Niger Delta activist, Annkio Briggs has warned that the oil-producing region may boycott the 2019 general elections if certain issues affecting the area are not urgently addressed. She spoke with WILLY EYA on this and more.
Perhaps of more importance to every Nigerian today is the issue of the recession. What are your thoughts on the nation’s economic situation?
Right now, recession is an international phenomenon. It is not just Nigeria alone. The whole world to some extent or the other is in a recession. But the question is –how does the recession affect Nigeria? You look at it from the angle of the fact that the only wealth Nigeria is producing is from oil and gas, and the price of oil and gas has gone down. The sale of oil and gas has also gone down whereas the value of the naira to the dollar has gone up. So, you can see that Nigeria financially and economically is in a great mess. The nation is in crisis. Apart from being in an economic crisis, Nigeria also has security issues. There are terrorism issues, religious cleansing issues, ethnic issues and all of those things. The truth is that Nigeria is in a mess, recession wise and in the aspect of security. Nigeria cannot control what is happening; when you have a situation where the government is telling you that herdsmen who are killing Nigerians are coming in from Mali and Senegal, it means that Nigeria cannot protect herself. Financially and economically, we are in a mess. Security wise, we are in a mess; governance wise, we are in a mess. Where are we going? I do not know where we are going.
You sound so pessimistic in your analysis of the situation. Are you saying that we cannot get out of the recession?
I cannot say that we would not get out of the situation but what I can say is that I cannot see the prospect. What is the government doing to get us out of the situation? We have a situation where the naira is almost N550 to a dollar. So, where are the prospects; what is the government doing about all the issues? It is not the responsibility of the citizens to solve the problems; it is the responsibility of the government to solve the problems.
Nigeria is a country of lamentations; do you think we are gradually tending towards becoming a failed state?
First of all, Nigeria has become a country of lamentations because there are indeed reasons to lament. People do not just get up to lament if there is nothing to lament about. If you ask me, are we ever going to get out of the situation? Looking at it from where I am, I do not see how we are going to get out of where we are because if you do not know what to do, how can you get out of the situation you find yourself.
Recently, the spokesman of the Northern Elders Forum (NEF), Prof Ango Abdullahi said that the North is ready for a break up if the need arises. Such a statement coming from one of the leading voices in the North, how do you feel about that?
Certainly, it is a welcome statement as far as I am concerned. If somebody like that from the North is saying the North is ready for break up, it means that almost everybody in Nigeria is ready for a break up. The Igbo have always said they want to be on their own. The Niger Delta people are talking the same thing. So, if the North is now saying they are ready for a break up, it is a welcome development. The only people who are not talking about a break up are those of the Middle Belt. But whatever it is, personally I do not see anything wrong with that.
As an environmental rights activist who has been involved in issues concerning the Niger Delta, what is the latest on the clean up of Ogoni land. Is the Federal Government serious with the project?
As I am talking to you, I am in Rivers State and you know that I am an indigene of Rivers State. And I live and work in Rivers State. Apart from the visit by the Minister of Environment and the then Vice President who is now the Acting President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo when he came to commission the plaque that they put up to say that they are going to clean up Ogoni land, there is nothing happening here. Is Ogoni clean up in the budget? So, I do not know where they are going to get the money they would use to clean up Ogoni land. For me, I have always seen it as a political gimmick. Maybe they would surprise the Niger Delta people by actually starting the process of cleaning up Ogoni land but now, nothing is actually happening. Starting the process of clean up and actually achieving clean up are two different things.
There has always been this argument in some quarters especially by the Northern elite that the Niger Delta elites are the cause of the problem of the zone. The thinking is that the governors in the zone have not effectively utilised the resources accruing to them. Do you share this view?
I do not agree with that and the Northerners are not in a position to proffer solutions to the Niger Delta crisis while they are the cause. The North is the reason why we have the Niger Delta crisis. The Fulani is the reason for the Niger Delta crisis. I will tell you why I say so. More than 80 per cent of the private oil wells in Nigeria belong to them. Since 1968 and since after the war, the Niger Delta resources have been used to develop the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, the North and so many other places. If the North is saying the Niger Delta is the cause of their problems, what is the North bringing to the national treasury? The North is bringing nothing to the national coffers. A group of 19 states that is bringing nothing and who are the cause of the Niger Delta crisis is no way in a position to say that the Niger Delta elite are the cause of the Niger Delta crisis. Who are the leaders and the elite of the Niger Delta? Is it the Niger Delta people that are exploring for oil and gas? It is the oil companies and the Federal Government that are taking our resources. So, how are we the cause of our problems?
