NIGERIA has two urgent problems: the Niger Delta Question and a Federal Government that is too powerful.
The problem of the 21st century is the problem of the Niger Delta - the relation of the Niger Delta minorities which produce the bulk of the nation's crude oil and gas to the greed and domination of the rest of Nigeria. There are dimensions and phases to it.
Rulers hold on to power at all cost, the major ethnic groups fight or make love because of the control over the resources of the Delta. The unwillingness of the various collectivities of the country to develop their own resources for the well-being of Nigeria is also a dimension of this problem.
The current Niger Delta insurgency is a phase of this problem. Solving the Niger Delta problem will pertain not only to the well-being, but also to the very being of the nation.
Many of the country's experts happily talk about the availability of sufficient human creative powers in the nation to solve the Niger Delta problem. But as an Ijo man the issue is not simply about creative capabilities, but also the sad feeling that I am the problem.
The Ijo person - the Ogoni, Itsekiri, Urhobo, Efik, Ibibio - is the problem. Their oppression is the problem. Instead of asking them, "How does it feel to be a problem," the experts analyse the problem as if it is merely technical, and not human. This is all too annoying.
Like W. E. B Du Bois, I have to reduce my boiling anger to a simmer to write today; I have to suppress my indignation about a country that is crassly unjust to its peoples to love Nigeria as my own. It is the oppression of the minorities by the ruling classes of the three major ethnic groups that is the problem of Nigeria in the 21st century. It threatens the very being of our nation.
The prime injustice of postcolonial Nigeria is the injustice done to the peoples of the Delta. We are part of and shaped by Nigerian culture, but we do not feel that we fully belong to it. As some of the fighting men in the creeks have demonstrated, the country has forced most of our compatriots from the Delta to have two warring ideals in their emaciated, exploited, and crude oil-polluted dark bodies. They love Nigeria , for Nigeria has nurtured them and they have a stake in its survival. In their best of moments they know that they and the rest of the Nigerians are locked into "one garment of destiny."
They also love their own cultures and habitats that have nurtured and sustained them. They simply wish to make it possible for them to be both proud persons of the Niger Delta and Nigeria. They fervently wish to live in a pollution-free environment. They wish to live in a country where they are respected and honoured as intelligent human beings who can make decisions about how their resources can be used to benefit fellow Nigerians.
Now some will be thinking the country has made some progress in giving back to the states in the Delta more of the crude oil revenues. Let me put my response in the words of Malcolm X: "You don't stick a knife in a man's back nine inches and then pull it out six inches and say you're making progress."
We will surely advance the cause of justice today if the so-called champions of justice in the three big ethnic groups can declare and support this simple proposition: Let every state, every group, control its own resources. Let the Federal Government as in many other countries generate its revenue by taxation on economic activities and resources, not by ownership of them.
We are not living in a sheikdom where the sovereign can claim that he owns every person and land and by implication he owns all resources in, on, and above the land. Nigeria will have lasting peace when the federal government does not claim for itself the resources of the peoples.
The country will have genuine peace when the Federal Government is made as small as possible for effective national security, law and order, national currency, and external diplomacy. Let us throw off the Federal Government from our backs - from the backs of the individual and the states.
The size, power, resources, and the arbitrariness of the Federal Government are key causes of the political instability and ethnic politics in Nigeria. The power of the Federal Government is too vast and seductive for the peace and prosperity of Nigeria.
The very nature and operation of Nigeria's government is inimical to genuine operation of free and good market forces. Until we learn to operate a proper market system which respects private property, freedom of exchange, political freedom, and rule of law; until the big three ethnic groups learn to actualise their potential through the channels of the market, until they break their alliance to feed fat on the oil and blood of the Niger Delta, the minorities of Nigeria will not know justice.
Justice to all Niger Delta peoples is the simple demand; but not for them alone. Let justice reign all over the country. From the rocky hills of the north to the flood plains of the Delta give every one his or her due and work to sustain harmonious and flourishing relationships.
