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Socialist Democracy September - October 2003

Niger Delta is Nigeria's own Middle East, the rich oil belt providing about 90% of the foreign exchange earnings. The irony however is that while providing this amount of wealth to the country, it is repaid with squalor and unpardonable neglect. 

This is what has made the Niger Delta a flashpoint of non-ending agitations and disturbances. Warri is however in the front run of beating all other trouble-spots in the Niger Delta to becoming 'our own little Sudan', with a worrisome war that has been on since 1997.

What is responsible for this state of permanent hostilities among the three ethnic nationalities of the Urhobo, Ijaw and Itsekiri who have over the centuries have not only lived together in harmony but have inter-married among themselves. The governments, both past and present, have through one policy or the other ignited the crisis which is principally fueled by the fear of the domination of one ethnic nationality over the other.

The upgrading of monarchial stool of Olu of Itsekiri to that of Olu of Warri in 1953 by the then Western Region Government has remained a sore point to the other ethnic nationalities who historically see the Itsekiri as a later-day immigrants. This however is neither here nor there. The question however to raise is: what is the whole essence of the Olu of Warri or even any other traditional ruler in a modern society and in a country, which claims to be a republic?

The above speaks volume of the weakness of bourgeois ruling elite in neo-colonial countries, who while aping their counterparts in Europe and America cannot march or repeat the historical examples of their fore-runners who rose up in revolution beheading their monarchs to grind feudalism to the archives of history..

These anachronism of feudalism (the Olus, Obas, Alafin, Oni, Emirs, Sultans, Obis, etc, the so-called 'fathers of the people') have continued to exist so that through them the bourgeois ruling elite can foster on us their pretentious and unpopular rule.

In 1997, since the crisis took a new turn, with the Ijaws and the Itsekiri, taking on each other resulting into the death of more than a thousand, thousands of other injured and 50,000 rendered homeless with the burning of 20 towns and villages. It was precipitated by the relocation of the headquarters of the new Warri South West Local Council from Ogbe-Ijoh (Ijaw) to Ogidigben (Itsekiri). But this has since been reversed in 1999, without in any way dousing the tension, or bringing a permanent peace to Warri.

The present bid to create separate local government councils for all the ethnic nationalities would in the end only benefit the separate elites of various ethnic nationalities at the expense of the collective majority of their working masses. As with other local governments in other parts, a large chunk of the resources would disappear into the private pockets of the elites and their cronies.

Given the fact that deprivation is a common denominator for all the working masses in all parts of the country, the stakes are higher in Warri and the Niger delta region. The majority of the working masses and the elites unlike in other part of the country do not enjoy the minimal crumbs from the table- the petro-dollars of this rich belt goes into the coffers of the national treasury to enrich other major ruling elites, especially, the Hausa-Fulani, Yoruba and Igbo elites who dominate the national polity. The fact that the three other ethnic nationalities involved in the Warri crisis are characterised as minorities means that they could only get little or nothing from the national cake.

This largely is the thinking of the present Obasanjo regime, and as such has gone out of its way to assuage this elitist ill feeling of political deprivation by offering two ministerial post to Dr. Roland Oritsejafor (Minister of State for Defence) Itsekiri and Mr. Boderich Bozimo (Minister of Police Affairs) Ijaw, both from Warri.

What this means is that the poor, the very wretched of the earth, who suffer these decades of deprivation, who see their earth sprout millions of dollars and yet are inflicted with the pangs of poverty, illiteracy, disease, collapse of basic infrastructure, bad roads, electrical power outage, lack of pipe borne water, all resulting into slow and early death, who are the main casualties in the unending war of arson and spiral killing, practically do not count in the thinking of the Obasanjo regime as has been the case with all previous regimes.

Their concern for peace is not the creation of an atmosphere that would allow for the working masses to better their condition of existence, but for the oil well in Warri and indeed the whole of the Niger Delta to keep flowing. If it were possible for the war to continue without in anyway disturbing the continued exploitations of the oil reserve what business would the ruling class have with wanting peace in Warri when business as usual is flowing.

The government, both past and present, overtly and covertly, encouraged the rivalry among the various ethnic nationalities, financing and arming one against the other. This tactic was an Abacha hallmark that was visible to all in the case of Andoni against Ogoni for the simple reason that this would not allow the various communities to concert their collective effort in a united struggle against the regime for a higher stake in the oil-wealth of the Niger Delta.

