Mishap in Niger Delta – Part 3

Continued from yesterday
The sums received by the Commission under subsection (1) (a) of this section shall: (a) be used for the rehabilitation and development of the oil mineral producing areas on the basis of the ratio of the oil produced in the particular State, Local Government Area or community and not on the basis of the dichotomy of on-shore or off-shore oil production and
(b) constitute a special fund which shall be maintained in an account with the branch of the Central Bank of Nigeria at Moscow Road, Port Harcourt.
(1) The Commission shall consist of—(a) a Chairman; (b) one member to represent each of the oil mineral producing states, that is – (i) Rivers State, (ii) Delta State, (iii) Akwa-Ibom State, (iv) Imo State, (v) Edo State, (vi) Ondo State, (vii) Abia State and (viii) Cross River State.

On October 1, 1996, General Sani Abacha (20 September 1943 – 8 June 1998) created Bayelsa State out of Rivers State and named Yenagoa as the state capital. He also named my friend, Captain Phillip Oladipo Ayeni (1949-April 21, 2017) from Oke-Imesi in Ekiti State as the pioneer governor. On June 5, 2000, President Olusegun Obasanjo (87) established the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).

The NDDC mandate is formulation of policies and guidelines for the development of the Niger Delta area, conception, planning and implementation, in accordance with set rules and regulations, of projects and programmes for sustainable development of the Niger Delta area in the field of transportation including roads, jetties and waterways, health, employment, industrialisation, agriculture and fisheries, housing and urban development, water supply, electricity and telecommunications, surveying the Niger Delta in order to ascertain measures necessary to promote its physical and socio-economic development; preparing master plans and schemes designed to promote the physical development of the Niger Delta region and the estimation of the member states of the commission.

It also mandates the implementation of all the measures approved for the development of the Niger Delta region by the Federal Government and the states of the commission; identify factors inhibiting the development of the Niger Delta region and assisting the member states in the formulation and implementation of policies to ensure sound and efficient management of the resources of the Niger Delta region; assessing and reporting on any project being funded or carried out in the region by oil and gas companies and any other company, including non-governmental organisations, as well as ensuring that funds released for such projects are properly utilised.

NDDC also has mandate in tackling ecological and environmental problems that arise from the exploration of oil mineral in the Niger Delta region and advising the Federal Government and the member states on the prevention and control of oil spillages, gas flaring and environmental pollution; liaising with the various oil mineral and gas prospecting and producing companies on all matters of pollution, prevention and control and Executing such other works and performing such other functions, which in the option of the commission are required for the sustainable development of the Niger Delta region and its people.

The people of that region owe a great debt of gratitude to former President Umaru Musa Yar’adua, who on June 25, 2009 established the Amnesty Programme to militants who directly or indirectly participated in militancy. Yar’adua also sustained the NNDC and in addition as earlier mentioned created the Ministry of Niger Delta. He did a lot for that region. Not only because it is the hen that lay the golden eggs for the country but because of the plight of the people of that region. Yar’adua named Air Vice Marshal (rtd), Lucky Ochuko Ararile (70), the Ovie of Umiaghwa-Abraka Kingdom in Ethiope-East Local Government Area of Delta State as the pioneer coordinator of the programme.

The scrapping of the Niger Delta is a big setback.
In the struggle for full emancipation of the Niger Delta, several men and women were in the fore front. They include Major Isaac Jasper Adaka Boro (September 10, 1938 – May 9, 1968), known as “Boro”, Ken Saro Wiwa (October 10, 1941- November 10, 1995), Dr. Okoi Arikpo ( September 20, 1916 – October 26, 1995), Sir Egbert Udo Udoma, KBE, (June 21, 1917 –February 2, 1998), John Togo, Chief Wenike Opurum Briggs (March 10, 1918 – April 21, 1987), Chief Eyo Ita Esua (January 14, 1901 – December 6, 1973), Obong Victor Bassey Attah (86), the late Captain Samuel Timinipre Owonaro (rtd), Nottingham Dick, Chief Harold Dappa-Biriye (1920-2005), Government Oweizide Ekpemupolo (born 1971), Chief Edwin Kiagbodo Clark (97), Asari Dokubo, Jaja of Opobo, Nana Oadelomu (1852–1916), Henry Okah (65), Ateke Tom (60), Farah Dagogo (42), Soboma George, John Togo, Solomon Ndigbara and many others.

