1. OUR LAMENTATION: After the 15th of January 1966 coup, the Northern Military that still rules Nigeria conceived their revenge. This includes the domination of the South. It is in this regard that they discovered Obasanjo to be their likely supporter as there would be personal benefit in the deal. Obasanjo knew the coup leaders of January 1966 very closely; but he was not with them. This impressed the Northerners to pay a high stake. And they used him. They themselves have expressed how serviceable he has been to them; particularly, after the civil war that enabled them to imagine that the Niger Delta is an African El Dorado. Nigerian Military rulers behave to the people of the Niger Delta exactly in the same way as the sixteenth century colonial Spaniards behaved to the red Indians or the Australians behave to the aborigines. They called them ‘minorities’; and they create quangos to ” manage the affairs of the aborigine” as if they are imbeciles. So Obasanjo following the foot steps of his military predecessors, now creates the N.D.D.C - Niger Delta Development Commission for the development of the area as if we are ‘aborigines’ incapable of administering ourselves.
Those of you who are old enough will remember that Balewa treated us in the same way. After him was Ironsi, he did not refer to us specifically. Then came Gowon, who followed Balewa’s foot step. After him was Murtalla Mohammed, then Obasanjo the apostle of the North. After him was Shagari, then Buhari and then Babangida who unconstitutionally nominated Shonekan as head of state for a few months that were not remarkable. Then came the notorious Abacha and then Abubakar after whom the North traded Abiola for Obasanjo. So goes the relay of Northern military officers and their unpatriotic Obasanjo from the South. All of them treated us in the same way - like aborigines and red Indians who lost their lands. Do you think that this sequence will ever change for our benefit ? We and our neighbours the Igbos have been suffering hardship since the genocide that began on the 29th of May 1966. To the North the date is still significant to the extent that they made Obasanjo began his administration on that anniversary in 1999. Do you think it was a mere coincidence? We pray that individual Igbos are not fooled to support Obasanjo and double cross us. We and they are in the same boat. Any temporary benefit they may enjoy today, cannot compensate the slavish nature of their status in the unworkable Nigeria in which their future generation like our, will for ever play the second fiddle.
We consider it an insult on our capability for outsiders to create commissions or other bodies for us in the management of our own affairs. knowing that the people of the Niger Delta are no less capable than any other of the tribes that are forced to become Nigeria. It is much more insulting when one realises that the Niger Delta produces all the money for the Revenue Allocation that makes the lazy tribes to hold on to fragile Nigeria. As daft as Obasanjo appears to be, he still knows that he could apply the over used concept of ‘ divide and rule’ in trying to weaken our struggle. He appoints a member of the Igbo ethnic community - which is our closest neighbour with whom we seek cooperation in the struggle for our freedom and that of the Igbos themselves - to head the N.D.D.C as its chairman. But we will continue to convince our people that the Igbos are our God given neighbours with whom we must be brotherly. Obasanjo is extremely worthless in respect of promoting our cherished aspiration. In this respect he is an evil and dangerous man.
The Ogoni atrocities perpetrated by Abacha first brought the suffering of our peoples to the lime light of the International Community. Abacha killed our people in order to rob us of our God given resources; and he made billions of pounds from our people. God did not allow him to enjoy the money. Today much of it is being blown about in the air all over the world. His successor Mullah Obasanjo is squandering the moneys in the corruption based economy and building sports stadium to please the Northern chieftains who have never shown much interest in sport. As mullah Obasanjo’s regime’s watches the Northerners discard our cherished Christian morals and justice, his courts sanction the robbery of our God given resources from our lands, our rivers our waters and our creeks by deciding that we do not have the basic right of exercising control over these our lands, waters, creeks and resources. Nothing more need to show the world that we are treated exactly like slaves. It is the nature of slavery since the Roman times, that they have no right. We are only called upon now and again to join in the election to vote for some one presented by the Northern military. This is a gross abuse of democracy and human right. Our voices can never never be heard and we will continue to be minorities and be treated like aborigines even by our fellow Africans. This is unacceptable. For this we form the N.D.R.M.
2. OUR SOLUTION: ~ We must ask ourselves the question ~ What is our benefit in remaining in Nigeria, a country that was not created by God; but by an imperial power for its own purpose. ? In other words - God in His infinite wisdom created each of the ethnic groups, and put each of us in its own place. A colonial power for its own benefit forced us into one ‘country’ and left. There is nothing common among us except that we were slaves of the same master. Allow us to repeat what we have been saying - Other countries in Africa are also created by the European colonial system, but while the average different ethnic groups in each African country is only 40, Nigeria, The Congo and the Sudan has each more than 200. The Congo has no religious problem; but Nigeria and Sudan are cursed with religion conflicts ; and both are engaged in never ending bloody conflict of North and South.
