The Plundering of Bayelsa
By: Saatah Nubari
Tags: Nigeria, Bayelsa, Niger Delta, Niger Deltans, Revolution

The Plundering of Bayelsa

The plundering of the Niger Delta peoples began in the creeks of the Ijaws in present day Bayelsa state. It was this plunder and to ensure its continuation that eventually spread inland and culminated in the creation of what we today call Nigeria.

Frederick Bastiat, the French author, Economist, and leader of the free trade movement in France opined in his essay Economic Sophisim: Physiology of Plunder, that wealth generation in human society only arises as a result of production or plunder. A careful and deliberate study of the generated wealth in Nigeria proves this theory and others right as most of it, if not all, have been generated not by production, but by the plundering of the people. The Niger Delta people, for which the Ijaws are an integral part, have in Nigeria’s case, been the plundered.

On Wednesday 24th April 2019, the leader of the Bayelsa State House of Assembly, Peter Akpe, proposed a legislation to provide for monthly life pension for the members of the state House of Assembly, including those who served in the erstwhile Rivers State before the creation of Bayelsa state. This bill, as expected, was passed by the house. It’s content provides for a N500,000 monthly pension for the Speaker, N250,000 for the Deputy Speaker, and N100,000 for the members. All for life. Considering that these people have not in any way contributed to the development of the people of Bayelsa, the move is not just unmerited, but a brazen attempt at plundering the people. And that it is coming from a section/group saddled with the protection of the rights and freedoms of the people makes itthe more morally reprehensible.

Baylesa state today, although accounting for over 30% of the oil produced in this country — which happens to be Nigeria’s mainstay — also accounts for some of the worst socioeconomic indices in the country and the world.

Bayelsa today accounts for one of the highest unemployment+underemployment statistics in the country at over 40%, led and followed closely by other Niger Delta states. It is known that one of the byproducts of unemployment and underemployment is crime and insecurity, and Bayelsa state today is one of the most violent and insecure states in the Niger Delta and country. The inhabitants of the state capital and the various local communities till today have no access to portable drinking water, good hospitals or educational institutions. The roads—where they exist, are cratered and not even suitable for cars. The environment of the people most especially in the local communities have been destroyed in no small measure by the ruthless exploitation of the resources of the poor and hapless Ijaws there, that the local fishermen have been rendered jobless, and the lands available for farming, where they bring out harvest, are just edible poison. The Ijaws of Bayelsa like their counterparts in other Niger Delta states, have no power, or finance to even engage in other economic pursuit’s to better their lives. All these has been as a result of the brutal oppression of the people by the elites of the major ethnic groups of this country; the Hausa-Fulani dominated Northern Nigeria, the Yoruba dominated South Western Nigeria, and the Igbo’s dominating the south east. All in the course of exploiting the resources of the people. As a result of this oppression and exploitation, today the numerous educated and capable young people of the Ijaw ethnic group in Bayelsa do not even have jobs in the institutions created around the exploitation of their own resource. As a result, the anger, despair, and addiction within the youth demography is at all time highs, putting the the future of the Ijaw people on a collision course with jeopardy.

In the midst of these anomalies, instead of the leadership of the people to device means, and take stands against the exploitation of their people, they have joined with glee, in the plundering of their already over-plundered people. Unfortunately, these socioeconomic ills which ought to be firmly and fearlessly addressed by these people who have stolen themselves into the positions of leadership have been abandoned for a more worthwhile venture of personal enrichment and aggrandizement.

While men like Isaac Adaka Boro stood up in the face of this oppression, to fight for his people in a bid to ensure their development and ultimately, survival, the present generation of leaders of the Ijaw people—and the Niger Delta at large— who have benefited from his struggles and death have instead opted to pillage and rape their own people for their personal development and survival, while giving nothing tangible in return.

The case of Bayelsa is not different from that of the other states in the Niger Delta. It is only but a microcosm of the region and its leadership. And we have once again been treated to the treachery that is the leadership of the region.

Bayelsa state, like the Niger Delta, does not have leaders. What it has in its place is what Bastiat has called frauds and plunderers and the people of Bayelsa and the Niger Delta region should endeavor to take not of that. Not just for the sake of taking notes, but for the fact that, in the not so distant future, when the plundered masses finally rise up to revolt, the treachery of its so-called leadership will be treated in a way acceptable to and by the people.

In the end, the Niger Delta people must not forget that our salvation as a people does not lie in any of the the different leadership of the region at whatever level, but in its total destruction and consequent rise of a new leadership of the people, for the people. Dear Bayelsans, remember the names of your plunderers and their supporters.