-By Zik Gbemre
THE PRICE IJAWS PAY FOR NEW FOUND ROLE MODELS
The bloodbath at Abuloma, Rivers state, that marred September 14th 2024 election to select new Executives for Eastern Zonal Leadership of the Ijaw Youths Council (IYC) attests to the negative influence and shame their new found role models are rubbing on Ijaw nation.
Yes, Ijaws now have new role models and leaders. Chief E.K. Clark and the leadership of Ijaw National Congress (INC) have become ceremonial, nominal leaders whose opinions on Ijaw common good are now drowned in the voices of the new role models.
Those whose opinions now matter, those who now set agenda, lead direction for Ijaw advancement, those who control the economy of modern Ijaw nation today are the dregs of the society who have pushed Ijaws to national reckoning through investment in abominable violence mongering.
These new heroes all have common attributes. They all reared their ugly heads in the garbs of 'militant leaders', 'freedom fighters' claiming armed struggle against the Nigerian state in perceived anger over neglect of the Niger Delta.
They even mock their true freedom fighter, the sage, Isaac Boro in his grave by claiming to be sustaining his legacy of genuine, selfless militancy to emancipate their people.
They are liars from the pit of hell. They are all bandits, pirates of the Niger Delta. Isaac Boro was never a pirate. He was selfless, modest in militancy, genuinely fought and died fighting for the common good of his people. He was never bloodthirsty, self glorifying and imperious.
The modern day Ijaw militants came to kill, plunder, amass wealth and lord it over the peaceful, law-abiding and whoever stood in their way.
How did it start? Almost all of them unlettered, timid and ignorant, they gained public attention by destroying oil assets, stealing oil, kidnapping oil workers, especially expatriates in exchange for ransom.
Shutting all oil production as the operators abandoned the assets to save their lives, the modern day Ijaw leaders transversed the operating fields, enjoying unhindered stealing of crude oil, some they traded for arms from overseas.
They also began to enjoy huge funding and cash appeasements from NNPCL and oil companies in exchange for freedom to operate in the oil and gas space they have made perpetually volatile.
With the greedy, imperious initiator, a conceited armed gang leader, Asari Dokubo, gaining fame and fortune in banditry, engaging global media, a number of his point men and enforcers began to breakaway to establish rival terror gangs.
Soon there was proliferation of Ijaw ignoramuses, self coronated Generals, Warlords, Emperors, Freedom Fighters, Emancipators of the Niger Delta. With this nuisance they constituted, fixated on oil theft, came assets vandalism in collateral degradation of the environment, more kidnaps and killing of state security forces and civilians.
With it came a recurrence of bloodbaths in battles for supremacy and territorial integrity as Ijaw bandits bloated the Niger Delta coastline. Brothers began killing brothers over who controls the waterways crimes and the dollar returns on the criminality.
They justify their greed of wanting every provision accrued to the oil and gas operating space to benefit Ijaws alone as if all the oil and gas operations in Niger Delta are located only in Ijaw land.
They claim "only us sacrificed our blood and lives to bring about those provisions" And I ask them, does the so called sacrifices you made include you killing yourselves in warped militancy?
No gainsaying that more than those lost to their gun battles against federal security forces, the Ijaw bandits at the peak of their violence in the creeks, lost more folks in their brother killing brother supremacy clashes centered around Rivers, Bayelsa and Delta states at the time.
Following Presidential Amnesty, which is sheer euphemism for appeasement of Ijaw bandits to shun disruption of oil operations in the production space, the warlords have grown in lips and bounds.
They flow in stupendous wealth, power and influence, none of them enjoying the undeserved affluence through any significant expertise, skill, knowledge or tangible investment acumen.
They are leaving off the dysfunctional Nigerian state by violence mongering to attract government appeasement on the blood of the innocents, including several of their folks they sacrificed to gain the fame and fortune.
So for Ijaws and external stakeholders wondering why a mere zonal election of IYC turned fatal, such is one of the prices Ijaws are paying for embracing their new role models.
Today, violence mongering has become the biggest industry in Ijaw land and the founding fathers and rulers of this industry, living on the fast lane, have become new role models for Ijaws.
The bitter truth, what made Asari Dokubo, Tompolo, Ateke Tom, Boyloaf, what they are today? They all bulldozed their way to prominence by mongering violence in the Niger Delta.
