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Interview Series: Why Hostage Taking is still on…Cynthia Whyte

January 1, 2009
In spite of the recent claims that groups in the Niger Delta are fully involved in the peace process, there are still incidences of unrest, hostage taking and kidnapping in the Niger Delta especially Port Harcourt in Rivers State. Isn't this a sign of incoherencies in the peace process? Does it not send a message that Ijaws and Government are not in positive dialogue?

Who told you that all relevant groups are fully integrated in the peace process? Who told you that everyone is happy with the pace of peace talks if at all there is? Who told you that Ijaws are the current prime movers in the hostage taking and kidnapping enterprise?

Have you not heard that recent kidnap victims were rescued from shrines and communities in the Ikwerre axis of Port Harcourt?

We have enough information to show that bandit elements within the Ikwerre axis have been responsible for the new trends in hostage taking that we today see in Port Harcourt. Many of these bandit elements were former hatchet men for politicians like former house of reps deputy speaker Austin Okpara and many others. Their initial strong holds were the mile three and mile four areas of Port Harcourt. Not that most of their political benefactors are no longer in strategic positions of government, they have gone hungry and have to do the things that they now do. They choose the vast bushes and forests available on the outskirts of Port Harcourt for keeping their priced hostages.

This is funny to us because some time ago, Rotimi Amaechi walked into the midst of Kalabari Ijaw traditional chiefs and put the blame at the doorsteps of the Kalabari Ijaw people.

Concerning your question of positive dialogue between Ijaws and the Government of the Nigerian state, it is our belief that the current seeming dialogue is not wholly driven and therefore lacks foundational substance.

The concern of the selfish Nigerian state is to give the international community the impression that they are working with Ijaw people are achieving peace in the Niger delta territory. Their interests are parochial and myopic. Their immediate concern is to encourage investors and increase business flow. The plight of the people of the Niger Delta is not of particular concern to them. As long as they can get the oil flowing, and as long as the political engine in Abuja is being oiled by the resources of the Niger Delta, nothing else matters.

Unfortunately, Ijaw elites and politicians are buying into the fraud being perpetrated by the dubious Nigerian state. As long as they can keep their appointments, win new appointments and lucrative contracts, these Ijaw elites do not care. I don't blame them. Times are hard but then, they are foolish.

Any hope for a calm and peaceful Niger Delta? Will things ever be like it was decades ago?

When the Nigerian state is ready to respect the rights of the people of the Niger Delta, then the unrest will end itself. There would be no need for long talks.

Can you believe that while Oil rich countries are today smiling to the bank with the increase in the price of a barrel of oil, communities in the Niger Delta continue to wallow in grim poverty and squalor? Most of these communities still drink from horrifying dug out wells and pass faeces at open waterside wooden toilets?

How would you explain the fact that less than 4% of communities in the Niger Delta have access to electricity in spite of the trillions of volumes of gas flared each year? How would you explain to anyone that communities with global high oil production rates lack quality healthcare and educational infrastructures?

How would you explain all this at a time when oil prices are at an all time high? Almost $120 per barrel! Yet we have nothing to show for it.

Look at the Middle East for example. All oil bearing Middle east countries are smiling to the bank right now. They are outpacing Western economies in infrastructural development because the oil boom has translated to tremendous prosperity. Middle Eastern families are sending their children to the best schools in the US, UK and Switzerland. Universities such as Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Columbia, Northwestern, Oxford, Cambridge and Switzerland's IMD are reporting increasing admission of students of Middle East heritage. In the years to come, these young lads will grow up to become business, technology and political leaders in their home countries and provide much needed progressive leadership. The prosperity gained from oil is being used to drive human capital development. So even if their oil runs out someday, they will be able to adapt to emerging global trends without feeling the pinch. That is not the case for the people of the Niger Delta today.

What do we have to show in the Niger Delta? Nothing! Oil boom for us spells doom. Name one good University in the Niger Delta. Name one state in the Niger Delta that has a good oversea scholarship scheme. Name one world class health facility in the Niger Delta. Name one.

All around the creeks and hinterlands of the Niger delta lie young people whose abilities are undiscovered and being laid to waste. In many village schools spread across the nooks and crannies of the Niger Delta are intelligent and vocationally gifted young people with extreme abilities. They cannot be discovered because their leaders do not care about them. These young people will grow up to become leaders of the soon coming revolution that will sweep the Niger Delta. Watch and see. You think there is unrest now, watch and see. As long as oil is still being harvested from our lands and sold without any benefit to us, then the unrest has not began.

