By Kabowei Akamande
Introduction
In the past month speculations were rife that Governor Douye Diri would defect from the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC. He is the political leader of approximately 24 million Ijaws, Nigeria fourth largest group, by virtue of being the governor of Bayelsa State. Any Ijaw who emerges the governor of this only all-Ijaw state is our leader. Right now, Diri is the governor and our leader. Whatever decision he takes will affect all Ijaws, directly or indirectly.
Recently, His Excellency put to rest such speculation, assuring the Ijaw nation of his pro-populi leadership, “If for any reason there has to be a movement, you are the people who will advise me because you voted for me. The decision to move or not will be made based on the interest of the Ijaw nation and Bayelsa State, not my personal interest only…. When the right times comes, you will hear from us.”
But in truth, there is a limit to what the Ijaw nation and Diri can do if and when the right time comes. This is because Diri is a tenant, not landlord, in a majority-owned estate called PDP.Suppose Ijaws asked him to pack out, is he not packing into another majority-owned property called APC? What is the difference between the PDP and APC? Are they not two sides of the same anti-Ijaw coin?
There is no Oil Rivers State, Toru Ebe State or significant federal parastatals and federal government influenced projects sited in Bayelsa State to show that ten years of APC government treated Ijaws better than sixteen years of PDP’s.
The Ijaw-owned Gelegele, Nembe and Burutu seaports were not modernized by both the PDP and APC. For we lobbied the two political parties to build the all-important Agge Deep Sea Port to no avail. Instead of building this seaport for Ijaws, the PDP and APC built the Lekki Deep Sea Port for Yorubas, Kaduna Inland Dry Port and Dala Inland Dry Port, Kano, for the Hausa/Fulani.
In terms of railway modernization, Ijawland was sidelined by the APC while Yorubaland and northern Nigeria had standard gauge built for them. Is politics no longer a quest for self-interests? Show me the Ijaw interests in the activities of these objectionable parties?
Until the 2027 Nigerian General Elections comes and goes, none can say for sure what Governor Diri would do; because Diri himself cannot predict the whims of the majority landlords who own PDP and APC. If these landlords individually or collectively decide to merge or liquidate their legitimate properties, what can poor Diri or the Ijaw nation do about it? What it all boils down to is that the Ijaw nation engaged the Fifth Republic, 1999-present, on faulty foundation building its hopes and aspirations on two majority-owned political parties whose National Working Committees, NWCs, are rabidly hostile to Ijaws.
We Ijaws have a proverb: The man who sold his dog only to buy a monkey is still yoked with an animal that crouches. That is the fate of any minority politician who defects from APC to PDP; or from PDP to APC. Nothing tangible will come out of such movement as he is still yoked with a predator that aims to undermine and destroy his world. Such defector will return to the Niger Delta with empty canister at the end of the day.
As a bona fide Ijaw and Bayelsan, here is my one kobo advice on the impact of defection on Ijaw interests; pursuant to Governor Diri’s anticipated consultation. Whether the Ijaw nation advises him to defect or not, we are getting it all wrong.
The majority-owned PDP and APC must be rightly exposed as the proverbial Broad Roads that lead to minority perdition. What has this Axis of Evil done for the Ijaw nation in the twenty-six years it monopolized power except fooling itself thinking it is weakening Ijaws?
Read also: Ijaw ethnic nationality appeals to Gov Duoye Diri of Bayelsa to intervene in abduction of judge
Regional Minorities Are Complicit
In 2015 Professor Lawrence Baraebibai Ekpebu watched then Rivers State Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi massively funding the newly created APC. The money Amaechi gave the Fulani-born Muhammadu Buhari to rig out the Ijaw-born Nigerian President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan were not his personal patrimony but proceeds from the sale of crude oil and gas mined in Ijaw territories. Amaechi was in northern Nigeria dishing out billions and being turbaned by a Fulani emir for his patriotism.
An unimpressed Professor Ekpebu said, “Niger Delta governors should stop funding the majority-dominated political parties ideologically opposed to minority interests. They should instead use the funds in developing the region. They have no stake or future in these parties except their common poverty.”
What the great scholar said turned out to be so.
Buhari became president and made Amaechi Minister of Transportation. In that capacity, Amaechi presided over the railway modernization programme. The Western Rail Track from Lagos to the North West was upgraded. The Eastern Rail Track from Amaechi’s own Niger Delta to the North East was never touched because Buhari would never hear of it.
The materials meant for the Eastern Rail Track were instead used in building rail tracks for Niger Republic. Buhari also used Amaechi to modernise the Maritime. Sea and dry ports were again built for Yorubas and northern Nigeria with none built for Ijaws.
Then in 2023 the evil party was over and Amaechi returned with an empty canister to a desolate Niger Delta; having developed majority areas while his own flood-prone Niger Delta was allowed to sink. Today, he is a shadow of his old self. He has no respect in the gathering of regional minorities and none wants to know if the King of Saudi Arabia turbaned him.
