By Amatari Weighba (a just & fair minded Niger Deltan of Ijaw extraction)
Before the emergence of
Goodluck Ebele Jonathan as president, the likes of Ankio Briggs, Asari Dokubo, Opunabo
Nkot 'Tariah, Ledum Metee, Edwin Clark etc were always on Television telling Nigerians and
the world how the South-South has been marginalized by the North and the West despite
her oil.
By divine and metaphysical error,
Goodluck Jonathan from the South-South, the presumed Nazareth of Nigeria became the
president of Nigeria after
President Umaru Yaradua's death in 2009.
His emergence came as a joyous daybreak to end our age-long
marginalization .
There was a beacon light of hope for my region. Immediately, the Niger Delta struggle stumbled and died or gone Comatose.
The Niger Delta activists mentioned above became
Jonathan's spokespersons and abandoned the struggle.
In 2011, Nigerians, Hausa,
Yoruba, Igbo, Christians and muslims voted massively for Jonathan.
Thereafter, administrative thieves were appointed Ministers and head of federal institutions,
- Convicted criminals received presidential pardon.
- Militants were given contracts running into billions of Naira.
- Impunity and corruption
became the norm.
All these and many more
replaced the Niger Delta struggle for resource control.
The need for constant electricity, portable water, good health facilities, good road network, massive manpower
development etc went into oblivion.
Even the recent Ogoni UNEP report that would have changed the live of an average Ogoni man was not implemented by their regional brother - president.
Recall that NDDC was established by Olusegun Obasanjo a Yoruba man.
Ministry of Niger and Amnesty Office was established by Late,
President Umaru Musa Yaradua, a Northerner.
Regrettably, this two federal agencies including NIMASA and NNPC became conduit pipes for
Jonathan's Wife, Nyesom Wike, Deziani Allison, Godswill Apkabio and many cronies of Jonathan
To Molest and siphon funds meant for the development of the Niger
Delta region.
Credibility died. Equity died. Competence died.
Due process died. Conscience died.
And the Niger Delta
struggle died in their son's hand.
Former Governor Rotimi
Amaechi, knowing that the South - South may not have the opportunity of Producing the
President of Nigeria again cried out and they called him a betrayer.
They fought him with federal might and pushed him out of PDP, a replicate of what Joseph's brothers did when they sold him to the Ishmelites. But today Amaechi is laughing because they pushed him to stardom.
Even the East/ West road that was awarded by former President Obasanjo and inherited by
Yaradua and later Jonathan is still not completed.
Bayelsa State today does not have an airport or a strong federal government institution that can generate employment
opportunities for Bayelsa youths.
Few months to the Presidential election, Ankio Briggs, Asari Dokubo, Edwin Clark, Nyesom Wike, Tompolo Government, Kingsley Kuku, etc awaken the
Niger Delta struggle.
What a shame?
What an irony? For five years nobody heard them because they were swimming and sleeping on money.
When Goodluck Ebele Jonathan eventually contested and lost the 2015 Presidential election to Gen. Muhammadu Buhari of the APC,
the House of Assembly of all South-South states became a
compensation point for militants ( Former and Active).
Everything was done with the police and INEC to ensure that cronies of Jonathan and his wife were declared winners of the governorship and House of Assembly elections in the South-
South especially Rivers State and Bayelsa.
And if Jonathan had won the last election and ruled for another ten years, there won't be any hope for the actualization of the Niger Delta Struggle.
Go to Oloibiri and other villages in Ijaw land and see the level of environmental degradation yet
their son was president of Nigeria for six years.
People are living a stone-age life over there, no land to build a house, no pipe borne water, no hospital, no school and no road yet some people will seat in Abuja and Port Harcourt collecting billions of Naira as Champions of the Niger Delta struggle.
As I pen down my thought, I know that we have eaten our cake and we may not have it back.
We had the opportunity but we messed it up.
If President Buhari remembers us, good, but if he forgets us, I will not complain.
And those who has decided to go back to the creeks and mangroves of Niger Delta to resume the
armed struggle and hostilities; should know that President Buhari has enough shoes to match them unlike Jonathan
who has no shoes.
Niger Delta will not boil, Tompolo should do the needful by making himself available for interrogation, if he is clean he would be left alone..!

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