The clamour emanates from the lack of trust exhibited marjorly by the people of the Niger – Delta on the rest part of the country. The lack of confidence stems from the argument that the rest of the country has unjustly benefited from the booties which accrue from their crude oil unfortunately to their own detriment. The question therefore is; who would sit aloof and watch this form of impartial treatment. Truthfully, no right thinking individual or group of individuals would “sidon look” this kind of deliberate mystifying nonsense treatment being metted out to them.
This is the position of the people from the oil-producing region. But how does the people that are being accused for these injustices see it? On their own part (especially those of the northern stock), they believe that the monies which accrued from their own God given resources, contributed a lot to the realization of making Nigeria an oil rich nation and that if not for the finances which accrued from groundnut (from the north), coal (from the East), cocoa (from the West) and the Tin-mines (from the Middle Belt), it would not have been possible for Nigeria to be rated as the sixth largest oil producing country in the world.
However, taking into considerations antecedents accounts from the sixties, one would realize that oil issues had generated a lot of unsolvable problems world over, well before Nigeria’s independence such that at the time, the proceeds from all the aforementioned natural resources could not finance the crude oil refinery projects in kaduna alone let alone the rest three.
A lot of people like to make it sound simple as if coal, timber, tin-mines, cocoa etc brought the finances with which crude oil flow stations were set up where companies like Shell had already brought in their capital for the enormous investment.
Again the south-south people that have not asked their governors to account for the little that is being
disseminated to them, would clamour for full authority over their crude oil as if when left alone, they can on their own finance this heavily capitalized investment with the resources currently at their disposal. For a long deprived group of people to ask for something which is beyond their managerial capacity tells how ill informed Nigerians can sometimes be.
The recent stalemate over the question of the resource control issue at the political reform conference (here
after CONFAB) speaks volume in showing to the international community how the leaders of Nigeria are toying on the intelligence (or is it myopic nature) of the generality of the Nigerian populace.
From the East (with erosion eating up the soil) to the North (with the threat of desert encroachment) the problem of serving the people which brought them remains deliberately unsolved by the thieves that claim to be politicians. From the south (with all the problem of environment degradation) to the West (with the sporadic problem of flooding) the problems are the same.
For those southerners that want to hate the Hausa/Fulani man for the reason that a few miscreants amongst them have impoverished them, such people should ask themselves that though thirteen percent is nonsense (in all forms); what has happened to that little fraction that has remained unaccounted for?
A right thinking individual need not be told that the ongoing CONFAB was just meant to squander taxpayers’ money as usual. Without been told, those that walked out of the conference should have known better that nothing meaningful would come out of it instead they have chosen to wine and
then dine with the devil only to do away with him. This is impossible. Going by the structures which set up the jamboree called the CONFAB, the south/south region cannot get anything more than they have now except what “emperor Obasanjo” and his cohorts decides to give them.
The control of resources and the sharing of the proceeds should therefore be determined by the people that are called Nigerians. The Political Reform Conference that has been set up to determine the state of the Nigerian affairs is no doubt a shadow of its own self.
The agitation of the sovereign nationals’ conference does not exclude crucial issues that are causing problems. The President and his group have fashioned out a conference that will actualize their own dreams and aspirations and not that of the nation and peoples.
The south – south people should read between the lines rather than allow themselves to be used as garden tools of some sort.
If the south – south people cannot even manage thirteen percent properly, it is a worthless venture to imagine that even a hundred percent can be judiciously appropriated. All that will be seen will be nothing short of the era where we had super-permanent secretaries in the days of oil boom. Their governors will not only be super-permanent but will become like the Hitler of the old that they cannot approach. After all the memories of the “owambe” governors of the southwest in London is still fresh a tale in our memories.
Nigerians should see the issue of resource control, the CONFAB, the clamour for a sit in the U. N. security
Council etc, as all diversionary measures from the problems facing this country by the powers that be.
The leaders of this country has over time capitalized on the yearnings of the people to the people’s own detriment. Take for instance the long agitation of Nigerians for a conference, the president was for a long time opposed to it. But when he however felt the need for one, he decided to chose those that should be the members of such a conference, spelling out the issues to be discussed. Which sane person having studied the whole thing would attend such a conference?
In essence, all that were members of the so-called CONFAB (including those that walked out) and the people that set it up, are only playing on the intelligence of the generality of Nigerians.
If Nigeria is to remain a single indivisible entity; ethnic differences and religious disparity should be totally done away with. The people should see themselves as one and speak with one voice rather than multiplicity of voices. The south – south people should then lead the crusade for equity, justice and fairness so that the destitute in the North and the “agberos” in the south can feel that they are one and the same with every Nigerian they meet and see.
It has been postulated that the nation is threading on the path of political disintegration; wise people are taking this prophecy with all seriousness whereas foolish people just for the simple reason that they are milking the Niger Delta indiscriminately, see those sooth-Sayers as “prophets of doom.”
This is a clarion call for the south – south common man to wake up from his slumber as he cannot get up to half of what he prays for except our civilian dictators decides to, which of course is very unlikely. The Niger – Delta Governors have not been forthright in their own affairs and yet they deceive their people about resource control.
Delta State has received more money from the federation account than any other state in the Niger Delta and yet the whole state looks neglected except for some pockets of projects that are carried out only to enrich a few. Every where in the Niger-Delta, contracts carried out are over inflated to the amazement of any keen observer of the situation of things.
The whole of Nigeria needs the right leaders. In addition, the constitution must be amended by all as stakeholders such that thieves parading themselves as politicians less see politics as a big investment. From top to bottom every leader in Nigeria now sees his or herself as a kind of demigod. This is not what the struggler for independence intended.
Democracy, freedom to live and work anywhere or coexist is what should be most paramount to Nigerians and indeed the people of the south – south and not who controls what. It is only when this is achieved that even development will be noticed in the south – southern region; not when all the powers are given to them to manage their own resources as such powers will be usurped by some of their people.
Going by the present arrangement the south – south people should agitate for the right thing come 2007, resist all forms of self-imposition from any quarter. For now let’s see the current happenings as our own faults and make amends in the next presidential election. This is such that wolves in our midst can then know that they have no place in the political affairs of this country. Education, which we looked at as the factor that can change the country, has proven itself to be incapable when we see how people who call themselves professors and doctors have helped in killing the socio-political setting of the country. It is no doubt the fear of God and respect for humanity that can turn things around. And only people that carry such sparks in them that can lead a nation such as ours to greater heights.
Do not say we don’t have such people…if you are honest with yourself, you will find such people in your neighborhood when you search.
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