*Chris Edache Agbiti
 Published
September 6th, 2008
Of all the many ills plaguing this country, the abysmal
failure of the political class to come to terms with the
realities of the demands of geographical, cultural and
historical diversities of the various nations that inhabit
the entity called Nigeria, sticks out like a sore thumb. In
consequence thereof, the Country gropes from one
institutional contrivance to another in its lame attempts to
find the appropriate form to contain its myriads of problems
bedeviling her continued existence and progress as a nation.
From the time of Independence in 1960 to the present time,
it has always been a transition from one half-hearted
attempt at one institutional framework or the other, with
out the corresponding commitment and political will for
proper implementation of workable ideas contained therein,
save for two intervening periods in our political history:
during the period of regionalism when the three regions of
North, East and West actually had a healthy rivalry among
themselves on which of the regions would out-pace the other
in the execution of their respective developmental
blueprints. The second was during the short-lived period of
Buhari-Idiagbon led military government regime that was
almost succeeding in giving Nigerians a new lease of life
with its policies of “Austerity Measure” and “War Against
Indiscipline,” before it was hacked down by IBB and his
cohorts in the unfortunate coup d'état.
Thus, from the regime of Gowon with his developmental policy
of the 3Rs initiated to rebuild the country in the wake of
the civil war, through the Obasanjo’s policy of Universal
Primary Education (UPE) and Shagari’s agricultural policy of
“Green Revolution” to IBB’s programmes of MAMSER, DFRRI and
SAP, and Abacha’s visionless “Vision 2000”, there was no
real development recorded as having been achieved from
implementing any of the institutional structures put up to
execute policies or programmes that they were meant to
achieve.
The reason for the above is however not far-fetched. There
was no sincere commitment to policy implementation as the
policies were put in place either to provide jobs for their
cronies or to use as a smokescreen to gain acceptability in
the international community, or as a decoy to elongate their
stay in power.
Now, enter Yar’ Adua with his own policy of Rule of law. It
is sad to say that in spite of our hopes raised to high
heavens with this policy that has been elevated to
a status of mantra by this regime, the old recurring decimal
is again playing itself out with the kind of approach the
government of Yar’ Adua has adopted in tackling what remains
the greatest challenge confronting this country since
Independence: the Niger-Delta Question. While it is true
that in any democratic setting, peaceful dialogue and
negotiation remain the best option for conflict resolution,
the fact however, cannot be gainsaid that on the Niger-Delta
question we have had too much of the jaw-jaw already. In the
process of doing so, the solution to the Niger-Delta
question was discovered long ago when in 1957, owing to the
well founded fear of the minority tribes on their stakes on
power equation and revenue allocations as against the other
three major ethnic tribes in Nigeria in the wake of imminent
declaration of Nigeria’s Independence, a Minority Commission
was set up, chaired by Sir Henry Willinks,QC, which carried
out a thorough analyses of the circumstances of the
Niger-Delta people and came up with far reaching
recommendations, which included among others, giving a
special status to Niger Delta areas among the federating
units with a view to effectively ensure balance of interest
in the face of imminent dominant hold on power by the major
ethnic tribes.
It is regrettable to note that close to fifty years after
the aforementioned Willinks Commission, the leadership of
this country has done nothing other than nibbling at the
Commission’s recommendations in all its subsequent attempts
at developmental initiatives to find a lasting solution to
the conflict in the Niger-Delta region.
Now, in a saner clime, given the special circumstances of
the Niger-Delta and its strategic importance to the entire
political and geographical space called Nigeria, it will
befuddle any sane mind that the leadership of this country
could afford to ignore and spite the legitimate yearnings
and aspirations of the people of the region for the length
of time it did. Rather than embarking on practical
initiative at fact finding, (assuming it has become
necessary to add a refreshing to the 1957 recommendations of
the Willinks commission, having been made far back in
yesteryears), all the previous attempts at
institutionalizing the conflict resolution structures for
the Niger-Delta have always been institutional jamborees for
political hawks and jobbers to feast from the oily bowl
called the Niger-Delta.
The period of 1999 – 2007 when the country was finally
liberated from the asphyxiating clutches of military
dictatorship presented an excellent opportunity for the then
President Obasanjo to finally institutionalize an effective
Niger-Delta conflict resolution structures. But we were all
living witnesses to the melodrama of Obasanjo’s infamy as
the government descended from its initial effective
governance to an abysmal anti-people’s policy of
self-destruct and consuming obsession of enthroning life
presidency in the nation. The rest is history.
As if we have not learnt enough, we have woken yet again to
another proposal for Niger-Delta Summit. What is the
assurance that the outcome of the proposed summit shall be
different from similar initiatives in the past, the most
recent being the Niger-Delta Master Plan that gulped
Hundreds of Millions of our hard earned income but whose
implementation is yet to see the light of day? Methink that
what we need at this critical period of Niger-Delta Conflict
is not another time-consuming jaw-jaw where our hard earned
tax-payers money will be frittered on expensive Hotel
accommodations and traveling expenses, but a step back to
the basics to synthesize the previous recommendations on
Niger-Delta conflict and back it up with genuine political
will to implement them. It is only then can the region begin
to see itself as a true political expression and not a mere
geographical expression in the federalism. Otherwise, the
conflagration now raging in the Niger-Delta which started as
a mere glowing splint may end up causing more havoc than
ever could have been anticipated. We cannot afford to
continue to embark on yet another quixotic exercise in
futility. The time to act is now.
*CHRIS EDACHE
AGBITI, ESQ. IS A PORT-HARCOURT BASED ATTORNEY AND A
COMMENTATOR ON NATIONAL ISSUES AND OF THE FIRM OF THE
AMAZING GRACE PARTNERS, No 320, (IZZI CORPORATE SUIT), ABA
ROAD , PORT-HARCOURT. |
