JTF Activities Provocative —UrantaJTF Activities Provocative —UrantaMr. Tony Ipriye Uranta, an activist, was a member of the National Democratic Coalition of Nigeria (NADECO), a member of the newly constituted Niger-Delta Technical Committee, a member of the United Niger-Delta Energy Development Security Strategy (UNDEDSS) and the Local Facilitator, Commission of Nobel Laureates to the Niger-Delta. In this interview with a section of newsmen in Port Harcourt, he speaks on various Niger Delta issues, including the presence of the newly created Niger-Delta Ministry, the Joint Military Task Force (JTF) in the Niger Delta and the detention of the leader of MEND, Henry Okah. AJOKUBI LEONARD, was there.
What is your comment on the newly created Niger-Delta Ministry by President Musa Yar'Adua?
Well, it is true that a ministry has been created, but as an individual and a member of Coalition of Niger-Delta Ethnic Nationality, I am taking that announcement with more than a pinch of salt. If we are to go by the history of what has been about every Federal Ministry, its concern, you will see that a Federal Ministry of the Niger-Delta, on its own, will not take us anywhere at all. However, we want to believe that this administration is going to focus on resolving the issue of justice, development and peace. Let them do all that is necessary politically to ensure that the ministry they have created does not become bugged down in bureaucracy and end up delivering no dividend like his fellow brothers in the sector of health, works and education or even the president.
The history of the Civil Service and Ministries in Nigeria has shown us that rather than solving problems, they end up compounding them. We are very skeptical about this creation, but at the same time, we are hopeful. We receive every window of opportunity with open hand, hoping that the problems of Federal Character where people will talk of competence or relevance will not becloud the issue of Niger-Delta. We have heard, for example, rumours that they intend to put a non-Niger Deltan as the Minister of the Niger-Delta and yet another non-Niger Deltan as the Minister of State. This has been defended on the ground that the Niger-Delta Ministry will be a ministry of the Federation of Nigeria and will be seen as such. Therefore, it will not necessarily be headed by Niger Deltans. We have recognized the balkanization processes that the Nigerian State has attempted to fall upon the people of Niger-Delta, and we are very weary of any olive branch or carrot offer especially where it has not been well defined as in the case of the ministry.
Nigerians and Northerners in particular are of the view that a Niger Deltan should not be the Minister of the Niger-Delta Ministry because of the alleged Financial Scandal against the Suspended NDDC boss, Ambassador Sam Edem, what is your reaction to this?
I will ask them what happened to the whole North and the Northern Nigeria Development Corporation which has been traditionally headed by Northerners. I will ask them what has happened to the North which has had its rulers or leaders ruling the whole nation. The North has been in control of political offices, the military leadership, and in fact, the total control of Nigeria, and yet Nigeria is standing on the rock. I will ask them what has happened to our nation even though it has been in the hands of supposing leaders of credibility that belong to the majority tribe. In competence, corruption or maladministration is not peculiar to any part of Nigeria. For example, people talk about the criminalities in the Niger-Delta, they want to use it as an excuse for giving us a bad name so as to kill us. The word, criminality is going on daily in every part of the nation and the world at large. The people of Finland are crying that there was a young man that shot down many people in the school. There are counted cases in the UK. There are several of them in the US. Kidnapping, for example, apart from the fact that it was introduced in our place through slave trade, when they kidnapped all our people, is one of the biggest crime that continued to be perpetrated in the United States of America. That has never made US Government, for example, to turn the place into military camp. I will like to say that all the charges against them are allegations at this point. But, if they are proved to be true, you cannot say that the like of Edem must therefore, be seen as a stereotype of what leadership in the Niger Deltans will produce.
