 Published
February 24th, 2011
At fifty years of nationhood and over eleven
years of “uninterrupted” democracy, it still looks as if
Nigerian rulers or establishment people have not come to
terms with civilized politicking. When I went through
statements credited to the Federal Minister of Information
and Communications, Mr. Labaran Maku, as published in the
Wednesday February 23, 2011 web edition of The Sun
newspapers, I asked myself a question: Is there,
particularly, anything wrong with the people of developing
countries when once they ascend to power?
There utterances, body
language, reasoning, rationalization of issues, etc gets
inverted as soon as they hold public office. They loose
every single sense of decorum. They loose every single
sense of history. They become irresponsible and insensitive
in their actions and utterances.
Hear him: “If
you go to Niger Delta today, they cannot fish because their
rivers are polluted; they cannot go to farm because their
environment is polluted. Now they have suffered this
pollution and are contributing more than 90 per cent to
national income.
The salaries you pay to your primary schools teacher and
civil servants in Kogi are from Niger Delta. The salaries
that are paid all over the North; in all our schools, our
teachers, our civil servants, our traditional rulers, our
community leaders are from Niger Delta, so why must we kill
the hen that lay the golden egg?...
Why
is it so difficult for us in the North to understand that
this Niger Delta that has been making these sacrifices for
this country, they have the right also to rule Nigeria like
any of us and especially the North which has ruled this
country for many years…
When that regime collapsed in the coup of
1966, they identified with General Yakubu Gowon. They didn’t
go with Biafra, they went with General Gowon who was from
the North-central to fight for one Nigeria and that denied
Biafra access to the sea, which made it possible for Nigeria
to win the war.”
The above is an excerpt
from statements credited to Mr. Labaran Maku: Nigeria’s
Minister for Information and Communications as published in
the “The Sun” newspapers media chat with him.
What is the relationship
between the presidential campaign and all these scraps by
the Honorable Minister? What has supporting President
Jonathan or not supporting him got to do with killing the
hen that lays the golden egg?
This goes a long way to
revealing the mentality and intelligence of the people who
are imposed over us as public functionaries.
An intelligent and
informed presidential campaign should be discussing and
enlightening the electorate on the manifestoes of the party
and not make inflammatory statements. It should duel on
issues and sound logics - on how to lift Nigerians – of all
ethnicity and culture – out of the doldrums which the likes
of Maku has put it in - and not coercion.
Hoisting the notion that
the Niger Deltas are maltreated is not, to say the list, a
sound electioneering manifesto. What is the guarantee that
President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration will make any
difference? What about the eight months he has steered the
affairs of this country? What significant changes have come
to Niger Delta? The very people who are behind President
Jonathan are those who have ruled this country for years
without any significant considerations to the plight of the
Deltans. It was during the rule of Gen. Obasanjo that the
town of Odi was destroyed and yet he is one figure seen to
be propping President Jonathan. Mr. Fix it was responsible
for roads in which he gulped down over four hundred billion
(N400 billion) naira in the past and yet no reasonable road
was constructed within the deltas.
In my opinion, the
plight of the Deltans – as well as all other impoverished
and deprived Nigerians – should be laid in the doorsteps of
the political class, which Mr. Maku is one of them, and not
on the North or South. The over 85% impoverished Nigerians
cut across the breadth and width of Nigeria: North, South,
East and West.
When Maku enthused that
North cannot survive without the Niger Delta, he was only
exuding his ignorance as it relates to the mineral deposits
in this country. As a Minister of Information, he should
have realized that he is using the resources of Nigeria and
not that of PDP and that he should make statements that will
tend to enlist the free support of Nigerian electorates and
not intimidation.
He should have realized
that PDP is not the only party in Nigeria. He should have
also realized that PDP has ruled Nigeria in this democracy
for over eleven years. He should have realized that PDD –
on whose platform President Jonathan is asking the
electorate for their votes – rather than the North – has
brought the pains to the Deltans and to the rest of
Nigeria. He should realize that his party PDP is still
populated with the same people who will determine how
President Jonathan will rule if he emerges the President of
this country.
So when next time he
opens his mouth to show his boss that he is a loyal party
man, he should be careful before he opens it too wide to
incur the rat of the same political class who shape things
in this country.
If he were very
passionate about the plight of the Niger Deltans, he should
have known that PDP has never had a good manifesto that has
the interest of the Niger Delta at hearth. He should have,
in the first place, rejected his job and align with other
parties that have better manifesto that will favor the
Deltans.
If Mr. Labaran Maku was
not playing the Ostrich, he should have, better, allowed
President Jonathan to do his campaign and he (Maku) should
thereafter use his office – as information and
communications minister – to let media people interpret the
President’s campaign message to the electorate. He should
not weep more than the bereaved.
If we liken what he said to what the son of
Muammar al-Gaddafi of Libya said on Libyan television in
respect of the on-going upheaval in Libya, we see, vividly,
how detached these people in “rulership” positions are.
If this man has any good
sense of history, he would remember that Comrade Adaka Boro
was in the forefront for self determination by the Ijaws.
Mr. Maku should refer to the civil war – if need be – only
as a reminder to modern people on how bad it was and not who
the Deltans supported. Time of war is not reference for how
votes should be cast. If anything it only shows that Mr.
Maku is not matured enough to hold this information
portfolio and should be made to resign this appointment,
immediately, before he uses it to inflame passion which
could breed disaffection amongst the ethnic nationalities in
Nigeria. The real Niger Deltans know who their enemy is
just like the rest of us in Nigeria. It is the political
class – Minister Maku inclusive – and not the North or South
as Minister Maku wants us to believe.
Chris Onyishi
ctekchris@yahoo.com
Owerri, Nigeria.
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