Date Published: 10/19/09

Niger Delta: Militants back Bankole, say oil governors have failed

INSURGENTS of the Niger Delta, Nigeria's troubled oil and gas region, say they agree with the position of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole, that the governors of the oil-producing states have failed their citizens. 

Spokesperson of the Joint Revolutionary Council (JRC), an insurgent network, Cynthia Whyte, told our correspondent in an on-line chat that they believe that Bankole has related with most of the governors from the Niger Delta very well.

''He knows them and so he is in a position to describe them and their failure in the process of government. If you look at the picture a little more clearly, you will agree with me that Bankole is a lot more educated than most of the governors of the Niger Delta'', she said.

The rest of the chat went thus:

Do you think Dimeji Bankole can look at ex-Governor Donald Duke in the eye and say the things he said in Kaduna?

Whyte: I guess no. We need more Donald Dukes as governors in the Niger Delta.The Niger Delta is plagued with incompetent leaders who lack the ability to think outside the box. We need leaders who can drive innovation and bring about great change with little resources. Unfortunately for us, we the people have been shortchanged from the process of finding great leaders for ourselves. Right now, Abuja gives us leaders. As long as they are loyal to Abuja, it is well. Political corruption is killing the Niger Delta today.

We cannot defend political leaders in the Niger Delta because many of them are criminals, dumb-heads and queer stooges. Most of them graduated from houseboys to personal assistants and then governors. Many of them could not even gain a good appointment or career job before they began their political experience which offcourse is the native kind. The leaders of the Niger Delta are bringing us great shame. Many of them deserve the rawlings treatment.

However, what we are deeply concerned about is the fact that someone like Dimeji Bankole was even present at that Summit in Kaduna. In his capacity as Speaker of a dubious house of representative, he okayed the military attacks on the Ijaw Kingdoms of Gbaramatu. He does not deserve to seat before Ijaws and spew trash. Those who stay in glass houses do not throw stones. Dimeji Bankole does not have the right to advice or admonish our people. He okayed the genocide in Gbaramatu and endorsed the burning to death of hundreds of Ijaw grandmothers, mothers and children. A fatwa should be declared on the heads of people like Dimeji Bankole. Those who invited Dimeji Bankole to that summit were nitwits. We are therefore not surprised that he insulted them. The Niger Delta today is ruled by idiots and benefit captors. Their time of judgment will come but first things first. The Nigerian state must give to Caesar that which belongs to Caesar.

At a time when the people of Rivers State and the Niger Delta are busy crying foul about lopsided employments in the oil industry, Rivers State’s Rotimi Amaechi went out of the state to pick a non-Rivers man as Director of the Rivers State Sustainable Development Agency with a yearly budget of about 20 billion naira or so. Is that not hypocrisy? How then can we condemn Yar’ Adua when he makes absurd appointments into parastatals such as NNPC, PTDF etc? Why do we always shoot ourselves in the foot?

In recent times, some of the key ex-militants have described some of you spokes-people as mere laptop totters. Do you have any comments on that?

Whyte: They are right. They are so very right but we are a creation of destiny and our mandate will outlive them. Go back to those same people in the next two years and then come back to me with this same question. We cannot join issues with them at the moment. They are expendable and dispensable. Their time is past. The struggle has become too contaminated. They have to go.

Last week, there was exchange of gunfire between government troops and some militant elements in the Bundu waterside area of Port Harcourt. Lives were lost and not a few people were injured. Do you have any comment on this?

Whyte: We are informed that Rotimi Amaechi, current Governor of Rivers State acted in flagrant abuse of a high court judgment. This is surprising especially as he is a governor created by a court of law not by the popular mandate of the people of Rivers State. He must be careful. Desperate times demand desperate measures. This is not the time to undermine anyone.

If he must demolish waterfront slums and displace slum-dwellers, he must put in place appropriate measures to contain the homelessness and chaos that the process will bring. If he does not do that, then he must be prepared to deal with the anarchy that will unfold.

For about eight years, Rotimi Amaechi was speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly and the third most powerful man in Rivers State. Yet he puts the woes of Rivers State at the doorsteps of Dr. Peter Odili. That is food for thought. It means that as speaker, he was not in a position to make an impact on the government and governance of Rivers State. Some of you may need to go to the archives and find out how much was spent on the Rivers State House of Assembly between 1999 and 2003. You will weep for the Niger Delta.

The Amnesty has come and gone. Are you impressed with the pace of the process?

Whyte: Amnesty was declared and then amnesty was taken. What we look forward to right now is a build-up of committed action directed towards improving the quality of life of the people of the Niger Delta. We hope to see increased sincerity from government.

There are many elites from the Niger Delta who surround Yar’ Adua today. Many of them are from the Niger Delta region. These people are the real problem of the Niger Delta. What they seek is to advance their own personal interests and not the interest of their own people. As long as they can get the appointments that they seek, all is well for them.

How much involvement has the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) shown in the Amnesty process? Any comment?

Whyte: There is growing reason to believe that the Niger Delta Development Commission was designed to fail from the onset.

What else would you expect from a Commission whose Managing Director was handpicked from the same oil industry who we all condemn in failing to meet up with the dictates of corporate social responsibility? How can such a person add any value to the ordinary people of the Niger Delta?

Most of these oil company top-shots have a warped idea of development in the Niger Delta. For too long, many of them have been swallowed up in the protectionist environment of oil multinationals and the only thinking they have is the templates provided to them by the imperialist owners and shareholders of the oil industry.

These people are neither good managers nor administrators. Go and do your research and find out how many retired top oil industry people resign or retire to run successful private firms. They are like puppets run by imperialist templates. Yet we have one as managing director of the Niger Delta Development Commission.

How else can you explain a situation where an oil company Total will provide funds for furnishing the office of the managing director of a government agency like the NDDC? We need to ask ourselves simple questions. Who requested for the money? Did he request to furnish his office or did they just offer to refurnish it for him? Is it the business of Total an oil producing company to furnish the office of the managing Director of NDDC? Assume this is true, do you expect such a managing director to be able to confront Total Ltd in the event that Total fails in its responsibility to the Commission?

Yar’Adua must replace the managing director of NDDC if he wants to see any progress made in the Commission. Luckily, the House of Representatives are already in the know about incompetence of the Ugwoha fellow. You cannot just pick anybody and make him managing director of NDDC especially at this time when our people need to see real results.

Go and find out why the Rivers State Sustainable Development Agency is currently in the doldrums. Gov Amaechi of Rivers State handpicked a Bolaji Ogunseye from Shell Nigeria and made him director. All they have achieved in the past few years is a well furnished and expensive office with tons of development buzzwords, a typical way of working at Shell Nigeria. They call it the New Way of working. There is nothing to show what they have done for the common and less privileged people of Rivers State in spite of the heavy yearly budget provided by the government of Rivers State. We keep getting fooled everyday yet we would not learn. Why else should anyone blame Bankole?

We demand therefore, a removal of Chibuzor Ugwoha as managing director of the Niger Delta Development Commission. If Yar’ Adua wants to take the Niger Delta more seriously, it should start with putting the right people in the right place.