Why Our Boys Are Fighting
By Bala Dan Abu & Chris Ajaero
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Edwin Kiagbodo Clark, former federal commissioner for information and vocal leader of the Niger Delta region recently spoke to Bala Dan Abu, executive editor, and Chris Ajaero, senior associate editor, on the resort to militancy by the youths from the oil-rich region, the level of involvement of retired naval officers in oil bunkering, the secret trial of Henry Okah for alleged gun running and the injustices that must be redressed for peace to reign in the Niger Delta. Exercepts
Newswatch: You turned 80 recently. How does it feel to be 80?
Clark: Yes, I turned 80, going to 81 now and I feel so good, I feel fulfilled and by the grace of God looking forward to more years to struggle for the survival of our people, the Niger Delta and Nigeria. I have always told people that when you are 70 and above, you are at the departure launge waiting for your boarding pass. And the only thing that you are looking forward to is when the hour would come, for you to take your briefcase, enter and go. But while on earth, you should not be afraid of anybody, you should only fear God and respect people.
So, while you are still alive, why not fight against injustice, oppression, corruption, unfairness to people. So, I feel fulfilled that I am 80 and I am happy that I am still strong enough to fight against the injustice meted to my people. One thing that impressed me is that I have never stayed in Abuja all my life. I never worked in Abuja all my life. But I celebrated my 80th birthday in Abuja in keeping with the promise that I made that if we have a president from the South-South, I will celebrate my birthday in Abuja. We didn’t produce the president but we took the second position and anybody will give glory to God that what we have never had in our life, we now have it. Today, we have an elected vice-president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, something we never thought of as minority people. So, I thought that was enough for us to rejoice.
If you do otherwise, you would be regarded as a greedy person. We are not alone in Nigeria. So, once we got the position of vice-president, I said we are only a step away from what we wanted. That was why I carried my birthday to Abuja.
Newswatch: But the battle itself is getting larger because so many youths are involved and they are now doing terrible things like kidnapping people, bombing, destroying pipelines and oil fields. What do you think about the alarming dimension the struggle has now assumed?
Clerk: Well, it is like a mixed bag. In every given situation, you have the good eggs and the bad eggs. And we have always condemned the criminal aspect of the struggle. We will not gain anything from it, nor will it add to our struggle for survival in Nigeria by kidnapping old women, by kidnapping expatriates or anybody at all. So, I think that is a misplaced approach.
Perhaps, when it happened at the beginning, one would say it was meant to draw the attention of people and the international community that we do exist, that this is what we are fighting for. And I remember that when one of the first kidnappings was done, it was an English person with his son sitting in Ogunu, Warri and they came there and took them away. I was in my house in Kiagbodo. At that time, there was no road at all to my village. I was in my house, when Chief Udofia, who was then the general manager of Shell with his deputy and other officials drove down to my village by 12 midnight and reported to me that one of their expatriate staff has been kidnapped and other expatriates were saying that they would all go if nothing was done. So, early in the morning, I went to Warri, made contacts with our people and he was released.
But at that time, I saw for myself after investigation, that kidnapping at that time was not only by these militants. They did some of the kidnappings in collaboration with some of the staff of these companies and security people to fight anything that must have happened to them in those companies
I give you another example. Some expatriates were kidnapped in Rivers State during Odili’s administration. I was sitting down in my house one day and four boys came to see me from Port Harcourt. They alleged that security agents had gone to their houses, searched and carried away the pregnant wife of one of them, his jeep and four million Naira which he kept in that house. That was why they came to see me. So, I asked the man, who gave him four million Naira and how he managed to buy a jeep. I wanted to know before I could help. So, he told me a story that the chief security officer to Odili invited them and told them that four expatriates were kidnapped and requested them to go and look for the four expatriates. He gave them N20 million. When they left, they said bullshit. Where are we going to look for the expatriates? This money is our own share of the oil money. So they shared the money. Then, they came back and told chief security officer that they couldn’t find the expatriates. He got another group of boys, paid them N30 million. Those were the boys who freed the expatriates. He told me that what pained him was that he later discovered that the amount of money that was given by Odili’s government to free the four expatriates was N300 million. The boys were now telling me that they got only N50 million, the remaining N250 million went to the government officials and other people. I said, can you put this in writing? He said yes. I still have the document. So, you now find out that while we have the actual people who are fighting for our freedom and survival as well as against oppression and dehumanisation, there is a group both in government and among the boys who are criminals. They benefit from these type of things.
