Oil: ‘City States’ of Niger Delta, South-South and Nigeria – Part 2

Continued from yesterday

The nexus of wealth surrounds the relationship between the trading Houses (chiefs) and the European “factors” on the one hand, and the ability of these chiefs, through intricate diplomacy, to maintain good relations with producers in the hinterland. Many of them were men of considerable wealth and panache; maybe held themselves too seriously. They were aware of the aura of swagger around them. The relationship with the merchants was not always a matter of trust but rather one of healthy guarded suspicion but reinforced by an underlying honesty.

One Consul used to be a regular guest at the table of King Pepple – whole roasted hogs or goats or cows, various fishes, shrimps, crabs and a multitude of other aquatic delicacies. The Consul lived in Beua; he also visited old Calabar where he frequently invited the Obong – Iyamba – to his table on the gun boat. But each time the Consul went to Bonny he would invite King Pepple who would politely decline. The Consul decided to take the bull by the horn and asked King Pepple why would he not dine with him aboard the schooner; after all the king of Calabar regularly did so.

King Pepple looked at the hapless captain and said that the captain was wrong to compare him to the Calabar king. When king Pepple went to the UK he was usually entertained by Queen Victoria. The Consul got the message.

King Pepple during one of his trips to London brought himself a steamer fully loaded; he employed staff to run the steamer which brought him home to Bonny. On getting to Bonny, the captain seems to have nothing to do; the king could not think of what else he could ask the Captain to do. He gave the boat to the captain and crew who sailed off to England.

Chief Tom Brown Big Harry imported railway engine coaches, rails and sleepers intending to run it from Degema to Harry’s town. The crates arrived carrying various parts of the trains but he died before affecting the plan.

The chief’s household was run almost like a barrack: the wives had a roster of who was to do what but the interesting thing daily was when the chief was going to eat. A town crier would go round the compound (the House) announcing that the chief would eat at 7 p.m. Every child in that compound, including the children of his brothers, his sisters, would carry a small bowl and report to the dining room. The chief would dish out portions to each and every child, calling them by their names or the special names he had given them. He would wait until all the children have eaten and left before he would eat.

In the old days, it was almost impossible to see an Ijaw chief eat outside his house. Today, the chiefs dressed in their long robes are followed by their wards carrying plastic bags; not only would they eat and drink outside, they would take food and drinks in bags which their boys take home. Obviously, hard times have come to these chiefs and they can no longer live like their fathers and forefathers. Nowadays they would only come to a function at a fee and would seek every opportunity to extort money from people inviting them for funerals, weddings, etc.

Enough had been said about the peoples, their tradition, etc to provide a fertile ground for the querulous to have plenty to quarrel about. There is no comparable role for the chiefs to play to-day; no comparable income, no comparable influence. Chieftaincy has now become unfortunately a means of making money for the holders of the title who cannot live to the standard accustomed to their parents. The chief’s house would at least be one or two storey high with a ground floor for storage, treasury and so forth. The first floor would be a large saloon and dining room, smaller room to entertain special guest, his bed chamber and a servant’s room. If he has a second floor, these may have other rooms for various purposes. The wives’ terraces may contain as many as 20 houses around the quadrangle.

The Ibibios, Efiks, Egenis, Ikwerres, Ikpayas, etc. in the Rivers State organised themselves differently because they are farming communities. These brush strokes do not do justices to the other ethnic groups comprising the South political zone. The Edos are the dominant influence in most of the South South – stretching to Niger to the East Agbor, the Ikas, Ikwales to Asaba and even Onitsha to the West, the Edos influence Urhobos, Isokos, Itsekiris etc; to the North – Ishan, Etsako, Auchi, Ogenebode, etc. The Edo influence reached the Yorubas especially Ife and Lagos and beyond, maintaining a cultural similarity especially in the tradition of kingship and sometimes linguists.

The South-South geopolitical zone – the home of homes – is a polyglot of several ethnic groups. It is difficult to see how this group fared, apart from a shared sense of injustice about their treatment by other Nigerians especially as far as oil is concerned.

It is in this mix that oil and its corrosive influence descended. I will try to explain why the Niger Delta is the way it is since the advent of oil and modern politics.

• Ambassador Cole is a consultant to The Guardian Editorial Board.