FEATURE ARTICLE

Chigachi EkeThursday, August 30, 2012
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Port Harcourt, Nigeria

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THE IKWERRE MAN'S BURDEN

he Ikwerre tend to anchor their argument on imprecise premise. That as the Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi administration gallops to a terminal 2015 they are in a position to decide which ethnic group produces the next governor of Rivers State. That their strategic 480,000 votes rolled over four of the twenty-three Local Government Areas, LGAs, are weighty enough to tilt the scale in favour of their favourite. This implausibility perpetuates the misleading image of a Greater Ikwerre holding the diadem of power in the Niger Delta.


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But cold reasoning shows that this ethnic group could be a pliable tool in the hands of powerful external elements whose lightning rod is the fratricidal feud between Amaechi and his handsome cousin Sir Celestine Omehia. It is difficult not to conclude that Ikwerres are polarized into two hostile camps and, that a fragmented people can never be in a position to deliver a bloc vote come 2015. Greater Ikwerre has a soft underbelly which any determined foe with the patience could exploit in returning them to pre-2007 obscurity.

Historically, Ikwerres are a managed factor in Rivers politics until recently. At the critical point of their breakthrough former President Olusegun Obasanjo snatched Amaechi's victory in favour of Omehia at the 2007 Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, gubernatorial primary thereby setting two political bulldogs against each other. The resultant earthquake continues to reverberate into the incoming legal year with no hope in sight.

Things are not helped as the Who-is-Who in Ikwereland are the first to deny that all is not well. Pointing at the dispute between Amaechi and former Governor Peter Odili, these denialists had the satisfaction of asking you if the two are not the best of friends today. So the first question to address is whether the quarrel between Amaechi and Omehia is real or fake. One has only to look at the relationship between the two protagonists to understand what could motivate them to love or fight each other. To push through my point I rely heavily on psychology.

The physical, which defined the emotional, distance between Amaechi and Odili guaranteed that one was not a political threat to the other (Amaechi Vs Odili will help you understand my argument on Amaechi Vs Omehia). Coming from different geographical and cultural terrains, both were strong men in their respective lands. Odili had also enjoyed the maximum two terms as governor; meaning that Amaechi did not see him as threat to his own incumbency. Their dispute was real but distance made reconciliation both possible and desirable. Amaechi and Odili, though, could return to the trenches at the national level from 2015 over higher stakes.

But one cannot say the same of Amaechi and Omehia who are same species geographically, biologically and culturally. For instance, survival dictates what a creature can tolerate territorially in the jungle. A lion can endure another male of a different species strolling into its lair but not when another lion trespasses. Likewise, Amaechi can forgive a public insult from an Ogoni man but not from a fellow Ikwerre man because it is simply not in human nature to do so. Such forgiveness could be misinterpreted as weakness, the number killer of every military and political leader. Again, there is a psychological reason why Amaechi could shut his eyes to a wrong done him by an Ogbakiri man who is also Ikwerre but not when a fellow Ubima man commits the same offence.

The above argument is also very true of Omehia. How could he look into the eyes of his children when the man who ousted him from power was his own kinsman? For whatever Omehia's perceived offence was "Ikwerre Bu Otu" demanded that Amaechi let him complete his tenure since they were fighting the same cause. Amaechi never demonstrated love and so should expect none from him in turn. This vindictive mindset is responsible why Omehia says yes to peace only to return to court again against Amaechi.

What all these mean is that these two need help. This realization means that if not adequately restrained they could fight each other to death as each is the living fear of the other. Two powerful enemies from the same kindred laying claim to the same crown are bad for any principality. If one gores the other to death the lone survival would be too weak, too unpopular, to pose a serious threat for another strong man from another strong ethnic group. What I'm saying is that the dispute between Amaechi and Omehia is frightfully real as it will only weaken Ikwerres to the advantage of others in the contestation for power and ways and means. That is why I honestly believe there is an external factor in this dispute.

What then is the way forward?