In fact, we believe that NDDC under Timi Alaibe has had a very good cause. It has produced a Master Plan. It has done quite a beautiful work and when you really look at the book and find out what the Master Plan and the development project of Niger-Delta is supposed to give, and how much has been released to the NDDC, you find out that it has been deliberately under funded to under perform. It will therefore, not surprise any active analyst to see why the NDDC, for example, is not as competently performing as you would expect it to be. Now they said that the NDDC would be subsumed under a ministry. That on its own is not a bad idea. The Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), is a Mega Corporation on its own, yet it was subsumed under the Ministry of Transport. But it has its own autonomy. The Minister of Transport will not wake up over night, bring up a strategy and say that the NPA must toe the line of the strategy without the input of the NPA Management and Leadership in that strategy. We therefore want to say that if the NDDC is part of the ministry, and it will be allowed to remain autonomous, then there is nothing wrong. The danger we may have is where the Ministry now sits down as just a supervisor doing nothing else but supervising the NDDC.
What we are hoping is that when the presidency finally gets his house together, because you must realize that the secretary to the Federal Government admitted that they have not yet understood exactly how those ministries are going to perform or what kind of organization they are to have.
That they are at moment at committee stage, strategizing for the formation of the ministry. We, in the Technical Committee, have been in fact, asked for inputs into this ground work they are doing to structuring all the Ministries especially relating to the Niger-Delta.
We hope basically that the ministry will create another channel of intervention and will be separate from the NDDC. While it is supervising the NDDC, it will leave room for mega development projects to be embarked upon on the level of a master plan, not according to what has been mounted by politicians in the last couple of years, but a truly global initiation. That is, what the Niger Deltans need and deserve right now because everybody in the world is in fact a stakeholder in the Niger-Delta. The crisis of the last week or so, affected everybody, Americans, English and French. So all these countries plus the Nigerian nation and the States in the Niger-Delta, have to come together to massively prepare the ground for the production of a master plan that will be implemented, effectively, sincerely and sustainably in the Niger -Delta to bring about justice, development and peace.
What is your comment on the Operation of the JTF in the Niger-Delta Region?
First of all, JTF presence in the Niger Delta is a provocation. The JTF should not be here if there is any reason for them to be here in the past, they should be out of here by now. What ever is going on the levels of criminalities in Niger Delta can be contained by the Nigerian police if they are well armed and well ordered, if they are competently empowered to do their duties. Two weeks ago in Lagos, the Wife of a Local Government Chairman was kidnapped, two and half weeks ago in Abuja , IG. Mike Okiro paraded five Imo State University Students who were caught in the process of kidnapping in Abuja. Granted, there is a high level of violent criminality in the Niger Delta, but you do not cure a disease by making wealth. The JTF presence and militarization of the Niger Delta is a total abuse of privilege and it is working against the achievement of peace or the sustenance of such. The last series of attacks on personnel or installations of the oil companies were actions to an unprovoked attack by the JTF against these young men and women in the Creeks. If because of unemployment and other things they are forced to gather in the Creeks in different camps, and the JTF then decided to attack them at will. We have heard the adage that when a man is pushed to the wall, he will fight back. We were involved in the process that led to the unilateral declaration of a ceasefire by MEND, and to our chagrin, we found out that rather than appreciate this window opportunity to embrace peace, the Nigeria Army, the JTF, first of all, said they doubt the sincerity of MEND. Now, if we study the history of MEND, we found out that when they attack, they declare it, and when they say they are ceasing fire, they declare it and maintain it unless when provoked. When this administration came into power, MEND, because of the pressure on it through its leader, Henry Okah, who was then in South Africa, declared a unilateral suspension of hostilities and the Government started entering into negotiation with them. The Vice-President personally went to the South Africa to meet with Henry Okah.
The Committee set up made quite some mileage. The region was experiencing peace until Okah was arrested in Angola and later they extradited him into Nigeria not to be welcomed by the peace he was negotiating, but rather to be treated like a common criminal, denied him of every constitutional right and as well subjected him to very barbarous and inhuman treatments. Now, if you were that person, what will you do?
