Media reports have been awash with the arrest of a suspected Henry Okah known by the pseudonym Jomo Gbomo, a leader of MEND (Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger-Delta), at this point it remains unclear what exactly he his held for but MEND claims he is now being held over a failed coup attempt in Equatorial Guinea in 2004 though his wife alleges he is being held over money laundering and arms trafficking. They claim he is being framed and that he legitimately had gone over to Angola to purchase a fishing trawler for business, one can also legitimately assume the fishing trawler was intended to help create employment in the Niger-Delta in line with the plea of the governors of the Niger-Delta for increased entrepreneurial investments as the panacea to the endless violence in the creeks

Considering that we do not know Henry Okah (Jomo Gbomo) except from his emails to media houses we would have to unravel the mystery man from tit bits from news reports and descriptions from MEND itself. It is instructive to know that MEND describes him as a “silent partner”, if the words do not mean something else from the vast Nigerian lexicon, it means Henry Okah is a member of MEND known to the public but one that has no voice in the conduct of the business of MEND, considering we the public do not know Henry Okah, his conviction or antecedents and his emails and press releases to media suggests he is an active voice in MEND we would need to await further clarification of the true meaning of “silent partner” from MEND.

We see from press reports that Henry Okah is a fleeting resident of the Niger-Delta from his itinerary through Africa states from press reports and MEND and pointedly that from the fact that his wife (and family?) are far from the creeks of the Delta and ensconced in more affluent South Africa. Or rather we can assume that his family and friends are in South Africa learning the fundamentals of revolutionary struggle from apartheid veterans and his traveling through the regions of Africa are visits to the long abandoned camps used for training the revolutionaries in the struggle or are legitimate business travels of a rebel leader to buy fishing trawlers to tackle unemployment. Also we see that though we the public do not know Henry Okah, African governments and Oil companies know him pretty well, though our courts cannot identify Henry Okah in a line up, the courts of Angola have twice tried him and have found the allegations against him to be baseless and set him free, it shows that Henry Okah though unknown to the Nigerian people is popular in African state circles and foreign courts.

The JRC (Joint Revolutionary Council) describes Henry Okah as a businessman, one they have had business with and collaborated with on certain projects. One would assume the business could be trading in fishes (makes sense with fishing trawlers in the picture) and the collaboration could mean small scale businesses to help the unemployed youth of the Niger-Delta, it would be mischievous and in line with the thinking of the enemies of the Niger-Delta to think of the business as arms trading and the collaboration as kidnapping of those vile expatriates that work for the oil companies! The JRC becomes uncharitable in their further description; quoting verbatim they say “Jomo Gbomo had never been involved in any issue that involves the struggle per se. He is basically a businessman and we did business with him while it lasted. Fortunately for him, he found himself an illiterate bunch over whom he could lord over” (Guardian, September 24, 2007).

Interpreting JRC’s statement would mean that Henry Okah is strictly a businessman unconcerned with the struggle and deprivations on the Niger-Delta and solely concerned with financial gains from his fishing or arms trafficking business (depending on which side you are on). More damaging would be the description of MEND as a bunch of illiterates that have as their lord a businessman unconcerned with any struggle whatsoever, making Henry Okah the one eyed in the kingdom of the blind. Should this be extrapolated to mean that MEND is rudderless bunch of poor illiterate creek boys hoodwinked and brainwashed by a smart businessman masking as a champion of the struggle of the Niger-Delta, ordering the illiterate creek boys to carry out kidnappings while he Henry Okah junkets round Africa buying fish trawlers or arms (again depending on what side you are on) and Azuka his wife and family are basking in the security and stable society South Africa affords her citizens while there is mayhem in the creeks? Did Henry Okah tell the creek boys that this is what “silent partner” means?

So though we do not know much of this “silent partner” of MEND, except that he travels around Africa frequently, that only African governments, foreign courts and oil companies know him, that he is a fisherman/ arms dealer (again depending on what side you are on), that Azuka his wife and if any family are far from the Niger-Delta basking in the South African sun we are going to suffer because  this “faceless silent partner” and his smart creek boys (wrongly described as a bunch of illiterates by the envious JRC?) are irked that though we were here  “suffering and smiling” in Nigeria he was arrested in faraway Angola and it is due to our “omnipotent” government. So oil installations would be blown up again and expatriates kidnapped again, widows shall be made of wives of poor underpaid Nigerian soldiers,  development shall be retarded further and darkness shall cover the creeks again all for a man we knew his name for the first time after he was arrested.

One can only wonder who really the true oppressor of the Niger-Delta is. How the translation of the arrest of a faceless man interprets to increased suffering for all? To the threats of bombings and kidnappings and how that hastens the objective of development in the Niger-Delta or addresses the ageless injustices perpetuated against the people of the Niger-Delta. It is apparent that the legitimate struggle for the emancipation of the Niger-Delta has been hijacked by violent parochial individuals that have united in an unholy union their personal financial prosperity and the struggle of the Niger-Delta clearly relegating the latter as secondary. The ridiculous personification of the struggles to individuals whose credentials include nothing constructive except empty rhetoric and carnage makes mockery of those with burnished credentials such as Kenule Saro-Wiwa who gave their lives for the emancipation of the people of the Delta. 

