Nigeria: Op. Leader Charles Harry Writes To Ijaw

ONE of the leading opposition figures in the Niger Delta, Nigeria's main oil and gas region, has written an explosive open letter to his Ijaw kinsmen who are locked in a survival battle with the Nigerian state, saying the mighty has fallen. Harry is also the President of Ijaw self-determination group, Ijaw Republican Assembly (IRA). His letter however, reads:

"Everyman must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or the darkness of destructive selfishness."
- Martin Luther King (Jnr.)

"Each generation must rise from relative obscurity to discover its own destiny, and either fulfill it or destroy it."
- Franz Fannon.

"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenges and controversy"
- George Bush (Snr)

My Beloved Compatriots,

We have believed in our convictions and have been convicted for our beliefs; Conned by the constitution and harassed by the police; We have been billed for the bill of Rights and treated like we were wrong; We have become a special amendment to what included us all along ( like all men are created equal, no amendment needed there); We have been hoodwinked by professional hoods our ego has happened to us; We have contributed in every field including oil, from Arugbo to Eastern Obolo; Yet we are denied fealty.

It is a turned around country where all things are too easily turned around; It was turned around so that right looked wrong; It was turned around so that up looked down; It was turned around so that those marching the streets with signs of peace, calling for equity and justice, became enemies of the State and risks to national security; It has become such that you cannot call a spade, a God forsaken spade.

I have said I will write no more words like this; I have confessed to myself all along traces of life, poetry trends, awareness trends, trends that scream of pain and the origins of pain and Death have blanketed my tablet; And so my friends, brothers, sisters, in-laws and outlaws, besides you already know, that common, ancient, bloodline Ijaw nation, the Niger Delta, its cause and struggle is Dying. I have said I would write no more words like this, I made a mistake. [Apologies to Gil Scott Heron.]

My beloved of Ijaw nation and the Niger Delta, are we to believe that we are a miscreant generation, whose infamy must be the desecration of the labours of heroes past? Are we to dance in delirious insouciance over the graves of icons of our Fatherland? Are the sacrificial bones of Isaac Jasper Adaka Boro, Nabo Graham Douglas, Deni Dema Fiberesima, Harold Dappa Biriye to wither in vain? Was the demise of Kenule Saro- Wiwa, Obi Wali, Marshall Harry etc. for the vainglory of our misanthropic avarice? Oh Ijaw nation! Niger Delta! How have we allowed ourselves to be submerged in the cesspool of our own divination.

Gallant youths of our fatherland; progenitors of the Kaiama Declaration; Sun-crowned princes and princesses of valour and noble birth; men and women of indefatigable spirit and historical pedigree, I write to you once again from a foreboding consternation, seriously concerned at the descent from the Olympian principles that compelled the 'Kaiama Declaration'. Worried sick in fret as to the depths to which the struggle has sunk and appalled at the future we inadvertently are bequeathing our heritage and patrimony. Yet, believing that we cannot and must not fail our ancestry and posterity.

It is a thing of great shame and cause for deep introspection and self re-evaluation that though we won the war, we have allowed the peace to be mismanaged by elders who conveniently slunk out of the battle where that immortal garland for freedom and self-determination was prosecuted. I have had cause to query in the past the see no evil; hear no evil; speak no evil, lethargic abdication of responsibility by our elders and their reprehensible allure for recognition and prominence at the expense of the blood of the youth that prosecuted the cause, for their personal gain and transient comfort.

I hold them, not vicariously but directly, responsible for the anomy of violence, brigandage, criminality and the desecration of the cause and struggle of our people. I am piqued by the level of carelessness and/or inattention being displayed at a time like this, when Ijaw nation and the Niger Delta in general, is faced with a grave moral crises. I am further dismayed that the Ijaw cause and struggle is almost being submerged and equated to the narrow political/ economic aspirations of those who ordinarily should lead the clarion call for egalitarian resurgence of our patrimony.

What has become of the laudable Kaiama Declaration - the struggle for self-determination, true federalism and resource control? Where in the present state of affairs do we locate the cause for Ijaw unity and the demand for geo-political restructuring? Are we so deliriously stupefied by crumbs from the masters table that we have become oblivious to the pains and marginalization of our people, gerrymandered as minorities in the other six States? Or are we no longer interested in the creation of three homogenous States for the Ijaw, considering that our land is contiguous?

