In previous essays, yours sincerely have devoted a lot of ire to southern political leaders who act like captured prisoners. If they are not capitulating in the national house of assembly, they are busy making deals at the expense of those they are suppose to lead. And the situation is not only sickening, but increasingly nauseating to watch. When the #Avengers first busted out on the scene, ostensibly fighting to rescue the region from decades of marginalisation, a few are still trying to undermine these brave freedom fighters one way or the other.
First, it was some governors from the region calling the #Avengers criminals and jobless miscreants. As state governors, their collective cowardice on the altar of political expediency was so disgraceful. These governors must have been shaking in their pants inside their respective governors mansions when their northern counterparts rose from an emergency meeting spewing bombastic inanities, infantile drivels and promising to break up Nigeria in defense of the Fulani herdsmen. Since then, not one single political leader from the north has had the human decency to condemn the atrocities of the marauding Fulani herdsmen. Instead, they are doing everything to advance the cause of the terrorists using cattle for grazing as cover.
Unfortunately, in the Niger Delta, the story is different, not only are some southerners joining others to condemn the #Avengers, they are sucking up to the voices who seek to keep them as perpetual slaves in their own land. A one time heavyweight politician in the region, Chief Don Etiebet is even quoted as asking the #Avengers and other militants to drop their weapons and seek dialogue. And there is the inferiority complex killing the Niger Delta more than the damage by feudal lords. Fulani herdsmen are carrying advanced assault weapons and advancing to his village. But the Chief is calling on the militants defending his region to drop their weapons so they could all be slaughtered! What is about ethnic cleansing, what is about the northern agenda that southern political leaders like Chief Etiebet and governor Seriake Dickson don’t understand?
The unfolding scenario in the Niger Delta reminds one of what Reggae maestro Peter Tosh’s lyrics, “everybody is talking about peace, but nobody is talking about justice and equal rights.” That governors of the south, especially the Niger Delta, hiding behind some political correctness and failing to be in the forefront of our struggle for self-determination speaks not only to their shameful cowardice, but moral deficit. These are the same leaders who at the end would be struggling to appoint representatives to talk on behalf of the #Avengers! They want to play it safe while enjoying their plomp positions; eat their humble pie and still have it! These are the same governors who throw their freaking weights around manhandling picketing pensioners as they feebly parade down the streets.
In Chief Don Etiebet’s call for the #Avengers to disarm, the invading forces know their divide and rule tactics is working, the continuous ownership of the lucrative oil wells is therefore a foregone conclusion. Hopefully, the governors of the Niger Delta will start putting in place a firewall against the advancing Fulani herdsmen in their respective states than engage in the puerile and shameful act of playing wimps in the face of the agenda to keep them and generations of their unborn under the rule of radical Islamic fundamentalism.
Here’s an advise for the wimps and the likes of Chief Don Etiebet. If you cannot devy up the courage to support your own, just maintain absolute silence and let the militants do their thing. The northernisation agenda is real, denying it does a greater disservice than what epic pollution is doing to the Niger Delta. If you don’t like the militants of the region, you can relocate to say Jigawa or even Zamfara. Or better still, Daura where you could be turbaned for selling out your folks.
The #Avengers, the Niger Delta, epic pollution and marginalisation is not a single story, but a collection of stories. Throw in referendum, and you get a riveting story of self-determination!