The voice and struggle of the Niger-Delta should not be surrendered to these rudderless violent groups with copycat revolutionary names and deficient leadership. We must resist their bid to compare their struggles and its tactic to legitimate struggles throughout history as these struggles have always been exemplified by strong, self-sacrificing leaderships exemplified in the likes of Nelson Mandela, Steve Biko and Che Guevara. That an individual was born in the Niger-Delta, suffered the deprivations of an oppressive state and destruction of means of livelihood does not necessarily qualify one to be a rebel or a revolutionary though one is qualified to be aggrieved. That one can chant war songs, shoot a gun, kill, kidnap, burn and bomb definitely does not qualify one to be a rebel no matter how aggrieved. Change, the main tenet of revolution is achieved by those with a clear focus, broad knowledge base, enduring personal qualities and integrity, similar to leadership leading a revolution is not the calling of every Tom, Henry and Jomo.

Increasingly of concern is the abdication of the more intelligent voices in the emancipation of the Niger-Delta to violent and self-serving groups, either due to self-preservation of the intelligent minds or some unfathomable believe that violence is a better means to attaining the objectives of the people of the Niger-Delta.  The voice of reason in the Niger-Delta is dangerously and considerably shifting grounds to the run of the mill militias with their various parochial and laughable names, the voice of reason is feeding this monster of violence and its orgies by allowing these violent groups usurp representation as the legitimate voice of the people of the Niger-Delta. Violence would in the end consume all in its path- those who use it or those who believe in it and those who close their eyes to its wanton reign.

Finally, one cannot absolve the government of blame; government has given reign to violence by being unprepared in facing these violent groups. Irrespective of the past injustice, the direction to look is forward and for any meaningful development to be made in the Niger-Delta there must be peace. Government cannot continue to allow the emotional blackmail of past failures to avoid addressing the escalating violence in a definite manner and in the light of the threats and intransigence of these violent groups. Government must help to deliver the voice of the struggle back to the legitimate representatives of the people and must hasten seeking solutions for the economic development of the Niger-Delta and not all the window-dressing of past regimes and corrupt representatives of the Niger-Delta. We await MEND on behalf of Jomo/Henry Okah to make good their threat and we hope that government would live up to its duty and put beyond any doubt that Nigeria is prepared to deal with these threats- effectively and finally.

Robot  # 1 | 26.09.2007 13:01

Media reports have been awash with the arrest of a suspected Henry Okah known by the pseudonym Jo...Read the full article.

ifeolooni  # 2 | 26.09.2007 15:05

they are becoming more of a nuisance ,if people who think they have a struggle are still arround they either stnd up now or they will never be tken serious again and the whole world will surport voilent suppression of any breach of public peace. criminals crowding a just cause its too annoying

ocnus  # 3 | 26.09.2007 16:45

It is always a danger to associate the revolutionaries with the revolution. Throughout the history of conspiratorial groups in countries across the world the transitions are very similar. The cause is just; the peole are aggrieved; and a militant group arises to put forward their case. Becoming a revolutionary makes maintaing regular employment difficult. The authorities frown on revolution. This means that most of the revolutionaries are unemployed and unemployable. Yet, they must live; they must buy weapons; they must print propaganda for their cause. Their only avenue for this is crime; most often against the very communities from which they have sprung. They run protection rackets; they kidnap for ransom; and they rent their services to businessmen and politicians who find good use for their talents. Their ideology is a precipitating event to their engagement in the movement but rarely survives expoure to the violence and betrayal which accompanies their activities. That is why in groups like the IRA, the Ulster Volunteers, the Chetniks, the Ustashi and scores of others across the globe criminality and turf battles are far more powerful energisers than the ideologies they profess. They find out another truth which is far more bitter. In many cases these revolutionaries manage to win. They may gain control of a region, a city or a country. Then they find that the skills which brought them to power are not the skills which are needed to run the entities they have taken over. "The Revolution eats its own children" is not just an idle phrase. Most successful revolutions soon dispense with the revolutionaries as their skills are unwanted and uneccessary, . There is no revolutionary way to deliver the mail; to produce milk for the market; to pave roads. This is what is needed, not revolutionary skills. The revolutionaries are the first to go. It is probably no different for the followers of MEND. There are plenty of reasons why their cause is justified and where they speak the truth about the abandonment of government of its responsibilities to the people of the Delta. Yet, it will not be MEND or the other groups who will bring about a change to a fairier society. As progress is made these militant groups will become ever more irrelevant and a danger to the process of change. People and societies don't change over night and they cannot be bullied by governments, armies or militants to do so. There appears to be a commitment by the new government to take the first steps towards reacting positively to the needs and demands of the Delta. When this happens, the militants and the vigilantes will become irrelevant. Again, across the globe the militant movements go on. They may not win but, as a universal rule, they have the best songs.

Auspicious  # 4 | 26.09.2007 16:59

Hmph..Ocnus...Hmm.... Yours is worth pondering upon.. Auspicious.

Chief Kalu  # 5 | 27.09.2007 11:53

Let us all hope that the government- both the state and the federal, will continue to embark on projects that will impact possitively on the lives of the people of the niger delter and environs. If this noble action is sustainable, then the time will come and very very soon as you have rightly said, when millitancy and violence will become a shameful venture.