question: How can we do it? Because if I say it now, it goes out, when the tongue goes to war before the legs, the head doesn't come back.

Sir, you used the occasion of your 80th birth year to launch the octogenerian programme which is your baby. Could you give us a brief insight into what it is all about.

Well, what I have said in my own wish is that this country should not be poor, because God has given us variety of opportunities and resources we can utilise. So every effort should be made by the government to ensure that poverty is eliminated through the individuals who are able-bodied. Otherwise, you see, the moment you allow a society to grow up in an idle manner, you are allowing people to conceive ideas that are not favourable to rulers, then there would continue to be a lot of fair and unfair criticisms which do not allow us to have peace in this country.

How soon would your octogenarian programme take off?

I told you that when the tongue goes to war before the leg, the head does not come back. I am not in government. So I have to make sure that those in government agree with me. If they agree with me, if they agree with the formula I give them, then we start. But I am not in government so, I cannot force the people of this country to go my own way. I can only persuade them, I want to start it, probably, from January 2001 that is my timetable because I am working out a formula by which those in government should take it up and when they agree to take it up, I think it will mean well for everyone of us. As at now, Obasanjo has a programme of what he calls Poverty Alleviation Programme (PAP) well, in my normal parlance, we say prevention is better than cure. So curing it, to me, it not as good as preventing it. Curing poverty which is alleviation, to me, is not as good as preventing poverty which is the policy, I think we can buy over now globally, starting from Nigeria. This is why when (President Bill) Clinton came here I suggested to Obasanjo that look, tell Clinton that there should be a global secretariat in Nigeria which should now start to look into this poverty alleviation. If the secretariat is not in Nigeria, you cannot control it. But they were not able to mobilise themselves and get it agreed to. But nobody stops you from taking the matter and pursuing it at the national and international level and I am pushing the matter up at the international level right now.




March 2001