It shall come to pass that any government that does not support the people and the struggle of the Niger Delta and their struggles will not be welcomed in the Niger Delta. If the government of the United States will not support our agitations and force the Nigerian state to be more sympathetic to the plight of the Niger Delta people, then we will not welcome them in the Niger Delta. Same thing applies to the Britain. We will not mind building a relationship with the Government and people of Russia as long as they continue to show us strong support. In return, we will guarantee smooth running of Russian operations in the Niger Delta and send our people on scholarships to the best of Russian schools. We will drive up international support by any means necessary. It will be trade by barter. Obasanjo's gimmick of appointing an Ijaws as Vice President will not change anything. It is only a surface scratching attempt at impressing the international community.

 Go figure out for yourself. Middle Eastern entrepreneurs are cashing in on the oil boom to buy into and buy over America's leading companies to the chagrin of the American entrepreneur. Where are the Ijaw and Niger Delta businessmen? Begging Abuja to give them small contracts and flimsy marginal oil blocks! Tell me, why should we talk peace in such circumstances? How you preach peace in such circumstances?

What roles are Ijaw groups such as the Ijaw National Congress (INC) and the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) playing in resolving the unrest in the Niger Delta?

The Ijaw Youth Council is weak and frail because the larger percentage of Ijaw youths are unemployed and poverty confined spaces and unable to effectively contribute. Some income earning Ijaws will only contact the IYC when they lose their jobs or when they want endorsement for contract awards.

Ijaw elites will only support the IYC when they need to demonstrate popularity in ego driven face shows or when they seek to keep their priced government appointments.

The IYC spends too much time soliciting for funds from Ijaw elites, politicians and corporate bodies. As a result of the stipends collected from these strange bedmates, the IYC has ended up building unusual and unholy alliances with dubious Ijaw elites, stakeholders and fractious centers. Today, these alliances threaten to weaken its mandate as the centre-point of leadership amongst Ijaw youths. They have been unable to build themselves into power brokers who can attract attention, funding, power, privilege and power without asking for it. There is hope anyway. We have to agree that times are hard.

Luckily, in spite of the lack of support from most Ijaw elites, the Ijaw National Congress (INC) while keeping a lean structure has been able to keep its good name and stay away from the enticements of dubious and selfish minded Ijaw elites whose only objective is to drive their own agenda and ambition. Many people have described Professor Kimse Okoko as being too blunt, too straight, too unbending and too undiplomatic. I agree with them. I also agree that these are the kind of virtues you need to drive an organization like the INC away from the murky waters of dubious politics, vain seeking, and mudslinging, blame trading, stoogieness and political yesmanship.

For someone who has been a Former Commissioner of Lands and Housing in the old Rivers state, a political science don in the University of Port Harcourt and now Pro-Chancellor of Niger Delta University, Professor Kimse Okoko knows better than turning the INC into a political praise-singing and rubberstamping organization. It is better to be branded as uncompromising that to be tagged a sell-out.

We understand that your group is currently working with Governor Rotimi Amaechi. How is that relationship going? Is it yielding positive results?

Who told you that? Did you see us working with him?  Rotimi Amaechi has made some good moves in the last few months. We have to be sure that he will stay on that track for a very long time. These people have a way of losing focus when they get too confident knowing that no one will or can challenge their position in government. His father Peter Odili started well too until he surrounded himself with people who forced him to begin to see himself as a demigod. His destruction started then. Today his house is in chaos. There is great dissension today between the many children of the same father. We hope that the people of Rivers state will not continue to bear the brunt of that frosty relationship.

Even though he continues to distance himself from Peter Odili and some of that cabal, we know that it is difficult to shake off all the ways you have learnt from a certain culture. Certain things will still stick. Let us pray it's the good ones that will stick.

One thing Rotimi Amaechi must right now is take-over the IPP contract from Rockson Engineering and Arumemi-Johnson and hand it over to a capable and trusted Rivers man who has the competence to work directly with the original manufacturers of Gas Turbine equipments (in this case, General Electric). Rivers people will see a lot more savings in expenses if this measure is taken. However, we are somewhat worried because we are informed that Arumemi-Johnson is a good friend of Amaechi.

Close to a hundred billion naira has been spent on gas turbine driven IPP projects in Rivers state and yet there is hardly a full day of constant power supply in Port Harcourt. There is no difference in the current power supply situation in Port Harcourt and that of 1999. How do you explain that? Do not forget that we are not even involving rural communities in this issue? It is such a shame.

Some Rivers people maintain that Rotimi Amaechi is doing well. Are you in agreement?

Please you people should be careful so that Amaechi's head doesn't swell. He hasn't done enough. You people forget that for eight years, Amaechi was the third most powerful man in Rivers state under Peter Odili therefore we see him as a part and parcel of the devastation that was meted out to the people of Rivers state in that time. While we see some new vision in him, he must recognize that this is payback time. If he means well for Rivers people, he should show working. For him, so far so good, but the Odili experience has shown that we should be careful in how quickly we accept this people.

