Towards a New Nigeria: Lifting the Peril – A Root Cause of the Niger Delta Crisis
In this book, the author, Patrick Ekpotu, though an engineer, looked at the problems of the Niger Delta incredibly from a socio-political angle. The depth of the insight and analysis exhibited by him showed a perfect understanding of the issues in Niger Delta, though this may not be surprising, being an insider. The issue of […]
In this book, the author, Patrick Ekpotu, though an engineer, looked at the problems of the Niger Delta incredibly from a socio-political angle. The depth of the insight and analysis exhibited by him showed a perfect understanding of the issues in Niger Delta, though this may not be surprising, being an insider. The issue of Niger Delta no doubt demands that all should strive to find a lasting solution and the author did not shy away from being brutally frank in his treatment of the issues.
The book started by introducing readers to how the Niger Delta Crisis started. It looked at the abundant human and natural resources available in the area and the unquantifiable oil it is endowed with, in contrast to the near – penury in which the people live. In the author’s words, “what exists in the Niger Delta is seen by Niger Delta people as a perverse travesty of the human condition, a people suffocating in body and spirit under the weight of a wealth they can see, smell and hear, but only felt by a negligible fraction.”
The author interestingly started his strong opposition to militancy by tracing the history of resistance in the area to very peaceful but effective peaceful demonstrations and other approaches by the women. He cited the Aba Women Riot of 1929, which he argues should actually have been termed the Ikot Abasi Women’s Riot because of the prominent role of the Niger Delta women. He went ahead to attribute the peaceful activism of the late Ken Saro Wiwa to the approach which he inherited from his mother, who also participated in the Aba Women Riot.
Ken Saro Wiwa’s resistance through writings and publicity, he argues, was in tandem with the cultural ethos. This, according to him, was the motivation for Ken Saro Wiwa to lead over 300,000 Ogonis on a peaceful demonstration in 1993 before he was eventually arrested, tried and executed in 1995, after about 2000 of his people were brutally murdered and tens of thousands rendered homeless.
After apportioning blames to virtually all stakeholders, he enumerated the challenges facing all the people who are genuinely involved in finding lasting solutions to the problems. Among the noted challenges are – improper practice of federalism that breeds underdevelopment and alienation of some sections and tying development in the Niger Delta to the provision of infrastructure. He believes that rehabilitating the militants is not enough because those “who have been debased by their society cannot be morally regenerated except by the society being reformed.” He also noted the challenge of having in place a strong institutional structure to take care of the youths. He abhors the naïve optimism being peddled that things would go right.
However, for a long lasting solution, he gave one panacea; social “re-engineering” through the revered village setting, the traditional rulers and community/social services outreach. His village General Assembly model is akin to the Greek Assembly at the beginning of democracy. The idea sounds nice but its implementation may be more problematic than the author envisaged. Nevertheless, the idea is worth studying by social scientists
The fact that the book did not treat the Niger Delta issue from the face value but gave a compelling background to how we arrived at the current situation gives its strength. Also, the treatment of the approaches and the history of struggles in the Niger Delta elucidated the fact that the people are not violent naturally. All the above are reasons why anyone interested in the Niger Delta – its problems, development and progress must read a copy.
The book is thorough in approach and did not suffer the fate of others like it, where authors talk about problems and criticize the system without offering tangible solutions. Nevertheless, the book can be taken up on some issues. One, the author seems to be a systemic person; who believes in not tampering with the status quo. For instance, the author gives elders all the roles of directing the society and seems to be angry with the youths, thereby not giving any concrete function to them in his recommendations. However, in the African traditional set up, the youths have always been at the forefront of effecting changes in the society. Also, the author seems to have an axe to grind with the press. One is not convinced that the negative portrayal of the roles of the press and the rights activists in the Niger Delta struggle are as negative as the author wants one to believe.
Another issue is that the long term recommendation of Village General Assembly by the author may sound confusing. Those to operate the system are the same people he condemns. Though he advocated a change of attitude by all stakeholders, it is yet to be seen how this will come to pass.
All this did not remove the significance of the book in becoming a reference point in the deeper understanding of the Niger Delta and its crisis and frantically looking for a solution. The fact that the author is an engineer but displayed a rare understanding of societal structure and operations shows the more reasons why the book is a must read. On a lighter note, the many pictures in the book, though illuminating, would have been more meaningful if they were given captions.
Finally, this book is recommended to all people who are interested in understanding the Niger Delta and in making informed comments and decisions on it. Those who should read it particularly are the policy/ decision makers, sociologists, political scientists, politicians, security agents, human/environmental rights activists, members of the press, multinationals operating in Niger Delta, all people of Niger Delta origin and the general public.