When the Abia State House of Assembly went on hunger strike sometime ago because they were not included among the states Obasanjo called coastal states, and they said that they will start kidnapping if that is the only criteria for a state to be declared a coastal state, I warned them. I said that when you do kidnap, you are not going to only kidnap to fight injustice, you will kidnap for money. And that is happening today. The kidnapping has gone to Imo, Abia and Anambra. So, it has become widened. Nobody can control the kidnapping of school children, the kidnapping of former Governor Celestine Omehia’s mother, which made him to shed tears in Abuja when he was narrating how his mother was kidnapped.
Apart from kidnapping, I am also against the vandalisation of pipelines. When you vandalise pipelines, the immediate effect is the pollution of the rivers. I remember that two years ago, there was an oil spillage near my village. I was in Warri when they sent for me to go and visit the area. When I got to the village near the place, there was a river, so we took an engine board but because of the crude oil on the river, we couldn’t move. I took paddle to join other people to paddle to the site to see the manifold that got burst. All the grasses near the site turned yellow. The fishes inside the river were struggling to stay alive.
Today, there is no more farming, no more fishing and no other job being done by our people. So, it backfires on us sometimes.
Now, the third thing we are talking about is the stealing of oil or oil bunkering. The president should ask his security officers who the bunkerers in this country are. I had told Obasanjo to his face when he was president that the security agencies know those who are doing the major bunkering – the mechanised bunkering, the professional bunkering, the commercial bunkering. Then, he called General Theophilus Danjuma, who was then minister of defence and said, you have heard what E.K. is saying, you go and investigate. This was during the Warri crisis. And he said he should investigate it together with the problem of the Warri crisis. I was a member of that committee. Danjuma went and at the end he found out that most of these bunkering were being carried out by former military people and even some of the present military people, particularly, the Naval officers.
Newswatch: Are most of these retired military people from the Niger Delta?
Clark: They are not from the Niger Delta. They are retired generals from the North, the West and the East. This Russian ship that got missing, called the M.T. African Pride, was it the Niger Delta people who brought it? This was the sophisticated type of bunkering. People were tried, including our son Bob Manuel. At the end of it, what happened? How did the ship manage to vanish from the Nigerian coast? So, these are the problems we are facing. Yet they are accusing our people as the ones doing bunkering. Mr. President has a duty to set up a commission of inquiry to investigate the bunkering business in the Niger Delta.
There was a time our boys said, give us the duty to find out those who are the bunkerers, we will stop the bunkering. The truth is that our people are being used to do petty bunkering. We are not complaining about those who take jerry cans or buckets to do bunkering, for their own survival. I think Nigeria is complaining about those who are responsible for carting away the oil both in form of crude and refined products. But for anybody to divert the attention of Nigerians to say that only the Niger Delta people are doing bunkering is unfair. And so, I am calling on the federal government to institute a powerful judicial inquiry to find out how our oil is being stolen and those who are responsible for bunkering. The wealthy retired military officers particularly the Navy, where did they get their money from? Our boys even till today are helping them to do their job.
Even the Joint Task Force, JTF, have different types of job they are doing. First, they earn extra money from the government under the so-called security funds where the in-thing is "you chop-I-chop." Secondly, the oil companies have now realised that unless they use the military big boys for doing petty contracts they were not safe. These were jobs formally done by the host communities such are security and hiring of small boats. But these have been taken over by soldiers in JTF under the name of security.
Before I was born, there was what was called piloting job done by our forefathers. When the ship arrived from Europe, our people went to the Atlantic shore to pilot them to our ports and they paid them. But today, what has happened? The JTF have taken over. They now go to the Atlantic shore to bring in these ships to the ports in Port Harcourt, Warri, and Calabar. So, this group of Niger Delta people who used do the pilot job are jobless. So, what I am saying is that until the federal government remove the JTF from the Niger Detla, an artificial conflict will continue to be created.
