Ikwerres Will Resist All Forms of Injustice Against Them-Okwukwu
The Post Express (Lagos)INTERVIEW
July 15, 2000
Posted to the web July 17, 2000
Lagos
Q: You are the president of the Congress for the Liberation of Ikwerre People, can we know you more, please?
A: As I said, I am Mr. Uche Okwukwu. I am a lawyer and president of the Congress for the liberation of Ikwerre people. I am from a town or if you like call it village, called Elele in the Ikwerre Local Government area of Rivers State. The Congress for the Liberation of Ikwerre people was established by a consensus of the Ikwerre people. And the leaders were sworn in by the President General of Ikwerre Convention, Elder S.L.O. Amadinna. The congress has set objectives, among which are to articulate injustices and oppressions suffered by the Ikwerre people and try to find solutions to them to research and document into Ikwerre history, culture and arts, to establish relationship with other oppressed groups sympathetic to it and other bodies that may help us actualise our set aims and objectives. Basically these are some of the aims and objectives of the congress.
Q: How do you wish to achieve these objectives?
A: The objectives we intend to achieve are all contained in the Ikwerre Rescue Chapter. Through a non-violent, democratic and legitimate campaign, and persuasion, and we have identified the oppressors. Having identified them, we will inform them that we are being oppressed. We will mobilise our people to resist injustice through non violent persuasion, through non-violent campaigns, non-violent protests, through legal processes like the one we are going on now with the government of Rivers State, the appointment of commissioners.
In the Ikwerre Rescue Charter we set out and we informed the world of the injustices our people are suffering. The population of Ikwerre people is put at over 1.4 million people going by the 1996 population enumeration and frankly speaking Ikwerre is about five million people and we are under counted because we didn't have our people in positions of authority. In normal Nigerian census, if you don't have people, they will under count you for political, economic and social reasons. Therefore our population is so under counted and that is affecting us. But given that we are 1.4 million and Ikwerre is divided into four local government areas and given that Nigerian population is about 100 million people, it follows therefore that if every one million people or thereabout has four local government areas, the total number of local government areas Nigeria should have should be four hundred not about eight hundred. You see, the marginalisation of the Ikwerre people in the number of local government areas, is affecting our participation in the political sphere. It impacts on us negatively. Local government is equally one of the structures used in sharing national revenue. Therefore we get less in relation to our own population. This is injustice number one. Second injustice is that from Ikwerre land about 100,000 barrels of oil is exploited daily. And going by the present international market price of 30 US dollars per barrel, it goes therefore that Ikwerre contributes to the National treasury, three hundred million naira every day. So, we could be making about a revenue contribution of about N150 billion per annum. What comes to Ikwerre land per annum is far less than two billion. So we are equally asking that we should have right to resource control and ownership. Not only that, Ikwerre people occupy about 21,000 square kilometres of land. Of these, 21,000 square kilometres of land, over 60 per cent of it has been acquired compulsorily, seized from our people. When the British came in 1911, they renamed Ikwerre land, and called it Port Harcourt, where they call Port Harcout today is Diobu or Rebis. They named it after Louis Harcourt, a colonial criminal, who authored the destruction of African empires and kingdoms. He authored the looting of African Arts and Culture, authored the killing of African leaders, putting them into prisons and forcing them into exiles. He destroyed African traditions and wrote African history to allow for a British Imperial expansion. This was the man they named Ikwerre land after. In a confidential memo of Lord Lugard, Harcourt Louis in 1913 wrote and I quote "I have found a new plot which belongs to a single village called Diobu. If it so pleases you, I wish to name it after you. In response Louis Harcourt said, "I shall be pleased." And that was how 25 square miles of Ikwerre land was named after a colonial criminal and bandit. We are demanding that Port Harcourt should be reverted to Diobu or Rebisi because the impact, the negative impact is overwhelming in our culture and our psyche. That is part of the things contained in our racial rescue charter. The second thing, we are asking for reparations. We have contributed since 1960, oil worthy about 60 billion US dollars.
