Minority tyranny in Delta and the Urhobo blockade: The Consequences It should be noted however, that the struggle of the people of Gbaramatu Kingdom for both political and economic rights pre-dates the Jonathan Presidency. History is replete with courses of events as far as the struggle of the oppressed people of Gbaramatu Kingdom is concerned. It is no longer news to all that our Itsekiri neighbours, using all advantages of being in government and power since the time of former governor, Chief James Ibori(whose mother is Itsekiri) as well as the incumbent governor, Dr Emmanuel Uduaghan(also an Itsekiri) who both as commissioner and later Secretary to State Government under Ibori, cannot insulate himself from the calculated attempt by the government-backed Itsekiri’s attempts to enslave Gbaramatu Kingdom. The precepts for injustice and ingredients of inequality are daily being planted by those who find themselves in positions of authority and infuence, especially in Delta State. It should therefore be known that those who deliberately drag the name of President Jonathan into this blackmail game are doing this to perpetuate injustice. This is the crux of the matter. - Chief Government Ekpemupolo A.K.A. Tompolo Like the Urhobos like the Ijaws of Gbaramatu Kingdom.... When Dr. James Aggrey said in Carolina that “The white man ought to be transformed into a negro for just a few days to feel what we feel.”, he did not mean that the black man wishes to dominate or isolate himself from the whites, but was only lamenting the inhumanity of man against man, which the slave trade exemplified. And in the words of Gani Fewehimin, “Justice is the first condition of humanity”. The height of inequity and injustice faced by the Urhobo nation today, in the governance and politics of Delta State and Nigeria, is no less grave than that historical era of slave trade. Then was not an era of democracy but of pre-colonialism. The completeness and totality of the present injustice and inequity against the Urhobo nation, especially in a young democracy such as ours in which the national economy is dependent on government, is tantamount to an imposed political and economic blockade. Yet, we have some Urhobo persons who call themselves champions of equity in Delta State and at the same time undermining the Urhobo resolve. So, the question of inequity against Urhobo has continued to put such characters on trial. If we go by Rosseau’s postulation that “Democracy without justice is tyranny in civil guise”, then one can only conclude that Urhobo is presently under the yoke of punitive tyranny in Delta State in particular and Nigeria at large. In Delta State, the situation is incomprehensible because, this tyranny is being exercised under a governor of minority extraction (Itsekiri) against the greater majority (Urhobo). And this is a governor who ironically came into political relevance and eventual power only due to the kinship of an Urhobo man. In the multi-ethnic democracy of Delta State, the geo-political pre-eminence of the Urhobo nation has always been clearly beyond debate. In fact, with an overwhelming landmass and population size spread across eight (8) extensive local government areas, the nationality constitutes well over a-third of the entire geo-political entity of Delta State. In terms of contribution to the common wealth of the state, Urhobo is not only a major producer of oil, but also, by far the greatest gas producer. In fact, during the years of militancy in the riverine areas, petroleum production in Urhobo land was about the sole basis of the state’s derivation revenue. This is in addition to the facts all that the pipelines through which crude oil and petroleum products are channeled from the riverine areas to other parts of the country pass through Urhobo land which has resulted in physical deprivation of our people of vast agricultural lands upon which their livelihood depend. Even the factor of environmental degradation which some riverine ethnic minorities in the state have relied upon to attract compensatory allocation of political concessions and economic resources is far worse in Urhobo land, because land pollution is of worse consequences than water pollution which has a shorter span due to oceanic circulation. And we have the NNPC refinery and other gas-emitting installations which pollute the air by the day; all located in Urhobo land. It is against this background of unassailable political and economic credentials, that the Urhobo nation has been reduced to a mere appendage in the commonwealth of Delta State as evidenced by our complete lack of significant representation in the government of the state. As has been previously displayed in a graphic chart of all the seven nominees of the state government into boards of federal parastatals, none is of Urhobo extraction in addition to the much lamented absence of an Urhobo minister. The situation at the state level of governance is even more heart-rending; as have also previously been displayed graphically. It was shown that of the ten (10) critical decision making positions in Delta State, none is an Urhobo man. In the case of commissionership appointments, it was also shown that our senatorial district has the least number of all, while the governor’s Delta South which has the least number of local government areas, has the highest number of commissioners in addition to his position as governor. Even at that, the fact is that none of the significant ministries of empowerment and development is occupied by a commissioner of Urhobo extraction; not to mention that of the ten (10) listed board chairmanships in the state, only one (1) is occupied by an Urhobo man. And now, how befitting it is that, the recently reported contract scam in DESOPADEC, in which certificates where issued and payments made without anything on site, were the projects that were supposed to be located in Urhobo land? In all these, where is the equity the so-called bridge builders are talking about? When located in the context of the fact that presently, the state governor is from Delta South while the state capital is located in Delta North, is this then not a manifestation of a deliberate state policy of exclusion against the Urhobo people? So in a state such as ours in which the economy depends on government and in which economic empowerment flows from critical representation in government, is it not clear that a political and economic blockade has been imposed on the Urhobo people? Agreed, there’s nothing wrong in building bridges for mutual advantage, but everything is wrong with bridge builders who only seek to build bridges through which their people are sold into slavery. Ordinarily, in a multi-ethnic state like Delta, it is the minorities who are supposed to be championing equity as the only guarantee to their sustainable survival in the long run. This is because, since democracy is essentially a rule of the majority, no matter any temporary state of advantage or disadvantage of any ethnic group in the state today, power will inexorably move to the majority one day and that’s when the very existence of the minorities will be fundamentally challenged by the imperative of equity and justice. Since it as been universally accepted that he that comes to equity must come with clean hands, what then would be the fate of a minority that once took advantage of exigential power to perpetuate grave inequity and injustice against the majority? Will their hands be clean enough to seek equity, even when they are naturally disadvantaged by their minority status? So, these are some of the questions that should confront Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan today, as a minority extraction, presiding over this type of injustice and inequity against the Urhobo nation which Rousseau once called ‘tyranny’. The governor should ponder the future consequences of the present situation in Delta State on his minority ethnic group. As for the self-acclaimed champions of equity in Delta State among Urhobos, they should tell us if this is the equity they claim to be championing. It was former Israeli Prime Minister Menachim Beghin who declared that the height of the six-day Middle East war, that “It is either this war is finished or we are”. For the Urhobo nation in Delta State therefore, either this tyranny is brought to an end or equity has ended in the state.
Posted on: Wed, 26 Nov 2014 22:41:59 +0000
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