By Omoniyi Salaudeen
Controversy is still raging over the three per cent allocation to the oil producing communities in the Niger Delta region by the National Assembly in the newly passed Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB).
In this interview, the National Coordinator of Ijaw Monitoring Group, Comrade Joseph Evah, described the move as provocative as it is exploitative, warning that it could provoke the anger of the people in the oil-rich region.
What is your take on the issue of PIB particularly the three per cent allocation to the oil producing communities?
We have rejected it. They are looking for trouble and they will get it. I stopped the dredging of River Niger because of environmental problem through my lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN). It was when they killed Ken Saro Wiwa and I told Abacha that we owed the waters and nobody could come inside the waters to intimidate us. Abacha told us all lands and water belonged to government and said it was on paper. The dredging of River Niger did not happen. Till today, no dredging from Warri to Baro. We have people in the National Assembly who cannot walk out to show that they are angry with what they are doing. They should be ashamed of themselves. During the constitutional conference initiated by former President Olusegun Obasanjo, Chief Edwin Clark and other great men from the Niger Delta walked out of the constitutional conference because of the onshore-offshore dichotomy introduced at that time and it collapsed. Now, we have people in the National Assembly who cannot walk out because of the level of poverty that is affecting the thinking capacity of our people. If the Yoruba are in national service, they will always consult the elders before taking a decision. But our people in government are very arrogant. That is our ordeal. If they had walked out of the National Assembly, by now, Nigeria would be shivering.
How would you situate this development within the agitation for restructuring?
From what we are seeing in the National Assembly today, it will happen. Buhari has been boasting, if you want restructuring, go to the National Assembly. Now, if we take restructuring to the National Assembly, it will happen. The enemies of Nigeria in the National Assembly have been defeated.
How do you mean?
If you ask lawmakers who want restructuring to raise up their hands, I can assure you that 90 per cent of Middle Belt down to Adamawa and Plateau will vote in support with all these killings by the Fulani herdsmen. Everybody is tired; 90 percent of the Yoruba will vote for restructuring. Part of Kogi and Kwara will vote for restructuring. The Christian communities being oppressed in Kaduna State are tired, they will vote for restructuring. The whole of Niger Delta will vote for restructuring. The whole of Eastern region will vote for restructuring. Where are the enemies of Nigeria that will hold us down? Everybody is tired of this oppression. They gave us three per cent for the host communities and allocated 30 per cent to oil exploration in the North. Can you see the wickedness that is going on? Everybody is fed up.
If the calculation is as simple as you have presented it, why haven’t the pressure groups considered the idea of putting pressure on the National Assembly to do the needful?
It will come to that level, no matter how much money they give to bribe the people in the National Assembly. You remember how the third term agenda of Obasanjo collapsed. People collected money from the government, but when the thing became an open secret everybody who collected money started to pretend. It happened in this country. It will happen again. Everybody is tired.
Do you support the position of some elders who are insisting that restructuring most take place before the next election?
If you look at Buhari’s body language, he is tired of leading this country, but the bad advisers surrounding him will not allow him to think positively. We can only advise him to do the right thing so that he can go and rest as a statesman. Let him go and rest like General Yakubu Gowon. But enemies of the country will prolong his stay to cause anarchy. And we don’t want anarchy that will bring military intervention because it will lead to another constitutional crisis. We don’t want our people to be roaming about in the West Africa sub-region aimlessly like destitute.
The quest for self-determination is getting louder by the day and the government seems to prefer the option of force to quench the agitations. What in your own opinion is the right approach to the issue?
The use of force will make things worse. We are putting pressure on our people to bring restructuring to the National Assembly. We are advising all the separatist movements despite the provocations to look at the option of legal means to insist of what is right for our nation.
What do you think is the motive behind the National Assembly’s opposition to electronic transmission of results?
It is the people outside the National Assembly that are giving the lawmakers money to create all this confusion. I can’t imagine our people not walking out of the National Assembly to show some signs of protest? It is shocking. With the level of poverty in the Niger Delta, no amount of billions anybody can have and boast he is a billionaire. With the poverty around him, he will be the poorest man in the world. Everybody around you is living like animal and you are happy that you are a billionaire. Where is your joy? I think they are doing what they are doing out of ignorance or they need deliverance. At the end of the day, electronic transmission of results will be what INEC will follow. I am happy that people like Attahiru Jega are attacking some certain things this government is doing. They show open anger when they see this type of things. I have a lot of respect for him.
What do you expect to come out of the constitutional amendment the National Assembly is doing?
I don’t believe in the constitutional amendment of the National Assembly because the lawmakers we have there are yahoo-yahoo politicians. If they can do the electronic transmission we are talking about, at least they will have some integrity. They have not shown anybody in this country that they have integrity. Do you know how many committees or panels they are setting up? It is to the extent that if a husband and wife fight now, National Assembly will come up with a panel asking the husband and wife to come and give report. They are setting up investigative panels every day just to show that they are working. They have reduced themselves to playboys. And it is a shame.