Chief Diepreye Alamieyeseigha was at his civil best when he played host to the British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Mr Phillip Thomas, on Monday, 25 August 2003. Not only did the Governor drive the visitor around Yenagoa to show off projects under construction, he thought it fit to take the ambassador outside the state capital to witness historic sites and assess the tourist potentials of the young state.
For Alamieyeseigha, this was a golden opportunity to renew the long-standing relationship between the people of the Niger Delta and the government of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. It was a relationship nurtured on mutual trust and understanding, one that was worth preserving. This historic visit was indeed significant in many respects. It was the first time an officer of the British government was paying an official visit to Bayelsa since the creation of the state. It compared in import only with the visit by Prince Charles and Princess Diana to the old Rivers State in 1992. The excitement generated by that visit was still fresh in memory, and Alamieyeseigha could not help but recall snatches of it.
This visit would also afford the ambassador an ample opportunity to appraise the challenges posed by the environment, and be better attuned to the problems confronting the Niger Delta people. Two years before Independence, Henry Willink, Queen’s Counsel, had navigated his way around the creeks, and filed a report to Buckingham Palace to the effect that the swamp should be declared a Special Area deserving of concentrated development. Alamieyeseigha saw Phillip Thomas as a clone of Willink, an emissary who was here to assess the region and report back to source more than half a century later.
‘As a state in dire need of development, we will continue to acknowledge any assistance we get without compromising our honour and respect’, said the host. The history of intervention in the affairs of what is now called Nigeria could not be complete without several chapters dedicated to the relationship between Nigeria and her colonial masters. ‘Our fore-fathers left a legacy of honourable association with Her Majesty’s government, which is the substance of our pride as a people’, he maintained.
In 1830, the voyage of the Lander Brothers to discover the source of the Niger came to a near fatal end at Abor, if not for the astute negotiating skills of King Boy Amain of Nembe-Brass who ransomed them from the hands of Obi Ossai and ferried them to Brass enroute to Fernando Po. This event served a great deal to facilitate the abolition of slave trade, along the coastal city-states, and presaged the commencement of legitimate trade in the region.
The Niger Delta, the epi-centre of which is Bayelsa State, constituted the famous ‘oil-rivers’ protectorate which provided raw materials for British industries that sustained the economy of the colonial administration. Even more remarkable was that the people of the swamp rose in one accord and took up arms to challenge the activities of the Royal Niger Company in the famous Nembe-British War of 1895, otherwise known as the Akassa Raid.
Over a century later, relics of the monumental confrontation could still be seen, such as the White Man’s Graveyard at Twon-Brass and Akassa, abandoned warehouses and other structures of historical import which, as far as Alamieyeseigha was concerned, the British government ought to maintain for purposes of historical integrity and tourism development.
More than anything else, the economic interaction between Britain and Nigeria continued when crude oil replaced palm oil as the principal item of trade. The Niger Delta came to the rescue with the discovery of oil in commercial quantity at Oloibiri in Bayelsa, and Afam in Rivers State, both in the Niger Delta, by Shell D’Arcy, the fore-runner of Shell Petroleum Development Company, a British investment company of substantial clout.
‘There is no doubt that Britain understands the problems of the Niger Delta better than any government anywhere in the world’, said Alamieyeseigha. ‘Shell Petroleum Development Company has been carrying out oil and gas exploration activities entirely in the area in the last forty-five years’. That was why, one of the pre-conditions for Nigerian independence was how to allay the fears expressed by the minority people as contained in the Henry Willink Commission of 1958.
The Commission recognized the Niger Delta as a ‘Special Area’, and recommended the appointment of a federal board to consider the problems of the Niger Delta in September 1959. Given the long-standing relationship and the first-hand experience of the British overlords, it came as a surprise to Alamieyeseigha that the British government did not grant concessions to the region in its overseas development efforts, and he did not hesitate to point this out to the British High Commissioner.
What was more evident was that the Niger Delta region was put on low priority placement without regard to her enormous contributions to the British economy. Even worse, in spite of the staggering sums quoted by Shell in the name of community development and environmental cleansing, the impact was hardly felt.
‘We expect a change of heart in the relationship between your government and the Niger Delta people, with particular regard to Bayelsa State’, said Alamieyeseigha. Specifically, the Governor-General expected that special funds be made available annually for the proper preservation of the White-man’s Graveyard at Twon-Brass and Akassa, as well as other monuments of historic significance.
He equally enjoined the British High Commissioner to prevail on Shell Petroleum Development Company to increase her host community development activities for the sake of fair play, and in order to secure a conducive industrial climate in Bayelsa. What’s more, given the role of the British Broadcasting Corporation, BBC, as a world leader in the field of information dissemination, Alamieyeseigha called on the High Commissioner to initiate exchange programmes for radio and television broadcasters to update their knowledge with current trends in modern broadcasting.
He equally appealed for an information centre to be opened in Bayelsa State to facilitate information flow, to say nothing of a library to be established by the British Council. In return, of course, government would fully ensure the safety of lives and property of British citizens living or working in the state.
Drums of celebration resounded from the Bayelsa cultural troupe that evening, inviting the British High Commissioner, dressed as he was in the typical attire of an Ijaw man, to share in the richness of Bayelsa culture and to enjoy the traditional hospitality of the people. Phillip Thomas did some quaint dance steps that earned him laughter amid resounding applause.