Your leader is taken. He is the one that told you don't fight. He is the one that told you this is an opportunity for us to move forward. These boys started reacting because of this. The JTF saying that the ceasefire is a strategy of warfare, I do not think that is correct. Our history of MEND and the insurgency in the Niger-Delta region does not show this to be correct. More than that, the Nigerian Army High Command has come out to declare that they cannot ceasefire because there is no war. Now, I do not understand what they mean by war. Explosives are going up on the high levels and people are been killed. Genocide is been perpetrated on the people of the region on the level it is being done. The communities are being razed down, Elem-Tombia, Elem Kalabari etc. women are been raped. I do not know what better definition of war. There is war going on in the Niger Delta. The fact that MEND has declared a ceasefire should bring a ray of hope to Nigerians. We advocate peace and we will do everything in our power to make sure that peace is sustained in the region. But a peace that is not based on a mutual respect is not a peace. That is true and at a moment the Nigerian State has not accorded the people of the Niger Delta the respect they deserve. Until this respect is given, until we become equal class citizens, until we are treated in accordance of our constitutional rights, I cannot see the crises in the Niger Delta coming to an end. Like my leader, Edwin Clerk, whose words led to the breaking of peace and cease fire at the moment, who we know is right now working with Asari Dokubo in ensuring that Ateke Tom and other members of insurgency in the region are kept in control. Our leader has said “we do not want or need the JTF”. We know that the JTF itself is in fact, helping to aggravate the crisis in the region. We cannot totally stop the military from act of bunkering and act of criminality. We have evidence of their involvement on different levels. There has been involvement of ships in oil theft that involve top Nigerian Navy officers. We have them on every level. We are saying, demilitarize the region, give us true federalism. Nigeria is where every region controls its resources; review some of the obnoxious Acts, the petroleum Act, the Land Use Degree, the Inland Water Ways Act. My people in Ijaw are not pleased by that law of Inland Waters Act in their own water. I don't see anybody passing a law to stop anybody from farming in Plateau State or anybody from rearing cattle in Sokoto. Why must they pass a law to stop people from fishing in the Niger Delta Region. We honestly believe that it is a calculated effort to keep the Niger Delta emasculated and under developed, through a system of feudal injustice that is controlling the process of Nigeria. It is not auguring well for this nation let alone the Niger delta.
How do you assess the performance of the past governors of the Niger Delta region?
The past governors of the Niger-Delta failed woefully. I am not yet in a competent position to rate the present governors of the Niger-Delta, just as I am not yet in a competent position to review or rate the Yar' Adua Administration.
The fact remains that Nigeria has suffered through a calculated corruption by the leadership class in this country. We find governors owning refineries in South Africa yet they are not lifting a finger to make sure that refineries are up and running in the Niger-Delta or that the Petrochemical and industries that will create mass employment for the youths of the country are there. If the governors of the Niger-Delta have done half of what they are supposed to do, I doubt if we will be at the present situation we found ourselves today. We must hold our governors accountable. Their corruption must cease. We are calling on them to retire. We, in the Technical Committee are going to work to prepare a plan of action at the end of our sitting in our report that will co-opt every major stakeholder especially at the government levels, that is the federal, the state and Local Government plus the NDDC, to work collectively, not only articulate ideas but to begin implementing programmes that will ensure sustainable development.
It is interesting that in the last few weeks, we have seen the NDDC commissioning many projects. Many have wondered why more commissioning have not been done before now, but I have had cause to speak with the leadership of the NDDC, and I understood that it happened because they have more access to funding in the last six-seven months, than they have had for a long time. So it has been easier for them to complete projects and commission them. We also blame our Niger-Delta businessmen because we have studied the book and records of the Niger-Delta Development Commission and found out that the majority of abandoned projects are those projects that were awarded to the Niger Deltans and Niger-Delta owned companies. Therefore, the new paradigm shift must entail commitment in service at all levels, the level of governance, the level of corporate governance, the level of stakeholders involvement of the committees and their people. Everybody must be committed to the development of justice of infrastructure and of human capacity in the Niger-Delta. Anything less than these, is going to bring destruction for the region.
Following this development, can the people of the Niger-Delta region be bold enough to hold their governors accountable at the end of the day?
I have said that, yes, we must hold them accountable. But can you properly hold a man you did not put in office accountable?
