What Do The Niger Deltans Want? -By Fenny Fwa

Mrs Ibim Semenitari, NDDC Acting MD

This Niger Delta people are impossible. With due respect to the good ones amongst them, I don’t think the people are interested in development. They believe that their God given natural resources -oil and gas are not for development; they are to be shared amongst their people. Once this is not done, they will take up arms against the state. Permit me to be specific. This generalisation of anti-development and the sharing of the common wealth is more pronounced amongst the Ijaws in Delta and Bayelsa States.  Agreed, in the past, the region was not allocated adequate resources to address its myriad of development needs. But for more than three decades now, appreciable efforts have been made by channelling sizable resources in the region and the facts captured below reinforce this assertion.

Since the inception of democracy in 1999, successive governments have religiously implemented the 13 percent derivation thereby making most of these Niger Delta states stupendously rich. That is not all, the OBJ regime established the Niger Delta Development commission (NDDC) where 10 percent of accrued revenue in the federation is channelled to the commission to develop the region. Late President Umar Musa Yaradua created ministry of Niger Delta for the purpose of addressing the developmental needs of these people. There was also an adviser on Niger Delta Affairs. The then President Obasanjo ensured that a Niger Deltan, in the person of Goodluck Jonathan was elected as vice president. When Late Yaradua fell ill and a Katsina cabal wanted to prevent him from being the acting president, the country rose in unison and not only ensured that he acted as president, but was elevated to substantive president after the death of Yaradua. He was elected the president in 2011 and for the first time in the history of this nation, a minority was elected as president.  For six years, an Ijaw man presided over the affairs of this nation and also for three years, an Ijaw man was a Vice President of this country. The icing on the cake was the total control of the goose that lays the golden eggs. For six years, an Ijaw Iron Lady, Mrs Dezieni held the petroleum ministry, dispensing favours to her people.

With these enormous powers and wealth, what is the benefit of an average Niger Delta man apart from poverty, misery and want? The rapacious elites used the resources acquired to purchase choice properties in Abuja and abroad, displaying the wealth with arrogance and insolence.

NDDC is a pot of sleaze. In its 16 years of existence, there is little to show for the enormous resources ploughed in the commission, except few fat cows that milked the commission dry. Orubebe, who nearly turned the country upside down with his belligerent attitude at the collation centre of the presidential election, presided over the affairs of the Niger Delta ministry and with the enormous resources at his disposal, failed to make appreciable progress on East west road that when completed, it will link virtually all the Niger Delta states. When Rotimi Ameachi, the then governor of Rivers complained on the failure to execute the project, he was lampooned and accused of being anti-Goodluck. The iron and untouchable lady that presided over the affairs of the petroleum industry was something else. Several billions of dollars were brazenly embezzled. If in doubt, please take your time and read the audit, Ribadu, NEIT reports on NNPC. With all these, she had nothing to show in her backward state of Bayelsa. The list of the raping of Niger Delta by its people is endless. Is it the Governor General of Niger Delta, the late Alams who used the revenue of Bayelsa as if it was his personal resources? Well, nemesis caught up with him having been arrested by the police in London, but illegally left London to Nigeria unashamedly as a woman until he was forcefully impeached by OBJ, using unorthodox processes. Another impossible character was James Ibori, the then governor of Delta, who plundered the resources of Delta State allegedly to the tune of N30b. Since our judiciary cannot be said to be isolated from the number one vice of the country, he was discharged by Asaba court on the numerous charges for lack of diligent prosecution. While in London, the U.K. Police and judiciary came to our rescue as he was found guilty of money laundering and other corruptive acts.

Fwa, a staff of Ministry of Information, Yola, wrote in from Yola, Adamawa State.