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What is your take on zoning?
I think that in any plural or heterogeneous society, there is a need to share political offices among the component units of that nation. I don’t believe that Nigeria is nation. It is an imposition and a fraud. But as long as we continue to maintain this fraud and false edifice called Nigeria, political offices must be shared in a way that every group must have a share in the top political offices in the country. And every group must have access to every institution in the country. Now, if we are talking about zoning, it must be equitable. Nigeria has been independent for 50 years now. In the 50 years, the North-West has produced the following as presidents of the country: Shehu Shagari, Murtala Mohammed, Sani Abacha, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and Muhamamadu Buhari. That means that the North-West alone has produced five defacto rulers of Nigeria in 50 years. Still in the North, the North-East has produced Tafawa Belewa. The North-Central has produced Yakubu Gowon, Ibrahim Babangida and Abdulsami Abubakar. If you combine it, you will discover that the North alone has produced nine rulers and if considered to what other zones have had in terms of having access to the Presidency, you will see that it is disproportionate. The South-West has produced Olusegun Obasanjo twice and Ernest Shonekan. The South-East has produced Aguiyi Ironsi, while the South-South has produced Goodluck Jonathan. Let’s calculate how many years each of the political zones have occupied the presidential office of the country. So, if must talk about zoning equitably, we should be looking at the South-East and South-South because they have been disadvantaged in the number of years that their people have occupied the office of the president and other top political offices in Nigeria. So, if we are talking of zoning, it should rotate between the South-South and South-East until the number of years that the South-West and North have ruled Nigeria. When that happens, we can then start to rotate the presidency again.
How will you reconcile your position with the agitations from the North that the presidency should return to the North in 2011?
By convention, Goodluck Jonathan should automatically run in 2011 because he is a sitting president. And he has tenure of two terms of four years each. It is laughable to hear somebody say that Jonathan was not elected. Jonathan and the late Yar’Adua were elected as equal candidates on the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) platform, on the same mandate. It is only that the constitution made Yar’Adaua, who was president then, above Jonathan. But they were equal candidates. In fact, Jonathan had more goodwill than Yar’Adua and he brought more votes that made him vice-president to Yar’Adua. Yar’Adua did not bring enough votes to the mandate because Buhari won most of the Northern states. Let me say that nobody zoned the presidency to the North. He who comes to equity must come with a clean hand. The hands of the North in the zoning thing are not clean because they have taken more than their fair share and they should allow others to take their own share to balance it up. Zoning or no zoning, the North can’t stop Jonathan.
But the North is insisting that Jonathan should not run in 2011. Do you support this?
They don’t have the right to ask Jonathan not to run. The constitution allows him to run and by convention, the fact that he is the sitting president gives him more entitlement to run more than any other person.
If Jonathan bows to pressure and does not run, what do you think will become the fate of the South-South?
If Jonathan decides not to run, there are other political parties in the country. The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), which I am a member, is open to any South-South person to run if Jonathan capitulates, which I think he will not. But if he does, good for us in ACN.
Some people said you have abandoned the Niger Delta struggle because Jonathan is now the president. Is that true?
I don’t know who is saying that and why will anybody say that. Am I occupying any office in Jonathan’s government? Or did you hear that they have given me one of the jetties to be importing fuel that we refine here in Nigeria. Jonathan’s presidency has not solved any problem of our people. Instead, it has compounded our problems. The only thing is that Jonathan’s presidency has solved some of my personal problems. I am moving around Nigeria freely. Yar’Adua wanted to kill me. He chased me out town, killed my people. But Jonathan cannot kill me. I am moving freely, jumping from one place to another, looking for the good things of life. That is the only thing I can say he has solved for me. Apart of from that, he has done nothing. Even the diluted, watered-down Niger Delta technical committee report, Jonathan is too afraid to accept the White Paper and implement the report because he does not want to offend some people.
How close are you to Jonathan now?
I am not close to Jonathan at all now.
Why?
I don’t know. Our father, Governor Melford Okilo, then when he sees you he will say this man is a very dangerful man. So, when a man becomes a king, he becomes a very dangerful man and you have to avoid him. So, a president has all the powers, especially in a fraudulent country like Nigeria where everything goes. So you have to be careful. Jonathan, though he is my brother, he is now president, so I must accord him that respect. I don’t need to see Jonathan before I survive because I have been surviving. For me, the only joy I have is that when I see those who used to think that me, an Ijaw man that I am a rag and foot mat, when I see them prostrate for an Ijaw man like me, it gives me that sense of satisfaction. I say chai, e sweet o, so na Ijaw man dem dey do dis thing to? That is it. Apart from that, there is nothing.
It is about one year now that the amnesty programme has been on. Has progress been made?
I am not part of the amnesty and I am not a criminal.
But is the amnesty working?
How can you ask me of something I don’t know? I am not part of the amnesty. But if I will have to give a word of advice to those who took amnesty, I will remind them that they have an opportunity. They are not working but they are paid N65,000 and they want to train them. So my advice to them is that they should take the opportunity and use it very well. I know that the man handling the amnesty programme is capable of handling it if he is allowed to do it because I have a one on one relationship with him and I know what he can do. So, it is the best opportunity for those who took amnesty to revamp their lives because opportunity does not come always. Today, it is available. Tomorrow, if Jonathan is no longer there, it might not be available. That is the truth. Yar’Adua did not do the amnesty because he loved Niger Delta. He did it grudgingly. And if Jonathan cancels it, they will say it is our brother that cancelled it. So, it is good for them to take the opportunity instead of rioting today, tomorrow they beat up somebody. If they continue doing that, somebody will wake up one day and say there is no amnesty. I know that if Jonathan is not there and another person comes, they will not implement the amnesty programme where some people will be paid N65,000 while graduates are roaming the streets looking for jobs. Even some graduates in public service don’t earn up to N30,000 monthly while somebody who is not working is paid N65,000 because he said he is a militant. So, it is an opportunity for them, so they should use it well.
Are you going to use your structure, which is at the grassroot, to support Jonathan in 2011?
That is a decision Ijaw people will have to take. I am a member of Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN). That is the party I belong and I am a good party man and my party members trust me and I will not like to be a black leg in my party.
Outside the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the ACN, as an Ijaw leader, will you use your Ijaw platform to support Jonathan in 2011?
I don’t know what you want me to tell you. But it will be very wrong for me, being a member of the ACN, to do anything contrary to what my party wants me to do. But members of my Ijaw organisations are not my slaves. I don’t own them. They are free to decide and do whatever they believe is best for our people.
Now that things are like this, have you left the struggle?
I can’t leave the struggle because the struggle for the people of Niger Delta is my life. So I can never leave the struggle.
Nigeria will be 50 in October, do you think the desired independence has really been achieved?
As far as I am concerned, I don’t know if anybody is independent. I am an Ijaw man and I know that Ijaw nation has been independent. Rather, it is under a very primitive, cruel and evil occupation of the Nigerian state. For that, I know that we, the Ijaw people, must fight to free ourselves. But for Nigeria, I have not seen any development and I don’t think there will be any development.
CULLED from NIGERIA COMPASS
