| Urhobo Historical Society |
Epistle To Maduabebe is Nengi Josef Ilagha�s ninth book
in nine years. Its publication on December 18, 2009, virtually brought
the
author�s home state of Bayelsa to a
standstill. Trenchant
and uncompromising in all twelve chapters, brimming with prophecy for a
world
gone sour, the book has been hailed as �the height of polemic
iconoclasm in
Nigeria.�
Its
author is the militant poet, journalist and broadcaster who served time
in the
government of Bayelsa State as Speech
Writer. Its
subject is corruption and greed. Its hope is redemption for a nation
that is
fast losing its dreams. Its righteous tirade is trained at Dr Edmund Maduabebe Daukoru,
former OPEC
President, two-time Minister of Petroleum in Nigeria, and paramount
ruler of Nembe, a key oil producing
community in the south of the
country, and godfather of the incumbent government under Chief Timipre Sylva-Sam.
The
following is the twelfth and concluding chapter of Epistle
To Maduabebe.
The Militant Writes Back
I know enough history to
realize that
civilization does not
fall down from the sky.
-
Chinua
Achebe
Mingi XII, Amanyanabo of Nembe
Bayelsa State, Nigeria
|
T |
HERE
IS EVERY indication that the history of the struggle for resource
control and
self-determination is as good as complete. Ask Tompolo.
Ask Boyloaf. If you can go that far, ask
all the
unidentified militants in the swamp who have given up their arms for
peace to
reign in the region. If you like, ask all the yellow journalists who
carry the
wrong reports at the right time of going to press for the wrong
reasons.
Yet,
as a young and vibrant graduate from the Niger Delta who received an
excellent
education from choice institutions of learning abroad, before and after
the
Nigeria-Biafra civil war, you could have done a great deal to help
realize the
noble aspirations of Isaac Adaka Boro
as expressed in his landmark autobiography, The
XII-Day Revolution. Even if you didn�t want to take up guns
personally, at
least you could have raised a fist to the powers that be, in the manner
of Ken Saro-Wiwa, as if to say Amandla!
Instead, you put your glasses over your nose and stared at
nothing.
Incidentally,
a formal declaration of discontent by Ijaw
youths in
the Niger Delta region came to pass as late as December 1999, and you
were not
the propulsion. You were not even the sponsor. You could have defined a
new
edge to the struggle long before Oronto Natei Douglas and his fellow compatriots in the Ijaw Youth Council spelt out 100
Reasons Why We Must Control Our Resources! You could have
staged a revolt against Shell, if you could summon the guts and act on
behalf
of your conscience. Given your intellectual stature, you could have
even
reasoned things out with Shell on a cordial note, around a round table
full of
tea cups and saucers. Instead, you sat back on your bourgeois sofa,
crossed
your legs and picked up a copy of The
Geologist.
Today,
I look through a long roll call of honour,
and find
your name missing. No discerning mind with any iota of respect for
rectitude
and good conduct mentions Dr Edmund Maduabebe
Daukoru when the exploits of truly heroic
sons and
daughters of Izon stock are recounted. In
our manuals
of redemption, your name is omitted. Ask Alamieyeseigha.
In the annals of patriotic history, you are lost. Ask Asari
Dokubo. In spite of all their shortcomings,
ask these
purposeful sons of the land. It is obvious where you went wrong. You
took sides
with the wrong party for too long, and you are still with the wrong
party. You
bowed to the advocates of the Land Use Decree. In particular, you
befriended
Chief Olusegun Obasanjo
and
became his mirror image for intimidation and injustice in your domain.
Let�s
look closely at the facts of the case against you. According to the
history
books and everyday economic lore, for that matter, oil has been the
mainstay of
the Nigerian economy, accounting for 80 percent of the Gross Domestic
Product,
95 percent of the national budget and 90 percent of foreign exchange
earnings.
Of this figure, production from the Ijaw
country is
estimated to account for 65 percent of the GDP, 75 percent of the
national
budget and 70 percent of foreign exchange earnings. Are you familiar
with these
statistics or not? Of course, you are.
