Chief Daniel E. Ekpebide is the Ibakurowei of Gbaramatu Kingdom in Warri South West Local Government Area of Delta State. In this interview with TEJIRI EBIKEME and FRANCIS SADHERE, he talks about the unity of Nigeria, militarization of Gbaramatu kingdom, the proposed Nigeria Maritime University, Tompolo’s travail, Niger Delta Avengers, state of the Niger Delta region and a host of other burning issues in the country. Excerpt:
Please let us meet you.
My name is Chief Dan Ekpebide, a Palace Chief in Gbaramatu kingdom in Warri South West Local Government Area of Delta State.
We thought permanent peace has arrived in Niger Delta but a new militant group has resurfaced again. What led to their re-emergence?
First let me talk about the peace in Gbaramatu kingdom. After the invasion in 2009, which was truly uncalled for, we dragged the Federal Government to court, suing them for one hundred billion naira, which we won. Up till this very moment, the government has not appealed the judgement. So we are hoping that one day we will be paid compensation on the unprovoked invasion of our people. After the amnesty proclamation by late President Umaru Musa YarAdua, Gbaramatu Kingdom has been a peaceful place. And thank God our son who was involved in militant activities then also accepted the amnesty. Since then, Gbaramatu has been very peaceful until this recent Niger Delta Avengers came up. Well, as a chief from Gbaramatu kingdom, I will say that Niger Delta Avengers is not part of Gbaramatu kingdom. We do not know them, we do not know where they came from, we only see their publications online and print media. We have nothing to do with them. We also found out from our son, Government Ekpemukpolo has said that he is not involved from the publications we saw in newspapers. We also learnt, from attacks on him by the Niger Delta Avengers that he is not involved. We were apprehensive at a time because they also threatened to attack his people if he does not stay clear from their activities. And that was why when the military invaded our community, it was like a sweet bitter experience because our people were suffering and at the same time the presence of the military could Ward off attacks by the Niger Delta Avengers on our people. So many things happened when the military came to our community. There was a case where a girl was raped by some of the military men. Our people are a very hospitable people and we we are playing good host to the military. But how can you play a good host to a man that is raping your daughter and wife and beats up an eighty years old man. So we cried out to the Government to remove them from our community because initially we thought that they would be good guests.
What is happening today, these bombing and what have you, is affecting our lives directly. The average Ijaw man is a fisher man and when these pipes are destroyed, spills run into the environment and the ecosystem is destroyed. We are affected in both ways. We see it as an ill wind that is doing nobody any good. So we condemn these bombings in it entirety.
The invasion of Gbaramatu kingdom keeps on surprising us because pipelines were also destroyed in Rivers and Bayelsa states and no community was being invaded in those states. Some pipelines were also destroyed in Itsekiri areas and no military has been sent to those areas. Are they indirectly telling us that Gbaramatu is synonymous with Niger Delta Avengers? This is wrong because we have nothing to do with the Avengers. If you see their publications, they have said that their membership cut across the Niger Delta region. They have all sought of code names for their strike teams. None of them has come out to say that Gbaramatu is our base and we are surprised by this incessant attacks on Gbaramatu kingdom.
Why is Gbaramatu always on the news?
Gbaramatu is like a city set in the hills. I want to believe that, first, Gbaramatu is an oil producing community. second, maybe because of the role they played during the Ijaw struggle before the amnesty, that is why they are attacking us, we do not know. Otherwise, I want to believe that Gbaramatu community is like every other community in Nigeria. We are passing through all these because of the believe and perception of certain people who believe that Tompolo is a threat to their leadership tussle. Otherwise, what is happening in Gbaramatu is totally uncalled for.
How do we restore peace in the region?