We are asking for reparations for our seized and confiscated lands. Another act of injustice which Ikwerre people are complaining about is not just maginalisation but their complete exclusion from governance and participation in the economic, social and political spheres of life. An example which cannot be doubted is that there are two universities in Ikwerre land. The Rivers State University of Science and Technology and the University of Port-Harcourt in Choba where our people were raped last year. We have 18 professors. We have never produced any vice chancellor. The deputy vice-chancellor of the University of Jos, Professor Godwin Asu is an Ikwerre man. We have several retired professors. Yet we can not be given an opportunity to head any institution in our own land. Is it because we are not restive? If the universities were in other lands where people are very restive the universities would have been short down or burnt. It is an act of Injustice. Now there are 16 Commissioners in the cabinet of Dr. Peter Odili of Rivers State. And Ikwerre accounts for about 50 per cent of the population of Rivers State. Of the 16 Commissioners, it will interest you to note, so sad as it is, that we have only one commissioner, Mr. Igochukwu Agbuma, Commissioner for Sports, just because we are not violent. We believe in the democratic, legitimate and non- violent expression of our grievances. We went to court last year because it is clear that the constitution provided for how you appoint commissioners or ministers. Section 14 subsection four provides among others that while the governor of the state appointing commissioners in compliance with Section 192, he has to appoint them, to reflect the geo-ethnic diversity of that state and their contributions. We have lost 60 per cent of our land to government and corporate institutions. in our land we have two military barracks. The one at Port Harcourt and the one at Elele. In our land, you have the biggest Palm Oil industry in the whole of West Africa, Risonpalm which is about 16 thousand hectares of land. In our land you have the Delta rubbers, you have the Prison farm, you have all the higher institutions in Rivers State. For goodness sake we are entitled to more than one Commissioner and it can not be explained while they are just picking parts of Rivers State that has a population less than that of Ikwerre by giving them appointments. So we are in Court. The matter will come up on the 27 of this month. Again, you see the plight of our people, the injustices our people are facing are too numerous. Let's get to the issue of abandoned property. With one stroke of pen the property of the Igbos were seized, the property act provides that the act cannot be challenged in court because when the act was made, the provisions of fundamental human rights in the 1963 constitutions were enforced in Port Harcourt because by then Port Harcourt was on the Federal side. The act was made in violation of the provision particularly, the right to private property. It can not be challenged, but what happened is sad. Ikwerre land was taken and dashed or given away. When you seize a house you seize the land.
Q: So what is the stand of Ikwerre people on this issue?
A: Ikwerre people have called for a revisitation of abandoned property. We are saying that it is unconstitutional and immoral. You can not seize a man's property in his own country. It should be revisited, it violates the right to property which is provided for in the 1979 Constitution of Nigeria. In the African Chapter on human and people's rights, in the international bill of rights, the people have the right to own their property or to be paid adequate compensation. So we are asking that our abandoned property should be revisited because it is a grievous act of injustice and we in Rivers State and Bayelsa, the so called South-south can not be complaining against injustice when we benefited from injustices against the Igbos and of course in the spirit of "no victor no vanquished" which Gowon proclaimed in January 1970 that singular statement means that the Igbos were restored to the status quo as they were before May 30 1967 when the state of Biafra was proclaimed. Therefore, to punish them, to marginalise and seize their property is a violation of the spirit which that statement was made by Gowon and of course, it is a pointer to the fact that the people have not been reintegrated into the country since 1970. It is equally a pointer to the fact that injustices in this country have not been properly addressed and looked into. It is equally a pointer that Nigerians do not have a universal sense of justice because such injustices do not affect them, they do not complain, they do not speak against such.
All Nigerians must speak against the Land Use Act of 1978, the Petroleum Act of 1969 and Abandoned Property Act because all these acts and several other acts are against the concept of justice and equity.
Q: What actually is the philosophy behind the Congress for the Liberation of Ikwerre people?
A: The philosophy is simple. We want justice, equity and we come with clean hands to seek justice, to seek equity. As a people, the Ikwerre people in the history of this continent, we stand firm to say we have not oppressed any people and we don't want to be oppressed. Therefore we want a Sovereign National Conference (SNC) to discuss the various injustices we are suffering. Prominent among these injustices, it is only through the Sovereign National Conference that nationalities and groups in this country can express without hindrance and limitations what they are passing though. Only that type of conference can come out with solutions to the problems of the Ikwerre people and the injustices they are suffering. The motor of the congress for the liberation of Ikwerre people is injustice.
Q: You've talked about disunity among them and the issue of abandoned property that it is injustice. When you took the government to court, was this also one of the things?
A: It was on the appointment of commissioners in Rivers State. We are marginalised. I said that we are 50 per cent of the population of the state and we have one commissioner. Of the 16 commissioners only the Sports Commissioner. We went to courts we are in court because we want the cabinet to be reshuffled. We want to be given the number of commissioners that is due us based on our population and our contribution to the state. That's all we are asking for.
