The National Publicity Secretary of Pan-Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), Robinson Ken, in this interview with PAULINE ONYIBE, speaks about the current insecurity and sundry socio-political issues in the polity, including continued degradation of Niger delta...CONTINUE READING
Looking at the current oil spill in the Niger Delta particularly as it concerned AITEO will the host communities get any recourse according to provisions of Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), now that Nembe communities have been devastated? The PIA will not do anything different. The PIA is focused on generating revenue increase for the Federal Government and of course, for the International Oil Companies (IOCs). The issue of Niger Delta particularly concerning environmental issues is that, the laws on environmental protections are weak and the agency to enforce those weak laws are not doing their job either out of outright inefficiency or negligence. The problem has always been lack of enforcement. That is the situation we find ourselves particularly respecting this present in the Nembe area of Bayelsa State. It is becoming out of control and the lives of our people and livelihood are threatened. There are some provisions in PIA where it captured oil spills and all that but the problem has always been lack of enforcement, either because the officials and agencies saddled with those responsibilities are either compromised or are out rightly inefficient. Does that mean the PIA is not there in the first place to secure the lives of host communities? Perhaps it will be too early to begin to talk about what the agency created or will be created following the enactment of the Petroleum Industry Act can do, but the already established agencies like NOSDRA and all other agencies have not been doing their job properly. If they were doing their job the way those agencies were created and their jobs were being properly implemented, they would have taken environmental issues seriously. But let us say that for us in PANDEF and of course all wellmeaning and patriotic Niger Deltans, PIA is purely created to make more money for the government of Nigeria and more money for the IOCs and of course less for the welfare of the people of the Niger Delta. Recently there was this plan to include some non-Niger Delta states in NDDC. How do you see it? It was not rumour at all. We watched on national television where even the Deputy Senate President very vehemently spoke against the obnoxious bill that was sponsored by a senator from Lagos State an
of course, a senator also from Rivers, Senator Sekibo also spoke against it in very strong terms. The fact is this, every day the Niger Delta people wake up to one obnoxious bill being sponsored by one group in the House of Reps or group of senators which is determined and intended to undermine the people of the Niger Delta region. The Niger Delta is a distinct geographical expanse and it is clear what Niger Delta is. Some states like Ondo, Imo and Abia were included in Niger Delta Development Commission by Chief Olusegun Obasanjo for political reasons, so that he will have greater support. Otherwise, the Niger Delta area is known and the definition of what Niger Delta is known. Any attempt to dilute and make what Niger Delta is to become something else, we will resist it. The Niger Delta people will resist it because it is intended to undermine us, and it is very insulting to say the least for you to say that Kogi State or even Borno State because oil exploration is going on there and if oil is found there, to say they are part of the Niger Delta Commission. It is insulting and I think that the federal lawmakers should stop this attitude of playing to the gallery. They should face serious business. Nigeria has serious issues that they need to intervene seriously not just sitting there and being granting frivolous loans here and there for the President to borrow. There is this rumour that a minister has bribed some senators to abrogate the NDDC Act and transfer its duties to the Ministry of Niger Delta. And to corroborate that, up till today after all the struggles and protests by Niger Deltans to make sure that the NDDC board is inaugurated, nothing has happened. What do you think is behind it? It is very unfortunate and annoying. In fact, quite annoying that Mr. Godswill Akpabio, a core Niger Deltan is conducting himself in such manner. Sadly, he has almost reduced the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs to the Ministry of Niger Delta Development Commission and it is very annoying. Unfortunately, President Muhammadu Buhari, under whose purview the Commission is, continues to maintain the posture of an unconcerned spectator. Within about two years of Akpbio’s drama and charade, it is ridiculous that we are in a country like this. The President continues to behave as if it does not matter and allows Akpabio to continue to manufacture all manner of schemes and machinations
We heard the board has not been inaugurated because they are trying to develop a new term of reference. That is rubbish. What terms of reference? The NDDC has an Act that established it and the operations and functions of the management are explicitly stated in the act. Provisions are made for how the board will function; what the management will do and all the necessary checks and balances to ensure that there is probity in the management of the commission, and then somebody will get up and say they are trying to prepare a new terms of reference. Yes, that is the story that they continue to tell the country and the presidency keeps watching, for reasons best known to him and this gives reasons for some kind of believe or validates the rumours that several billions of naira are being paid for Akpbio to continue his one-man show at the detriment of the development of Niger Delta region. Contactors are being owed and funny contracts are being awarded to stooges and proxies and the people who have done some kind of jobs in the region are not paid and people are losing their jobs. And it has a social and economic impact on what is going on in the Niger Delta.