Between February 20, 1966 and March 7, 1966, at Yenogoa in the Port Harcourt Judicial Division, Isaac Jasper Adaka Boro, Samuel Timipre Owonaru and Nottingham Dick appeared before Justice John Aniemeka Phil-Ebosie from Anambra State, for treason, contrary to section 37 (1) of the Criminal Code (Federation). The same Justice Phil-Ebosie later became Justice of the Federal Court of Appeal.

The case was retried on December 5, 1966 in the Supreme Court with the then Chief Justice of the Federation, Sir Adetokunbo Adegboyega Ademola (February 1, 1906 – January 29, 1993), Justice Charles Dadi Omeha Onyeama (26 April 1916- 5 September, 1999) and Justice George Baptist Ayoola Coker (27 January 1917-7 February 1981), presiding.

By Section 108 of the Electoral Decree 1977, the fourth Chief Justice of the Federation, Hon. Justice Darnley Arthur Alexander GCON, named Justice Ebosie along with Justice S.J. Ete and Justice Alkali Alhaji Abubakar as a member of the Gongola State Electoral Tribunal on July 2, 1979.

In 1982, Justice Phil-Ebosie was awarded the Commander of the Order of the Niger by President Aliyu Usman Shehu Shagari GCFR. Before pronouncing judgment on June 21, 1966, Justice Phil-Ebosie requested Adaka Boro to make his speech, he said “Today is a great day’ not only in your lives, but also in the history of the Niger Delta. Perhaps, it will be the greatest day for a long time. This is not because we are going to bring the heaven down, but because we are going to demonstrate to the world what and how we feel about oppression… Remember your 70 year old grandmother who still farms to eat, remember too, your petroleum which is being pumped out daily from your veins, and then fight forever your freedom.” My people “had long sought a separate state, not because they loved power but because their conditions were peculiar and the authorities did not understand their problems. There is nothing wrong with Nigeria. What is wrong is the total lack of mercy in our activities”.

I think Major Adaka Boro was right afterall. We don’t understand the people of Niger Delta. We tend to judge the people of that region by the bluff, blusters, lifestyle, threats and uncoordinated efforts of some their leaders. We assumed that since we made one of them, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan (67) who served as President between 9 February, 2010 and 29 May, 2015, that we have found solutions to their problems. Not at all. A lot of mystery has enveloped that region. Real distress. The page is not turning there.

Real suffering is still going on in that region. Very terrible suffering. If we are to go with the argument that the huge budgetary allocations to the Niger Delta Ministry, the Amnesty Programme and the NDDC can’t be justified then there is no Ministry or agency in the centre, that can escape the hammer.

By Presidential fiat, President Muhammadu Buhari on August 21,2019 established the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development. He then put the following agencies under the ministry. National Commission for Refugees, Migrants, and Internally Displaced Persons, North-East Development Commission (NEDC), National Emergency Management Agency, National Agency for Prohibition and Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), National Senior Citizens Centre and National Commission for Person with Disabilities.

The impact of that Ministry has not been fully felt in most parts of the country. All we read about of the Ministry are scandals upon scandals of high proportion.

On October 23, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu established the Ministry of Livestock Development by a fiat. The same government that scrapped the Ministry of Niger Delta, the area that produces the goose that lay the golden eggs, has not only sustained the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development but has established the Ministry of Livestock Development.

It is very complex understanding the government these days.
Concluded.
Teniola is a former director in the Presidency.