Today, despite the Hobbesian state of affairs in Ijaw nation; The dehumanizing marginalization, degradation and desecration of our land and people; The anomy of misdirected violence and descent into uncouth brigandage; Our leadership wallow in the opiate adulation of meaningless victories, while our ship of state runs rudderless towards an unsavoury destination. Ijaw nation needs and urgently too, uncluttered and unfettered minds to prosecute its rejuvenation, to liberate it from the injustice that presently enslaves us and had made whores of our maidens and brigands of our young men. This is the crux of our collective duty, to which none of true birth is exempted.

That the elders and leadership has failed and shirked their responsibilities to Ijaw nation is no longer a cause for seminal discussion. That our generation must rise and fulfill our destiny, also, is not a debatable contention. We must realize that we are the blue-blood whiz kids in whom the future was invested. Educated and nurtured for leadership at great expense, exposed to the world and have bettered the best. Therefore, we must appreciate that we owe our patrimony and heritage a reciprocal patriotic duty of selfless and dedicated service. To continue in feigned unconcern and being aloof or playing the armchair critic would amount to a dereliction, unforgivable.

I, therefore, in good faith and on behalf of generations of Ijaw unborn, call on the Felix Tuodolo's, the Oronto Douglas', the Asari Dokubo's, the Joseph Evah's, the Isaac Osuoka's, the Bello Oboko's, the Sofiri Petersides', the Kalada Jene's, the Dan Ekpebide's, the Tunde Anaye-Kio's, amongst the many others; I also commend all patriotic organizations, INC, PANDAC, IYC, MOSEIND, MOLIP, IRA-PF, CHICOCO, MEND, NDPVF etc. to the anguished cries of our people and the ululating bellows of our martyrs gone. We urgently need shun parochial sentiments and primordial differences, and pick up the gauntlet, lest the ethnic cleansing and genocidal attrition of using the exploration and exploitation of oil as a weapon of mass destruction, succeeds. We must sacrifice our today that tomorrow may come.

You must all agree that we possess and collectively harbour the intellectual capacity to take the struggle to the next echelon. It only behooves upon us a conscientious stock taking; a deliberate and unmitigated re-appraisal of the cause and struggle. We must of necessity crucially and critically examine where we are coming from, where we are, and where we are going to. Needless, a soothsayer or marabout to divine that the process has been hijacked by unscrupulous tendencies.

Our complacency has sown the wind, and if we remain in denial, our posterity shall reap the whirlwind of our slovenly cowardice. The Nigerian project as presently constituted bodes us no future, and we must exercise our constitutional rights to amend it or our revolutionary rights to dismember from it. But, we cannot achieve same or/and attempt same, without pooling our collective ingénue and confront head-on the mental block and attitudinal polarities that has continued to divide us.

Though I subscribe to a non-violent resolution of the Niger Delta crises and being not enthused with kidnapping and destruction of facilities, I however cannot play the ostrich and pretend that the anomy has not resulted from the natural consequence of a people subjugated, oppressed and suppressed beyond human endurance.

In my second letter to the nation I did say that "The government and ruling elite has in myopia approbated, that might is right. And that the intransigence and disdain of government towards the plight and suffering in the Niger Delta and Ijawland in particular, provides the octane combusting the anomy that has made violence inevitable and attractive."

The government in order to obviate our genuine agitation for equity and justice, and in complete contempt for the inhuman conditions of our existence are content in wishing away a fundamental dislocation, by irresponsibly adducing it, simplistically, to criminality. They have conveniently disdained the causative reasons and are deludedly concerned with the effects. This negative stereotyping, beginning to take fillip, considering the American's referral to it as terrorism, needs be corrected post-haste and shown for what it really is; A struggle against the criminal neglect and environmental genocide bothering on subtle ethnic cleansing, being perpetrated against the hapless and defenseless people of the Niger Delta.

Howbeit, I must implore my brothers that we must rein in our exuberance. Fighting fire with fire may be romanticized, but to say the least it is a most unreasonable option considering the abundant availability of water. Let us not in over zealous self-righteousness bring denigration and opprobrium unwarranted to the cause and struggle. Let us instead in renewed patriotic zeal redefine our strategy and tactics; unify our command structure and intellectually engage in consonance, the realities of the unfolding democratic ethos.