How do you see the approval of another loan for President Buhari. Nigeria will soon be tagged the world highest borrower and a country that depends solely on other countries. We have become a dependent country not an independent country because those who have been given the mandate to run the affairs of the country either do not know what they are doing or they are deliberately mortgaging the future of Nigeria. Twenty six years after the murder of Prof Ken Saro Wiwa, nothing seems to have changed in the Niger Delta. What is your take on that? Twenty six years after the judicial murder of Saro Wiwa and eight others in the Ogoni axis, there is no significant difference and we could say that it is still the same and the scenario and the situations are almost still the same. So we can say that perhaps, 26 years after or 36 years before the murder of Ken Saro Wiwa, the same stories and the same narrative remain. And it is painful that some of the most committed and patriotic Nigerians and Niger Deltans Ogoni axis were killed after that Kangaroo trial. The Nigerian government has killed several other Niger Delta people through extra-judicial killing and even directly- people who stood for their people. They were asking for better lives for their people, for good living conditions for their people. They are saying ‘you are taking so much from our land. Let us have some of the things you are taking away.’ They were not criminals. They were tried in a Kangaroo court and killed like ordinary criminals but those men live forever in the hearts and minds of Niger Delta people and the rest of the world who love justice and truth, who stand for peace. With all these, do you think the Federal Government and the IOCs have tried their best in the region? They have tried their best in exploiting and plundering the resources of the Niger Delta people. They have tried their best in impoverishing the hitherto very rich ecosystem that has been devastated due to the operations of the oil industry. They have done little or nothing towards improving this situation that our people face. The livelihoods of the local people across the Niger Delta have been devastated. We can no longer fish. Our farmlands are not producing as they used to produce because of the impact of oil exploration. The Nigerian government has not done much. The international oil companies would tell you that they are paying taxes to the Nigerian government and they have all other responsibilities and of course, they are business outfits but they must understand that if there is no peace in the business environment, the business will not prosper. How do you describe the leadership pattern of the South-South governors and federal lawmakers? Do you think they are doing their best to make sure that most of those agitations are achieved? When you talk about the governors of the Niger Delta region and the South-South in particular, for us in PANDEF, we don’t like isolating them. The governors of the South- West and those of the South-East, the
North-East or North-West and the North Central are part of the Nigerian system. These governors, senators and House of Reps members across the country were born out of a faulty constitution, a faulty system, a faulty structure and a faulty country and faulty governance. Because they know how they came into office, they will continue to pay allegiance as it were to that faulty system because they know that if they do otherwise, the faulty system can throw them out. So until we have a Constitution that will uphold the rights of Nigerians and let them know that power belongs to the people truly, nothing will happen. If we the people of Nigeria say ‘look, enough is enough,’ every government will collapse but unfortunately because of a faulty structure and a faulty Constitution and a faulty governance system that we have been operating, the people are now becoming slaves to a system that they should be the owners. Nigeria is like a company and the citizens of Nigeria are the shareholders of the company and if the shareholders say ‘no we don’t want this management,’ the management will go. That is the voting system but unfortunately our voting system is compromised. The governors of the South- South will do their best to their interest. So long as their interest is not threatened and they will stop where their interest will become threatened. That is the truth and we must say it. And they are like the governors of every other part of Nigeria. Election year, 2023 is around the corner and every politician is thinking about the next election, not the next generation. Do you still see a South-South person becoming the President of this country come 202, bearing in mind that the former President Goodluck Jonathan didn’t complete his eight years in office? PANDEF as a responsible leadership organization conscious of the mood the country believes that power should shift to the South. Our position is that whether that person that will come as a Southerner comes
