By Igbotako Nowinta
What we are seeing playing out is the re-definition of oil producing communities in Nigeria. In this particular conspiracy against the people in the host communities, the southern Senators, with the exception of Eyinnaya Abaribe and James Manager, shamelessly surrendered their ‘father’s inheritance’ to their Northern counterparts, in return for selfish perishable political and economic carrots. The meaning of elite conspiracy in this regard, is that the comfort, sentiments and over-all well-being of the squalid people, mostly from the southern axis of Nigeria, is not an issue or priority for Senators from the zone. What could have been worse than this most heinous stab in the back, using this unpopular piece of legislation? This tragic exhibition of collapsed conscience or feelings by our southern Senators, for their brothers and sisters, living in the host communities is unfortunate. This means the bulk of the people are simply on their own, unrepresented and neglected to fate, left to rot in a sick and deranged geographical entity called Nigeria.
Nigeria appears to be the filthiest abode in the world, where a secret plan by a group, who indulge in doing something harmful and intentional against the rest members of the society, thrives uncontrollably.
Talking about conspiracy theory, which is an attempt to explain tragic or harmful events, as a result of the actions of a small powerful body, the recently passed Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) by the Nigerian Senate, for me sits squarely within the ambit of a grand conspiracy, against the people living in the oil producing arears in the Southern part of Nigeria.
Perhaps, if one of the greatest philosophers and political economists in human history, the German Karl Marx, had visited what we know as Nigeria today, when gathering materials for his eternally intoxicating work: “Das Kapital,” he would have been stunned by the dreadful capitalistic variant available here?
It must be said quickly that in Das Kapital, written in the middle of the 19th century, Karl Marx rubbished the then classical economic theory, and argued that the system of private capital is naturally unstable, and succeeded in laying a theoretical foundation for the overthrow of capitalism.
Who says most of Nigerian political elite are not incurable capitalists, who are ready to let go anything for their private economic cum political profiteering within the Nigerian space?
What could have motivated those gang of shameless Senators who masterminded the oddity called the Petroleum Industry Bill, to ignore the hens that are laying the golden eggs in the host communities in Southern Nigeria?
For 61 years, Nigeria has explored crude oil and made billions of dollars, the political elite in the process, has institutionalized tragedy in the host communities in the south. The people in these communities remain humiliated by poverty; economically naked and isolated in ghettos and are being pushed beyond their breaking points today.
It is pathetic, that for several years, there was no universal cum coherent law, guiding the operation of oil and gas in the country. And sixteen years ago, the process of the Petroleum Industry Bill began, to create an omnibus law, meant to regulate the center piece of the industry, and repeal all existing oil and gas regulations.
After the host communities in the south of Nigeria have waited for sixteen years for succor and miracle, via the Petroleum Industry Bill, what they are now getting is gross injustice and unimaginable cruelty; they are now constant victims of political savagery – this time from their brothers in the Senate.
How can we swallow the fact that, in this new Petroleum Industry Bill, only 3% is allocated to the host communities in the midst of the perilous situation obtainable there, while more than 40% is being earmarked to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), to execute ‘Frontier Exploration’ in the Northern axis, and service States like Kogi, Niger, Kaduna etc., because oil pipelines pass through their lands?
What is the meaning of the jargon – Frontier Exploration, where the host communities have been turned into grave yards of unspeakable penury, environmental devastation, disease and certain deaths?
What we are seeing playing out is the re-definition of oil producing communities in Nigeria. In this particular conspiracy against the people in the host communities, the southern Senators, with the exception of Eyinnaya Abaribe and James Manager, shamelessly surrendered their ‘father’s inheritance’ to their Northern counterparts, in return for selfish perishable political and economic carrots.
The meaning of elite conspiracy in this regard, is that the comfort, sentiments and over-all well-being of the squalid people, mostly from the southern axis of Nigeria, is not an issue or priority for Senators from the zone.
What could have been worse than this most heinous stab in the back, using this unpopular piece of legislation? This tragic exhibition of collapsed conscience or feelings by our southern Senators, for their brothers and sisters, living in the host communities is unfortunate.
This means the bulk of the people are simply on their own, unrepresented and neglected to fate, left to rot in a sick and deranged geographical entity called Nigeria.
This catastrophic and monumental betrayal has further proved and defined, the fact, that we as a people must reach a fundamental compromise on our existing Electoral Act, to seek the urgent removal of powers given to Mr. President to appoint the Chairman and Commissioners of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC); to fight furiously for the inclusion of Electronic Transfer of Results and 100% Electronic Voting.
If the nation’s Electoral Act is sanitized comprehensively, the likes of the southern Senators that recently spat on our faces and threw us under the bus would never have been elected in the first place?
Several schools of thought have declared that the best way to combat conspiracy is to attack it, to address inequality and countless incidents of awful conspiracy that plague politics and economy in the society.
It is imperative here to single out Senators Eyinnaya Abaribe and James Manager, for their historic and spirited display of passion and concern, during the debates on the Petroleum Industry Bill.
This is also to applaud the explosive and progressive manner the Southern Governors Forum has identified with the PIB, and other critical national issues recently, like the opposition to Open Grazing for Fulani herders, Southern Presidency, the Electoral Act etc.
We must ultimately seek the restructuring of Nigeria, for all regions or zones, to manage their resources and contribute to the national purse. We must use the available window at the next joint session of the Senate and House of Representatives to rectify this offending Petroleum Industry Bill, passed by the Senate, to demand 10% for the host communities and expulsion of about 40% meant for Frontier Exploration and areas accommodated as pipelines beneficiaries.
Nigerians in the oil producing areas of the country and other citizens of goodwill must resist this provocative, ridiculous, crazy, reprehensive and insensitive Petroleum Industry Bill – it must never be allowed to stand, as it is against the hopes and aspirations of the host communities.
What the southern Senators have done is like piercing a dagger across our hearts. What they have done is beyond pardon; what could be worse than this conspiracy?
I hereby move that our people must look at the Constitutional window of ‘recall,’ for these absolutely shameless Senators.
Nowinta wrote: Where We Are – A Call For Democratic Revolution in Nigeria.
