30 Jun 2008 |
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Dodo Tsuliyan Dodo Are Niger Delta militants criminals? Are we being faced with an issue of common criminality or a socio-political conflict in the Niger Delta? I ask this because of a very misguided write up by one Ijeoma Nwogwugwu, a pervasive market economic ideologue who enjoys regularity of column space in the popular back page of Thisday Newspaper. Ijeoma regularly writes “Behind the Figures” on the back page of Thisday on Mondays. “Behind the Figures” is very good at projecting the market ideology, which often contends that government should hands off everything, abandon its responsibility and leave the country’s economy in the hands of private market forces. Ijeoma is excellent in projecting her markets-only economic ideas. But each time she delves into socio-political issues, she shows gross and disgraceful misunderstanding of the complexities and dynamics that constantly characterize the existence and progress of communities and societies. She is little versed in political and social causal analyses. It may not be ignorance; I think Ijeoma could well be a front for profit interests in the oil sector. Interests that care less about anything, but profits. By her own admission, Ijeoma decided to become politically incorrect just for the mere reason of being “sick and tired of being politically correct”. I wonder what this hyper-capitalistic ideologue means by “political correctness”, within the context in which she called on the government to go to war with Niger Delta “criminals”. Blinded by straight and absolute economic and legal logic, Ijeoma has declared that the Niger delta conflict should be seen as criminal. No more. No less. The military should be unleashed on the “criminals” to finish them off, so that oil will continue to flow for our kleptocratic ruling elite to continue their looting. In a fit of contradiction, Ijeoma admits the long history of underdevelopment and absence of (local) participation in the exploitation of the resource in the Niger Delta, but fails to see any link between these historical, social and political factors that continue to feed “criminality”. She wrote, “Armed thieves and bandits of all shades are conveniently hiding under the excuse of underdevelopment and greater participation in the exploitation of the abundant hydrocarbon resources found in the region to hold the country to ransom. In reality, they have used that as a ruse to carry on their nefarious activities of illegal bunkering and taking hostages in exchange for cash.” Does underdevelopment exist in the Niger Delta or not? Are the people of the Niger Delta not excluded from participating in the exploitation of the resource under their land or not? The tragedy here is that Ijeoma fails (is this out of deliberate or genuine ignorance?) woefully by thinking “criminality” evolves on its own, without any causal links to historical, economic, political and social factors. In tracing the history of the conflict, Ijeoma also callously neglects the full trajectory of the Niger Delta issue from the very on-set. It is an assault to our sensibilities to neglect very important events in analyzing the Niger Delta issue. She said “No section of the Niger Delta has been left unscathed by the felony that has gone on unchecked for almost four years.” Four years? Why should someone criminally attempt to shorten history of the Niger Delta conflict to only the past “almost four years”? What led to this “felony”? Or did the Niger Delta crisis begin only four years ago? Has Ijeoma ever heard of Isaac Adaka Boro that raised very valid concerns of the economic exploitation of the Niger Delta, particularly the Ijaws? Has she ever heard of Ken Saro Wiwa, who was murdered more recently for championing the cause of the Ogonis? Ijeoma totally had no reason to also see the infamous role of government and government powers, from the Presidential order of the wiping out of Odi in 2000, to the open arming of cults by the various Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) state governments from 1999 to date. The same federal government is courting a well known militant in a divisive tactic that can only extend the conflict indefinitely. Ijeoma claims her own village in Imo State also produces oil: “Poverty is also widespread there. The two oil fields in the area probably produce some 60,000 – 80,000 barrels per day combined and have done so for almost 40 years… Yet, it was not until recently that we got one or two roads, some electricity, a primary healthcare centre and a couple of school blocks. But none of these amenities were built for my community by the federal or successive state governments.” Meaning the amenities were all provided by some oil company. She is happy for her poverty infested village because of “one or two roads” build by an oil company that has exploited her community of about 100,000,000 barrels of crude in 40 years. May God remove this kind of rogues who think people should jubilate over peanuts thrown at them! The likes of Ijeoma are the ones that stunt the development of their people by keeping them perpetually uninformed or half-informed. Well, in spite of the likes of Ijeoma, her community will one day catch up with the same level of consciousness that is driving MEND and other militants in the Niger Delta. Two options exist: either Ijeoma and the “criminals-in-Niger-Delta” theorists (including the PDP government) wake up and address the issues by giving the Niger Delta People their dues, or continue to wallow in their myopia and unleash their “military might” on the “criminals”, wake up one day and there is no shell or chevron to drill and export crude, which would mean an end to awoof money to steal. I would rather they continue in their myopia, so that every eye would soon shine with the impending doom. I am not from the Niger Delta, but that cheap money to my state and local governments every month is impoverishing my people.
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