In about 48 hours from now,the governors of South South States will be meeting in Port Harcourt to jaw jaw on a matter that is of special interest to them.Resource Control.They will be discussing why what is good for the goose is not good for the gander.Why would Zanfara State in the NW mine gold deposits in its territory and use the proceeds all for themselves contrary to the provisions of the 1999 Constitution as amended.The constitution vests the ownership of all minerals in the space called Nigeria in the Federal Government.It is there in black and white.It has been so since Gowon was head of the military government during the Biafra war days.It was a ploy by government to short-change the Biafrans and deny them any access whatsoever to the wealth of the Niger Delta.The government in Lagos then had willing tools to execute this agenda.They had Ken Saro Wiwa,Jasper Adaka Boro,Kurubo,and many others who aligned with the Federal forces to ensure the defeat of Biafra.They were all Ijaw,Ogoni or Igbo speaking Ikwerre.
The peoples of this region were promised Eldorado if only the irritant Igbos and other Biafrans are dealt a deadly blow and defeated.
The Biafrans were crushed.Igbos lost trillions of dollars in the abandoned property saga supervised by Ken Saro Wiwa with his paddyman Sani Abacha as head of State much later.
There was no Eldorado or paradise for them but a grand deception even after large chunks of Igbo territory were excised and given to Rivers State.Places like Obigbo now renamed Oyigbo,whatever that means.
People will continue to be treated harshly by history for not heeding to learn from lessons thrown up by it.
Where is Ken Saro Wiwa today?He was executed by his best friend Abacha when he dared to demand for the rights of his people.Talk of riding on the back of a tiger.Have these people learnt their lessons?A capital NO.They would rather be slaves to the Hausa- Fulani ,than walk shoulder to shoulder in fraternal relationship with their distant cousins ,the IGBO.A fellow like Okowa
Will look you boldly in the face and tell you he is not Igbo.Wike is the General Overseer of them all.
He even sent troops to Obigbo to deal a deadly blow to the inhabitants there of which the dust is yet to settle.I wonder how he sleeps at night after considering the gory details of the nightmare that was Obigbo for two good weeks.Okowa from Delta wondered why the gold of Zamfara is only for Zamfara while the oil of the Niger Delta is for all Nigerians from Sokoto,Daura,Kano,Jigawa and other places.
That is why what is termed a crucial meeting of the South South Governors will hold on Monday,16th November,2020 in Port Harcourt .Methinks that meeting will come out with nothing tangible.A man who does not know when the rain started beating him will definitely not know when it stopped beating him.
You keep wondering and ranting over Zamfara while you have refused to team up with those you have historical and genealogical affinity with but rather choose to serve as slaves to local colonizers.
The day you come to your senses,rather than clinging on the complex of identity crisis will be the day a window of opportunity will be opened to you to be delivered from perpetual servitude.
We dey watch wetin Una yeye meeting go throw up.Confused lot.
Donald Nwairo writes from Lagos.