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Resource Control: HISTORY IS ABOUT TO REPEAT ITSELF AT THE OBASANJO CONFERENCE
More than one hundred years ago Chiefs, Kings and Leaders in Anang, Efik, Ibibio, Ijaw, Igbo, Ekoi, Ogoja, Isoko, Esan, Itsekiri, Urhobo, Bini, Lagos and other communities in Southern Nigeria were coned by representatives of Her Majesty’s Government in Britain into signing away control of their land to the British government. Her Majesty’s army forcibly took over some of the land, promised the people of these communities military protection from their enemies and assured them that they were only interested in trade. Next the British took over the lands and the people and turned them into Her Majesty’s property. The land became her Majesty’s land and colony and the people became her Majesty’s subjects. The people lost their land, their freedom, and their identity. It has been more than one hundred years and yet the impact of this debacle has not yet been fully reversed. Younger generations from these communities have blamed these Chiefs, Kings and Leaders and wondered how they could be so naďve as to be bought over by the Europeans with such useless gifts as walking sticks, mirrors, glass beads, heads of tobacco, and bottles of whiskey.
To avoid any such mistakes in the future, each of these communities sent their sons and daughters to Europe, America and other lands to study and receive good education in the White mans ways, his laws, military tactics, administration and general education. These sons and daughters came back to their land and used the education they had acquired in these fields to challenge the British and force them out of their land which they had occupied. For a few short years the communities temporarily regained their land and freedom and started rebuilding their identities. But before the British left Nigeria in 1960, they organized elections; they rigged the elections and put political and military power firmly in the hands of leaders of the Northern Caliphate, Hausa Fulani leaders who had maintained a feudal system of government that fitted the scheme of the British government. The Caliphate guaranteed the British continued rule over these communities in Southern Nigeria, albeit indirectly and through their surrogate, the Caliphate. With the help of British experts the Caliphate has done a masterful job of recruiting, corrupting and brainwashing some Kings, Chiefs and Leaders from these communities in the South into acquiescing to the continued domination of their people, as well as control of their land and the natural resources in it.
In 1969 as the Igbo and peoples of the Niger Delta who were fighting for their self determination in Biafra were being persecuted, slaughtered and starved to death in millions by the government and people of Nigeria, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Minister of Finance and effective head of government of the Yakubu Gowon Junta in collusion with Gowon and agents of the Caliphate passed the Petroleum Decree, 1969. This decree stripped the Anang, Efik, Ibibio, Ijaw, Igbo, Ekoi, Ogoja, Isoko, Esan, Itsekiri, Urhobo, Bini and other communities in Eastern Nigeria of their right to ownership and control of the petroleum in their land and vested that right of ownership and control in the Federal Government of Nigeria under the control of the Caliphate. In effect you own the land but you do not own the natural resources in the land. This is crooked thinking at its most ridiculous extreme. What did the people who were robbed of their most cherished and valued private property say? Nothing! In fact some of them cheered for "One Nigeria."
In 1978, Olusegun Obasanjo enacted the infamous Land Use Decree, and effectively stripped the Anang, Efik, Ibibio, Ijaw, Igbo, Ekoi, Ogoja, Isoko, Esan, Itsekiri, Urhobo, Bini, and other communities in Southern Nigeria of their right to even the private ownership of their ancestral land and effectively transferred ownership of all their land to the Federal Government of Nigeria controlled by the Caliphate and her lieutenants. What did the owners of the land say? Again nothing! Again some of them cheered for "One Nigeria." Then Ibrahim Babangida extended this insatiable greed for land in the South by passing another decree which gave the Federal Government of Nigeria [the Caliphate and her lieutenants] ownership of all land with in 100 meters of the continental shoreline of Nigeria. By taking even the continental shoreline the Caliphate demonstrated the extreme wickedness of her actions towards these communities in Southern Nigeria. By these acts Obafemi Awolowo, Olusegun Obasanjo, and Ibrahim Babangida upturned the land tenure system in all of Southern Nigeria where communities and individual families owned their land and the natural resources in it. They changed the principle of individual ownership of private property (land) to the feudal system in the Caliphate of Northern Nigeria where all property especially land belongs to the Emir. As soon as Awolowo and Obasanjo were out of power Shagari and subsequent leaders of the Caliphate incorporated these edicts into the Nigerian Constitution.
