Genocide in the creeks
We continue today, government-driven acts of genocide across Nigeria, over the years.
The setting
It was a hot afternoon at the Palace in Oporoza, Gbaramatu Kingdom, Delta State. Dateline: May 14, 2009. The kingdom is of Ijaw (Izon) nation that contributes nearly 70 per cent to the nation’s economy. It is also the 4th largest ethnic group in Nigeria, after the Hausas/Fulanis, Igbos and Yorubas, spread across Bayelsa (a whole state), Rivers, Edo, Delta, Ondo and Cross River states. The Oporoza community was in a festive mood, for the Amaseikumor festival, with influx of hundreds of guests into the community, to partake of the presentation of the staff of office to the king, the Pere of Gbaramatu Kingdom, HRM, Ogie III. It also marked his one year anniversary on the throne. It was about the same time that nearby city of Warri was to be inspected by FIFA delegates, towards considering Nigeria’s hosting of the 2009, under 17 World Cup. Umaru Yar’Adua was president. Air Marshall Paul Dike was Chief of Defence Staff.
Suddenly, three low flying helicopters emerged from the serene skies. The people gawked, awed, clapped, salivated, believing erroneously the helicopters bore dignitaries to add to the glamour, razzmatazz and panache of the royal ceremony. But they were wrong, dead wrong. The helicopters were actually harbingers of death; deadly gunboats, deployed by the Joint Task Force (as ordered by then President Umar Yar’Adua), to mow down Gabaramatu Kingdom. The kingdom came under a hale of bombs, the Palace inclusive. Two naval warships identified as “NNS Obula” and “NNS Nwanba”, 14 gunboats and four Air Force helicopter gunships completed the awesome armada of the JTF codenamed “Operation Restore Hope.” About 3, 000 troops were involved in this genocidal warfare that targeted the Ijaw enclave that housed the dreaded “Camp 5” and “Iroko Camp.”
Ironically, one of the villages destroyed, Oporoza, had hosted the crew who made the movie, “Sweet crude.” But the crude was now sour.
Genesis of the crisis
The Niger Delta is buried in the creeks. Fragile, swampy and neglected by successive governments after the discovery of oil at Oloibiri in 1956, the people felt short changed. Where they asked for fish, they were given stones. When they asked for bread, they were given bullets. Like in the ancient Mariner, they have “water, water everywhere, but none fit enough to drink.” They defecate in still, spirogyra-infested ponds from which they also drink. The perennial gas flaring leaves cancerous skins and diseases. Aquatic and agrarian life is completely destroyed. The black gold, rather than be a blessing, has thus become a curse. There are no roads, hospitals, schools, infrastructure. No nothing! The people live in pains, pangs, sweat, blood, exploitation and crude marginalization.
Tired of brazen exploitation, MEND (the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta), an affiliate of JCR (Joint Revolutionary Council, with the others being the Martyrs Brigade and the Reformed Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force), headed by the then 40-year-old Ijaw struggle exponent, Government Ekpemupolo, alias, Tompolo,’ controlled “Camp five” and the “Iroko Camp.”
MEND had issued an ultimatum to the oil companies operating in the region to shut down and evacuate their workers. The Federal Government felt insulted, and went beyond this muscle flexing, to launch a major dawn operation, to dislodge the militants. Two days earlier, MEND had engaged the JTF in a fierce battle in which several soldiers were feared dead, and their weapons seized. 15 foreign workers were also said to have been taken hostage by the Militants.
The military’s account
President Umaru Yar’Adua was said to have been greatly miffed by the number of casualties on JTF’s part, and consequently ordered that the Militants’ Camps be invaded, with the leaders captured, dead or alive.
JTF’s then spokesman, Col. Rabe Abukakar, confirming the operation, said the troops were on a rescue mission, to free hostages, hijacked ships and fish out the “hoodlums” who attacked military personnel on legitimate duties. Said he: “We deliberately went on search and rescue operation in some coastal communities in Delta State… to apprehend and fish out criminals who are involved in abduction of crew members of two ships and those behind the hijack of the ships. We are also after the criminals who attacked our personnel in legitimate duties. But in the process, the so called militants mounted resistance and this expectedly led to a serious gun duel and they retreated to their camps and hideouts. Our men also pursued them to the camps but heavy shooting is persisting as you are talking to me now”.
Ijaw’s account
Not so fast, cried the acclaimed Ijaw national leader, Chief Edwin Kiagbodo Clark, after rehashing his people’s years of suffering: “The military has declared total war on our people in Escravos in Delta State. They are bombing from the air and water, killing innocent children and women in Okerenkoko, Oporoza, Kurutie and Kunukunuma. They (Ijaws) are seeking for safety in the bush. Please, intervene immediately by telling Mr. President not to declare total war on fellow Nigerians particularly when the vice President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan is away in Europe on an official mission”.