Recently, I was in Abuja when our traditional rulers phoned me to say that the JTF had come to attack Egbema villages and Opuama and that if I did not intervene, they would fight back. This was two months ago. And I told them, don’t fight back, I will contact the relevant people. I phoned the minister of defence, Alhaji Yayale Ahmed. I phoned the chief of defence Staff and then I phone the JFT commander in Warri who confirmed to me the attack. I said why did you sent your men to attack our villages unprovoked. He said some months ago the soldiers at one of the flow stations were attacked by our boys and they removed some guns and ammunitions from there. Later the issue was settled and the guns were returned to them but the ammunitions were not returned. So, that was the reason he sent the JTF men to attack the camps and the villages to be able to get back the ammunition. I said to him, you are looking for trouble by sending your men to attack the boys over something that had been settled over a month ago. I told him to remember that we had agreed that there should be peace in the area. to allow the negotiation between government officials and our boys to be completed successfully. And the president himself had said there is relative peace in Delta and Bayelsa, except in Rivers State where they were looking into. Then, the next thing the commander said was that when the boys attacked the Bonga Oil Field, the elders did not say anything. But he didn’t know the job that some of us did. Do I need to tell the commander of the JTF that I am talking to my boys? If I do so, I will be looking for cheap popularity.
Newswatch: It appears you are always in touch with the militants. But do they actually listen to you?
Clark: Yes, I always tell them to take things easy. Before this interview, the boys phoned me 20 minutes ago and I have been telling them to take it easy because we shall succeed. You are talking about Henry Okah, we will see that he is either freed or tried in the open. I said I had just spoken to Femi Falana, his lawyer. And they listen to me. If some of us were not talking to them, and the JFT attacks them, they will fight back and there will be problem in the area. The economy of the country will be destroyed. That is not what we want. So, we are doing something.
When Yar’Adua’s government came into power, there was even a threat by some politicians to use the boys to destabilise his government. And they spent money and some of the boys reported to me and we set a machinery in motion to ensure that proper inauguration of government was done. You remember what happened when part of government house in Yenagoa was attacked; when the vice-president’s house was attacked. Those things are no longer there because of our intervention.
So, a committee was set up made up of the youth leaders – those who fought the Kaima Declaration war headed by D.K. Ogoriba. Ogoriba is over 50, so you cannot just call him a miscreant or a militant. The committee included Asari Dokubo, representatives of Henry Okah, and Atake Tom. They were meeting in Oporosa... From Oporosa, they went to Abuja and they have been discussing. And for that period of time, there has been relative peace in the Niger Delta. These boys are not mad people; they are not miscreants as some people call them. They are not criminals as some people call them. They have been negotiating with the federal government first under the leadership of the secretary to the federal government, Ambassador Babagana Kingibe, then under the chairmanship of the minister of defence, Alhaji Ahmed Yayale. Later, the vice-president took over. So, if that committee is not important enough, then which committee will be important? So, they have been meeting, that is why we had relative peace. But the federal government failed to do its own bid. They arranged that the president should visit the area to see things for himself. They wanted the president to see how people are suffering, so that if you say you want a summit, people will say yes, he has a reason for calling a summit.
When the senators went on a retreat in Port Harcourt, they visited some of these areas. The deputy senate president, Ike Ekweremadu said openly that the federal government should declare a state of emergency for development in that area. The situation is so bad that people live on top of water but there is no water for them to drink, no schools, no electricity. Bayelsa State has been without electricity for almost three months now. They depend on gas turbine which has broken down but we produce the gas with which Egbin and other power stations are being operated. What sort of injustice is that?
As far back as 1998, Abdulsalami Abubakar, the then head of state, set up what is called the General Oladayo Popoola Committee which recommended that the federal government should step down electricity in Yenagoa from Owerri at the sum of N300 million. That was in 1998. It is just being done now at the cost of more than two billion Naira, yet it is not functioning.
Newswatch: What you are saying is that because of the involvement of security people, the crisis in the Niger Detla is not likely to end soon. But people also say that your people who are equally benefiting want the crisis to continue.
Clark: How many Niger Delta people are benefiting? These are unemployed youths who have nothing to do and these people are being employed by these major bunkerers. These boys have no sophisticated equipment to do the type of bunkering which is being done. The government knows those who are involved. They should look into General Danjuma’s report when we had this trouble.