The Amaechi tragedy is what we are also seeing today in Nyesom Ezebunwo Wike, who is hand in glove with the majority-born President Bola Ahmed Tinubu against the Ijaw nation. Rather than play an impartial mediatory role, Tinubu carried out a soft coup against the Ijaw-born Governor Sim Fubara of Rivers State at the instigation of Wike. Fubara was tagged a dictator and overthrown by Tinubu using serving and retired military officers.
I ask, if Fubara was guilty of dictatorship warranting his overthrow, was Jonathan also guilty of same when Amaechi and Buhari removed him from office? Is it not obvious that everything is being done, using two notable Ikwerre sons, to provoke and undermine the Ijaw nation? What is your guarantee that the APC that conspired to remove Jonathan from office will treat Diri any better if he defects?
NDC: Viable Path/Conclusion
From the outset the Ijaw nation and other regional minorities under Dr Harold Dappa-Biriye refused to build their political fortune on another man’s foundation. Hard pressed as they were, they realized a minority-owned political party that articulate the development of our impossible terrain was the only true path. They stiffly rejected all offers of membership/tenancy from the majority-owned Northern Peoples Congress, NPC, National Convention of Nigerian Citizens, NCNC and Action Group, AG. There was never a time Dr Biriye boxed himself into a corner warranting the Ijaw nation defecting with him from AG to NPC, for instance. He avoided this pitfall by forming the minority-owned Niger Delta Congress, NDC, on 7th March 1959. The party had as its logo a fish in a triangle. The motto was “Live and Let Live.”
The following quotation captures the provenance and prospects of the NDC as advanced by the legend himself:
It is therefore evident that the Niger Delta Congress is desideratum both to the people who have vested interests in the Niger Delta as well to Governments and Legislatures which have jurisdiction over the Niger Delta. Especially now that the Rivers Chiefs and Peoples Conference has won for the area a Niger Delta Development Board. According to the minorities Commission, the ultimate sanction of the Board will depend upon the value of the Niger Delta votes within the working of the democratic machine. Our votes would have no value whatsoever in any legislature unless they were harnessed under a political party of the Niger Delta that enjoys the distinct existence.
That political party known as the Niger Delta Congress will set out at once to produce plans of physical development throughout the Niger Delta which it will place at the disposal of the team of experts that the Niger Delta Development Board is to invite to conduct a scientific survey of the whole area. This proposal is no small undertaking. It is one that calls on all the brains of the area to join the Niger Delta Congress at once and give to the world the benefits of their education and their experience (Harold Dappa-Biriye’s “The Political Future of the Special Area,” in “Harold J.R. Dappa-Biriye: Essays & Speeches. Volume One,” page 66).
The watchwords and catchphrases in the above long quotation are: Niger Delta Congress, desideratum, vested interests, Niger Delta, democratic machine, our votes, value, distinct existence, plans of physical development, Niger Delta Development Board, team of experts, scientific survey of the whole area, no small undertaking, all the brains of the area and join the Niger Delta Congress at once.
With the NDC, Biriye had no need nursing fears during elections as he was a substantial landlord in his own political estate. Rather than defect to another man’s party he had people defecting to his to the chagrin of majority gods. Eventually, he formed alliance with the NPC and that was how Ijaws and other regional minorities survived the hazards that came with Nigerian independence.
Ahead of 2027, Diri should move from PDP to the revived Nubari Saatah-led NDC. The APC can then come to us for alliance, if it cares. But for the Ijaw nation to move with Diri from PDP to APC? The blunt answer, in my opinion, is NO, with reasons:
One, the APC, just like the PDP, is not friendly to anything Ijaw. Two, Governors Umo Eno of Akwa Ibom State and Sheriff Oborevwori of Delta State could have moved to APC out of weakness peculiar to anyone presiding over a squabbling multi-ethnic state. Diri has no such weakness.
Three, it was the inability of Ijaw leadership to revive the NDC and lead other regional minorities in 1998 that could have triggered this gale of defection blowing today. Four, defection for defection’s sake will make the Ijaw nation an appendage of capricious majorities. And five, only a well-disciplined NDC can develop Ijawland and the region.
Diri and the Ijaw nation must be courageous enough to walk the narrow path trailing from NDC. Hunger and hardship cannot scare us. We must remain resolute like Dr Biriye (President-General of NDC); Josiah A. Jumbo (General- Secretary); S.K. Omoni (Financial Secretary); E.F. Allaputa (Party Manager) and I.S. Anthony (Treasurer). These were principled men who in 1959 declined the majority promises of “full belly and beautiful skin,” to quote Professor Ekpebu in his multi-award winning “Zaire and the African Revolution,” and formed the NDC to secure the very Ijawland we walk on today. We must NEVER undermine their immense sacrifice by cheaply gravitating from one Ijaw-detesting PDP to another Ijaw-detesting APC. GOD HELP US!
Akamande, Email: [email protected], is Leader of Thought of Izon Ebe.