The contention is that apart from the NDDC, Ministry of Niger Delta and other agencies, the 13 per cent derivation is enough to take care of the challenges of the Niger Delta? Some insist that successive governors have not been making effective use of the funds available to them.
Again I say the same thing, if they say the governors of the Niger Delta are not utilising the 13 per cent derivation well, are the Niger Delta governors the cause of Boko Haram? Are the Niger Delta governors responsible for the terrorist groups in the North? Are the Niger Delta governors responsible for the herdsmen all over the place? Are the Niger Delta governors those that are bringing in terrorists from Mali and other places outside Nigeria? The thing is that people should tell themselves the truth. They should not blame the Niger Delta people when they are actually the cause of the problem of the zone. The problem is that out of 36 states and the FCT, we have only nine states that are producing oil and the rest of 27 not producing oil are sharing from what the nine states are producing. That is the major problem confronting Nigeria. When you do not want to solve the problem of injustice and lack of equity, you would continue to turn around in circles until one day, the die will be cast and everybody would end up going their way. The Igbo people would like to go, the next day and the Yoruba people are prepared and so on. The North said they are ready to go and yet they are still holding unto the resources of the Niger Delta. The solution to the problems of Nigeria is fiscal federalism; the solution to our problems is regionalism. I am proffering solutions and anyone of these things would be the beginning of solving the problems of Nigeria. I tell you, the problem that the Niger Delta has is Nigeria. The nation is the problem of the Niger Delta.
What is the way forward; do you advocate the convocation of another National Conference where all these contentious issues would be thrashed out?
You can see that the people who are refusing to accept the result of the National Conference are the North. It is still the same North. President Muhammadu Buhari said he is not even going to look at the report of the 2014 National Conference. This is because he did not support the conference but the conference in the first place is not about President Buhari. The conference is not even about the North but about Nigeria and Nigerians that are from all walks of life, from all geopolitical zones sat down between May and August 2015 and came up with the report that they are refusing to look at. Now, if you refuse to look at the report, it does not mean that the problems have gone away. It is the North that is still the problem of the Niger Delta as far as I am concerned. But one day, sooner or later, something has to give. This is because sooner or later, everything would come to a head. We would know when we get there. If the president of Nigeria is refusing to see the report of the 2014 National Conference, it would stay there until he decides to look at it and then take decisions on it. If he doesn’t, we just have to wait for another opportunity for a national discourse. In the mean time, we have to continue to deal with the crises whether it is Boko Haram, farmers/herdsmen clashes, agitations for self determination in the South East, blowing up of pipelines in the Niger Delta and so on. As they arise, we discuss them and move on. Nigerians are highly resilient.
Ahead of the next general elections in 2019, what do you see along the way?
We’ve just started year 2017. With the way things are, the prospects between now and 2019, I do not know how to capture it. For me as a person from the Niger Delta region and having experienced the 2015 general elections, the way it was handled, the elections in Rivers State and all that, I begin to doubt if there would ever be a free and fair elections in Nigeria. If there is not going to be a free and fair election, and we do not trust there will be, we may start considering to ask ourselves the question, is there any need for us in partaking in an election that is not going to be free and fair but going to be manipulated and where people would be imposed on us and all of that. If we ask our selves that question, we may decide not to participate in the election in 2019. I do not see why we should not come to that decision.
From the picture you have painted about the state of affairs in the country, what are your greatest fears for Nigeria?
My greatest fears about Nigeria is the obvious and blatant attacks on Christians; the obvious and blatant positioning of occupation from a particular section of Nigeria to proceed with the concept of Islamisation of Nigeria and oppression of Christians and killing of Christians and taking over of people’s homeland, states and things like that. That is my real fear and concern. It is not out of my imagination because it has happened to other people. There is no reason why I cannot assume that it would happen here. If you look at the Agatu killings, the Enugu killings and the recent Southern Kaduna killings and the massive influx of people from the Northern part of Nigeria into the Niger Delta, it is worrisome. People who live outside of the Niger Delta may not appreciate this. When you compare the number of Northerners right now on the streets of Niger Delta with what it used to be two years ago, the increase is very obvious. For me, it is highly worrisome. I do not understand the need for that influx. What types of jobs are here that are bringing them here? They are coming in and pushing wheelbarrows and carts of cucumbers, watermelons and all that. How many people are in the Niger Delta that are eating all these things. These are serious concerns and it gives the impression of occupation.
Do you think there is an agenda behind the influx of Northerners to the Niger Delta region?
Definitely there is an agenda. I believe there is an agenda and there is a serious concern in the Niger Delta about it. People who claim to own 80 per cent of the nation’s landmass also want to come and own the remaining 20 per cent of the land in the South.