Why are they afraid of us going into the CREEKS? Niger Delta is not a conquered territory - Ann-Kio Briggs

Why are they afraid of us going into the CREEKS? Niger Delta is not a conquered territory - Ann-Kio Briggs

Ann-Kio Briggs is a well known voice in the struggle for emancipation of the Niger Delta. She speaks with CHUKS OYEMA-AZIKEN on sundry national issues as they affect the Ni­ger-Delta.

Excerpts:

Last November marked the 20th anniversary of the judicial mur­der of Ken Saro Wiwa. Were you close to him? Have some of you been able to maintain the mo­mentum of the struggle?

Unfortunately, just like many great men and women across the world, who have stood up to be counted for rights and justice, Ken Saro Wiwa and Adaka Boro from the Niger Delta are amongst the great people l wish l had met. l assure you that not having met them has not in any way reduced my commitment to their dream to emancipate their peoples and region, to own their resources and to have a clean environment, their dreams, desires, and expectations are all basic human.

President Muhammadu Buhari seems to have abandoned the re­port of the last National Confer­ence. What is your take on this development?

I won’t say President Buhari has abandoned the report. When the then President Goodluck Jonathan listened to Nigerians from all the six geo-political zones and con­stituted the representation for the 2014 National Conference, Presi­dent Buhari then General Buhari was an opposition presidential as­pirant, he along with many others made it clear that they were not in support of the National Confer­ence. Before President Buhari be­came President he made it clear if he won the election, he would not implement the report of the 2014 National Conference.

As a citizen, who was nominat­ed as a delegate and who attended all the sittings, my opinion, after much interaction with Nigerians, is that it is not in the greater in­terest of Nigeria, and her differ­ent ethnic nationalities to cast the report away on the basis that the incumbent President did not sup­port the conference. All Nigerians from all works of lives, businesses, careers, male and female, youths, North and South, Christians and Muslims were represented, all were heard, and all recommen­dations were voted upon. The 2014 National Conference was not meant for one person, or one ethnic group, or one local gov­ernment area or one state; it was meant for Nigerians. For instance, if a Southerner or a Northerner, or as a member of one political party or the other or from one ethnic group or the other does not like some of the content of the report, that is no reason to deny everyone else the benefits of the implemen­tation of the 2014 National Con­ference report. l am convinced that denying a people their desires today will not assure you your de­sires tomorrow.

Recently, Peter Jack, the Direc­tor General of NITDA and Pat­rick Akpokebelekemi of NIMASA, among others, were removed. Do we say the Ijaws are at the receiv­ing end of the Buhari regime?

Therefore, my people have not returned to the creeks,
they have always been in the creeks and will remain in the creeks. 

The removal of Patrick Akpoke­belekemi as the DG of NIMASA is the right for the Federal Gov­ernment to do, after all he was appointed to the position, but the ways some of these removals were carried out smacks of vendetta, as due process in the case of Akpoke­belemi, was not followed. This is not a military government, it is a democracy, the allegations should go to court, bail be granted, people should not be dehumanized, if they have committed a crime and you have proof, the evidence you have will convict them, not you.

I have always stood for the fight against corruption, and will con­tinue to; but l also will stand for justice. In 2012, l supported the call to stop fuel subsidy; fuel sub­sidy is the handiwork of a wicked cabal working with international oil businesses to defraud Nigeria, with the full support of Nigerians; fuel subsidy is the mother of all corruption in Nigeria. Why should Nigerians, who don’t own cars or generators subsidize business men and women who take crude oil out of Nigeria with a piece of pa­per and bring petrol into Nigeria for sale? Nigerians pay subsidy to these so called business men and women and buy the petrol they have subsidized, Nigerians are buying one litre of petrol twice. All Nigerians should demand to be involved in this business; after all it is imported into Nigeria for Nigerians. Today, the very people who almost brought Jonathan’s government to a stand still with their ‘subsidy must stay’ and ‘oc­cupy Nigeria’ slogan and ideology seven months after Jonathan won the 2011 elections, want fuel sub­sidy to stop, why? Whose side are the politicians on? If fuel subsidy was good in January 2012, why is the same fuel subsidy bad in Janu­ary 2016?

Majorly, the fight against cor­ruption is against people involved with the past Jonathan-led Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, govern­ment. Though the people picked are not only Ijaws, they are all PDP or Jonathan associates and l call on the Federal Government to rethink its approach. l welcome and sup­port President Buhari in his fight against corruption as long as it is not limited to only PDP members, it should go past the recent Jona­than government, many questions need answers as far back as we can go.

