Diepreye Alamieyeseigha’s reputation as Governor-General of the Ijaw nation began to grow, following his prompt response to the crisis facing Ijaw people living in Lagos. On Saturday, 17 June 2000, sons and daughters of Rivers and Bayelsa States came together under one umbrella to host him as a mark of gratitude for his intervention efforts.
His Rivers counterpart, Dr Peter Odili, could not show up as expected, but Alamieyeseigha thought it worthwhile to follow up on his last visit, and to know how well his Ijaw brethren in Lagos were faring in the aftermath of the crisis. The venue for the event was the open tennis lawn of the Liaison Office in Victoria Island, Lagos, overlooking Bar Beach.
The United Rivers and Bayelsa State Indigenes Association, Lagos, was a brand new idea, and Alamieyeseigha was overjoyed to know that there was an association of this sort in a foreign land, a composite body covering both indigenes of Rivers and Bayelsa States. There was no denying the need for an association of this kind. ‘When you are far away from home’, said Alamieyeseigha, ‘the bonds of unity with your homeland tend to be stronger and more tenacious’.
The predominant mood of the country at the time was pervaded by the politics of ethnic cleavages. The Yoruba were gathering under the canopy of Oduduwa, the North had drawn an elaborate map for Arewa, the Igbo were talking endlessly about Biafra. The Ijaw had no business being silent, said Alamieyeseigha.
‘In our own peculiar circumstance as a minority ethnic group, we need to realise at all times that we hail from a disadvantaged background. It is a fact of history that every great nation passes through trials and conflict before arriving at a point of fulfillment. The responsibility we owe ourselves, therefore, is to seek every reasonable way to rise above our predicament’.
There was no doubt that the Ijaw nation was passing through testy times. As far as the larger Nigerian establishment was concerned, the limits of minority ambition were set forever. Since the value of oil and gas came to be recognized in the Nigerian economy from 1956, the powers that be had spelt out with brutal clarity, and in as many ways as possible, that the Ijaw man was not expected to aspire to greater heights of excellence. This was the basis of the continued exploration and exploitation of the natural resources in Ijaw land to the detriment of the people and their environment.
‘Our country is still trapped in a history which it cannot come to terms with. And until our leaders understand this, Nigeria cannot be released from that confinement. We have to make them understand that we are entitled to our dignity as a people. We have to make them know that we are entitled to absolute control of our resources. This is the burden that lies, not only on the Ijaw nation, but also on the South-South people as a whole’, said Alamieyeseigha.
When news of the tribulations facing Ijaw people in Lagos broke in the wake of the mayhem that engulfed Ajeromi-Ifelodun local government area, Alamieyeseigha was sorely disturbed. He was even more agitated when he formally received Ijaw sons and daughters as refugees in their own land in Bayelsa State, following their desperate flight from the heat of the crisis in Lagos.
Alamieyeseigha had visited distressed Ijaws in the company of Bola Tinubu, Governor of Lagos State, in the aftermath of the crisis that rocked Ajegunle. He took note of their demands then, and he had not lost sight of them at all. He gave assurance that he would not rest until victims of the mayhem received due compensation. The sentiments he expressed at the inaugural Isaac Boro Memorial Lecture on May 20, 2000, seemed to be playing out.
Alamieyeseigha had stressed that Boro, the grandmaster of the Ijaw struggle, would continue to be important because what he foresaw over thirty years before that time had come to pass; that a people would be forcibly deprived of their resources on account of their being in the minority. And that, to keep the people divided, a barricade of discontent would be erected permanently between the people, so that even when the fruits of endurance began to manifest, brother would rise against brother.
Since the creation of Bayelsa State almost four years before, this was the temptation that was begging to be confronted. The people of Rivers and Bayelsa States had been put at loggerheads in one way or another, especially concerning the location of the NDDC headquarters. The heart of the matter, however, was to recognize betrayal and deceit for what they are, and to rise above pettiness and rancour.
‘Fellow Rivers and Bayelsa indigenes in Lagos, let me remind you that we were not split into two states for nothing. If you are familiar with our history as one people, you will understand that we were separated into two viable and significant states, not because we are different, but because we need to fight a common cause on different fronts so that we can be stronger and more united. The only way in which we can pitch our demands as loudly as possible and expect to receive the attention due us as a people, is to fashion an indissoluble bond and present ourselves as one’.
Alamieyeseigha reiterated that the Ijaw nation had passed through a great deal of tribulation, injustice and deprivation over the years. The quest to correct these anomalies had always resulted in a series of clashes with neighbours and the larger Nigerian establishment. More often than not, the Ijaw had to pay dearly for it. The real problems of the people of this deprived area had been identified as unfair allocation of the proceeds from the resources beneath their land.
The massive unemployment of the educated youth was a challenge as much as the lack of economic empowerment for people, and the absence of federal presence on their soil, to say nothing of the nonchalant disposition of oil companies to community development. As a solution to the numerous problems in Ijaw territory, the overriding demand was that the oil companies should change their operational policy from that of community assistance to community development.
The disparity between these two policy positions was what accounted for the poor infrastructural outlook of the communities today. While the oil companies were called upon to redress this situation, they were also expected to repair the beleaguered land by putting into effect a credible environmental control initiative that would serve to restore the self-worth of the people who had suffered many years of marginalization and neglect on account of a willful determination on the part of the Federal Government to starve the people of their rightful inheritance while exploiting them into a state of coma.
‘I cannot understand why people find it difficult to act on what they know’, said Alamieyeseigha. ‘It seems to me that to act is to be committed, and to be committed is to be in danger. Our duty is to emphasize that there need not be any fear of danger to the Nigerian society in the course of seeking our rightful due’.
The clear option facing the peace-loving people of Ijaw land was to enter into a meaningful dialogue with their oppressors, and talk their way to relevance and prosperity as diplomatically as possible.
‘We have our states to build’, Alamieyeseigha maintained. ‘We have a nation to build. We must commit ourselves to our assignment as masons on the construction site, working expertly to erect the reality of our dreams’.
For this reason, Alamieyeseigha extended an open invitation to sons and daughters of Ijaw land earning their livelihood in Lagos to remember that their services were needed back home. For Bayelsa to develop, it was important to harness all the manpower resources available. Living in exile was not the solution, if future generations of Ijaw land were to make sense of what obtains in home territory.
The call was not wasted. More sons and daughters of Bayelsa began to think of relocating to the young state, and to make the best of a bad situation under the hopeful leadership of Alamieyeseigha.
