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By Sunday Ani
Niger Delta activist and prominent chief in Itsekiri Kingdom, Chief Rita Lori-Ogbebor has said that the state of the nation is in such a bad shape that only a man with vision could bring it out of the woods which the current government had dragged it into.
Speaking with select journalists on the state of the nation, she also talked about the local government administration in Nigeria, governance in the Niger Delta, and women in politics among other issues.
As Nigerians prepare to go to the polls beginning from February 25, to elect a set of leaders that will take over from the current government in May, what kind of a leader should Nigerians look out for?
The state of the nation is very bad. It will take a man who has the image and concept to say this is how we are going to direct the nation. That is the first stage. So, the leader that Nigeria needs at the moment is the man who has a holistic idea of how to move the country forward. That man himself should start from the very beginning. We should look at his background history. Has he built a home? How is his home? Who are his children and how do they behave? Has he been able to inculcate the Nigerian values into his children? We should look for those traits because we know that we have a lot of leaders whose children contravene everything African values. They are people who want to have their families and children abroad. Where are their children, and what do they look like? How about their wives; do they have motherly inclination? Have they inculcated good ideas into their children? If you have a leader whose wife lives abroad with his children, what is the woman going to tell the children? How does she inculcate African values into them?
So, how can the ordinary citizens who want the best leader to emerge know all these qualities that you just mentioned? Who should educate them on this?
It should be the work of the National Orientation Agency (NOA), but unfortunately, the agency is not doing its work. The whole problem we have today is that we are imitating the white men. Our children are imitating the whites. The young girls want to be thoroughly English; they read foreign magazines and this is where the problem lies. The young girls are looking for money and they don’t have time for a young man who is struggling. The bottom line is that we have this rottenness that has grown into our politics.
How did we get to this stage in our politics? Has it always been like this?
In those days, you can’t say you want to represent anybody in government if you are not qualified. I grew up in the western region under Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s tutelage and I can still remember very well that in those days, you can’t go into Chief Awolowo’s political camp if you are not qualified. You must be intelligent before you could join his party, but today most local government chairmen are not educated. So, how do they improve education when they are not educated? It is their responsibility to develop education, economy and other aspects of the grassroots, but many of them are uneducated, so you can imagine the problem we find ourselves in. And the people at the top know that.
So, what should we do to get out of the mess?
Governors especially are encouraging uneducated people at the local government levels because it suits them to work with idiots that they can control. The governors give them peanuts and collect the larger chunk of the local government allocations and these idiots are happy because they never expected to be there. The governors are in total control of these chairmen. This is the situation. So, the rot is from the bottom. And the matter is made worse because it is these same chairmen that transform into state governors. In those days, our powers were in the state but most of these governors don’t even know. They lack vision; they can’t develop their states. Which of the states in Nigeria can boast of development?
You have been so passionate about the Niger Delta region, where you come from; how are the governors in that region of the country faring?
There is a problem in the South, particularly, in the Niger Delta area. The biggest problem that will drag the country down today is the Niger Delta. If you go there, you will shudder at what is happening. With all the money given to the Niger Delta states by the Federal Government, the region is still a complete disaster. The governors should be responsible for the disaster in that region because there is enough money but they go there and squander the money. They are totally ignorant of development, and what they do to keep every mouth shut is that they develop the culture of appointing 1000 personal assistants, special assistants and advisers among others. So, everybody is quiet and all they do is to divide the money. That is why you think there is peace. There can be no peace where there is no development and there is no development in the Niger Delta; so there is no peace there and I want the government and the people of Niger Delta to know that they are heading for trouble because today all over the world, the rave is renewable energy; whether you like it or not, we are moving there.
The Federal Government has just discovered oil in large quantities in the North, what are your views about that and what can you say about the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC)?
Well, the FG said it has found oil in the North. The senate president also said that they have learnt a lot of lessons from what happened in the Niger Delta and that they would not allow that to happen in the North. When the NDDC board was being reconstituted, the Senate President advised the newly appointed members of the Board not to make the agency a cash cow that it currently is. So, if he knows that the board members are milking the agency, why are they not following the Act that created the body in the appointment? They are appointing people who have nothing to do with the problem of the Niger Delta. If I am not from the North, how do I know their problem? If you appoint me to go there and I don’t know their problems, how can I solve their problems? So, this is why I think that the Nigerian government is not sincere and this is why Buhari failed.
Are you saying some members of the NDDC shouldn’t have been there?
