THE NIGER DELTA DEBACLE

If you live in the Niger Delta like I do, then you would have noticed the eerie calm that now pervades the region. Giving the damage the struggle for the emancipation of the region has cost the Nigerian project in lost time and resources, the apparent cessation of hostilities is a welcome development.

The granting of amnesty to all was, to say the least, very magnanimous and thoughtful on the part of Mr. President. History will credit him with bringing Nigeria back from the tipping point.
Unfortunately, that is where the good news ends. The apparent good intentions of the Federal Government have been subsumed in the implementation. The talk now is how to “rehabilitate the militants” to the detriment of the solution to the Niger Delta problem. We have very conveniently forgotten what caused the problem in the first place: the deliberate underdevelopment of the Niger Delta region by project Nigeria.

I don’t know of other States, but I live in Yenagoa and I can speak for Bayelsa State. In the last 28 months of President Yar’Adua’s administration, I cannot remember any project that has been initiated by the Federal Government in Bayelsa State. Yes, a Ministry of the Niger Delta has been created, but we are now in the last quarter of the year and the silence from the Ministry is deafening. The last time Mr. President was here on a working visit, he promised to build the Federal Secretariat and we clapped for him as if he was doing us a favour promising, for the umpteenth time, to provide office accommodation for his staff in Yenagoa!

The last time Professor Tam David-West referred to the then Federal Government as “deaf and dumb”, I thought he was joking but now I know better. The Federal Government of Nigeria headed by Umaru Musa Yar’Adua is not deaf and dumb but appears to be a listening government. The problem with the Niger Delta region is the complete absence of infrastructural development – those things that make life bearable – not rehabilitation of “militants” which is a mere bye product of the main problem.

However, as any student of Mass Communications will tell you, making somebody understand what you want him to understand, not merely what he wants to understand is a tall order. It is quite possible that the Federal Government of Nigeria does not understand what the problem of the Niger Delta is, having been lost in the communications process. The message is quite simple: the people of the Niger Delta also want to drive cars to their villages and hamlets in whatever shape or form; they also want to drink cold water from their refrigerators; we want to differentiate between portable water and sewage; our children deserve to attend Higher Institutions located in the Niger Delta region; we would also like to abandon the present “suit-and-suit” structures on stilts and move into houses more befitting our status as the goose that lays the golden eggs!

In order not to take anything for granted, I am going to highlight the problems of the Niger Delta region, in my write-ups beginning from tomorrow in the hope that the message will get to its destination unadulterated! Please stay tuned.