What is your position on the removal of Timi Sylva, Governor of Bayelsa state?

We are not politicians and will not be forced to join issues with the doomsday prophets or the selfish minded mongrels. Everyone gets his bad moments once in a while. No condition is permanent. He may come back and maybe even become a much better leader for the people of Bayelsa state. However, his current travails should make him more responsive to the plight of his people. It should also expose the real nature of certain people. I have heard dumb and appalling comments from certain senators from Bayelsa and I wonder where these people got their education from.

Why has it been impossible for the Presidential Committee on Peace and Reconciliation in the Niger Delta led by Senator David Brigidi to replicate its success in Bayelsa and Delta states for Rivers State?

That is a difficult question to answer. However I do not think they are very operational in Rivers state. Omehia's committee couldn't get it right. Governor Amaechi has not yet come up with his own team since the disbandment of the previous committee. I do not know if the Truth & Reconciliation Committee is supposed to carry out the responsibilities of the Peace and Reconciliation Committee. If they thought so, then I believe that they know it is not working. We are informed that despite the non presence of the Peace & Reconciliation Committee in Rivers state, some key members of the Committee has been responsible for the successful rescue of kidnap victims and hostages from bandit elements. During a recent rescue of hostage victims, a member of the Peace & Reconciliation Committee suffered gunshot wounds due to an ambush placed on them in an Ikwerre village on the outskirts of Port Harcourt. We have reasons to believe that there are certain politics as to why the Committee has not yet picked up footing in Rivers state.

How prepared is your group for the upcoming Niger Delta Summit?

We are not part of it. Let me ask you a question. What do you truly expect from such a summit? Resource control and self determination for the people of the Ijaw and Niger Delta territory? An agreement by all stakeholders to the convocation of a sovereign national conference? Is the Nigerian state unaware of the current travails and plight of the people of the Niger Delta?

The whole thing is an exercise in mischief and goes to show just how gullible and foolish the elites, administrators and politicians of the Niger Delta are. No one wants to speak out against the stupidity because they do not want to lose their place in the current scheme of things.

The planned Niger Delta Summit is an phoney activity created to impress the international community and investors who are weary and fear for their investments in Nigeria and the Niger Delta. The government of the Nigerian state seeks to impress imperialist collaborators and lending groups so that they can exploit the resources of the Niger Delta and access more credit from these international lending groups. How unfortunate?

The unfortunate part of this is that our own people are leading the initiative. A summit which is supposed to be wholly concerned about the plight of our people will be hosted in Abuja which hundreds of kilometers away from the despoiled creeks of the Niger Delta. Those who drive this mischief process against our people are cursed! They will never see peace.

Now I want you all to understand that the biggest enemies of the Niger Delta today and the key perpetrators of the injustice meted out against our people are those Ijaws and Niger Deltans who currently occupy positions of authority in the political and administrative spaces of the dubious Nigerian state.

Many of these people are still in mental bondage to Northern oligarchies. We are receiving reports of how a Niger Delta top management staff of a government establishment will not award contract to fellow Niger Deltans except they come with endorsement letters from the Secretary to the Federal Government Babagana Kingibe or some Northern Emirs.

Is it not ludicrous for a Niger Delta to travel all the way to Abuja to get a letter of recommendation from Kingibe just to be able to win a contract in his region? How many Northerners come to the Niger Delta to get letters of recommendation from our traditional rulers to be able to get contracts in the oil and gas industry or NDDC?

We have received reports of how contracts in NNPC, WRPC etc are doled out to people who come with letters of recommendation from the Emir of katsina etc…madness!!

Again, how many Northern businessmen do we see coming to meet the Amayanabo of Bonny or Kalabari for contracts with NNPC? Isn't it re-worked slavery? We are losing it and our elites are driving this process. For how long will this go on? If we refuse to believe that we can be on top of our issues, then it is unfortunate.

Ijaws and Niger Deltans will continue to lead the agitation for a better life for our people. We will continue to question the integrity of the Nigerian state in its relationship with our people. We will continue to demand that we control our resources. We will continue to demand for the convocation of a sovereign national conference where all the ethnic nationalities that were forcefully conscripted into the Nigerian enterprise will be given a chance to define where they seek to be.

In the last few months, we have heard reports of how billions of naira was embezzled in fuzzy contracts awarded to non-registered and incompetent companies for Independent Power Projects in the Niger Delta. Where were the governors of the Niger Delta when all this was going on? These people must be called to judgment.

This should do for now. All other questions will be dealt with in a press release we will issue very soon.

Cynthia Whyte

Spokesperson,

Joint Revolutionary Council


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