from the South-West, South-East or South-South is a different matter. We are not unaware of sentiments in South-South that we did not complete our statutory eight years by former President Jonathan and so the South-South should be given the opportunity to complete it. We are not unaware of those sentiments and we are not ignoring them, but as a leadership organization that is conscious of the mood in the country, we continue to insist that power must shift to the South and whether the power goes to the South-West, South-East or South-South is a different matter, and I believe that political leadership and the socio-cultural leadership of Southern Nigeria will be able to, at some point, sit down and discuss and appropriately agree and support where the next President of Nigeria should come from. But the underlying fact is that the next President of Nigeria must come from Southern Nigeria. The Federal Government said fuel may sell for N340 next year because the fuel subsidy will be removed and that N5, 000 will be given to about 40 million Nigerians for transportation and all that. How do you see that? Let us not reven talk about the N340 per liter proposal. Let us look at the proposal that they will be paying N5, 000 per Nigerian and that will amount to about N200 billion in every month or every quarter. It is a fraud and it is the highest fraud that this Buhari government wants to commit against Nigerians and we can categorically say that it is a plan to syphon funds for the next election. There are no Nigerians that they will be paying N5000 every month that will amount to N200 billion. It is the same fraud that has not allowed our refinery to function so that some persons could be made multi-millionaires overnight by supposedly importing fuel. This government is fraudulent with all sense of responsibility and they have not been transparent. They are not accountable to Nigerians. All the resources and the trillions of naira that have come out from petroleum resources that they plundered from the Niger Delta, they have not accounted for it and this proposal to spend about N200 billion every month in the coming months for a certain group of Nigerians is a fraudulent plan to syphon the resources of Nigerians’ to private pockets and every Nigerian must rise up against this fraudulent plan of this Buhari administration. This is to plunge Nigerians into a greater level of suffering. Why must they make Nigerians pay for their inefficiency? Why must Nigerians suffer for the fact that they are unable to build refineries? Must everything be Aliko Dangote? Why is this country like this? With what is going on in the North- East and recently in the South-East, there is a lot of insecurity in the country except in the Niger Delta region. Do you think the security agencies and the Federal Government are doing enough? The government of Nigeria has failed in securing the lives and property of Nigerians. It has failed woefully and it is the worst under this Buhari’s administration. Yes, we have had security situations for a number of years now particularly the Boko Haram issues. Now Boko Haram has transformed into Islamic State of West Africa and they have transformed into bandits in the North- West. They have transformed to killer herders in the North Central in Southern Nigeria and the government continues to look on as if nothing is happening. They continue to tell the story that they are fighting insecurity; they are winning the war against insecurity and it is very ridiculous that bandits are having their way and they kidnap. They do whatever they like. Communities are now paying levies to bandits for security. It has gotten to that point and we have a government in this country. With this insecurity, do you think the next presidential election will be peaceful or there should be a sort of round table discussion or conference to make that election a peaceful one? They will do everything within their powers to give a representation as if things are working by paying whatever they can pay to whoever they need to pay to have elections held. This is because it is crucial for them to have elections to continue to be on platforms that they will continue to plunder the resources of Nigeria. We can easily look at what happened at Anambra State and the apprehension, the fear whether that election would hold given the activities of unknown gunmen and the sit at home orders by IPOB but in a few hours to election, IPOB called off their sit at home. There were no activities of unknown gunmen. So perhaps, the unknown gun men are known just as the bandits, the Boko Haram and the Islamic states are known. They know them, so towards 2023, they will do all they can do, reach whoever they can reach to allow the election to hold so that they can produce people who will continue to occupy the presidency, occupy the government houses, occupy the National Assembly and continue to syphon the resources of Nigerians and degrade the lives of the people of Nigeria.