Asari now owns a private army known to government. He rubbish and threatens state security operatives. In his home Buguma community in Asari Toru LGA, Asari now strutters with an ego and regalia larger than the stool of the Amayanabo of Kalabari Kingdom. He fears nobody, respects nobody, boot licks any President in power to get a piece of the national cake.
Ateke Tom has become 1st Class King, first among equals in Okrika Land. Nobody, no government takes decision in Okrika without consent of King Ateke Tom. He has and continues to amass much wealth from his domain without any tangible sources of income.
Tompolo today is about the richest and most authoritative Ijaw voice alive. A core traditionalist, Chief Priest of the Egbesu, Ijaw god of war, Tompolo has assumed a deity, worshipped by his people as the manifestation of Egbesu in human form.
He has become the Ebidouwei of Izon, he who means well or good for the Ijaw nation, a weighty title he got from no monarch or traditional Ijaw institution. He alone chose the stooge to crown monarch of his home Gbaramau Kingdom, his own title larger than the royal stool.
Today, these new Ijaw heroes influence who becomes governor of Bayelsa. They determine who becomes Ijaw minister, lawmaker, Amnesty Coordinator, Minister of Niger Delta Affairs before it was erased by President Bola Tinubu. They determine who becomes Ijaw Reps in NDDC and other board appointments.
Blunt Chief Clark can maintain his hard lines against federal government, but when it comes to speaking for Ijaw nation, he and the INC have been relegated to ceremonial elders. For their voices to be heard, their messages must now align with the wish of Tompolo who puts words in their mouths.
With these figures assuming role models and supreme leaders for Ijaw nation, anyone shocked why an IYC clan election turned carnage willfully does not want to accept the reality. Aspiring IYC leaders and supporters know it is sheer violence mongering and criminality that propelled the modern day Ijaw leaders into fame and fortune.
So the younger ones want to emulate their new heroes, embracing violence so early. The figure of 12 body-count from that botched IYC election was in censored reporting by mainstream media. Eye witnesses of the needless mayhem confirmed far more than a dozen persons lost their lives.
Notice that over such a horror, there is no condemnation, no declarative threats and warning from Chief E.K Clark, Ijaw governors, other officeholders or the INC. Apart from a passing lamentation from past IYC President, Udenz Eradiri, it was from among the new Ijaw role models that you heard critical comments.
Asari posted a viral video of him fortifying his private army with a sip from a concoction ahead of the ill-fated IYC election. But the loudmouth came out after the mayhem, absolving self and fellow militant leader, King Ateke Tom of having any hand in the IYC killings.
With Amnesty they now call selves Ex-Agitators. That is a lie the media help them promote. They still wear the complete garb of same militant leaders of yesterday.
Asari may be the loudest drunk on impunity, but Tompolo, Ateke Tom, Boyloaf, name them, all still maintain private armies. It is also a shame on the media, including leading papers and broadcast networks to affix the titles of General, Field Marshall, Warlord to these people.
They claim they took to armed struggle against the Nigerian state for the common good of the Niger Delta, but they have been exposed as self serving terror gangs.
In their modus operandi, all is well with the region when they get multi-billion naira surveillance contracts, appointments and all sorts of appeasement. The minute they lose the opportunities, they masquerade as Avengers or New Avengers to arm twist government to reward them again.
If they meant well, they agitated for completion of East West Road or no oil production will happen in the Niger Delta. What is the state of East West Road today?
Because of Ijaw new heroes, NOSDRA has become redundant. Spill are happening everyday, but nobody is holding NOSDRA accountable. With most of the spills induced by third party interference, even where an incident is caused by equipment failure, the assets owners go away with it with impunity.
It has become too easy, too defensible for NOSRA and oil companies to blame every spill on oil theft and vandalism. The entire operating space remains fledging for oil theft and clandestine refineries that has left the waterways and land fields polluted.
Ijaws may have found new fame and fortune from their new found role models and heroes, but I don't envy them, I won't have blood thirsty ignoramuses as role model and leaders.
As as long as they continue to dictate the leadership of Ijaw land, as long as they become role models Ijaw youths look up to, the IYC will experience more deadly leadership violences. The Abuloma case is just a child's play.
Zik Gbemre
November 2, 2024
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