Q: As the president for the Congress for the Liberation of Ikwerre People, are you making these efforts with the belief or interest that if eventually your agitation are addressed that you'll be favoured and may be made a commissioner?
A: No. I am not interested in being a commissioner. I am not a member of the PDP. The commissioners are voted from the party in power. I am not interested and if am given a commissioner today, I'll turn it down because, it will limit what I want to do. Rather if I have the opportunity, I will seek election to go to the parliament and it is in parliament that some of the issues confronting my people could be tackled. I hold the Ikwerre people in the Rivers State House of Assembly guilty. I hold them responsible for what we are passing through particularly with the appointment of commissioners. They refused to say anything. They never protested against the list submitted by the governor, and they went ahead and approved it. We knew it was against our own interest. They went ahead and approved the list submitted to the Assembly for the appointment of chairmen and members of the various commissions, the state electoral commission, the state civil service commission, and others. None of the chairmen of the four commissions established by the governor two months ago, none of them is an Ikwerre man. The House of Assembly is responsible, and we are equating them as sell-outs. They have compromised the interests of the Ikwerre people. I don't know what they are doing there.
Have you discussed these issues with any of the members of the State House of Assembly?
Yes. We have discussed but I don't understand what they are saying. We discussed and we know that they are compromising.
Q: Up to how many people do you have in the Assembly?
A: Of the 32 members, Ikwerre has six and the six, they refused to say anything. If they had spoken with one voice, the government would have known that we are not happy. They refused to say anything. Even if they are two, or even one, that one persons says no, it is important.
Q: Do you support their being bought over by other people?
A: Not necessarily being bought over. I don't think they were bought over by the other groups. I think they are not prepared to speak for the Ikwerre people. I would not use the word bought over. They were not prepared to speak for the Ikwerre people.
Q: What do you think is responsible for their inability to speak for their people?
A: Perhaps timidity and lack of consciousness or not knowing the methodology or not even knowing why they are there or not knowing the constitutional limitations of the governor. Perhaps they don't know that the governor has to appoint commissioner to reflect the ethnic diversities of the state, to reflect the contribution, you will look at the population of the various nationalities. Perhaps they are very ignorant of the constitution.
Q: Do you blame the people who vote in such people?
A: Well, I wouldn't blame the people. They are not God. Nobody is God to know the minds of people or to know obvious limitations of the people.
Q: Now do you assess the relationship between the Igbos whose properties were seized after the civil war and the Ikwerre people, per se?
A: Very fine? And let me tell you, the thing is not the Igbo properties that were seized. The properties of Ikwerre people were also seized under the disguise of abandoned properties. They took our land, dashed it away. And some of the properties they took were empty plots of land, some were on lease. And the Federal Government took these and gave out. They did not give such to the Ikwerre people less than one per cent of the properties is in the hands of Ikwerre people. They took it and gave it to the non-Ikwerre as a way of punishing Ikwerre people and the Igbos who were conquered and intimidated in 1970. Let me tell you the statement of no victor no vanquished is a ruse. It is a farce.
Q: So what is the relationship between the Igbos and Ikwerres?
A: Beautiful, the Ikwerre people have a very cordial relationship with the Igbos. One, the Ikwerre, Ogba and Ekpee and Echie were the only people that voted for the Nigeria Peoples Party (NPP) in 1979.
We introduced two senators, Obi Nwali and Francis Ellah. All the people that went to the House of Assembly were on the platform of the NPP. House of Representatives also NPP. So the thing is nine years after the war, the first election, we expressed our solidarity, our unity of purpose and action by voting for the NPP, which was purely an Igbo party.
Eighty per cent Ikwerre people have their mothers or sisters from Igboland. Therefore if you wipe away Ikwerre, in any town, village or hamlet you go in Igboland, somebody will be mourning. Either mourning for the death of his sister, aunty or one other relation. So our destiny is one and the same. So what affects the other affects us and there is need for us to come together to find a common ground to save ourselves.
Q: If they are so united as you said what has made the Ikwerres denounce anything that could make one see them as close to Igbos. For instance in Ikwerre land today, you have Rummokuruta, Rumuola, Rumuibekwe etc. All these were said to have existed earlier with the prefix "R" in them.
A: On Sunday, I addressed a strong Igbo gathering here in Lagos. It is not true.