Newswatch: Are you saying that the retired military officers whom you alleged to be involved in bunkering sponsor these militants?
Clark: No, I am not saying that. The boys are fighting for their own survival. They are fighting un-employment, criminal negligence of the area, the dehumanisation of our own people, and lack of education for them. Obasanjo had said when he was holding the jamboree called meeting of the coastal states that people from the Niger Delta should be employed in the army and the navy. Could you imagine that the same employment was still given to people from the North? Then, he said that our boys should be employed in the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, What happened? The boys were invited for interview. They said they must make first class or second class upper. How many people were invited to the interview? Funsho Kupolokun was then the group managing director of the NNPC. About 600 were invited for interview from Ondo State, about 500 were invited for interview from Edo State. About 300 were invited for interview from Delta. Bayelsa State had 59 people, Rivers State had about 179 invited for interview, and some others were invited from Akwa Ibom State. We protested that this was unfair because that exercise did not produce any good result for the Niger Delta. Most of the people from the Niger Delta who were invited for the interview were not employed.
I give you another example. Shell in Ogunu, Warri said they wanted to bridge the gap between our people and other Nigerians. So they established a school in Ogunu to train young graduates. In 2004, they admitted 104 trainees. At the end of that, most of them passed out. Shell decided to employ 38. Out of this 38, could you imagine that the Yoruba had 14, the Igbo had 12. Add 12 to 14, it give you 26, leaving a balance of 12. Bayelsa State had none, Delta State had about three. Rivers State had about three also.
You must know the injustice my boys are fighting against. For the National Youth Service Corps, our boys and girls are sent from Niger Delta to other parts of Nigeria. Most of them do teaching as their primary assignment. Then, the boys and girls from other parts of Nigeria come to the Niger Delta; they go into the oil industry. At the end of one year of service, their brothers and sisters who are in the management of these oil companies employ their own relations from outside the Niger Delta. By the time our own young graduates return home after their NYSC, there will be no jobs for them. Is this not injustice? We have no place in the oil industry. So, these are the injustices being perpetrated against our people.
I give you another reason why the boys are fighting for their own survival. We went for the National Conference in 2005. I was the leader of South-South delegation to that conference. We went with our own agenda. We prepared our case for true federalism, for fiscal federalism, for resource control, for local governments to be created by the states, not by the federal government where a state like Kano has 44 local governments, yet Lagos State has only 20, Bayelsa State has only eight, all because they want to be giving a larger chunk of the federation accounts to Kano State. We stated that local governments should be created by the state governments. If you want to create 100, create them and fund them. We got there and majority of Nigerians, particularly from the North believed in maintaining the status quo. Everything we said, they made a mockery of us to the extent that some of them said that now that you are uncomfortable with the oil industry in your area, we will resettle you. Could you imagine such an insult?
Then they did their home work to show that we were the people receiving all the entire funds and asked what our governors were doing with all the billions they were collecting monthly. So, we replied by doing our homework. We discovered that from January 2004 to May, the amount of money contributed by each of the six geo-political zones to the federation account as provided by section 162 of the Nigerian constitution, the North-West contributed, zero percent, North-Central, zero percent, (they did not contribute a single kobo to the federation account) yet each zone received between N40 billion to N50 billion. South-East contributed 2.7 percent because of Abia and Imo; South-West contributed about 3.2 percent because of Ondo State. What did the South-South contribute? We contributed 91 percent.
And what did we receive. We received 17 percent of the total revenue. They kept quiet. The figures are there. The information is all over the world, especially on the internet. So, you can see what is going on and why our boys are fighting.
Newswatch: The problem is a complex one and the idea of the summit on the Niger Delta question has been rejected by the Niger Delta people. So what is the way out? How can this problem be resolved?