My position does not mean l am in support of corruption, no l am against corruption, my region and people are victims of corruption, as a matter of fact, Nigeria is a fed­eration and does not practice fiscal federalism, government is the plat­form on which the corruption we claim to be fighting is fed and over fed. There are people who were part of this so called corrupt PDP and are today major funders of the All Progressives Congress, APC at the economic destruction of their people, state, and region. if we are truly and justly fighting corrup­tion, let’s do it with the fear of God.

Why do you think Niger Delta militants are returning to the creeks, as the ordinary people are now feeling insecure in the face of the invasion of the area?

In the past, l was aware my peo­ple were in the creeks, because the creeks is our home and remains our home, lands, waters, rivers, mangroves, swamps. l for one grew up in the creeks, so did my father, my great grandfather and so on and l can trace my roots to the creeks. Therefore, my people have not returned to the creeks, they have always been in the creeks and will remain in the creeks. Can anyone tell you you are invading your own home? When l go home to my community, l see strangers, competing with my people for the polluted livelihood in their local­ity, surely this is worrisome. Anywhere in the world, local economy means just that, local to the local­ity. Are they saying l should not go into my creeks? My late father started taking me into the creeks and the Atlantic ocean from when l was four years old, who will tell me 60 years later that those creeks don’t belong to me because of re­sources God put there for me?

If l can’t go to a region outside of the Niger Delta and earn a living from their local economy, how can the reverse happen to me? Have we sold the creeks? If yes, some­one should show me the receipt of sale. To oppress me and take what is mine because you are stronger does not make it right or legal, definitely don’t tell me not to speak against what you are doing to me.

What is your take on the re­duction of the amnesty budget proposal from N64 billion to N20 billion?

My opinion won’t matter to the decision, but for the record, amnesty was offered because by 2008 the output of crude oil was reduced to 700,000 barrels and oil companies were pulling out. l was involved in the discussions that led to the offer by the late President Umaru Yar’Adua, and l am aware of what he said and why we believed him, amnesty was for 30,000 peo­ple. l am not a beneficiary of the amnesty programme, the people who may react to the reduction in the amnesty budget are first the oil companies, the Federal Govern­ment, their partner, and the direct beneficiaries of amnesty.

It is no secret that this govern­ment can’t fund it’s budget, which is no fault of this government, but it is still a situation it has to deal with, if it has to borrow money to fund the government budget, then Niger Delta, Niger Delta Develop­ment Commission, NDDC, Min­istry of Niger Delta Affairs, not amnesty alone, are part of Nigeria. The Niger Delta may not have vot­ed massively for the APC govern­ment, but we are still in Nigeria, therefore we expect to be treated equally. The Niger Delta people will watch how the government rates us as a people, and how the government values our economic input. N40 billion is too much to take away without any form of discussion. The few persons who are telling the President that they are able to handle the Niger Delta region are telling him lies; Niger Delta is made up of six states, and in these states, we have different people who want different things, but at the end of the day our needs are very similar and our senti­ments are not too far apart.

Tompolo, an Ijaw son, is hav­ing running battle with the gov­ernment over sundry allegations. How would you react to this?

The problem is in Nigeria, people expect to get away with things and think others should not. As long as we don’t do things justly, we will have these problems. What exactly is the allegation against Tompolo? Fraud? Is this how issues of fraud are treated? If you can prove these allegations, go to court; let the courts, the arm of government that has the constitutional powers, do what it must do. If you are looking for someone, go to his house with a search warrant, if he is there ar­rest him, take him and let due pro­cess begin. If the court grants him bail and he complies with the bail conditions, release him on bail, if he is found guilty, let the court determine his punishment.

In Ni­geria, a man in his house receives a news item on the 10pm news that someone is a thief, the accused is judged and sentenced right there in the man’s living room. If you go to arrest Tompolo and you can’t find him, what gives you the constitutional right to destroy his house, arrest his brother, destroy the houses in the community, oc­cupy the community, etc, and cre­ate internally displaced persons in an innocent community? Because you say one man has defrauded the government? Odi, happened, Ayekoromo happened, this is not a civilized way to behave. Things should be done in a just way.

What hope for Nigeria?

My hope for Nigeria is one of the following: restructuring of Nigeria, devolution of powers, decentraliza­tion, resource ownership, what is on my land belongs to me, internal self determination, the 2014 Na­tional conference should be looked at again, and lets see if we can still fly with it, referendum in the differ­ent states and peoples, we have to discuss and agree on how we want to live together. It is not treason­able to say let us sit down to ask our selves: do we want the Lord Lugard-created Nigeria 100 years later? Or do we want our own Nigeria? 100 years on, can’t we tell ourselves the truth? What are we afraid of?

-The Authority