We are working towards it and that is why you saw me accompanied the minister of state for petroleum, Dr. Ibe Kachukwu to the site of the Nigerian Maritime University in Okerenkeko. First, we have to start by building confidence. We have to build confidence on our people that this government is our government. You heard the statement of our President that said that military option should be ruled out and we should go for the option of dialogue. We are also pleading with the Niger Delta Avengers that they should accept this olive branch of negotiating with the government. If the negotiations fail, then people will say that this people have a reason for doing what they are doing. They should start the process of dialogue with the Government because from what we are seeing today, it means the government is being sincere. With the discussion we had with the minister and his body language, I am very sure that the Government is very sincere. So I am begging the Niger Delta Avengers to go ahead with the dialogue so that peace can return to the Niger Delta region.
Where is Tompolo?
(Paused)Tompolo should be in Oporoza. He is in Gbaramatu. For some time now, I have not seen him. Before now, ordinarily we do not see each other often. The last time I met with him was when we did the coronation of our traditional ruler and since then I have not seen him. So I believe he should be in Oporoza, the Headquarters of Gbaramatu Kingdom.
Can you suggest to him to submit himself to EFCC?
Let me tell you something, even if Tompolo is my enemy, I will not advice him to go and face those people. His lawyers are handling that matter for him already. What is happening to this young is purely vindictive. That the Federal Government or NIMASA bought his property for 13 billion is not strange. He is a businesses man, and the motive of every businessman is to make profits. Let say, maybe they started their negotiations from 20 billion and at the end of the day they arrived at 13 billion naira and the money was paid after going through due process. Why not go to the authority that bought the property instead of going after the man that sold the property? For instance, your car is packed outside and I made you an offer that I want to buy that your car for 10 million naira and you said no, you do not want to sell it. I now started begging you and I offered you 12 million naira but you said no, I should make it 13 million. And I said OK, deal. Will you not accept it? Let my father query me for buying your car for 13 million and you that sold the car to me. How much you sold the car is nobody’s business. So, if you look at it critically, you will see that it’s vindictive. I will not advise him to go and submit himself until I see reason to think otherwise. But for now, I think it is vindictive. I do not know how they negotiated and came to that amount. It is purely a private business matter. It is because the business has now gone soar that is why we are all coming, otherwise I was not there when they started
Now, let us talk about the controversial Nigerian Maritime University. Earlier this year Amaechi said they should scrap the university. How will you react to this?
Amaechi is a politician from the Niger Delta region and he is the minister of transport. Unfortunately, he is a supervising minister under NIMASA. That does not give him any right over whatever NIMASA is doing. So what Amaechi did that day, he really overstepped his bounds because maybe the man in charge of NIMASA is his puppet. Otherwise he cannot just say that the University will not work. The Maritime University and NIMASA are not directly under the ministry of transport. He just has an oversight function on NIMASA. The Minister of transport has nothing to do with the activities of NIMASA. Now come to think of Amaechi as a two term governor in Niger Delta, that is my disappointment. For him to say that that University should not be in the Niger Delta region is a big disappointment. May be he said this on the background that was misinformed by people who have ulterior motives. Otherwise what stops us from having ten Federal Universities in the Niger Delta region. We are the economic base of this country. Okerenkoko is a typical maritime area. Chevron, Shell and other oil companies are there and there will be no need for the students of the University to go to other places to struggle for industrial training space. We have a lot of marine activities going on there. I am really disappointed with Amaechi’s utterances.
What do you advice the President to do about the University?
They should disregard the utterances of Rotimi Amaechi. They should send an independent team to the site of the University that will comprise the National Assembly and if possible the NSA. They should do the same thing that Kachukwu did.
Tell us, what was the outcome of the visit of the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr Ibe Emmanuel Kachikwu to Okerenkoko recently?
The minister will speak for himself but I know that he was amazed by what he saw on ground because what he saw was quite different from what he was told. We took him round the temporary site of the University and he confessed that the facilities he saw there can stand for any University anywhere in the world. We overflew the permanent site because there was no place for us to land there and he was perplexed when he saw the extent of job going on in that place. So I am very sure that by the time the Federal Government is properly informed, the University will take off because the structures are there.