Clark: In the first place, may I ask you what is called a summit? A summit is a meeting of two heads of state. That was why the vice-president said you can call it conference or anything. What we are now saying is what was the summit supposed to discuss? Was it to discuss how to develop the Niger Delta or implement the master plan produced by the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, which has been approved by President Yar’Adua himself? We said that was a delay tactics. It was diversionary. In 1958, there was the Willink’s Commission. On the eve of Nigeria’s independence, our people complained that we should not be left alone to the major ethnic groups of Nigeria because they did not understand the problem of the reverine areas. So, the British colonial government set up the Willink’s Commission in 1958 which produced a report which said that no government will understand the problem of the reverine communities. So, let us set up the Niger Delta Development Board for the development of the area. This was two years before we got independence. And because they didn’t want some politicians to scrap it, they entrenched it in the 1960 Nigerian constitution. It was also in the 1963 constitution and the board was to remain for 10 years. The politicians could not scrap it but they starved it of funds.
Could you imagine that there was a place called Peremabiri in the present Bayelsa State which is a big grass land in the sea, good enough for growing rice in commercial quantity? Feasibility studies were done by the board but no funds to implement them.
Then in 1998, there was the Kaima Declaration for resource control which brought about military action by the federal government and many of our boys were killed, many of our towns were also destroyed. Then, we intervened and we started having meetings, sort of mini-conferences in Abuja. It was then the General Popoola’s committee was set up and it submitted its report in which it recommended that one, a tertiary institution should be established in the reverine area. Two, the stepping down for electricity from NEPA in Bayelsa State from Owerri. Three, that the sum of N15 billion be made available for emergency development of the area. None of these was implemented.
Thereafter, Obasanjo appointed General Ogomudia’s committee. All the military top notchers at that time were members, all the secretary to the governments in the Niger Delta states were members. With the presence of the military, they were able to go round everywhere and submitted a report which says that these areas must be developed. The report said there should be immediate development, medium term development and long term development. It also added that general reclamation of land should be carried out as they have done in Lekki and other places in Lagos. New towns and villages ought to be built in the Niger Delta to show that these people belong to this country. What did Obasanjo do? He brushed it aside and created the meeting of the coastal states. This lasted for 15 months with Obasanjo heading the meetings where governors were giving their reports. The reports were cooked up because they carried out propaganda, as they listed projects they never carried out as completed projects. Chief A.K. Horsefall was asked to coordinate, he submitted his report to the government and nothing came out of it.
In 2006, the United Nations Development Programme, UNDP, submitted another report to the president in which it lamented that it is a pity that the vast wealth produced from the Niger Delta did not touch the lives of the people. So, what we are saying, therefore, is that they should forget about the summit, forget about Ibrahim Gambari. Let us collate all these reports on the Niger Delta from 1958 to this day and if there are new ideas, they could be added. From then, we should know what has been suggested as the things that ought to be done to develop the Niger Detla. That was why we kicked against the summit.
We also went further to say that every year, the federal government votes a substantial amount of money in the annual budget for the six geo-political regions for water, electricity, roads education, and so on. Unfortunately, the federal government left the development of the Niger Delta to an intervening agency, that is, the NDDC. So, we are now saying that the federal government should start with the 2008 budget to show sincerity and commitment to carry out development projects in the Niger Delta. After all, they did not hold a summit before they developed Abuja or built a dam in Sokoto. So, we have now agreed that there should be no more summit and we thank the federal government for listening to us.
Newswatch: The federal government has said that there will now be a dialogue with the interest groups in the Niger Delta. What would you suggest the best way to organise it to achieve desired result?
Clark: We have already worked out the modalities. We are setting up a committee made up of three representatives from each state in the region. There are nine states, that means we shall have 27 members of that committee. The vice-president will then appoint a chairman and a secretary. They will then be given a specific time to produce their report.
When the report is ready, we will meet again to dialogue among ourselves. Then, we will meet with the federal government to dialogue. Thereafter, the federal government will submit the report to the National Assembly because it will involve the spending of money.
However, we are not saying that we alone should enjoy the oil money. What we are saying is that in the 1960 and 1963 constitutions, there was a form of fiscal federalism. That is, each region had 50 percent of derivation fund, while the balance of 50 percent was shared among the regions. I remember that at that time, Chief Obafemi Awolowo with cocoa money which was booming at that time was able to establish the University of Ife, brought television and promoted free primary education in the South-West. Ahmadu Bello was able to build the Ahmadu Bello University and improved the lives of his people because of the money derived from the groundnut pyramids.
