I AM A DELTAN

“One fifth of the people are against everything all the time.”
J.F. Kennedy.

All columnists are used to having feedbacks, some abusive, others encouraging. Indeed, these feedbacks mean a lot, even if, in many instances, they come from people who have either not read what you have written, or understood it. Since I started writing for the Vanguard sometime last year, I had braced myself every week for the on-line comments as well as the many more which I receive through my e-mail address. A large number of the responses I get, no matter what I write on, are informed by my geo-ethnic origins (and this is usually couched as “abokie” “goat-rearer”, “book-haramist” “malam” “almangiri”) and nothing I write is good. I take comfort from the belief that many more readers will have opinions which, though they may not express them, are generally less negative. In fairness there have also been many responses from people I have extremely high regard for from the south, who have communicated with me privately on what I write. I found those bits particularly inspiring.

Last week I wrote on the reports that the government of Delta State had planned to spend over N7b to demolish a hill (which others said was a pile of sand) around the Asaba Airport to expand its runway, and allow President Jonathan’s plane land for the South South Economic Summit. I questioned the cost, rationale and viability of the project, and I made the point that it is projects of this type that give people like the Governor of Niger State, Dr Muazu Babangida Aliyu the basis for suggesting that all this money that goes to the South South leads to some waste and mismanagement. While making the case that the President and other leaders from the Niger Delta State have a responsibility to ensure that the quality of governance in the region is improved, I also mentioned that every Nigerian has a right to insist that people of Delta State get value for money from their government.
As usual, there were mixed responses. A few thought it was encouraging to have a northerner comment on a matter so far away from him. I reminded those people to see the extensive and impressive effort made by a “northern” newspaper, Daily Trust, to look into this issue, and the extent its reporter went (unsuccessfully, unfortunately) to get the government of Delta State to state its own side of the story.

But the most robust response came from someone I know very well. I had worked with him at a very high level in the federal civil service, and though I was his senior in the service, I had called him “Sir” because he was older than me. He had retired before me, and somehow I had lost touch with him for the last few years.
As it turned out I had also lost touch with his political re-orientation. When he contacted me through my e-mail initially, I was so shocked by the manner of his response and the issues he raised that I had to ask if it was the same person I interacted with as a colleague in the public service for almost 15 years. When he answered in the affirmative, I was stumped. We all have many parts to our characters and personalities; and even values which we think are settled in our lives can be severely tested by changing contexts, circumstances and environment. My friend says he is not an employee or appointee of the government of Delta State, even though he is an indigene of Asaba. He took particular exception to me making it my business to devote a whole page on an issue which affects the people of Delta State, instead of raising matters about Boko Haram, child beggars or the silent exodus from the north, of people from the southeast and south south. What, he asked, is N7.4b to a people blessed by God with unlimited resources, if it expands the airport and in five, six or ten years, it becomes the hub of air travel around the Delta and Gulf of Guinea? What will I do next, now that I have nothing about the north to criticize: snoop around every government project in BRACED, and write columns? Have I heard the NSA say northerners in the PDP are responsible for Boko Haram at the Summit? Isn’t that more useful to write on than the Delta airport?

Naturally, these were questions coming from him in a rather lengthy engagement, to which I responded. I have to say, however, that I did not succeed in getting my (now former) friend to see my point of view. He conceded only one thing to me: he said he believed me when I assured him that I was not paid to do a hatchet job against the Governor and Government of Delta State, and that it will be very helpful if the State Government itself puts forward its own position on this matter.

I admit I felt deeply saddened that the current state of the nation where our failure to manage our pluralism
through an all-inclusive political process, failures of leadership and emergence of threats to national security which appear to be pitching sections of the country against each other are making casualties of our senses and perceptions of each other. We see this type of bitter, shallow and stereotyped characterization of each other in chatrooms and other social media where the younger generation of Nigerians reside almost permanently. But to see it in a man over 60 who has given his entire life to the service of the nation is profoundly saddening. More worrying is the possibility that there could be many more like this elderly Nigerian who have drawn rigid lines around the concept and practice of one nation; and of a citizenry linked by bonds so strong that the recent massacre of 50 people in a cattle market in Potiskum, Yobe State is bound to have a major impact on the local economy, Igbo cattle dealers, transporters, consumers in Potiskum, Owerri and Asaba, and on the cattle industry generally. The insecurity we live under appears to be blinding us to the fact that the innocent lives bombed and shot at the Bayero University Kano recently are being locally mourned by millions, many of whom are Muslims who also lost loves ones in many recent attacks in Kano. All this talk about regional development and blueprints for possible autonomy is creating a false consciousness that parts of Nigeria can just walk away from the nation anytime they feel like it.

Needless to say, I reminded my friend that I am from Delta State. I am also from Osun, Benue, Abia and Sokoto. I hurt when the resources which God endowed us with are plundered or abused, and it doesn’t matter who does it. I hurt when bombs go off, whoever the victims are. I hurt when I am told that the problems of the north, of child beggars, decaying infrastructure, corruption and impunity are the problems of northerners. In case there are citizens of Delta State reading this, the N7.4b being spent on the Asaba airport should be explained, at the very least. It’s your money, and mine.Delete ReplyReply ForwardMovePrint Actions NextPrevious