Orkah and the mend offensive
He owes his very life to the good spirit of President Umaru Musa Yar’adua who chose to substitute no case charge instead of justified judicial murder. But like a child on its mother’s back is oblivious of the length of the journey, Orkah’s first pronouncement was to say that his release may not guarantee the […]
He owes his very life to the good spirit of President Umaru Musa Yar’adua who chose to substitute no case charge instead of justified judicial murder. But like a child on its mother’s back is oblivious of the length of the journey, Orkah’s first pronouncement was to say that his release may not guarantee the return of peace in the Niger-Delta. If he had listened to some of his governors, he would have known how unpopular that careless talk is.
He has further worsened matters with his recent pronouncement that he is not sorry for sponsoring mutiny against his own country. It would appear that Orkah is not a student of history, otherwise he would have learnt lessons in self-aggrandisement, posturing and grand-standing from those who trod the paths before him. There are living legends with physical and emotional scars like Jerry Rawlings and Fidel Castro, but there are martyrs like Thomas Sankara, Adaka Boro and Ernesto Che Guevara. Truth is, revolutions tend to consume those who start it even if they are clear-minded; the foggy ones don’t even have epitaphs to their memories.
The Niger-Delta issue is always a volatile one for comments. There is the case of crass neglect and criminality, first of a nation that milks a cow but starves it. There is the greed of some of the elites of the area who spit fire in the press but nocturnally hobnobs with the foe for juicy crumbs. There are the gun-runners, who live ensconced from the naked reality on the grounds but have become billionaires on the blood of the people through the arms they export into the area. Then, of course, there are the so-called militants, trigger-happy bunkerers who chase off the multi-nationals and take up their oil wells. Then the wanton saboteurs who blow up everything to keep up the criminality; of course, mention must be made of the kleptocrat governors who rode into billions by creating thuggery and sustain the criminality because it allows them the opportunity of robbing the people blind like wanton prodigals. The hardest to bear are the people, reduced to mere collateral damage in the tug of war between all the evil forces. These are mostly helpless, hapless women, children and the aged, who are left in the line of fire victims of the agglomeration of all the evil forces tugging at the very jugular of their very existence.
President Yar’adua is many things to many people at different times, but in my mind, he is the most committed, the most practical and the most pragmatic of rulers to ever treat the people of the Niger-Delta like the true citizens that they are. Only a fool can take his gentility for weakness. He has waved an olive branch which set doubting Thomases sniggering but has practically demonstrated commitment and focus. Let no youngster think that he is weak.
His sincerity started with the creation of the Ministry of the Niger-Delta and the appointment of men of timbre and calibre from the area to head it. It is complimented with budgetary allocations which most of the greedy rulers of Nigeria would not have given on any platter. Then, he is sending to the National Assembly bills that is a mere formality, but inherent with the needed fillip to buoy the needed development in the area. Of course, the success of his self-declared amnesty is as altruistic as it is benign. This man from Katsina has put his money where his mouth is. For Orkah to return his generosity with the kind of self seeking posturing is indeed very shameful. Even with all its moral burden, there is still a government in place in Nigeria.
That government has the backing of the Supreme Court and is in charge of the entire elements of a state. That government can, just by fiat, at the mere excuse of a state of emergency whip any section into line, using any necessary force and explaining later. No individual is greater than a state. No personality is stronger than a state. Orkar could take elementary lessons from Odumegwu Ojukwu who had the clarity and support of a people more determined than him to support a gruelling 30-month war fought perhaps before Orkah was conceived. He should go back to school and read history. He should give peace a chance; for he is just one man who should realise that he cannot be tougher than the world.