Common sense demands that we confront our tormentors at the point of critical advantage and not allow seepages unduly vitiate the moral high ground on which the cause is predicated. The struggle to say the least is not sustainable nor is the goal of self-determination achievable solely through violent confrontation. We have martyred enough of our young men to the unfortunate misdirection of the cause, and no more need be unnecessarily mindlessly slaughtered.

Let us tell ourselves some home truths. The struggle has suffered serious reversals in fortune since the highs of 2005. We should appreciate that the cause is at its lowest ebb in over 50 years, and today our efforts are being branded terrorist and criminal as opposed to the actions of freedom fighters. We have all but lost the international sympathy and understanding of our fellow countrymen and women, and the unity of our people is seriously being threatened.

I must confess that I am not naïve to the causative reasons for the embracing of violent agitation by the youth, after all 'those who make peaceful change impossible make violent change inevitable'. Though this anomy was to a large extent created by the intransigent misanthropy of President Obasanjo in his adamant refusal to dialogue with apostles of a peaceful resolution. We cannot in honesty allow the misguided actions of one man derail the future of our posterity.

It is crystal clear that violence as a means of redressing the problems of the Niger Delta has not proven altogether efficacious, even though at the time, inevitable. It is also true that today it presents an albatross difficult to manage. You no doubt must also agree that outside the patriotic and commendable posturing of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) and a negligible few others, who do not indulge in kidnapping for ransom, a rampaging wild fire of unconscionable virulence hides under the aegis of the struggle to perpetrate unspeakable acts of brigandage.

How can we in all honesty reconcile the objectives of the struggle with the kidnapping of a 3 year old toddler? How can we comprehend the rampant abductions for purely monetary gain or the fratricidal internecine conflicts for territorial control? And for that matter, how in God's name can anyone rationalize the attempted abduction of the highest political office holder in Ijawland and the bombing of his country home? What correlation do any of these mindless acts have in furtherance of the cause?

It is pertinent to here state clearly that even those acts of kidnapping and sabotage carried out by patriotic organizations in the name of the cause, has to a large extent not achieved the desired results nor have they endeared our plight to our erstwhile sympathizers or has it empirically cautioned our detractors. Its aims and objectives though laudable has not impressed the pharaohs of Nigeria. Though we have severally used this means to requisition the release of Alamieyeseigha and Asari amongst other demands the response has been altogether frustrating.

My brothers don't you think it is time we redefined and retooled our modus-operandi? Can we not come to terms that the present state of affairs amounts to playing into the hands of our detractors? They are clearly afraid of the world knowing the true position of things in the Niger Delta, why don't we confront them intellectually and expose their chicanery internationally. Most importantly the divisive tendencies of our elders must be put to an immediate end.

I cannot conclude this piece without informing the in-coming administration (especially our son, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan) that if they are desirous of peace, they must come to equity with clean hands. Let them not delude themselves, because unless and until the Ijaw political leaders, Chief D.S.P Alamieyeseigha (governor-general of Ijaw nation) and Alhaji Dokubo Asari (commander-general) are unconditionally released the basis for peace will not exist. They are the only ones capable and competent to bring this anomy to a halt. All it would take is to enter a noulle prosequi in their favour to begin realistic negotiations.

If this is done forthwith, I can assure that Ijaw nation would reciprocate with a moratorium on all violent and anti-social activities. And if it is complimented by a complete and unequivocal withdrawal of the forces of cohesion (JTF etc.) from the Niger Delta, MEND and other patriotic groups can be persuaded, under a unified command, to police, demobilize and disarm, the militants of the Niger Delta. But only if they are so commissioned, mandated and authorized.

We must appreciate that the Niger Delta problem is a collective one, involving all Nigerians, and that the struggle for self-determination, true federalism and restructuring is beneficial to all. In the immortal words of the late sage Chief Obafemi Awolowo "every ethnic nation regardless of size and numbers should ideally form a federating unit for there to be peace, progress and prosperity". This is what self-determination and true federalism are all about.

Compatriots in the struggle, great Niger Deltans and scions of Ijaw nation, I have not come to call you to arms but to the art of intellectualizing and internationalizing the struggle. I must assure you that the objective of self-determination is achievable, and now! I am not unmindful or unaware of the forces ranged against equity and justice, but I commend you once more to Ronald Reagan "If not now, when? If not us, who?" Actually I have said I would write no more letters like this, I made a mistake.

ENDS

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