Q: What is not true?
A: It is not true that Rs were added to these names. I will demonstrate one thing. If you are coming from Owerri, you have the Umu's. They answer Umu, Umu up to Ohaji area, they are equally Ikwerre's but they are in Imo State. Then you get to Rivers you got to Elele, Isiokpo. As you cross Isiokpo, you get Umuakwa etc.
From the Obio/Akpor axis, they say Rumm. You see we say ala, they say ele referring to land.
The Igbo say ala. I know a lot of Igbos who say ele or even ani all referring to land. What I am trying to say is that there are dialectical differences. At no time did the Ikwerres add Rs to make their names Rumu. We know this is not true but it is the impression given by enemies to Igbos.
Q: What are your views on the revenue allocation formula by the Federal Government considering the fact that yours is an oil producing state?
A: Let me tell you something, the states and local governments were not created to discharge justice and equity. They were created to please those who are political fathers or those who have people in the corridors of power. Local governments were granted to those who have their people in government. I have just demonstrated something. Ikwerre is more populated than the whole of Bayelsa State. That must be noted, Ikwerre is even more populated than Yobe, and Taraba states. Therefore why not give us a state? We only have four local government areas. Now sharing revenue, we share on basis of local government areas and states, what would Ikwerre get? There is need for a Sovereign National Conference to discuss Federalism which would include state and local government structures, resource control and ownership etc.
Land ownership and control because land is also fundamental. Just as I said, we have lost about 60 per cent of our land.
Of all the ethnic nationalities in the Federation, none is talking about displacement. Ikwerre people are talking about displacement from land and this is why our own case is superior. Of all the ethnic groups in the Niger Delta, Ikwerre is the most marginalised. No ethnic group in the Niger Delta is as marginalised as Ikwerre. I challenge any of them to show that they have been displaced from their land.
When Ikwerre people say they are displaced from their land, others are talking about oil. We don't have places to farm. Our people must buy food from the market to be able to feed and they are poor therefore they are suffering from kwashiorkor.
Our females have taken to prostitution. Our young males to crime. We suffer social dislocations and social disillusionment. The biggest industrial estate East of the Nigeria in Ikwerre land, Trans Amadi Industrial Layout. All the multinationals in the oil industry with their subsidiaries have their offices or headquarters in Ikwerre land.
Our people are not employed, where we are employed, we are underemployed. And these affect us. We suffer from inflation. Inflation, that is water borne development that has no impacts on our people. This inflation, other nationalities in the Niger Delta don't suffer it. Port Harcourt is the most expensive city. It is more expensive than Lagos. The immediate impact is on the Ikwerre people who live in Port Harcout, who own the land and environs of Port Harcourt where we have Ikwerre villages and towns. The roads in Ikwerre land are not developed. The only food road we have in Ikwerre is the one that leads from Port Harcourt to Warri. It is not for us. They built it because of the oil companies trucks and vehicles which they want to pass through there.
The one from Owerri to Port Harcourt was developed by the colonial government. Apart from that, no other roads in Ikwerre land. No hospitals, no clinics. The hospitals and clinics are so far from Ikwerre land. In fact all the hospitals and clinics we have in Ikwerre land are not functioning.
The one ones functioning are the only ones in Port Harcourt, University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital. The case is that when our people are sick, especially during rainy seasons, or a woman suffers from labour, maybe in the night she must die. If she bleeds she must die because before you take her to the hospital she must have died because most of the villages don't have access roads. The people are poor, they don't have vehicles. They use motorcycles and bicycles, so this is the type or degree of suffering going on there.
Giving all these anomalies, and the oil exploration going on there, is it your suggestion that your people be given a state?
We demanded that in the Ikwerre Rescue Charter. We asked for the creation of Ikwerre State. I say we are more populated than Bayelsa, Yobe and Taraba States. Only in an Ikwerre State can the Ikwerre people express themselves. Only in Ikwerre State can their aspirations and wishes be attended to and admired. In fact the failure to create a Port Harcourt State since 1974 was the desire of the oligarchy not to create an Igbo State in Rivers State. They say that if they create Port Harcourt State, they would have created an Igbo State.
Rightly or wrongly they didn't do that and they did not want to transfer such big institutions like the Trans Amadi Industrial layout, the International Airport, the universities, the oil wells in that part of the world to the Igbos. Therefore Igbos must stand to fight for the creation of state, in that part of the country. It is urgent. It is necessary to create the State.
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