It
is on record that the principle of derivation was the basis for revenue
allocation when groundnut was produced in commercial quantity in the
Hausa-Fulani territory. This was equally the case when cocoa was
produced in
Yoruba land. The same principle was active for the Igbo when coal was
the
cornerstone of the Nigerian economy. In other words, when the three
major ethnic
groups in Nigeria provided the basis for the nation�s economic
survival, they
received their due recognition in full � 100 percent.
However,
between the Chicks Constitution of 1953 and the Independence
Constitution of
1960, the percentage was slashed by half, from 100 percent to 50
percent. Ten
years later, in 1970, under the regime of Yakubu
Gowon, it was slightly adjusted to 45 percent,
and
fell down to 20 percent in 1975 under the Murtala-Obasanjo
regime. The principle of derivation suffered the biggest blow in 1982
under the
government of President Shehu Shagari
when it dropped to 02 percent. Then, it climbed up to 1.5 percent in
1984 at
the behest of Buhari, and descended yet
again to 03
percent in 1992 under the Babangida junta.
Since
1999, the percentage derivation principle has remained pegged at 13
percent,
and General Abdulsalam Abubakar
left it at that.
To
complicate matters, the Federal Government willfully contrived the
onshore-offshore dichotomy, which became a subject of prolonged
litigation,
following a volte face by nineteen
northern governors and three of their counterparts from the south-west.
Not
surprisingly, the plight of the Ijaw
became so bad
that channels for distribution of finished petroleum products in Ijaw territory were blocked. The result is that
the cost of
fuel is ten times the approved pump price at any given time in Ijaw land, despite the existence of the
Petroleum
Equalization Fund and related agencies.
Dear
Dr Daukoru, you know these things, don�t
you? I am
not telling you what you don�t know. These facts are at your finger
tips. I
will do well not to tell you what you know, but I am pining to tell you
what
you don�t know. What exactly did you do rectify the situation? Would it
be
correct to say that you preferred to sit on your high-horse in all the
high-flying offices you have held so far, to say nothing of the
consultancy and
advisory roles you have played to governments at closed-door summits?
Are
you sure there is nothing wrong with the Land Use Act, 1978, smuggled
as it was
into the 1979 Constitution? Don�t you see anything wicked in the fact
that it
transferred ownership of all land from individuals and communities to
state
governments? Even the colonialists recognized the rights of communities
to own
and control their resources, so why not the colonized elite? Haven�t
you ever
heard of a white man called Henry Willink?
What did
he stand for? What do you stand for, apart from your pocket? Clearly,
you still
prefer your village protocol over and above the Kyoto Protocol.
I
mean, didn�t you see anything wrong with the Petroleum Act (51) 1969
which
vested control and ownership of all petroleum resources in the Ijaw country on the Federal Government? Didn�t
you find
anything objectionable about the Offshore Oil Revenue Act (9), 1971,
which
granted the Federal Government exclusive rights over the continental
shelf of
the coastal areas?
Let
me make the question easier for you to handle. When you got married to
your
spouse, did that deprive you of your body? Don�t you withdraw after
intercourse, having donated a small percentage of yourself into the
chosen
parcel of land that would grow into maturity nine months later? Does
that
analogy bring you to a better understanding of the concept of paying
tax to the
Federal Government, and still being your manly self?
I hope so.
You
make me want to throw up my arms and punch your conscience, but I can�t
find
any conscience in you. Here you are sitting on your haunches and Henry Willink comes all the way from England and tells
you that
the territory now known as Ijaw country is
�poor,
backward and neglected.� And you nod your consent. You concur so much
that you
get a chance to go and study geology so you could return with great
zeal to
make a definite change in your environment for posterity to applaud.
Instead,
you acquired your degrees on the bill of Shell and connived with Shell
to keep
the territory covered by the three sorry adjectives, �poor, backward
and
neglected.�
I
assure you this, and may the spirit of Henry Willink
bear me witness. In fact, may Tonton Teme hold me witness.