In one of the tributes to Buhari during his 80th birthday, somebody said: “Buhari is a simple man; a good man; but when he gives you a job, he doesn’t look back to know whether the job is done or not.” I wondered whether that was a tribute. I agree that Buhari is not a thief. In one of my letters to Buhari, I told him, “The last list of the NDDC board members is not your list. In other words, you are a straightforward person; you are not a thief but if you appoint thieves, what difference does it make? And they are telling you that this man is a thief but because you don’t look back when you give an appointment, you don’t care.” The comment was in the news that when he gives you a job, he doesn’t look back to know whether the job is done or not. And even when somebody calls his attention to the fact that the job is not well done, he will still give the offender the benefit of doubt and this is what has ruined the Niger Delta. The Niger Deltans should know that whatever they do, they are the ones wearing the shoe and when the shoe is torn apart, they will walk with their bare feet. A few days ago, over 100 illegal bunkering sites were discovered. The productivity of this country today is still with the Niger Delta and unless the region wakes up and starts to produce before the country finds its level, there will be anarchy.
How do you mean?
Already, there is anarchy in the Niger Delta. Niger Delta is waiting to burst; it is a disaster; a problem germinating and waiting to catch fire. Whatever anybody does, unless the region is put in order, no amount of personal assistants will solve the problem. We want productivity; we want to work. The whole country has to make the Niger Delta work for the good of everybody. If the region does not work, the people will be so hungry that they will start to fight. I am from there and I know them. So, Nigerians should tell the Federal Government to make the region work and it can only work if all the governors are responsible. They should take care of their states; they should start the development of their states because it is not the Federal Government that produces the money. It is the states that produce the money; this is what people don’t know. Productivity is that of the states. People run to the Federal Government and they do that because of oil. When Nigeria was gaining its independence, they told the Sardauna of Sokoto, Sir Ahmedu Bello, to come down to the South and he refused because the North was his base of productivity. That was where he could produce groundnut, the ginger and shear nuts among others because those were the things that made him to compete with Chief Obafemi Awolowo who was producing cocoa and setting up TV in the western region; compete with Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe who was producing coal, palm oil and other minerals in the eastern region; and compete with Chief Osadebey who was producing timbre, palm oil in the mid-western region. He knew and he refused and sent his deputy. So, let the governors know. They should not hold the Federal Government responsible for their failure; they should hold themselves responsible. The Federal Government is a creation, but the states are realities. The states are the productive organs of the country, not the Federal Government. The Federal Government is just a collector and if the states, therefore, knew what they were doing, it is just to make their demand after cooking the food. It is to tell the Federal Government that we have cooked the food and this is what we want, rather than to sit there, and wait for the oil money to be shared to them by the Federal Government. That time is over. So, all these talks about productivity mean nothing. The truth is that the productivity of this country is not with the Federal Government, but with the states, and unless the state governments are run by men of vision in each state producing, developing, giving and dictating their terms to the Federal Government, the country will collapse. When they were stealing, they were stealing in all these areas. Can the Niger Delta governors say they are not aware of the stealing in each state of the zone? They know.
Recently, massive fraud was uncovered in the Presidential amnesty Programme (PAP). This has made many people say that the programme has outlived its usefulness and should be scrapped, what do you say to that?
The idea is good, but like what Christ said that the harvest is big but the labourers are few; the men who administer the laudable programme are not there. If you cancel it, there will be trouble and it is those few administrators that will engineer the crisis in the region if it is cancelled. They will tell the youths that their problem is with the Federal Government for cancelling the programme. So, where do we now find the labourers, the selfless men? Where do we find men who have love for God and humanity; men who love their country; men who want to see other human beings grow; men who realize that the growth of one man is their own growth?
That is the big problem. So, as a mother, all I can say is for us to search for good men to continue with the programme. But, we should all know that the bad Niger Delta men are in the federal set up. They are now holding the governors responsible for what is happening. But, what of the Niger Delta men at the top, who are causing trouble? They are the ones who go to the NNDC. They are the ones who give out the contracts. They are the ones who don’t perform. They are the ones who are ruining the country. So, we should hold them and the governors responsible for the low turnout in the Niger Delta.
What are your views about women, particularly, Nigerian women going into politics?
Our women are missing a lot. They think that life is a bed of roses. They read a lot of English magazines. They are no longer in tune with our tradition and culture as Africans. I have heard a lot of people ask why I was not in politics. But, the thing is that Nigerian women should not be in politics because our culture is different. A woman who stands tall is a woman who has children, and to have children and grow them to become good men and women before you go into politics is not easy. So, as a woman, you must choose between politics and your children. I am a thoroughbred Nigerian woman. A lot of people thought I didn’t have children but I have five children – three men and two women. I have grand children and I was married until my husband died last year.