The visit has given us hope that the University is going to come back and peace is going to come back to our communities and we will stop running. It has also given us hope that the Buhari administration is sincere about the dialogue. The Minister is a window to the Buhari administration because if you see the Buhari administration through the Minister of state for Petroleum, it shows that the administration is ready for Niger Delta people. Kachukwu epitomizes hope for the hopeless people of Niger Delta.
People are saying that the place is too remote to have access to, what do you have to say about this?
It takes less than one hour in a speed boat to get to Okerenkoko. NDDC has contracted the road running from Omadino to Okerenkoko. They have mobilized the contractors already for phase one. Then from there, the road will go to Ugborodo. It is a network of roads that will cut across both Ijaw and Itsekiri communities. Once that road is completed, it serve the oil people and it will open commerce in those communities. So accessing that place is not a difficult thing.
What do you think are the major issues disturbing the Niger Delta region?
Well, the issues as expressed by different groups in the region are the issues of marginalization in term of political, economical and unfair distribution of amenities in the region. The Niger Delta region has been so much short-changed. If you look at the 2016 budget, 65% of the budget is financed by oil from the Niger Delta region, yet if you look at the budget, less than 10% of that budget is for the development of Niger Delta. So what we are saying is that, let there be true fiscal federalism as it is practiced in America. Nigeria is practising the American system of government, therefore Nigeria should emulate the American economic systems too. Democracy cannot be separated from economic policies. So by the time we practice fiscal federalism where every state will control the resources within its state and then pay taxes to the Federal Government. We have three lists in the constitution, the exclusive, concurrent and the residual lists. We should state out clearly those things that are in the concurrent, exclusive and residual lists.
The Federal Government says all lands in Nigeria belongs to it. Therefore all the minerals in it including oil belong to them. So all oil mining licences are to be given out to miners by the Federal Government. But recently, they said gold mining Licence in the North should be given by governors. We are asking, is it the same economic policy that governs the whole Nigeria or is the Northern states different from Nigeria? In Niger Delta, they talk about illegal refineries, but recently a Northern lawmaker was making a case for informal mining which is the same thing as illegal refineries. So let us make all these things formal so that people will be given licence to operate modular refineries.
If we want to still remain as Nigerians we need to renegotiate the terms of our existence together. The entity that brought us together in 1914 has expired. There is nothing legally holding us together as a country. The leaders of this country need to come together and dialogue our continued unity. Nigeria need the reorganization of her economic and political system.
During the military raid in Gbaramatu, we heard that the soldiers took away the symbol of your tradition, the golden staff. Has it been returned?
No. up till this moment that I am talking to you the military has not returned it. I discussed with the brigade commander, General Yahaya and he assured us that they are going to return the staff of office. But what they returned are just empty cut lasses. The golden sword was not among the things they returned. Well, they have the might and everything so they can do whatever they like.
How would you want to see Niger Delta in the next ten years?
In the next ten years, I would like to see Niger Delta region look like Holland and Dubai. We want to see a Niger Delta that will look like Amsterdam. I want to see a Niger Delta that would be a tourist attraction. I want to see that by the time the Maritime University takes off and the EPZ takes off because only the EPZ alone can employ more than Twenty Thousand people. We do not have that population in this region. If the Federal Government is sincere they should forget about ethnicity and ensure that the Maritime University and the EPZ kick off. My brother, there is nothing that will make the Ijaws and the Itsekiris fight again. Instead, we are going to fight those that are making us to fight ourselves.
What is your message to both the Federal Government and the Militants?
My message is that, the Federal Government should be sincere about the proposed dialogue and use the Yar’Adua pattern. To the Niger Delta Avengers, it is not only Niger Deltan Avengers, but other militants are springing up too. My message to them is that violent does not pay. No matter how you fight, you will still come to the round table to discuss. Now that the Federal Government has decided to dialogue, they should embrace it. One thing I know about negotiations is that it is not everything you bring to the negotiations table that you will get.