On account
of your sworn complacency, your readiness to acquiesce to half measures
quite
against your better judgment, you shall remain poor in your morals. You
shall
remain backward in your thinking, stuck in a recidivist channel that
leads
nowhere. You shall continue to be neglected, even by the footnotes of
history.
Let your greed gobble you up forthwith like an insatiable flood. May
you pine
for audience in the belly of the righteous and never get a hearing
until you
are flushed down the foul sewers of eternity.
If
the Ijaw nation has been cruelly
impoverished by
Nigeria, it is because of characters like you who settle for less than
you
could have gained on a corporate scale. If the Ijaw
nation has been systematically abused over the years by Nigeria, it is
because
of treacherous personages like you who are content with the crumbs from
the
master�s table that looked large in your individual possession. If the Ijaw nation has been grossly neglected by
Nigeria since
1960, it is because of fifth columnists like you who readily signed
your
conscience away for a proverbial mess of porridge.
Verily,
verily, it is because of people like you that Bayelsa
suffers the injustice that is clearly manifest in the eight local
government
structure of today, as against the constitutional provision at the time
of
creation which stipulated a minimum of ten local government councils
for a
state. If, out of 774 local government councils in Nigeria, the Ijaw do not have more than 24 across the Niger
Delta
states, it is because of fellows like you who sold out. How do you
feel,
knowing that all the Ijaw local government
councils
put together do not amount to that of one Hausa-Fulani state, namely
Kano,
which has 44 local government areas? Do you feel funky?
I
say it is because of traitors like you that, out of 109 members in the
Senate
today, only six of them hail from Ijaw.
Even more
shamefully ironic, by a progressive order, out of 360 seats in the
Federal
House of Representatives, there are only XII seats for honourable
members of Ijaw extraction. Take the next
question.
At what particular forum could you have argued the injustice of this
gross
national lopsidedness that it failed to be reported at all by Radio Bayelsa, to say nothing of CNN? And yet, you
have the
temerity to patronize the wishes of Isongufuro
to
hold Nembe in thrall over the outcome of
mere council
elections. How long will it take you to do what is right?
I
wonder. I have never been able to understand why a candidate will come
up to
vie for a particular seat in an election, wins by an obvious margin
against his
fellow competitors, and is summarily replaced by some mediocre element
who
happens to be the candidate of some preposterous don griping over
yahoos and bananas
in some idle and God-forsaken corner. If there is any compensatory
appointment
at all, don�t you think it should go to the loser, rather than the
winner? A labourer, says the scriptures,
is worthy of his wages. And,
in a democracy, when the people decide, God endorses that decision. Is
common
sense so uncommon in your dictionary?
I
wonder.
And
you, Maduabebe, when will you become a
staunch member
of Ayeba Furo,
and rise up
to speak the truth for all time, at all times? I am the worldwide
President of Ayeba Furo.
Call me Pope Pen The First. Call me Calvary
Head. Do you care to join me in
revamping the world? Is there anything worth redeeming in your
character? How
dare you become the sole decision maker as to who becomes councilor and
who
doesn�t in local Nembe politics? Since
when did you
become the final screening point for the credentials of those who
qualify to be
Commissioners and Special Advisers and law makers from Nembe?
Since when did you become a tribunal onto yourself in matters of
politics, when
you have so much to accomplish in geology? How selfish can you get?
I
put it to you, squarely, that you are doing all this in your sole
interest. You
want to have every political office holder from Nembe
pay homage to you with regular offerings and monthly tithes. That is
the
covenant you are desperately trying to uphold in the land. That�s the
philosophy behind Covenant 2007, the campaign slogan of Timipre
Sylva. Verily, verily, I put it to you that only God deserves our
offerings and
tithes, and therefore you have failed even before you began. Every
dubious plot
you may have conceived to undermine the land and people of Nembe
will come to a big, fat naught.
Since
you believe so much in your regal authority, you narrow-minded
gladiator, why
don�t you decide the next President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria?