First, we must accept that Ogbakor Ikwerre is helpless in bringing Amaechi and Omehia to the negotiation table. Morally, Amaechi is above Ogbakor Ikwerre. This body openly sided with Omehia when Amaechi was suffering the injustice inflicted on him by Obasanjo till a court of justice granted him relief. Calling a spade a spade would have placed Ogbakor Ikwerre in a position to enforce truce today. Ever fearful that Amaechi would wreck his vengeance on anyone who raises his voice, even the bravest Ikwerre shudder at the thought of being heard saying the wrong thing because Amaechi remembers (In response to this (un)founded fear the Edward Pepple Campaign Organisation, EPCO, mounted a gigantic signboard at Water Lines Junction with the message "Yes, We Can Now Sleep with Our Two Eyes Closed," all in the bid to convince people that Amaechi never said "I swear that Rivers people will never sleep with their two eyes closed" ). So this institution is the wrong one to look up to as it is likely to break its back pleasing Amaechi in atonement for its past mistakes.

What about the Ikwerre Youth Movement, IYM? It appears IYM has one aim and one only- to blindly defend Amaechi just as certain elements in it blindly defended Omehia in the beginning. This body has a credibility problem. Unlike the Ijaw Youth Council, IYC, IYM made itself an appendage of PDP which is good for the latter and disastrous for Ikwerres. I do not share the view that belly politics drives IYM, certainly not! But this body must be more inclusive and stop its persecution of Ikwerres opposed to PDP. What IYM seems to forget is that it was the very absence of Ikwerre opposition that emboldened PDP to deny Amaechi his mandate in the first place. Eliminate this movement before Omehia walks out on you as he is not likely to give a moment audience to an association that openly insulted him.

The search for reconciliation must be reduced to a search for a neutral third party respected by Omehia and trusted by Amaechi. This ultimate arbiter, I believe, is the Ikwerre-born Ezenwo Nyesom Wike who does not depend on handouts from Amaechi to survive and so can afford to tell the governor what he did not want to hear. His home town, Rumuepirikom in Obio/Akpor, is also far from Ubima which makes him somewhat tolerant to Omehia. Guarded by the desire for common good, Wike would rather sacrifice personal ambition than endanger what little his people were able to garner politically since 1999. But now he must rise and save these two from mutual destruction; if not for their own sake then for the sake of their children who must be spared the sins of their fathers. In short, he must weld fragmented Ikwerreland together again.

One reason proffered why the Ikwerre man remained in political wilderness for forty years, 1967-2007, was that he was contented with small things. Isolated and ridiculed, the real reason, it came to a point where he simply asked for a Port Harcourt State if only to have a say in simple things like the building of a health center. In their vendetta Amaechi and Omehia seem to forget where they're coming from. They seem to undermine the contribution of the preceding generation to whatever they are today. Obi Wali and Emmanuel Aguma must be turning in their graves.

To know the real cost of this crisis ask the Ikwerre man how he hopes to benefit from the Local Content Bill, for instance. Of all the ethnic minorities of the Niger Delta he is the least prepared. The Ogoni, Ijaw, Esan, Edo, Oron, are all training. But how many pilots can Ikwerres put in the cockpit? How many Ikwerres can handle an ocean going vessel despite the explosion of opportunities that came their way in the last five years? For your information Captain Chile Chukwu from Obio/Akpor, one of three known Ikwerre pilots, is no longer flying helicopters. He has been frustrated out of the aviation industry and, by implication, the oil and gas industry. Young, highly trained and experienced, where is this world-class aviator today? Meaning that with his 52 oil wells and 4 flow stations the Ikwerre man cannot access his quota under the new petroleum industry bill.

The right premise should be the Ikwerre man's weakness, not his strength, even under an Ikwerre government. A man so ill-prepared has no business empowering others come 2015. Let him first save himself. Harrowing poverty, self-defeating cynicism and a leadership too remote from the grassroots appear to blunt Ikwerre nationalism. The hours 10.00am-1.00pm are an unhappy time in Port Harcourt and Obio Akpor, in particular. That is when Ikwerre youths dust their wooden benches to play draught while the old people wrestle with their thoughts in between sniffing snuff. And you call that progress? Amaechi and Omehia, tell us.

Chigachi Eke is an Igbo Rights Activist.

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