LAST November, I had shared a platform with erudite professor of oral literature, G.G Darah. It was a ceremony organized by the English and Literary Department of Delta State University Abraka to mark the 20th anniversary of the execution of Ken Saro-wiwa and eight other Ogoni patriots by the Nigerian State on trumped up charges of murder.

Prof said when it was palm oil; the story was not different from when it is crude oil today. He said every kind of oil in the Niger Delta has been so sweet to foreign and local resource hunters and that resistance by the people, whether peaceful or armed, as typified by Ken Saro and Major Isaac Adaka Boro, to safe-guard their resources against external invasion, has always been forcefully put down. When it was palm oil and some kings and princes namely Oba Ovonramwen of Benin, King Koko of Nembe, Obi Ossai of Aboh, Ovie Owhe of Agbarha-Otor and Chief Nana Olomu of Itsekiri stood in the way they were liquidated to keep the access open for British exploiters.

In all, Prof had presented a folklore instead of lecture. It was, perhaps, the only way to get the students many of whom were not born when Ken Saro-Wiwa was hanged on November 10, 1995 by the General Sani Abacha military junta interested in the business of the day. The characters and even the plot of Prof’s presentation were too deep in history to be of any serious consequence to these young ones who may be seeking contemporary approach to the same issues.

I spoke for only five minutes, but tried to use the very short time to re-order the priorities. The story that the huge suffering in the Niger Delta is caused by others has been overtold and it is getting me sick. We have been told that General Gowon came with the obnoxious Petroleum Decree in 1968 to offset the 50 per cent derivation principle and mobilise the hydro-carbon resources of the region to prosecute a war to keep Nigeria together. Obasanjo followed in 1978 with the Land Use Decree to make every land and the resources therein property of government. Both decrees transformed into acts and eventually embedded in the constitutions as super laws, leaving the Niger Delta totally helpless.

This has been the lamentation of all fighters of justice in the region including Prof Darah even on this particular day. While it could be permitted for the subsisting generation to lament the past, it is however unforgivable to sustain the lamentation into the present time and do nothing to change things. That was my message.

Consequently, I shortened the narrative from 100 and above years to only 16 years, beginning from 1999 to bring the issues closer to the youngsters. I said time has come for the Niger Delta to look less at the sins committed against it in the past by other Nigerians and foreigners and focus more on the crime the region has committed against itself since the start of this democracy in 1999, especially.

In practicing this democracy, the Niger Delta has had its own share of governors, legislators, ministers and even president. Understandably these ones are not alien invaders that would come and plunder the region and leave it barren. Therefore, they should have one purpose, which is to work tirelessly to recover lost grounds for the region.

Let us also add that the bargain since 1999 has been relatively fair. From an imperceptible 1.5 per cent, derivation fund jumped to 13 per cent. A commission (NDDC) that sits over hundreds of billions voted for development every year was solely created to facilitate development in the region. A federal ministry was created and dedicated for the same purpose. Still another bureaucracy called Amnesty Office was formed to build the capacity of youths from the region.

Altogether, it was like some form of atonement for the sins committed against the Niger Delta by the Nigerian State. Although everything taken, does not add up to complete restitution for decades of exploitation and degradation of the region, it has marked a big departure from the hitherto kill-and-go or scotch-earth policy of previous exploiters.

One estimate puts the money that has flowed into the region through these combined channels at N7 trillion since 1999. Another report says about 50 per cent of this was stolen, 40 per cent misapplied and in fact less than 10 per cent channeled to beneficiate the degraded physical and social environments of the region.

It ubderscores the simple truth that, development is not driven by resources but by the great ideas of great men. To me therefore, the leadership bankruptcy is a bigger problem in the Niger Delta than the issues that have been so well advertised in the public space. This campaign for additional resources to develop the Niger Delta, which everybody is prosecuting relentlessly is becoming too cheap. Same should take the back seat while we tackle the more important issue of leadership.

With good leadership, what has managed to come into the Niger Delta in the last 15 years could make some visible difference. Rather, what has been visible is the rapid conversion of those who happened to bestride the gateways of the revenue channels as president, governors, ministers, legislators and heads of agencies into instant billionaires. It does not make sense to ask for more money that will be stolen.

Unlike issues of environmental abuse that could be readily blamed on oil majors and government, the blame for bad and timid leadership in the Niger Delta lies squarely with the people. For instance, who do you blame if Goodluck Jonathan as the first Nigerian president from the Niger Delta region spent more time and resources cultivating some interests in the North to ensure his re-election than he spent addressing the East-West Road, the many moribund sea ports in the Niger Delta and other burning matters?

When former President Olusegun Obasanjo came in 1999, he saw the incongruity of localising the bureaucracy of maritime management in land-locked Abuja and he immediately did a correction with an executive order. He directed the relocation of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) and the Nigerian Shippers council (NSC) back to Lagos. Heavens did not fall.

Heavens would not have also fallen if Good Jonathan, upon assumption of substantive powers in May 2010 after the death of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, had ordered the relocation of the headquarters of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and the entire public bureaucracy of the oil and gas sector from Abuja where there is no drop of oil to the Niger Delta where all the stuff is domiciled. He could have also asked the International Oil Companies (IOCs) to relocate their headquarters to their areas of operation and nothing would have happened. He did not do either but spent all his time and energy appeasing a tribe of political vampires that wanted nothing else but his blood.

The point I am making is that the Niger Delta is blaming others too much for its problems. The region should look inward to smash the enemies within. Look at this: The campaigns of Yar’Adua was financed almost 100 per cent by James Ibori, who left a big hole in Delta State’s treasury even as Yar’Adua declared a huge surplus of billions in Katsina State. This was in 2007 and in 2015, it was the turn of another Niger Delta Governor called Rotimi Amaechi to finance the campaigns of another Katsina man called Muhammadu Buhari. The former also left behind a huge hole in the treasury of Rivers State. Now, who do you blame?