Come to
think of it, why don�t you run for the office of President and
Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of
Restoration
in the next elections, and see how many voters will cast a ballot in
your favour? If you want to make
decisions, why didn�t you
secure a seat on the populist Commission for Africa like Benjamin Mkapa and Fola Adeola and K.Y. Amoaka?
As
you probably know, the clear and specific proposals of that
distinguished
Commission state that Africa�s development can only be shaped by
Africans. That
indeed is the way it is. History has shown that development does not
work if it
is driven from outside. �Regardless of how well intentioned outside
donors may
be,� says the report of the Commission, �they will never fully
understand what
Africa requires.� The dilemma couldn�t have been better expressed, and
yet the
solution is crystal clear. What Africa requires is that corrupt leaders
in the
mould of Maduabebe and Obasanjo
should be hanged on the taut ropes of their greed. Let the mind of God
take
over from there.
In
1933, General Smedley Butler, a former US
Marine
general, made an honest confession of being a victim of moral decay.
This is
what he had to say. �I helped make Mexico, especially Tampico, safe for
American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Cuba and Haiti a decent
place for
the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the
raping of
half a dozen Central American Republics for the benefits of Wall
Street. I
helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown
Brothers
in 1909-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American
sugar
interests in 1916. In China, I helped to see to it that Standard Oil
went its way
unmolested. During those years, I had, as the boys in the back room
would say,
a swell racket.�
It
will be nice to hear you confess in like manner how you helped to
sustain
corruption and graft in Nigeria. It is time for confession, your
majesty, time for worship. How long is your
record of racketeering?
How swell was your racket? It is because of you and your kind that
James
Halloran, who manages Halliburton�s accounts in America, says the
business
culture in Nigeria thrives on corruption. Indeed it is heart-rending to
hear
him insult the sensibilities of the Nigerian people in the following
words, and
I quote: it will be na�ve if we think we can clean up corruption in
Nigeria. Unquote.
Needless
to say, this is the greatest test of your patriotism. I challenge you
to prove
Halloran wrong. Be our town-crier of good conscience. Take a gong
around the
streets and alleys of Nembe, and tell our
people that
you did not receive one kobo from Halliburton. Like our former Vice
President, Atiku Abubakar,
I expect that you
will embark upon a credible campaign to clear your name over any
possible links
with the scandal. I expect that you will completely deny ever meeting
Jeffrey Tesler, to say nothing of
receiving a friendly kick from
him. How can Tesler come from out there
and undermine
the Nigerian system to help the multinational consortium win a fabulous
contract of six billion US dollars to build the Nigeria Liquefied
Natural Gas
project, if not for conspirators like you?
Who
admitted you into the Niger Delta Peace Forum when you cannot negotiate
peace
with an open and fair heart? Who inducted you into the Ijaw
Elder�s Forum when you cannot stand up for the rightful wishes of the
law-abiding people of Bayelsa State? Who
received you
onto the Board of Trustees of the Bayelsa
State
Development Fund, when you subscribe wholly and completely to the
ignoble
tenets of underdeveloping every other
pocket around
you for the benefit of yours and yours only? In all the years you have
served
in the oil and gas industry, what case have you made to support the
prime
position of Nembe in crude oil production
with a view
to securing commensurate government attention for the ancient community?
Why
do you bother making professional presentations on the Petroleum
Geology of the
Niger Delta, if it is only to enable you win the next appointment? Why
bother
to champion the membership of Angola in OPEC when you cannot persuade
your
nephew to forgo the next loan from the capital market, for the sake of
future
generations? And then, horror of horrors for the pride of the Nembe man, you are named in an international
monetary
scandal. Yet you want to sit tight as Mingi
and
compel our admiration and respect. How do you expect us to reconcile honour and dishonour
in one
breath? It is not done, your majesty. It is just not done. It is not
right in
the sight of God. Pure and simple.
