A Thought for Nigeria

A Thought for Nigeria's South-South

Barrister Jude Onwuegbuzie

Why should Governor Peter Odili again be allowed to pick the new P.D.P. Deputy National Chairman South-south? After all he picked the first one, Mr. Marshall Harry, and he was murdered in a very unpleasant and mysterious way. And then he produced his successor, Amino Dikibo, and likewise, he has been most unpleasantly and mysteriously eliminated from the scene. Now instead of championing the cause of unraveling the enigma wrapped in a riddle that is the identity of their killers, Dr. Odili, is more concerned with appointing their successor. Now he has succeeded and his former Special Assistant on Lands and survey is in that saddle.

I am told that Dr. Odili is being positioned for greater things ahead of 2007, and I can not but feel pained as a South-Southerner (if such a thing exists?). Dr. Odili apparently has friends in high places, but he should remember that friends that you constantly placate at the expense of your zone can not be friends, but masters.

Consider that the biggest battle the South-south has fought in the last twenty years is the battle for resource control. Our dear own Saro Wiwa, from Rivers state, sacrificed his life in furtherance of this battle, Kokori was imprisoned, and so many others were persecuted. But when he got into power, what did Dr. Odili do in furtherance of the battle for resource control? We were all in Nigeria during this period, and all we can remember was Odili wining and dining with the oppressors of the South-South people.

The lot did not fall on any one to fight this battle, but we will all remember that Obong Victor Attah was not silent on resource control. He became an advocate of resource control. He went to Kaduna and publicly delivered a speech trying to persuade the North on why they should support resource control. His state’s allocation was affected when Bola Ige instituted the on-shore/off-shore suit at the Supreme Court, which suit was fought principally by Akwa-Ibom and Delta state. We will remember the political persecutions of Obong Victor Attah, and James Ibori of Delta state for their perceived roles as champions of the resource control battle.

It goes a long way to show the character of Governor Odili, that when the battle was fought and won, and when others had been bloodied, Odili came out in 2003, and claimed that the resource control battle was a personal victory for him! South-southerners were seething. How can one person eat pepper soup and another blow his mouth. This defies logic. Odili defies logic.

Well as they say, empty barrels make the most noise!

Now we have NDDC, and of course, we have seen the head quarters go to Rivers State , and undiscerning minds may say to themselves, this is a victory for Odili of Rivers state, for having the headquarters. And such people will be forgiven, because as part of his now typical grand standing, Odili carries on as though he made an input into NDDC.

What is however little known is that as part of his campaign promises in 1999, Obong Victor Attah had promised to lobby for the setting up of a kind of Marshall Plan for the Niger- Delta. As such when he elected in 1999, he immediately commissioned a study by Engineer Omene to study marginal fields in the entire NIGER-DELTA, not just Akwa-Ibom, and paid for it with his own states funds. This study on completion was handed to President Obasanjo by Obong Attah in 1999 and the president accepted it, ordered its implementation, and went on to make Engineer Omene the first Managing Director of the NDDC.

Leadership is a desirable thing, and it is better for a people to have good leaders. We should have leaders whose aides are continuously loyal to him, and who work with such a leader, and live on to enjoy and reap the seeds they have sown, not a leader whose friends an enemies alike are constantly being killed under mysterious circumstances and that leader rather than pause to ask whodunit? Is instead scheming to have more powers. We can not allow ourselves to be led by such people who live for only today. Are we all going to be mysteriously murdered until it remains only those willing to dine with evil? It is not easy to stand up against evil and tyranny, South-southerners should remember that the only way for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing.

As we search for genuine leaders in the South-south, let us not be satisfied for leaders who will sell our birth right for a mess of porridge or some funny sounding traditional title that do not add to the emancipation of the region. No! Rather, let us look for matured men, willing to speak the truth even where it is not popular, willing to make sacrifice for the coming good of the region, willing to persuade other power blocs in the country to engage with us. If we open our eyes very well, there are such men of honour in the South-south, and they do not always wear all white!

Barrister Jude Onwuegbuzie

Abuja , Nigeria .