None of the governors in office today, if it a categorical statement was voted in by the people of the Niger-Delta. They are products of the PDP Machinery and it is a common knowledge that the PDP machinery is worse than corruption itself. Even the governor in my state is not a product of election. He is a product of judicial ruling. But who is he accountable to? He is accountable to the party which he is going to be looking to return him in office at the end of this tenure as his other colleagues had been in office right now. There is nobody in Nigeria that was voted in by his people. Not even in Lagos where we heard that people were not voted in, but they are doing a good job. Lagos is one example. We can see what Governor Fashola is doing in the state. I want to believe that the question of accountability must begin with our understanding that the highest level of corruption is not the stealing of money. It is the stealing of the peoples rights. That is the highest abuse that has been fostered on the Nigerian People. I don't know if any of you voted? My name is not in the list in my area. But, at the end of the day, we got more votes cast than the number of voters on the register. When Nigeria begins producing truly democratically elected leaders, we can then hold the people accountable, if I know that I am not going to come to you next time for you to vote, I don't have to please you. I will keep all the cake for myself and my family. They denied the people of the Niger Delta our rights and the federal plot worked because of the kind of people they forced on us as our leaders.
The reason why we concentrated on that is the act of what has been done with the 13% that has been given all these years to us. We got to ask what have stolen from us, because they did not take it or even give if to them. They stole it because the constitution that is been use today, I was not a party to it, but it started with a lie. It says “we the people of Nigeria”. It is a military degree No 24. It is not democracy, it is not civil right. It is not peoples' right. It is government of the feudalists for the capitalist and by the few. None of us is benefiting form it. But we should say all that the government has to do is to convene a Sovereign National Conference. Let us first of all decide whether we want to be Nigerians. I will go further and define what our understanding of Nigeria is under what form we have a right to dissociate from this entity. And this nation right has now been enshrined in the United Nations Strata, and even in the United States, every state has the right to secede any minute. So, they are staying together because it is in there own interest to stay together.
I will prefer staying together in a Nigeria State. I am not one of the advocates of the Niger-Delta Republic, but if push come to shove and we do not have any alternative, we may start advocating for such.
However, at the moment, I am a patristic and dedicated Nigerian who is committed to bringing about peace and progress for the whole nation, premised on justice and process involving peace in the Niger-Delta.
Now that the president of MOSOP, Ludum Mitee, has been nominated as the Chairman of the Niger Delta Technical Committee on Peace, do you think he will be able to produce a report that will Assist in solving the problems of the region?
I think, we unanimously elected him not just nominated him. I don't think we should make the mistake of placing that burden on Mitee's head. Every member of the committees is involved. In my address at the inauguration of the Committee, I made it clear, that we will be forced to dissociate ourselves from the committee and demonstrate against the Committee if there is any attempt by anybody to teleguide us. That is why, for example, you will notice that the 10dys we were given has expired and we have not started to sit because we made it clear we could not work under such situation. We made it clear that we needed much time. Have you all seen the Willink Commission Report, when you sit down and read the Willink/Ogbomudia Report, NDDC Master Plan, you will have fatigue of the brain, and you can't do all that in even 10 days. We realized that those reports were product. Of particular phases of the history. Some were overtaking by events. We need inputs from current players and stakeholders in the region, from the media, from unemployed youths, from the disabled from the academia, from the lawyers and we have already been flooded with memoranda. We believe that this report will be the first report that will be done by the stakeholders. Ogbomudia produced a security report, so is the Niger Delta Development Corporation Master Plan. The Willinks Commission was more a report that focused on the rights of the minority. Some have focused on issues of peculiar terrain of the Niger Delta. At the end of our sitting, we expect to bring a report that will contain a programme of action to the president. It will be after the presentation of our report that we shall finally know whether it is for political purpose or peace in Nigeria. If that report is not implemented, we will say that the Federal Government is not serious in its claim for peace and development in the Niger Delta that will premise on justice. We need mega projects not based on what a national budget is supposed to be.
