Skip to main content

It Is Solved By Walking By Michael Ovienmhada

August 3, 2016

I admire ex-Governor Fashola for the great work he did as Governor of Lagos State. Who would not? However, I disagree with his position on the Power problem when he was quoted to have said that he now knows we are different because some people blow up gas lines that are supposed to provide power for the whole of Nigeria, whilst in his State of Lagos, the people there appreciate their own assets and do not go about destroying them. I have met Governor Fashola twice in two brief encounters and twice, he showed civility toward me. He does not know me. His demeanor is that of a thinker and so I would like him to think more about engaging, regarding this problem.

My name is Michael Ovienmhada and I am an Esan man. According to Nigeria, I come from the Niger Delta. It is not true. Let me explain. My village in Esan land does not contribute as much to Nigeria as a village outside Yenagoa bearing Crude Oil. Whereas I am grateful because for the first time in my lifetime, a road now links my village with the outside world, I cannot expect a man from a village in the Niger Delta to have the same level of gratitude if a bridge goes through his village and for me, the reason is simple and it lies in the law of proportions. His village makes an outsized contribution to the well-being of the Nigerian nation relative to what she gets out of the Nigerian nation. That is the problem and anyone who does not understand the problem will beat about the bush as Nigeria has done for 60 years since Oil was discovered in Oloibiri. To put it in perspective, estimates have it that over 50 million barrels of crude was recovered from Oloibiri over a 20-year active period.  You can do the Arithmetic. Multiply 50 million barrels by $5 and take out 10%. If a reasonable Nigerian leadership had plowed 10 percent of the money realized back into that community, that would have become the gold standard for development and the entire Niger Delta would today be like Dallas, Houston or Calgary. It is only in Nigeria that we make unwise arguments and do silly things repeatedly, institutionalizing injustice as a matter of State policy and we expect the people affected to just clap their hands and carry on. The statement made by Fashola totally discounts the historical origins of the issues of the Niger Delta and many people would regard it as playing to the gallery. Fashola has a job to do and the job cannot be done because some people who are different from some other people in Nigeria have no appreciation for the assets they have and enjoy destroying these assets. The people in Lagos who have a better sense of appreciation of their assets do not have to contend with the problems that the ‘stupid’ people of the Niger Delta have to contend with and they cannot be expected to have the same appreciation of these assets because they are in a sense, useless to them. I can tell you personally that I actually wished we never discovered Oil in Nigeria and for me, the reason is simple. It is like a foolish man winning the lottery. The discovery of Oil in Nigeria has destroyed Nigeria. I wish it would just go away. It will not. It is our reality and we must deal with it. But how can we deal with it when there is such an inability to have a conversation in this country? Oil should only be found in a country where people have sense. Oil turns the leadership of a senseless nation into a bunch of thieves and that is exactly what we have all morphed into.

When you are a Nigerian and you belong in my generation, the one that drank water directly from the tap, the one that played miles away from home as a child, the one that picked stones from Rice before Mama began cooking, the one where relatives came on a one-way ticket to visit and ended up staying for years and your parents just took them in as one of their already nine mouths to feed, you seem to harbor a certain nostalgia for what we were and what we could have achieved if certain things that happened did not happen.

Where would we be if the first Coup d’etat had not happened on January 15th 1966; where would we be if the first Coup had succeeded; where would we be if the counter Coup had not happened on July 29th 1966? Where would we be if we had not fought a war for 3 years?

Where would we be if we had not discovered Oil in 1956; where would we be if we had not experienced the Oil boom of the seventies?

Where would we be if Gowon had not been overthrown; where would we be if we never had a decimation of the Civil service that followed his overthrow;

Where would we be if Shagari’s government had been allowed to continue? Consider this-----Ajaokuta was over 90% completed when his government was overthrown. Shagari’s government built five Steel rolling Mills to set the substrate for widespread industrialization. Shagari’s government had embarked on an agricultural revolution with the establishment of the River Basin authorities across the nation. Shagari’s government built the Shiroro dam and since then, no new dam has been built.

Questions lead to new questions and more questions. The facts are the facts. What is gone is gone. A nation must always be about the future, but it must also be about knowledge of the past to inform decisions for the future. That is why many things trouble me about this country when some people say we cannot discuss certain things. I am sorry, but we must discuss, we must keep talking because, according to the laws of Physics, if we do not keep moving, keep the action going, keep walking, otherwise, the solution will not be found, because the solution is found in walking. This is what is referred to in Physics as ‘Solvitur ambulandoand it is what we need to do and keep doing in order to build a more perfect union. The only way we can make Nigeria work better for everyone and not just a few is to keep talking, keep walking.

If Nigeria is not working well for that young man in the creeks who does not see a pathway out of his poverty, degraded environment, toxic rain that destroys his soil and water and makes any other form of livelihood a mirage, if he does not see a tunnel with light in it, to him, everything is darkness and that is his reality. This is very sad, but it is also very true.

Now, let me tell you a true story. About five years ago, I went to visit my niece in a highbrow school in Epe. The Principal told a story that did not leave a dry eye in the audience. A group of young pupils had been brought straight from the creeks of the Niger Delta on a government sponsored program to attend some of the best schools in Nigeria and her school accepted about 30 of them. These kids were brought in without shoes and without clothes. They virtually had rags on. The students of the school, children of the wealthy and powerful in Nigeria, rallied around these kids by donating clothes and shoes and grooming items to them to make them feel welcome and integrated. These kids were coming from the area in Nigeria that provides all the money required to run this country. It is my understanding that some of these kids were also sent to a particular highbrow school in Ota. A few years down the road, many of them were withdrawn for inability to pay school fees but for the magnanimity of a former President who decided to keep them and pay their fees. My dear, ex-governor Fashola, the only cure to injustice is justice and more justice.

No matter the number of circles you make while dancing, your buttock remains where it is, (Esan proverb).

 Fashola would do well to understand this proverb.

There is a solution to the Power problem in Nigeria. Let us set the 2005 Electricity Act on fire and localize the generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity.  There is no reason for electricity to be federalized. The only thing that should be federalized in Nigeria is the army. QED---Quod erat demonstrandum. I don talk my own finish for my small insignificant corner. 2019 in my sights.

Image