But during the war, Yakubu Gowon said the war must be won and he scrapped the derivation formula in order to fight the war and we agreed with him because the war was being fought to keep Nigeria together. After the war, he also wanted the money to implement his programme of reconciliation, rehabilitation and reconstruction. We said okay, we have no objection. But after that, people like Ambrose Alli, the then Bendel State governor had to drag Shehu Shagari to court over this derivation fund. Later 1.5 percent was introduced; it was further increased to three percent, and then was raised to 13 percent. And I am aware of the role played by the late General Shahu Musa Yar’Adua to get the 13 percent, approved. But when we went to the 2005 conference, we said that section 162 says minimum of 13 percent, that we do not have to go back to the amendment of the constitution to increase the money. We only need its endorsement by the National Assembly. So, we said, increase it to 50 percent. That was what we canvassed at the 2005 national conference. They said no. We said okay, reduce it to 25 percent, let it be graduated to 50 percent in five years, they said no. They said they wanted us to have 18 percent and we said no. That was why we staged a walk-out at the conference. So, that is the position.
Newswatch: Since the rest of Nigeria, particularly the north did not accept 25 percent derivation in 2005, do you think that the present administration would agree to endorse the 50 percent you are asking for as a way out of Niger Delta crisis?
Clark: That is part of the dialogue we are talking about. We should be able to convince them again. They now know that the area deserves special attention. For instance, if it cost one million Naira to build one kilometre of road in Sokoto State, it will cost N10 million to build a similar road in Bayelsa State. In areas like Ilaje and Arugbo in Ondo, there is no land to build classrooms for the children. They study inside the canoes. These areas should be reclaimed. There was no Victoria Island in Lagos when Tafawa Balewa was in power. Victoria Island was part of the sea. It was reclaimed. Therefore, there must be a deliberate effort by the federal government to see that the people of the Niger Delta are part of this country and we must be carried along.
Newswath: If at the end of the day, your demand for a return to 50 percent derivation is not met, what would be the reaction of the Niger Delta people?
Clark: We know that Nigeria is made up of reasonable people. Yar’Adua’s government is a reasonable government, so I believe they should be able to understand. So, the dialogue will continue.
Newswatch: But do you believe in the capacity of the Yar’Adua administration to resolve this crisis given the slow pace at which it is moving?
Clark: That is a different matter. You are entering into a different ground. I believe that the funds are there and once the funds are there and the political will is there, there will be no need to dilly-dally over the issue. But that is lacking just now. And by this agitation we are carrying out, government ought to act fast. It is in the seven-point agenda, so they cannot do without it, otherwise they will lose the South-South in any other election.
Newswatch: From what you have said, a lot of injustices have been meted out to the Niger Delta people. But don’t you think the recent bombing of the Bonga oil field by the militants was tantamount to taking the agitation too far?
Clark: I agree with you. And we have been talking to the boys. I told these boys that we may have a good case but we need to handle it carefully. So, we are saying that for us to continue to enjoy the goodwill of the rest of Nigerians, and the international world, we must be very careful with what we do. So, the bombing of the Bonga oil field was a step taken too far. We are part of the country, so any damage to the economy of the country will affect us. Then we have no justification to say come and develop the region.
Newswatch: In reaction to the attack on Bonga oil field, the federal government ordered the deployment of warships to the region. Don’t you foresee a situation where this could lead to a full scale war in the region between the militants and the JTF?
Clark: That is what we are guarding against. We have advised the federal government not to use the army because it could be disastrous. We know what is going on in other parts of the world where people are fighting for their freedom. Since 1922 or so, the Irish Republican Army, IRA, have been fighting the government of Britain. Britain has not succeeded in wiping them out. But the British government is still talking to them. So, government should not use the army to intimidate us because no amount of intimidation, oppression or repression will solve the problem of the Niger Delta but dialogue.
Newswatch: You mean that the militants are no longer afraid of the possible use of the warships to dislodge them?
Clark: The deployment of warships cannot stop militancy. The JTF submitted its reports saying that when you kill five hundred, another five hundred will come. Where were the JTF when the boys attacked Bonga oil field? It is now they want to justify their power? I learnt that the Navy wants to acquire new warships for deployment to the Niger Delta. They should find a way to see that there is a political settlement; the use of military force will not solve the problem of the Niger Delta.