But this tactic, in the case of Warri, has dialectically turned into its opposite, as a full blown war has resulted into a shut down of the oil wells in the last five months resulting into oil revenue loss of N149.3 billion. This explains why speculation is rife that the regime is contemplating to invite the US marines over the protection of the oil wells in the whole of Niger Delta. Obasanjo has since, in the interim drafted a military task force of the Army, Navy and state security services headed by Brigadier Elias Zamani, without discussion or approval of the National Assembly in an operation tagged "Restore Hope into Warri" to the area.

Would this be the path to peace in Warri? Interestingly, it would turn out to be an illusion. The "hope" that would be "restored" is that of fat cats of the various oil companies, who for the past five months have had the oil wells shut. According to James Ibori, the governor of Delta State, "this taskforce are not only here for the Warri crisis, rather, they will also go into the riverine area to checkmate the activities of the illegal bunkers and vandalisation of pipelines". They are therefore principally in Warri to ensure that waterways are safe for continuation of oil exploitation.

This would of course also restore hope and guarantee the continued looting of the oil wealth of the country by the ruling elite, who would go to any length as was in the case of the hanging of Ken Saro-Wiwa and other eight Ogoni activists of the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People. It is only a question of time before this military taskforce becomes an occupational force and it is the masses that would be made to suffer additional siege from these armed men who themselves are victims of the neo-colonial capitalist arrangement of the ruling elite, whose interest they are in Warri to protect.

They would ultimately bargain with their weapons against the unarmed civilian population who they are already terrorizing, as a dozen or so have died from their bullets. Meanwhile, these innocent civilians were not combatants in any of the warring factions. The roadblocks would become tollgates, where passing vehicles would have to settle them for "peace keeping" or face incessant harassment.

As to the question of bunkering, occupational forces beg the question. The bunkerers are highly placed individuals, highly connected to persons in the corridors of power. If they are not directly fronting for those in power, they become a safeway guide for the bunkerers. Unfortunately, the peace-talks have not given any room for the victims of the conflict or those directly involved in the ground battle any democratic representation except for the self-appointed elders who are miles away from the gun battles and in some cases are the direct sponsors of these conflicts. What this means is that once the elites from the three ethnic nationalities arrived at a "sharing formula" that would accommodate all of them, this would mean that the youths and victims would be left to themselves.

The militant youths, who would no longer enjoy the patronage of their sponsors, would be forced to turn their guns for their own use and make their own gains directly from the oil companies. What this implies is that without a conscious political movement to redress the crisis and transformed these militias to an armed wing that is democratically under the control and checks of such a mass organisation for the defense of its public functions, they would ultimately be put to use for either criminal or terrorist purpose by turning against the state, the oil companies or against their former masters and sponsors or the people themselves at a later time.

A lasting peace to bring an end to the worrisome war in Warri for all and bring the three ethnic groups to live together in harmony is only possible if the economic needs of the majority of the people in Ijaw, Itsekiri or Urhobo are met and life made to become meaningful and free from the daily stress, as food, work, housing, water, education, healthcare, electricity and all other basic necessities are made available in sufficient quantity and quality for all.

Given the present neo-colonial capitalist arrangement of the Nigerian economy, wherein the commanding sectors of the economy, e.g. the oil industry, remains the private concerns of the oil companies and their loyalists, the political office holders, for self-aggrandizement, the above would remain an impossibility even if the ethnic nationalities were to become distinct political entities.

The task therefore, is for the working masses, the oppressed people and youth of the three ethnic nationalities to unite with themselves, not just in the rest of the Niger Delta, but in the whole of Nigeria in a Pan-Nigerian working people political formation, to wage a joint struggle to dislodge capitalism from our backwater, via a social revolution that would usher in a democratic socialist arrangement which would place commanding heights of the economy under the democratic management and control of a workers and poor farmers government.

* Immediate withdrawal of military force of occupation headed by Brigadier Elias Zamani

* The right of the ethnic groups to a democratic defence militia that shall be under the democratic control and checks of the community.

* An end to the monopolist domination of politics by the elites, by the formation of a working peoples party with a socialist programme to take over political power.

* For a democratic elected Sovereign National Conference with representatives from all social groups on the basis of their numerical strength to decide the way forward for Nigeria.

* A workers, poor farmers, and oppressed people government.

* Nationalisation of the oil industry and the entire commanding sectors of the economy under workers� democratic control and management.

Socialist Democracy September - October 2003