President Emeritus of the Ijaw Youths Council (IYC), Dr. Chris Ekiyor, who just lost the presidential race of the Ijaw National Congress(INC), spoke with Ben Ogbemudia on the growing insecurity in Nigeria. Excerpts:
You contested the presidency of Ijaw National Congress (INC), but lost. Are you still aggrieved?
The President of the Ijaw National Congress (INC) should be a person produced by all the Ijaw people. This year, it was done through a delegates’ conference where we had 420 supposed delegates. No election process is perfect. But this is a clear departure from the past, and the outcome is accepted by me in the interest of the Ijaw nation.
I have my own misgivings about a lot of issues. But like I said, I have congratulated the winner who himself is an Ijaw man. He has won an Ijaw election. We have to accept it the way it is. I contested the INC presidential election to provide the kind of leadership that would have been required at that moment.
What is your take on the issue of insecurity in Nigeria?
Only a few days ago, you would have heard of an attempted coup issue in the country, which is a sign of a failed state. Nigeria is certainly a failed state. We are only pretending, and it is just a matter time. We are not different from Rwanda now. We are a country of patient people. People who are tolerant. So, we are tolerating all these garbage we call governance. Government today is at the highest level of indiscipline, corruption, deceit, et cetera. When a government deceives its citizen, then there is no government in place. The people living in Abuja are confused about the presence or not of the presidency.
How did we get here?
The country has been partitioned to cabals and cartels who manage their small space in what you call the comity of agencies. A group of powerful people would gang up and run a certain section of the economy on behalf of all of us. What they decide becomes what the president accepts. The president is hidden from the people. Everybody is complaining that the villa is shut against people. The borders in the north have been opened for everybody from the Sahel to come in. We have a country that has been invaded slowly by people that we cannot describe if they are Nigerians. What is your take on the clamour for restructuring?
The things that brought about the civil war (1967–1970) were not as bad as it is now. The civil war was just about some military men killing some other military men which got people angry. This time, we are talking about armed bandits stronger than the country’s army, destroying the country, taking hostages of local government and spreading slowly into communities. The worst part of it is that the government is not supporting communities to defend themselves. What you see is that the government comes and bombs the whole place like what you are seeing in the South-East.
People are being invaded in their homes and they decide to do what is called vigilante to defend themselves. Rather than government taking over the process and helping to support community policing, government is waging a war against those people, therefore making them feel that the government is the enemy. It is a mismanaged process. If I were the president of Nigeria, National Security Adviser, Chief of Army Staff or Inspector-General of Police, I would have sat down with these people and look at what positive gains we can get in their trying to secure themselves, because the army doesn’t have the manpower, neither does the police have the manpower to do national security anymore.
How about the morale of the armed forces?
We are talking about one million dollars taken away for two years. Nothing is talked about it. We are talking about people over-staying their welcome in the military and dampening the morale of people in the service. It’s not acceptable.
I opted to contest the presidency of INC because I know that it is only the Niger Delta people that can stop what is coming. We have courage. What’s lacking in the leadership space of the Ijaw people is the ability of the INC to find its feet. I thought that if I am there as president, I would be able to galvanise the Niger Delta together and ensure that we stop this madness that is coming. After all, everything that runs Nigeria comes from the Niger Delta. There’s no section that’s producing anything today that can run this country.
All the oil, all the gas come from here (Niger Delta). Whether you are building industry in any part of the country, the oil and gas comes from here. We are the people heavily marginalised and denied the opportunity.
Some few years ago, we were able to have access when Goodluck Jonathan was president of Nigeria and the whole world got interested. Today, it is like we never started anything. Even the amnesty office, NDDC, and so on, all have been hijacked through the backdoor by the same people who have subjected us to poverty unfortunately. It is God that gives power. I didn’t make it (become INC president).
Maybe God did not want me to sit there today and provide the radical change that we need. I hope that those that emerged (as INC executives) will do justice to the region and Nigeria. Until we negotiate with Nigeria as equal partners, nothing is going to happen.
There is a despoliation of the Niger Delta region and that’s exactly why I contested for the INC presidency. Ijaw people cannot now go and sleep when the drumbeat of war is everywhere. So, I encourage the new executives of the INC to know that’s a challenge. It’s not about APC or PDP. They are a coin with the same face. The same people move from one political party to the other. The truth is that the political class leading this country are not doing well. The National Assembly is lazy – they cannot challenge the president. The media has been silenced because if they publish a story, they are threatened and arrested. If you criticise Mr. President, you’re threatened and arrested.
Why do you say that you move around with your coffin?
You will recall that several years ago, I told you that I move with my coffin. I am not afraid to die speaking the truth. They have attempted to kill me, shot at my vehicle several times. God has been keeping me going. As far as I know, I will respect the constitution of the country. But in respecting the constitution, it should be guaranteed that my fundamental human rights must be protected. It also guarantees me the right to ask questions about my existence as a Nigerian. If I cannot ask those questions, why am I living?
This country should go back to the first constitution that Aguiyi-Ironsi tried to destroy. They should pick it up and dust it. Let the regions have their powers, let people run a federated system where we have mutual respect for each other. That’s the only way that this country can move forward. This unitary system that someone sits in Abuja and seize everybody’s patrimony and gives to you whatever they want cannot move the nation forward. It is a backward system. It is not for this kind of country with a multi-ethnic and multi-religious setting. Let us make it clear that the beauty of it is that nobody can subject the rest of us to slavery or servitude.