That we in Nigeria were slaves of a common master that has left us is not enough to keep us in the same country. Why do we have to stay together when the slave master has left us ? Dr. Datti Ahmed, a Northern Islamic scholar touched on this point in respect of the North and the South and wrote in THE NEWS magazine of 15th
May 2000 “LET THEM GO THEIR WAY, AND WE GO OUR WAY” The ‘ them’ meaning Southerners and the’ we’ meaning Northerners. This will be the only Godly solution to the problems created by the colonial system. If peacefully applied , the separation will be like that of Czechoslovakia, instead of Yugoslavia where the different ethnic groups fought to death before they eventually separated.. In Yugoslavia they did not exploit one section for the benefit of the others; and they did not have Revenue Allocation . So none of them gained much benefit for the deaths they all inflicted upon one another. But in Nigeria, those that are being exploited will gain after a fight ; but others would have suffered death for nothing; as eventually justice will prevail; and the Niger Delta will enjoy the right of controlling their God given land and resources. But peaceful separation will benefit every ethnic group. There is no way the North can for ever prevent a determined South , or even a determined Niger Delta from separating on the long run. Only self seeking and corrupt politicians will ignore this fact because they want to use the country.
In East Timore the 900,000 people fought hard and got their freedom while the 200 million mighty Indonesia, one of the few Islamic nations that manufacture weapons, got nothing. The East Timoreans had fought bravely and eventually got justice in order to live under their cherished Christian civilisation. and values. Right from the beginning they knew what they wanted - freedom; and they went straight to it. They did not beat about the bush demanding Resource Control, true federation, zoning of offices, human right and the lot of irrelevant demands. They were so wise that Indonesia could not treat them like imbecile or aborigines creating quangoes like the NDDC. Congratulating the people of East Timore on their Freedom, Kofi Annan the U.N. Secretary said: “ It is a historic moment for East Timore and the United Nations. A proud and resilient people have realised a dream common to all peoples - to live as free men and women under a government of their own choosing. Their pride is also the pride of the International community that sympathise with their course and struggle and aided them on the final push. Rarely has the world come together with such unity resolve and speed to secure a people’s self determination”, They now have common Christian values that will enliven their new nation.
The great achievement of the people of East Timore is not without loss of lives on the part of their patriots. But they doggedly fought together with only a few turncoats and renegades who readily fraternise with their oppressors. We pray that we do not have too many of those types of people in the Niger Delta. They are a curse to any community struggling for freedom. In 1958 after the London Conference for Independence, Zik ‘ proudly’ said in jubilation “We’ve got independence on a platter of Gold”. Now people in the former Easter Region in which he was the Premier are asking “Which independence ?” The people of the former Eastern Region - the Igbos and their neighbours are today the most exploited in the country. Both of them have been very foolish for quite a long time. In their own interest both sections must be wise very quickly. In 1958, like Zik many in the South did not realise that , independence was in fact handed over to the Islamic North in abuse of democracy. Now that we have known, it is a waste of time to blame any one or to cry over it for too long. We must now fight for real independence and get ourselves out of Nigeria - a patchwork of tribes cemented together by the amalgamation and maintained financially by revenue allocation derived from the South and the Niger Delta. We must convince one another of the utter uselessness of mullah Obasanjo. He is not a good man for us. To separate from Nigeria must be our one and only concern.
We must realise that the international community does not look into what is considered ‘domestic problems’ such as resource control, true federation and such like. They are internal matters. Like in olden time, even today, no one is interested to know what a master does to his slaves. Many are only interested if the slave struggles to be free. It’s also like husband and wife that are always fighting . It’s much easier for the court to adjudicate if either seeks divorce or separation.. So it was with East Timore. If they had been demanding true federation and resource control, people would sympathise with them; but no one could do any thing to help them. It was because they wanted separation or self determination, that the world felt obliged to help them. Not even the International Court will assume jurisdiction on what may amount to internal matters such as demand for resource control or true federation. In Yugoslavia the international community went to help because some of the ethnic communities declared separation.
The world today frowns upon any ethnic community that holds down another from separating. Like individuals, communities should be free to chose the people with whom they wish to live or to form a country. Today in the year 2002, it is very much different from the year 1967. After the Cold War the major powers are more relaxed, and so they are more interested in justice than ‘ national influence.’ Albeit, we must not resort to violence against any one. The foreigners who carry on business amidst us, do so because they have permission from our masters. They are innocent of our struggles. If they behave badly and support our oppressors, then we must cry out very thunderously to the world.- much more than when blood thirsty Obasanjo sent troops to bomb and kill hundreds of our people on the eve of the New Millennium. When we declare separation the foreigners among us will take notice of it. When we eventually succeed, they will negotiate with us and become our guests. Then they will obey our laws and live to please us. Now they are only to please our masters that have power over them. No one can help us while we beat about the bush looking for domestic remedies like resource control and true federation. We must refrain from giving the impression that we are not acting wisely. Fortunately we are miles wiser than our oppressors. And we have justice on our side. Everyone will help us when we seriously demand separation.
FINALLY: Let this be the first struggle we will be engaged in. The slave trade which we suffered from was ended by European Christian abolitionists. The colonial system which began in our area as much as Nigeria is concerned, ended with a “Platter of Gold” in a way that deceived us. Now we must fight to end the North's domination. It is they who created Abacha and then Obasanjo. ~ the two devils. And they will create more unless we separate.
May God help us.
Aliyi Ekineh - Patron NDRM.
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