Wariboko is a professor of economic ethics in the United States
The problem of the 21st century is the problem of the Niger Delta - the relation of the Niger Delta minorities which produce the bulk of the nation's crude oil and gas to the greed and domination of the rest of Nigeria. There are dimensions and phases to it.
Rulers hold on to power at all cost, the major ethnic groups fight or make love because of the control over the resources of the Delta. The unwillingness of the various collectivities of the country to develop their own resources for the well-being of Nigeria is also a dimension of this problem.
The current Niger Delta insurgency is a phase of this problem. Solving the Niger Delta problem will pertain not only to the well-being, but also to the very being of the nation.
Many of the country's experts happily talk about the availability of sufficient human creative powers in the nation to solve the Niger Delta problem. But as an Ijo man the issue is not simply about creative capabilities, but also the sad feeling that I am the problem.
The Ijo person - the Ogoni, Itsekiri, Urhobo, Efik, Ibibio - is the problem. Their oppression is the problem. Instead of asking them, "How does it feel to be a problem," the experts analyse the problem as if it is merely technical, and not human. This is all too annoying.
Like W. E. B Du Bois, I have to reduce my boiling anger to a simmer to write today; I have to suppress my indignation about a country that is crassly unjust to its peoples to love Nigeria as my own. It is the oppression of the minorities by the ruling classes of the three major ethnic groups that is the problem of Nigeria in the 21st century. It threatens the very being of our nation.
The prime injustice of postcolonial Nigeria is the injustice done to the peoples of the Delta. We are part of and shaped by Nigerian culture, but we do not feel that we fully belong to it. As some of the fighting men in the creeks have demonstrated, the country has forced most of our compatriots from the Delta to have two warring ideals in their emaciated, exploited, and crude oil-polluted dark bodies. They love Nigeria , for Nigeria has nurtured them and they have a stake in its survival. In their best of moments they know that they and the rest of the Nigerians are locked into "one garment of destiny."
Now some will be thinking the country has made some progress in giving back to the states in the Delta more of the crude oil revenues. Let me put my response in the words of Malcolm X: "You don't stick a knife in a man's back nine inches and then pull it out six inches and say you're making progress."
We will surely advance the cause of justice today if the so-called champions of justice in the three big ethnic groups can declare and support this simple proposition: Let every state, every group, control its own resources. Let the Federal Government as in many other countries generate its revenue by taxation on economic activities and resources, not by ownership of them.
We are not living in a sheikdom where the sovereign can claim that he owns every person and land and by implication he owns all resources in, on, and above the land. Nigeria will have lasting peace when the federal government does not claim for itself the resources of the peoples.
The country will have genuine peace when the Federal Government is made as small as possible for effective national security, law and order, national currency, and external diplomacy. Let us throw off the Federal Government from our backs - from the backs of the individual and the states.
The size, power, resources, and the arbitrariness of the Federal Government are key causes of the political instability and ethnic politics in Nigeria. The power of the Federal Government is too vast and seductive for the peace and prosperity of Nigeria.
The very nature and operation of Nigeria's government is inimical to genuine operation of free and good market forces. Until we learn to operate a proper market system which respects private property, freedom of exchange, political freedom, and rule of law; until the big three ethnic groups learn to actualise their potential through the channels of the market, until they break their alliance to feed fat on the oil and blood of the Niger Delta, the minorities of Nigeria will not know justice.
Justice to all Niger Delta peoples is the simple demand; but not for them alone. Let justice reign all over the country. From the rocky hills of the north to the flood plains of the Delta give every one his or her due and work to sustain harmonious and flourishing relationships.
Wariboko is a professor of economic ethics in the United States
This succintly summarizes Nigeria's problems. i am Ibo, from imo state and a part of the niger delta. However i know that the country's attitude towards the core niger delta is simply unjustifiable. The federal government must shed its current powers and the people of niger delta adequately compensated. WE WANT PEACE IN NIGERIA!!!
ReplyDelete