|
Mischief, a major pre-occupation of the human mind has been perfected by the Nigerian political class irrespective of party affiliation or elective ambition. This attribute is usually manifested openly when the politicians are bent on achieving some selfish goals which most times borders on political appointments, recognition or enforced relevance in the scheme of things at the community, local government, state and/or the national level.
To say that the Niger Delta region is grossly neglected and maltreated in the scheme of things in terms of infrastructural and human development, is no longer news because it is a mantra that has been singing since the military era.
However, in addition to the identified enemy of the region, the Abuja Government, the pathetic situation in terms of the standard of living of the people of the Niger Delta, are in real terms, worsened by selfish or rather self –serving leaders in the region, some traditional, most political both in elective and military dispensations.
It is an open fact that apart from one or two local government councils in Lagos, the Niger Delta region hosts the richest local council authourities in the country. Also, most Niger Delta states receive on monthly basis what some states receive annually or throughout a term of office.
Agreed, that it is three or four times as expensive to build development infrastructures in parts of the Niger Delta region compared to other areas of Nigeria because of its peculiar geology and hydrology, there has not been any dividing line between the level and quality of infrastructural development in the solid land areas and the waterlogged riverine parts of the states.
If it is doubly expensive to build lasting infrastructures in the waterlogged areas, has the land areas of the region benefited at the detriment of their riverine neighbours? The answer is a big no.
So what is the problem? Until the people of Niger Delta rise up to challenge the self-serving and self-appointed political leaders of area, no amount of external intervention, which of course has always been coming grudgingly from the Abuja government, can make any impact in the quality of life and infrastructural development of the region.
The problem of the Niger Delta is the politicians (indigenous), not those manipulating from Abuja but those from Port Harcourt, Warri/Asaba, Yenagoa, Uyo and Calabar. This is the truth that the people of the region must confront face-to-face to see the area witness the level of infrastructural and human development that can be accepted as sustainable development.
Openly or secretly, all the elected or rather selected officials and their political appointees of the region have imposing edifices in Abuja and Lagos not to delve into properties purchased abroad including those in South. So who is fooling who?
The self-acclaimed political leaders of the Niger Delta think they can fool the people of the region all the time. The latest foolery is the renewed spate of violence and hostage taking in areas that prior to the death of “Project Third Term” was arrogant of the peaceful disposition of their portion of the region as “investment haven in the troubled Niger Delta”.
As soon as the apostles of the third term agenda with all their shameless arguments for the mammoth achievement of “Mr President” to better the life of the Niger Delta people, discovered that the project has flopped, they quickly dusted the amber of violence and insecurity which they nurtured, equipped and maintained since 2003 general elections in well-known parts of the region with a view to coercing the different party hierarchy and the Presidency to cede to their political selfishness.
The mischievous and selfish plans are wide open to all informed analysts and political watchers of the Niger Delta. The security agencies, through their intelligence outfits should also know of the marshal plans to create crisis to attract the international community in helping them actualize their wish, instead of the wish of the Niger Delta people, which has remained the religious agitation for resource control or sustainable revenue derivation allocation.
It is really interesting that it never occur to mischief makers that people around them may be fully aware of their gimmicks but just decides to be mute until pushed to the wall. Commendably, the first public reaction and correct interpretation of the renewed spate of violence and kidnapping of expatriate and other oil workers in the Niger Delta region came from the least expected group of people in terms of active political participation and awareness.
The true picture of the situation in parts of Niger Delta was captured by the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) which in a statement issued in Lagos, Wednesday June 7, 2006 and signed by Lumumba Okugbawa, the Secretary General, urged the authourities to look closely to the self-acclaimed leaders- traditional and elected in those flash points of the region.
In a matter of fact statement, the association declared that “The increased number of these incidents has brought to fore the need to investigate the activities of the community leaders, local government authorities, federal and state government officials and politicians in the area where hostage taking have held sway”.
Another
dimension of the renewed violence and hostage taking in parts of the
region is that in recent past, state and local Government agents have
perfected the act of negotiating the release of hostages, and in all the
recorded cases, the amount of money spent on such exercise and people
negotiating on behalf of the captors is usually kept secret therefore
making this lucrative business suspicious.
If government
and its agents have not been involved in the spate of renewed violence
and hostage taking in some areas of the Niger Delta, genuine efforts
could have been made to address the root causes of the problem, which of
recent times bothers on allegedly disagreement either between some
youths and oil companies or among rival cult gangs.
The five oil workers kidnapped from a Shell oil facility between Delta and Bayelsa in near-shore area were released after “Government officials” from the Bayelsa in conjunction with some trusted Ijaw elders negotiated with the aggrieved youths.
The release of the two Filipinos kidnapped in the Buguma area of Rivers state was negotiated and secured by Government officials “without paying any ransom”.
Government officials, after several interventions in such matters have now perfected the tactics for engaging, negotiating and releasing hostages from “aggrieved youths without payment of monetary compensations to the kidnappers”.
The day is coming and very fast approaching too, when these so called restive youths will begin to expose their real masters, then the real and battered people of the Niger Delta region will know that their actual enemies are not from outside the region but people who have for so long camouflaged as political leaders of the people. #
|