To see this clearly, read Chapter IV, Section 44, subsection 3 of the Nigerian Constitution, 1999 which states as follows: Notwithstanding the foregoing provisions of this section, the entire property in and control of all minerals, mineral oils and natural gas in under or upon any land in Nigeria or in, under or upon the territorial waters and the Exclusive Economic Zone of Nigeria shall vest in the Government of the Federation and shall be managed in such manner as may be prescribed by the National Assembly. This section of the constitution summarizes the status of the people of Southern Nigeria with respect to private ownership of property – they are simply tenants on the land. Remember the situation in Apartheid South Africa and Rhodesia where Black people were stripped of ownership of their land and made tenants on their land. Do you see any resemblance in the Petroleum and Land use decrees?
The question one might ask is where were the big politicians, top army officers, big professors, top lawyers (SAN), high flying intellectuals, top civil servants and super permanent secretaries from Anang, Efik, Ibibio, Ijaw, Igbo, Ekoi, Ogoja, Isoko, Esan, Itsekiri, Urhobo and Bini when Awolowo, Obasanjo, Babangida, and later Abacha and Abdulsalam Abubakar were cooking up these schemes to take away all land and natural resources belonging to the people and communities in Eastern Nigeria? This program of total colonization of the East by the Caliphate did not happen overnight. It took some 30 years.
As this was going on, a few short sighted, greedy, avaricious and foolish Kings, Chiefs and leaders from Anang, Efik, Ibibio, Ijaw, Igbo, Ekoi, Ogoja, Isoko, Esan, Itsekiri, Urhobo, Bini were cheering believing that the Caliphate had finally demolished Biafra, their phantom enemy. Little did it occur to them that they had just exchanged British colonialism from which Zik of Africa and his colleagues saved them, for a more primitive, uncompromising and violent form of colonialism which is in fact slavery at the hands of the Nigerian Caliphate and the Hausa Fulani Yoruba feudal oligarchs. The Caliphate fed them the poison pill of "One Nigeria"; they swallowed it and became zombies. Now you know why Odumegwu Ojukwu and many prominent sons and daughters from Eastern Nigeria were tactically excluded from the National Political Reforms Conference by Obasanjo.
The greedy Chiefs and leaders rejected and undermined Biafra that guaranteed them freedom, justice, liberty, respect of individual rights, respect of private property and control over their lands and the minerals and other resources in it according to our customs and traditions and embraced "One Nigeria" which guaranteed them injustice, loss of their freedom, liberty, individual rights; loss of their private property including their land and the natural resources in it. Apart from the political consequence of loss of freedom, liberty and personal identity, there has also been devastating economic consequences of this blunder. Respect for private property is one of the most fundamental planks underlying the philosophy of existence in most societies in Eastern Nigeria. Among the Igbo it is the overarching principle that underlies every aspect of the existence of the Igbo. It is particularly poignant in the Igbo person’s relationship to land. Only when private ownership of land is guaranteed and respected can you develop the land; build houses and industries and commit large amounts of capital to establishing the infrastructure that will support economic venture. It is the engine that drives economic progress and was responsible for building an economically viabrant middle class in Igbo society. Undercutting the all important principle of respect for private property has created a myriad of problems: a culture of dependency, uncontrollable corruption in all sectors of the society, creation of decadent oligarchs, extinction of the middle class, grinding poverty and ceaseless resistance against the appropriation of people’s private property.
So what will the Anang, Efik, Ibibio, Ijaw, Igbo, Ekoi, Ogoja, Isoko, Esan, Itsekiri, Urhobo, Bini do now? Bear in mind that there is no where in the history of the world an oppressor woke up one morning, decided that he had oppressed the people enough and then asked them to have their freedom and control their lives. No, it has never happened. The oppressed must fight back to regain their freedom. Listen to these statements by prominent members of the Caliphate. Governor Ibrahim Shekaru of Kano on behalf of the Caliphate and the people of Northern Nigeria warned the Oil producing communities to stop asking to exercise control over their land and the natural resources in it because: "you have not given a good account of how you spent the 13% allocation we gave to you." What Governor Shekaru is saying is that all the Oil producing communities in Eastern Nigeria should be thankful that the Caliphate and the Hausa Fulani Yoruba oligarchs were kind enough to have given them 13% of the money the Caliphate stole from their land. Secondly since in the eyes of the Caliphate these communities have not given a good account to their master Caliph how they spent the 13% given to them, they should stop talking about controlling the resources in the land God gave to the Caliphate to manage.
