Nigeria's Niger Delta by Abidde Sabella Ogbobode;

Author:Abidde, Sabella Ogbobode; [Abidde, Sabella Ogbobode]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lexington Books/Fortress Academic
Published: 2016-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

The Conversation

Long before the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) selected a group of eminent Nigerians to represent its interest in an anticipated negotiation with the late Yar’Adua’s administration in 2009, I had penned a series of essays articulating what the problems were, and what the solution should be. Frankly, I never asked why I was chosen, but my suspicion was that my public commentaries brought me to the attention of the justice-seeking group.

MEND named the negotiating group The Aaron Team, and it consisted of former Chief of General Staff, Vice Admiral Mike Akhigbe (rtd), Professor Wole Soyinka, Major General Luke Kakadu Aprezi (rtd), Mr. Amagbe Kentebe, and this author. A couple of days after the negotiating team was formed, a channel of communication was opened, for the first time, between Mr. Henry Okah and this author.

And even though the team is now moribund, Mr. Okah and the author have kept in touch. In all, there are about fifty pages of single-spaced interview covering a wide range of issues. The interviews were conducted between 2011 and 2015 by way of phone interviews, smuggled notes, and emails.

* * *

It must be really hard on you and on your family (wife and children) since your arrest and detention in October 2010. How are you all coping?

Things are not as bad as they appear. My wife is a strong woman who has long understood what I am fighting for and the possible consequences of fighting for justice in such a lawless continent as Africa. My kids are also taking this relatively well and believe like me that all this will someday come to an end. For me, my incarceration has presented the opportunity for a holiday I thought I could not afford to take. Besides missing my family, I am very well.

My rights were violated from the moment the South African government started interfering in this case at the behest of President Jonathan hours after the bombing of October 1, 2010. The South African government went as far as knowingly presenting forged and fabricated evidence to prevent my release on bail at my initial bail application. My lawyers are presently consulting with constitutional attorneys with the aim to challenging this illegality at the constitutional court of South Africa, the law which enabled my bail denial based on the fabricated evidence presented at that hearing.

What was it about the Niger Delta that made you angry? Was it the poverty, the terrible environmental conditions, the rate of youth unemployment, or the lack of development and other social dislocations?

Everything! Everything! But most of all, the arrogance of the oil companies operating in the Niger Delta. These oil companies are on our land against our will, daily draining our resources and destroying our ecology, believing we were helpless due to the protection provided to them by the Nigerian military.

Oil companies in the Delta are no longer as cocky, as they now realize that their continued existence in the Niger Delta can only be guaranteed by the people of that region.

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