Ms Cynthia Whyte, spokesperson for the JRC also accused the JTF of attacking civilian settlements, including the Palace of Agadagba of Gbaramatu, schools and other public places, vowing that the soldiers would be made to pay for the “desecration of Ijawland”. (To be continued next week).
The royal passage: Oba gha to kpere, Isee
The mighty Iroko has fallen. The perching birds had scattered, momentarily. But, they have since regrouped under the bespread canopy of the Obaship scion, Edaiken n’ Uselu, Crown Prince Eheneden Erediauwa. Oba of Benin Kingdom, Omo n’ Oba n’ Edo, Uku Akpolokpolo, Oba Erediauwa, CFR, did not die. No. He cannot die! Benin customs and traditions hold that he merely transited and joined his ancestors, a league of illustrious monarchs, that include Oba Ovonramwen N’ Ogbaisi, who in 1897, humiliated the British with bare knuckles, leading to his punitive exile to Calabar; including Oba Akenzua II, who on August 9, 1963, fruitified the creation of Midwest Region from Western Region. He quintessentially represented the end of a golden era and the beginning of a more glorious one. Graceful, regal, dignified, resplendent, magisterial, sartorial, royal and very handsome, Oba Erediauwa was an uncommon nationalist, mentor, role model, cultural icon and traditional prodigy, who radiated royalty and aristocracy with exceptional wisdom and character.
An accomplished and incorruptible civil servant, brilliant lawyer, astute politician and a renowned bridge builder who turned Edo State into Dolly Parton’s “Coat of many colours” and melting point of all Nigerians, Oba Erediauwa brought untrammeled peace, progress, and tranquility to bear on Edo State and on all peoples of Edoid pedigree, at home and in the diaspora.
I am an Edo man, but of Afenmai (Etsako) extraction. That did not, however, stop the oracle’s and Sybil who fondly called me “Ozekhome”, to confer on me, in 2014, one of the highest titles in Benin Kingdom, the Enobakhare Ode of Benin Kingdom, a title that situates me squarely and eminently in the hallowed pantheon of the highest league of Chiefs in Benin Kingdom, led by the Iyase, Chief Sam Igbe. Some other titans in this venerated class of Benin Royal Ambassadors are the Esogban, Eson and Esama. The nonagenarian had treated me affectionately as a son since 2002, when I first met sage, and never tired (surprisingly), of narrating to me in the minutest details, what he regarded (I was always humbled), as my legal and human rights exploits. He encouraged me to no end. His memory was unsurpassingly gargantuan and cosmic. I have since shaved my hair, skin clean, to bid farewell to this colossus, whose royal exploits traversed the length and breadth of Nigeria. He was an incredibly detribalized homo sapien.
True, “when beggars die, there are no comets seen… the heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes” (Calpurnia, Julius Caesar, II). True, Oba Erediauwa’s “life was gentle, and the elements so mixed in him that nature might stand up and say to all the world, this was a man” (Mark Anthony, Julius Caesar, 5, 5).
Oba Erediauwa came. He saw. He conquered (veni, vidi, vici).
2 Timothy 4:7 aptly applies to the royal juggernaut: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race. I have kept the faith.” Adieu, father of all. Farewell, lover of humanity. Oba gha to kpere, isee.
Kudos, PMB, for signing the budget
It is better late than never. After one year in office, delayed presentation of the budget in December 2015, its mysterious disappearance from NASS, re-emergence, incredible padding, return to NASS, reworking, disagreements, face-off between NASS and presidency, reconciliation, et al, Nigerians can finally breathe a sigh of relief that PMB has finally signed the 2016 budget. But, the rains are here. Please sir, drive your ministers very hard, to immediately begin implementation. Otherwise, the budget will be useless to Nigerians. Nigerians also need to know its final contents in the spirit of transparency, accountability and anti-corruption.
Are the earlier frightening figures in the padded budget for which you sacked some officials still there?: N3.8 billion (State House medical centre, with N308 million earmarked for a new VIP wing; another N3.21 billion for health equipment; N203 million for “State House Headquarters” drugs/medical supplies; N322.4 million for a mere cable to link the driver’s restroom and Villa; N213.8 million budgeted for residential rent in Aso Villa! Rent?; Meals/refreshments at N436.05 million; N904.01 million for new exotic cars in the presidential fleet; N259 million for tyres, batteries, fuses, tool boxes, jacks, etc; and N27 million for C – Caution signs and fire extinguishers. Then, wait for it: N1.39 billion to procure a floating house boat in Abuja, for the “relaxation” of top military officers, at a time hundreds of them were dying at the war front with Boko Haram. Ensure sir, this hara-kiri is not committed against the Nigerian people.