Newswatch: There are so many arms in the hands of the militants. Is there nothing that can be done to disarm them?
Clark: I have told you that the report of the joint committee of the federal government with our boys gave details of how to demilitarise the place. That is why then we talk about amnesty. If the boys see that there are genuine efforts by the federal government to develop the region, they will hand over their arms. The boys will surrender their arms when they see development in their areas; leave that to us.
Newswatch: Do you think that the ex-governors of the Niger Delta judiciously utilised the 13 percent allocated to them which run into billions of Naira monthly because that is what the Northern leaders claim to be one of their reasons for opposing the return to 50 percent derivation?
Clark: The answer is capital no. Some of these governors were thieves. They looted our treasury and this matter came up at the 2005 conference when we demanded for 50 percent derivation and we told them that it is not a justification for the federal government to neglect us. This is an internal matter and we will deal with them. After all, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, said that about 30 governors were corrupt. Are all the 30 governors from the South-South? Some of the former governors are thieves. They are now facing corruption charges for looting government treasury. I don’t fear Ibori whether he wants to kill me or not. This is a man whose wife is on trial in London for money laundering, whose sister is on trial in London for money laundering, whose female friend is on trial in London for money laundering, who himself is on trial for money laundering. Agreed that he is innocent before the law until he is convicted, but one would have expected that this man would hide his head in shame. But for you still see him parading himself everywhere.
So, I was not surprised that when we went for a meeting of the Niger Delta over the summit Ibori was there and sat by me.
Newswatch: What actually led to your allegation that Ibori wanted to kill you?
Clark: I have told you that I was at the meeting and he sat by me and the camera focused on us. A day after, it was published in the national dailies and people phoned me alleging that Ibori is dangerous. That I am his number one enemy. This man could have done anything to me in this modern world, he could have poisoned me I said, don’t worry. A few days later, some people came to me from the North to say that they had evidence to show that Ibori had arranged with assassins to assassinate me but when they saw how close I was with the police, the people had a second thought. Otherwise the arrangement had been made that from the 15th of July they will be looking for me to eliminate.
But what were his motives. Number one, we opposed Emmanuel Uduaghan becoming the governor of Delta State because we knew that Ibori was going to use him as a front to cover his misdeeds. Ibori is today the defacto governor of Delta State and he thinks that once people like us are around, he will find no way to get out of his prosecution. But if we are not around, there will be no need for his case and he will be moving about freely. Those were his motives.
Newswatch: What has been the reaction of the security agencies to your allegation?
Clark: Fantastic. They have given me extra security.
Newswatch: What are Niger Delta leaders like you doing about the secret trial of Henry Okah because we understand that this is one of the things that have provoked the militants?
Clark: You must have read the open letter I sent to the Federal Attorney General on this issue. Henry Okah is one of the arrowheads of this struggle. When Yar’Adua and Jonathan came into power, we had discovered that Henry Okah was going to play a big role in resolving the Niger Delta problem. At that time, Henry Okah, Asari Dokubo and Pompolo were involved in finding a solution to the problem. We set up a committee, myself and the vice-president to address the problem before their swearing in because we knew the danger that was coming. People were trying to use some of these our boys to cause trouble on the eve of the installation of Mr. President.
We set up a committee and this committee was working with the leaders of the youths in the reverine areas. The leader of this committee was the present minister of special duties, Orubebe. So when Uduaghan was fighting him, he didn’t know why he was nominated for ministerial appointment.
When this committee was constituted, Okah was sent for to come from South Africa where he lives. Okah travelled three times from South Africa to Nigeria to meet with this committee headed by Orubebe before we were able to win him to our side that was talking peace. It was on that ground the vice president went to South African to meet Henry Okah. I have asked the vice president himself, did you know that Okah committed all these offences before you went to South Africa to meet him?
Okah has a representative in the committee that is settling with the federal government. Atake Tom has a member in that committee. Boylo is under Henry Okah and he is a member too. When Okah was arrested in Angola; I held a press conference and said the federal government owes him a duty to intervene because he is a Nigerian citizen. When they finally brought him, they locked him up without first bringing up charges against him. I have looked at the over 60 charges brought against him, ten of which includes the purchase of ammunition from the soldiers in Kaduna.
