Recently, the Joint Revolutionary Council in a very hot worded press release signed by you demanded for the immediate and outright suspension of the entire board of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC). Can you give a little more insight as you why your group made this demand? Do you think Mr. President will listen? If Obasanjo did not listen, what makes you think that President Yar'Adua accede to this demand?
It has become expedient for the right thing to be done immediately. There are others who are a lot more extreme in their position in calling for an outright scrapping of the Commission. They have their reasons but we share a common belief that the Commission needs do a lot more in serving the people of the Niger Delta.
Unfortunately, those who should serve at watch dogs on the Commission have become some of its key contractors adulterating the mandate to serve their constituencies with sudden greed and unbelievable desire to acquire wealth.
Members of the House of Assembly such as Senators, and so-called members of the House of Representatives have abandoned their calling to pursue after contracts with the Commission. Some of them have won road contracts, others jetty construction contracts etc etc. That is not the problem. The real problem is once they get themselves this compromised, most of them loose the nerve to condemn the Commission when they do not get it right. That is the problem.
Worse still, it is this same politicians who abandon contracts very frequently after receiving mobilization.
These are not the only people who have been selling out their people. Even so-called leaders of militant groups have been in the vanguard of tax collectors from NDDC maybe to provide protective patronage for the Commission. This is unfortunate but all hope will never be lost.
Some of our so-called traditional rulers have become the guiltiest in this area as they leave their kingdoms to scavenge for contracts at NDDC demeaning themselves and their people in the process.
Our people are slowing becoming slaves to the enterprise called NDDC living on the hopes and promises that they may get a contract opportunity someday. That hope and promise has become a tool for the manipulation of politicians, youth leaders, traditional rulers, members of the house of assembly etc. As a result, people who should speak up and speak out against the evils currently being perpetrated there keep quiet. This is unfortunate.
For some of us, this is a divine calling that we will not falter from. It is a calling that we will not be intimidated from. No one has the monopoly of the threat of violence, whether it be spiritual or spiritual.
For a very long time, thousands of people especially those from the Niger Delta have accused top management staff of the Niger Delta Development Commission of engaging in fetish acts of sorcery and witchcraft in order to keep their jobs and protect themselves from proclaimed enemies.
There have been reports of key top officials of the Commission visiting shrines in Delta and Edo states in a bid to seek strange powers that will enable them survive regime change and power plays. These reports have become too strong in the past six years. The recent blow-out is an act of the Almighty God aimed at exposing the treachery, wickedness and demonism in the hearts of men. It shows how much people can be driven by greed to get what they want whether be it jobs, money or other sick wishes.
It is therefore expedient that President Yar'Adua understands the nature of the people who run that Commission and quickly suspend the board and management of the Commission.
Mr. President should also offer rewards to anyone who has information on how these people have converted this interventionist agency into a center for satanic practice, corruption, blackmail and slandering. If this is not done immediately, billions of naira will be quietly frittered into foreign accounts and squandered away with no one to hold responsible.
Are you aware of the recent arrest of the NDDC Chairman Ambassador Sam Edem? What is your view on the kind of position that must be meted out on him?
Arresting Sam Edem is not even a minute part of the solution to the menace in NDDC right now as he is only a fraction of the heavily malignant cancer that is eating up the Commission.
If Yar'Adua and his Vice President are serious about resolving the Niger Delta question today, they must first face fair and squarely the various agencies that have the mandate of providing development to the people of the Niger Delta. They must also ensure that the current electoral system is overhauled to ensure that only people elected by the people should be given the mandate to govern and represent the people.
A major cause of the unrest in the Niger Delta today is the fact that almost all the leaders of the region such as governors and other elected people were foisted on their people. The result is an aggregate number of stooges and rubberstamps who are remote controlled by the selfish interest groups that brought them into power.
Recently, a whole community in Bayelsa state was attacked by bandit soldiers of the Joint Task Force of the Nigerian Armed Forces. Community people were murdered, raped, looted and gruesomely assaulted. Yet none of the so-called elected leaders could muster the courage to speak up against this act of violence that was meted out against the innocent people of that community. They are all afraid of falling out of favour with the powers that be. They have all sold their conscience but we will survive.
Recently at a Conference hosted by Vanguard Newspapers, Rotimi Amaechi said that militants were nothing but criminals. What is your comment?
It is not every comment from anybody that must be commented upon. You need to understand people and where they come from before you jump to respond to them.
Whether he likes it or not, Rotimi Amaechi rode on the soldiers of Governor Peter Odili to become the current governor of Rivers State. It does not matter whether he was appointed by the Supreme Court or not.
We believe that it was in his destiny to become governor of Rivers State even if his tenure may someday be cut short by the same Supreme Court.
If today, heenjoys the temerity to brand militants as criminals, let us not forget that it is the same militants who gave him the guts to call them that name. There are many people today who pretend to be in the struggle for the liberation of the Ijaw and Niger Delta territory have undeniably questionable characters.These characters have infected the purity and sanctity of the struggle.
Their actions today have put loud question marks on the potency, ability and integrity of the Ijaw and Niger Delta struggle. At the appointed time, each one will receive his own judgment. Make no mistake.
What is position of the Joint Revolutionary Council on the technical committee set up by the Presidency to manage the government's efforts at reconciling the various issues that dog the people of the Niger Delta today?
It may just become another festival of blunders. Governors of the Bantustan states of the Niger Delta were given the mandate to handpick delegates. What do you expect from such an arrangement? The governors went ahead to select loyalists and friends and not people who could stand up and defend their people as well as negotiate the future of their people.
Some of these delegates do not even know about the details of the Willinks report or even the more recent Ogomudia Report. They do not have good knowledge of key issues on the problems of the people of the Niger Delta. Some of them are just dumb politicians and the only qualification to be members of the committee is the fact that they are friends of people in power. It is really a sorry situation. God help us.
Is it true as Chief Clark puts it that he is equating the battle is facing from criminals and cultists in his state to the Niger-Delta struggle? Back up your claim with reasons?
I believe that it is he who wears the shoes that knows where it pinches. We recognise that we have a problem of long drawn suffering of the people of the Niger Delta. We also recognise that this injustice has incited some measure of unrest. We also know that in driving the unrest like we have said earlier on, many characters were brought in to jumpstart the armed agitation process.
Where was Rotimi Amaechi when 'cultists' where being sponsored by his mentor and godfather? What did he do about it? Was he not the third most powerful man in Rivers State at the time? Until he explains to the people of Rivers state the various roles he played in that dispensation, we would suggest that he should be careful in his comments. Such outburst may bring him great bad luck if he is not careful.
What is your response to the support from other Niger-Delta leaders to the true freedom fighters?
Those who truly fight for the common good of their people will always enjoy the support of their people. Everyone accepts that the people of the Niger Delta have been short-changed for too long. Everyone accepts that we deserve a far better deal from those who lord over the coffers of the Nigerian state.
How is the group going about separating the actual militants from the criminals that have given the struggle a bad name?
That process is one that will manage itself. There will always a separation of the light from the darkness. That is an incontestable phenomenon.
The laws of natural justice will surely take its course.
The Struggle is on Course
Cynthia Whyte
Spokesperson, Joint Revolutionary Council
googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('comments'); });
googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('content1'); });
googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('content2'); });