…Say, they are criminals, enemies
CHIEF Edwin Kiagbodo Clark is a foremost Ijaw leader and one of the prominent personalities who led the pan Niger Delta Elders and Leaders Forum to the Peace Dialogue with the Federal Government in Abuja on November 1, 2016.
In this interview with The Sun Correspondent in Warri, Ben Dunno, he bares his mind on a lot of issues that border on the Niger Delta questions especially against the backdrop of unrelenting attacks on critical national assets in the region by various militant groups shortly after the meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari and demanded to know the rationale behind these criminal acts.

Can you give a brief background to the Niger Delta Struggle?
No doubt, the Niger Delta region had suffered decades of neglect from successive governments, we have been neglected over the years. It is not just today, even as far back as 1958 before Nigeria got independence we were already fighting. That was why Lewis Commission was set up to look into the problems of the riverine people. when Lewis Commission recommended that people on the land do not know what is happening to people in  the water, something should be done for them and that was why in 1958 the Niger Delta Development Board was set up and it was entrenched in the constitution of 1960 Independent Constitution and 1963 Republican Constitution. It was just there for ten years and nobody was acting on it. But it was during the war that it was removed and when the military took over and defeated everybody to hijack the rulership of the country, we made series of efforts for it to be revisited by series of reports by commissions of inquiries, but none of those have helped our people.
The militancy era dates back to the Kaima Declaration, then we had series of meetings with Abdulsalam when our youths said that the oil companies should move out on December 1, 1998. So we have been on this same issue over a long time . When Obasanjo took over, we were there, we had series of meetings prior to the arrest of Asari Dokunbo, who was later taken to Abuja and we again went to free him from the court. I met with president Obasanjo then, who requested that I should go and bring people to bail him, I asked people like Douglas, people like Bozimo, they went to Abuja to bail Asari Dokunbo from detention and thereafter released by the court.

Is there any good thing that you can point to that has happened to the region from that time till now?
Yes, the amnesty program that was initiated by the Late President Yar’Adua, shortly after the Gbaramatu kingdom was bombarded and set on fire. It was a program that has brought relief and a new lease of life to our people. And that was the reason why we are demanding that it should be sustained and even improved upon in our 16 point demands to President Muhammadu Buhari during the peace dialogue held some few weeks ago in Abuja.
I’ve been at the forefront of the Niger-Delta struggle from the beginning and I can tell you categorically that there is nothing about the Niger Delta question that I do not understand. One good thing the federal government had done for our people is the amnesty program. I can confidently tell you that the program has done a lot for our people. Twenty-three (23) of the boys who went on scholarship to Britain made 2nd Class Upper, 4 of them 1st Class, these were the boys that had nowhere to go but were recently celebrated at Aso Rock. Even Mr. President mentioned this remarkable feat during our recent meeting with him.

Talking about the peace dialogue held on November 1, 2016, between the federal government and the Pan Niger Delta Elders Forum (PANDEF) which you led to chart the way forward. How would you describe the meeting?
It may interest you to know that prior to this meeting with Mr. President, we the elders and leaders of South-South geo-political zone cutting across all the various ethnic nationalities in the region held series of meetings where far reaching decisions on our demands as representatives of our people were tabled and articulated into the 16 point agenda we have presented. Of course, we led a colourful delegation to Mr. President on the 1st of November, we were about a hundred, we presented our case and Mr. President replied. He acknowledged some of these demands and requested for time to enable the committee he set up to look into these demands make recommendations to him and we are all happy. Later he took photographs with three classes of individuals who represented various interest groups. The first photograph was with the traditional rulers and governors. The second one was with us the leaders, the third was with all stakeholders.

But it seems not everybody in the region was happy with the meeting as some militant groups engaged in series of attacks on oil installations to vent their anger?
Now, that was my major concern. Are you telling me now that the Niger Delta region has gone so bad that people no longer have a sense of reasoning? How does one explain that in less than 24 hours after the meeting with Mr. President, these boys had struck again by attacking the Forcados Pipeline. Our boys were still boasting on the social media that they would carry out more devastating attacks on some critical national assets; threatening that they will do this and they will do that, and you begin to ask; what do the militants want? What really is there problem?
I was in my house when they came to me that the Federal Government had sent troops to Agbo opposite Oporoza and that some boys had been arrested, we had to intervene and they were freed. So what do these boys want particularly? What are they looking for? They are enemies of the Niger Delta people; they are criminals and should be treated as such.
If steps are already being taken for the federal government to act on it for the overall benefit of the Niger-Delta people, why then are they still bombing oil installations? Of what benefit is this criminal act to the collective interest of the region? Something is being done so that we can all benefit from it; the fight they are fighting did not start today, they have not even waited for the dialogue to be looked into by the Federal Government before attacking installations again.
This is an indication that there are other ulterior motives behind their action. We have had enough of them and no group should think they have the monopoly of violence. We as their leaders also understand the terrain and can revolt against them as well.
We will soon be having a meeting of Pan Niger Delta Elders Forum to discuss these things and we will then take our position. This is our region, it does not belong to some group alone but let me also make it clear that there are some politicians who are also members of the Niger Delta fighting themselves.Some of them are even involved in these bombings just to destroy one another.There are some who believe they should have done the jobs why allowing these old men to do it, and we also have people who are out to make money as contractors by bombing and then go back to bid for the repair works, so you have all sort of people.
All that we are saying, we are appealing to the federal government to go ahead and start acting on our requests, we will not sit down at home and fold our arms and allow some individuals to destroy our place.
You just mentioned that the elders can also revolt, how do intend going about this?
I have just told you we will soon be meeting. Very soon the Pan Niger Delta Elders Forum (PANDEF) would soon be meeting. I am not alone. We have summoned a larger meeting of all the stakeholders where some far reaching decision would be taking after due consideration of the present situation in the region. We are also aware of the intent of some groups to discredit us and tagging our forum all sorts of names, you can be rest assured that all these would be reviewed at our enlarged meeting where punitive measures would be put in place to bring some level of sanity to the region. Those groups who said they would not respect us, we have noted them. One thing is certain, everybody can not share the same ideology in this kind of situation but like I said, we have noted them and we know how to deal with them.

As it were, some militant groups believe they are agitators for the betterment of the region but it seems you classified all as criminals, how do you clarify the mix-up?
I am not ready to answer that question until after the enlarged stakeholders meeting. I’m very certain we are going to take position on that but for now, I don’t know the position we are going to take in determining who is who. Guess we would conduct a thorough research of these various groups so as to be able to separate the shaft from the wheat.
Again, like I said earlier, there are different motives begind some of these actions. One, it is unlikely that these criminals are the youths who are fighting themselves for political relevancy in the region and they are in control of so much money to engage the youths who are involved in these dastardly acts for the purpose of indicting one another. I’ve also mentioned that some people are out there to make money out of it as contractors who would be assigned to carry out the repair works on this damaged oil installations.
We also have some of them that are rascals, unpatriotic fellows who think they can just go and destroy things anyhow. We are going to investigate them one by one and when we finish investigating, we will come out with a position.
We are not going to sit down and allow our hope to be destroyed by those people who have shown their true identity as enemies of the Niger Delta region.