But there is a report about Henry Okah produced by Asari Dokubo which is also on the internet which says that Governor Odili was paying Henry Okah N100 million every month in order for them to continue to receive federal allocation. Why have these allegations not been investigated to find out whether they are true? What we are saying is give Henry Okah open trial so that we can know those soldiers who sold arms to him with which he armed the militants for which the same army is fighting against for the release of their weapons. We want to see other people that will be implicated by Okah during his trial. The main charge is that he wanted to overthrow the federal government. Was it not the same charge that they brought against Major Al-Mustapha for which he has now been freed? Was he not tried in public? Was Obasanjo, Diya and others not tried in public?
Some of the boys who are fighting are saying that Okah is their leader, don’t use him as a scapegoat, free him as part of the negotiation which he was already part of.
Asari Dokubo came to me recently to say that it was wrong to say that he is still against Okah and they are using it as an excuse to continue to try him in secret. We are challenging Okah’s secret trial in the Court of Appeal but they are trying to rush. They thought that people like Asari Dokubo were going to give evidence against Okah. But he is not going to do so. The federal attorney-general knows that there is nowhere in the Nigerian constitution where secret trial is allowed. Okah cannot be a security risk to the whole of Nigeria if he is tried openly. Let Nigerians know the history of the Niger Delta struggle through the open trial of Henry Okah.
Newswatch: Do you think the ongoing secret trial of Okah could jeopardise the ongoing peace process?
Clark: I won’t rule that one out. The boys are fighting and they have asked the federal government to release Okah. You cannot be making peace with one hand and fighting with another hand. All we are saying is that Okah should be tried openly and there should be a truce so that we can settle the problem. You cannot be trying one of the leaders in secret and at the same time you expect to have peace. That is our position.
Newswatch: Many Nigerians now describe President Yar’Adual as "Baba Go Slow" because of the slow pace of his administration in implementing his seven-point agenda, including the Niger Delta question. How would you assess Yar Adua’s administration?
Clark: I think I disagree with most of them. This country was in a state of chaos when Yar’Adua came into power. Looking at what is going on in the power sector where billions of Naira were paid for jobs not done, I think what Yar’Adua is doing is to first of all bring sanity into this country which I think he is succeeding. He may be slow. I think we should be give him a chance because I believe that he would be able to bring most of the plans into reality as he envisaged. But I also think he should be faster in declaring a state of emergency on the power sector because we are going further into darkness in this country.
Newswatch: Can you describe the Obasanjo era in a few words?
Clark: Obasanjo started very well in his first term. But in his second term, Nigeria became a mad house, no due process, no law and order. It was a dictatorial government. So his government between 2003 and 2007 was a chaotic one.
Newswatch: What concrete steps do you think the Yar’Adua administration should take to ensure that the Niger Delta militants feel that justice has been done and accept the call for a ceasefire?
Clark: The first thing is that Yar’Adua should restore confidence in the Niger Delta people and Nigerians as a whole. Obasanjo appointed himself as the energy minister and appointed his own tribesman as the group managing director of the NNPC. We all criticised it. Today, Yar’Adua is repeating the same thing. He is the energy minister and his kinsman is the GMD of NNPC. He should reshuffle his cabinet, adjust this thing to see that the ministry of energy is headed by another person or separate them into petroleum, mines and power. And the GMD of the NNPC should be under the control of the minister of petroleum resources. By so doing he would have restored confidence into the Niger Delta people. These ministries should be manned by people of competence. All we want to see is that the people of the Niger Delta who are prime stakeholders in the oil industry should also be allocated oil blocks. The local people should be allowed to benefit from the oil resources derived from their soil.
The federal government should also come out with some physical development in the Niger Delta to show its sincerity.
And again, the JTF should be withdrawn. They are there, but they could not prevent the militants from bombing the Bonga Oil field. A situation whereby road blocks are being mounted by soldiers in one part of the country shows that that part of the country is a conquered territory. I want Nigerians to show sympathy for what is happening in the Niger Delta.
Look at the way they shared the money realised from the excess crude oil sales without developing the area from where the money was realised; we are not going to sit back and allow our wealth to be taken away from us. We remain undeveloped, and when the oil is off,
We would have nothing to fall back on.
|