Verily,
verily, I ask to know who appointed you as Chairman of the Solid
Minerals
Committee for Bayelsa State when you
cannot make a
righteous advocacy for a well-deserved 100 percent derivation
principle, and
insist that the Federal Government pay tax to the oil and gas producing
communities for the mineral resources they have been mining from the
Nigerian
coastline since 1954? Why did you advice Governor Timipre
Sylva-Sam to stage the maiden summit on the amnesty process in Kaduna,
rather
than any city in the Niger Delta? Exactly how much of the tax payers�
money
went into that pointless show of shame? What was he doing in that babanriga? How
many times have you seen a northerner in woko or etibo?
How hypocritical can we
get?
Of
course you know what is right and proper for you to do, but you just
cannot
bring yourself to do it. Your greed, in short, will just not let you
extend
fairness and parity to your fellow men and women in the oil producing
communities. How do you expect God to be happy with you when you have
been
stealing money meant for your neighbours
over the
years? What kind of a nationalist are you? In spite of your status in
Shell and
the cardinal role you played in the establishment of the NLNG, you
couldn�t be
bothered about providing dependable power supply to the local
communities where
you hail from. What kind of a role model are you? What kind of a father
figure
are you, Maduabebe?
Of
course you were comfortable jetting in and out of the country,
attending
international conferences, and having your face shown on cable
satellite
television. Of course you wanted your fellow citizens to know just how
far one
of their own could go, so that you could return and insist on being
worshipped
by one and all. But you misfired. You climbed up a wobbly ladder. You
missed
your steps and fell hard when Halliburton extended a choice bait the
way Jerry
sets a trap for Tom. There are bumps growing on your head, and I hope
they
don�t ever subside. While you swoon round and round and round on your
shirt
tail, ahead of your final fall to ignominy, please take note of the
following
XII questions coming to you at yahoo dot com.
I.
How
many
obnoxious Acts, Decrees, Statutes and legislations have been enacted by
the
Nigerian establishment since Independence to subject the interest of
the Ijaws to long-standing disregard, and
how many deserve
immediate repeal?
II.
What
should be
transferred from the Exclusive Legislative List to the Concurrent
Legislative
List in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, and vice versa?
III.
What
titles are
taken away from the Ijaw nation by the Oil
Pipeline
and Lands (Title Vesting) Decree No 2 of 1993?
IV.
What
association
does the Associated Gas Re-injection Act, 1978, belong to, and how many
parades
have been conducted by the Oil Terminal Drilling Act?
V.
As a
geologist,
one that is fully aware that oil is a wasting asset, how many more
years are
left before this valuable mineral resource dries up completely from the
shores
of Ijaw land?
VI.
The
Niger Delta
is believed to be in grave danger on account of excessive oil and gas
exploration activities in the past five decades, without due
compensation. What
is your professional assessment of the situation so far?
VII.
The
land and
people of the Niger Delta have been victims of uncountable oil spills
and
uncontrolled gas flare for over half a century. What is your selfless
recommendation to the in-coming Reparations Commission for Resettlement
of the
Niger Delta Peoples?
VIII.
Which
of the 139 Niger Delta communities affected by
flooding and coastal erosion deserve urgent construction of bulwarks
against
the rising tide of frustration?
IX.
What
is your
disposition to the suggestion by the Pen Pushers Talking Front, PPTF,
that the
Niger Delta in its entirety should become the Federal Capital Territory
henceforth, with the Presidency situated in the New Jerusalem, as a
demonstration of the Federal Government�s seriousness to develop the
region in
durable terms?
X.
What
is your
reaction to the suggestion by PPTF that the Ijaw
should produce the next President and Commander-In-Chief of the Armed
Forces of
the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and that Nigeria should in turn
produce the
pioneer President of the United States of Africa, in much the same way
that the
European Union is seeking to install one?
XI.
If
Jesus Christ
were to return as a white man, would that not put the black race at a
disadvantage and undermine the concept of a judge coming to court in a
black
hood?
XII.
How
do you react
to the idea that the new face of Jesus Christ should be the first from
the core
Niger Delta to grace the Nigerian national currency?