Ambassador Hassan Adamu who is a delegate to the Obasanjo conference stated: "Rather than talk about resource control, the debate should center on resource management. What we need to talk about is how you manage the resources that are available and given to you to address certain issues." Those who do not understand where the Caliphate is going with this, please listen to another prominent son of the Caliphate.Dr. Bala Usman categorically states: "The British did not conquer the pre-colonial polities of Nigeria only to leave alone their land and minerals. They took full control over these, as the sovereign power. Whatever sovereign rights the governments of the pre-colonial polities of the Niger Delta and its hinterland had, over the soil, water, and minerals of the areas, were destroyed by the British conquest." Usman continues: "Those states of Nigeria, upstream from the delta, in the Niger-Benue basin, should take exclusive ownership and control of the river water and its sediments drained away from them to form the delta and its hinterland and demand their share from the returns from the export of crude oil and gas in proportion to what their vegetation, faeces, dead bodies, animal remains, and fertile soil, generally contributed to the making of these minerals for hundreds of thousands and even millions of years." There you have it clear as crystal. The Caliphate has drawn a line in the sand: (1) The people of Eastern Nigeria: Anang, Efik, Ibibio, Igbo, Ijaw, Ekoi, Ogoja, Isoko, Itsekiri, Esan, Urhobo and even Yoruba were conquered by the British, their land taken away and at Independence handed over to the Caliphate Federal Government of Abubakar Tafawa Balewa. Therefore the land of the Niger Delta belongs to the Caliphate. (2) Oil, Gas, and water that are found in the Niger Delta came originally from the North. So the Oil, Gas and water belong to the people of the Caliphate. Conclusion: The demand for resource control by Oil producing communities in Southern Nigeria is a misnomer.
The people of Eastern Nigeria must realize that this is an extremely serious matter and stop treating it as a matter of compromise. The longer you wait, delay and postpone the more difficult it becomes. All the people and communities in Eastern Nigeria must come together, speak with one voice and make it abundantly clear to the Government and people of Nigeria especially the Caliphate and the Hausa Fulani Yoruba Oligarchs that:
1) The land as well as the minerals in the land in Eastern Nigeria belongs to the different communities living on the land and not the Federal Government of Nigeria. It is extremely important to establish this fundamental principle of private ownership.
2) Under natural and international law the people who own the land will exercise control over the land as well as the natural resources in the land.
3) Any laws or edicts made by any government which purports to divest, or take away the right of the people to private ownership of their land as well as the natural resources in it is null and void and of no effect whatsoever.
4) The concepts of "allocation" and "derivation" are not applicable to private property of the people of Eastern Nigeria. The Nigerian government must henceforth cease to apply such terms to the land and resources belonging to the private communities and individuals in Eastern Nigeria. The people and communities may be taxed on the income they derive from the land and natural resources that is rightly their own.
5) Only with express consent from the owners of the land coupled with appropriate compensation will the government appropriate their land and then only specifically for development purposes.
Having clearly established these facts the people of Eastern Nigeria must prepare to fight to regain their land. Initial fights will take the form of negotiation around a conference table for a peaceful resolution of the issue. If that fails the people must use any and every means at their disposal to remove the intruders who have forcibly taken control of their God given land for their personal enrichment. It is not just a right, it is a duty. The youths must be in the vanguard of this struggle and insist that whoever is representing them at any talks must toe this line and insist on these principles and failure to do so will attract drastic punishment. Any agreements reached must be ratified by the communities thus represented. Any one waiting until the Caliphate and the Hausa Fulani Yoruba oligarchs voluntarily hand over the land and resources they have appropriated by force will wait until hell freezes over.
There has been Kiama declaration, Ogoni Bill of Rights, Aklaka Declaration, Bill of Rights of the Oron People, The Warri Accord, and Resolutions of the Urhobo Economic Summit, Ikwerre Rescue Charter, and other charters. They are all good. But unless you all come together and confront the Caliphate and the Hausa Fulani Yoruba oligarchy with a united front every effort will be wasted and you all will remain a colonized people. Biafra is the only viable alternative to the nightmare that is Nigeria. Free and independent Republic of Biafra is our only hope. The alternative will only mean the persistence of this recurring problem and no sane Biafran or person from Eastern Nigeria would want this. United we stand, divided we fall. A word is enough for the wise.
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Posts: 6 | From: Washington DC | Registered: Nov 2002
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Do you mind telling us how this recycled stuff you posted is justified? Exactly what is the history and how exactly is it about to repeat itself? Please, be very specific in your answer.
___________________ Jesus is Lord Posts: 96 | From: Dallas, Texas | Registered: Aug 2002
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