The Nigeria Government must begin treating the problem of the Niger Delta in a peculiar way because they have a peculiar problem. They must bring in all kinds of mega Corporations worldwide. And they must begin the way they are rebuilding Iraq and Afghanistan. They must begin the rebuilding or building the Niger-Delta. If the people of the Niger-Delta do not feel the impact of their money, I will be the first to agitate. I will be on the front line of the agitation even if any administration will be non-violent, but I will definitely agitate. We have a right to own what is ours. I am fade up of hearing people saying, you don't know how to clean your house, so, you now lock me up in the toilet because I don't know how to clean my house. It is my house. If I like I live it dirty year round, that is my own. First of all, grant me the right to have my house. Some people say we are lazy,
I don't know what they mean by industrious. Do we need been industrious before owning Oil Wells in the Niger-Delta. They are controlling the wealth of the people just because they have guns and can threaten them.
They must reverse to the true federal system, and that is the minimum that we are going to accept on every level.
What is the meaning of UNDEDSS?
The UNDEDSS- Is the Coalition of Ethnic Nationalities in the Niger-Delta Region- that particular name was coined because, through Obasanjo, the federal Government of Nigeria and the State Governments under Alamiasiegha and Company became parties in a nebulous body called the Gulf of Guinea, Energy and Security Strategy. That body has Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea, Angola, India, UK, USA and the EU. As members.
Their sole purpose is to find out how they can secure the stealing of our wealth. How they can rob us of our wealth. How they can tap energy from Nigeria without any hindrances. We, having studied the whole situation, realized that we can even secure it for them but let them develop the area, develop human capacity and we will ensure that they have access to our oil and gas. The Ijaw man cannot drink oil. He doesn't know what to do with gas until you come and teach him so, we will stay there and secure it for them. But they did not factor in “development” we took out the Gulf of Guinea because that issue ofAngola-Guinea is a sham. All we are concentrating on is the Niger-Delta. The Niger Delta, Energy Development Security Strategy (UNDEDSS) is the answer. We want to see if we can use the energy to develop the people. The people will secure the energy for this outside world that depends on energy including us.
I could say that the Yar' Adua administration will be rated primarily on its ability or inability to solve the power problem in Nigeria and that power problem will not be solved until the Niger Delta issue is solved. Therefore, if Yar' Adua does not solve the Niger Delta problem, he might end up at the end of four year, even 8 years, if he lasts that long to become a failure. We do not want Yar' Adua to fail. We are praying very fervently for his health. We are for the Yar' Adua and Goodluck Jonathan. But, we will only remain so as long as they are committed to justice and development in the Niger Delta
What do you have to say on the current position of Asari Dokubo and Henry Okah?
Modern Icons that I admire are Asari Dokubo and Henry Okah. The Niger-Delta will not be truly sustainable without the immediate release of Henry Okah or at the very least for now the immediate reversal of the decision to try Henry in secret, because first of all, this has totally proved to us that the Yar' Adua administration is not sincere about his adherence to the rule of law, if he is ready to throw out the rule of law when it comes to the Niger Delta and the Niger Delta leaders but sticks to the rule of law when if favours him. That means it is not a government that is sincere or honest. Henry Okah should be part of the peace process. All the work I do running around many places to cool off the situation, is what Harry will do in one minute. People did not realize this. The key to the ceasefire is the fact that Henry was granted the right to have medical attention by the Court. The moment the boys in the Creeks saw that there is a move to prove the sincerity about Harry's Incaseration, they decided to show goodwill by also dropping arms. Now, if they can stop fighting just because they heard a judge has granted him access, how much more when he will be released?
At the moment, whether Asari will deny it or not, Asari and Henry Okah are the key pioneers of the Niger Delta struggle. I have told Asari at different areas, privately and anywhere that his personal war with Henry Okah is inferior to the Niger-Delta cause. It is not about him, it is not about Henry. This struggle is bigger than anybody, but they are the key people. When you see Asari or Henry Okah you have seen the Niger-Delta. So for us to have a sustainable process of peace that will allow the development to take place, there is need to allow Henry Okah and Asari Dokubo in the process, even at the Technical Committee level, we are advocating that they should be the first persons not to put just a memoranda but out have input so that the committee can be seen to be efficacious.
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