YOU see them everywhere, with swagger in their steps. Sometimes with the bowler hat, the fishermen’s cap or even the fez cap. Chiefly their dressing is characterised by the finely embroided wrapper with an over flowing top, mainly of the white colour.

Some of them have chosen to go with the now known Goodluck Jonathan attire. Well read and groomed in all professions of the world, they seem to know it all, the nation’s conscience and the embodiments of democracy.

They want to be fair to all, so you see them addressing themselves as comrades, when those who introduced communism and socialism have since jettisoned the idea decades ago. Whereas labour has since gone into recess in Nigeria they still refer to themselves as comrades.

Civil liberty struggles have whittled down since the demise of Dr. Beko Kuti, Chief Gani Fawehinmi and others that were in the forefront of the struggle and they still insist we are comrades, yet, they cannot unite.

They claim to know so much, yet they know nothing. They produce the best at entrance examinations into the Universities and other higher institutions but ‘kowtow’ to serve those who score the lowest and ultimately become servants to their inferiors.

You now know why the nation is still stuck where it is, the well endowed are being governed/ruled by those with lesser intellect.

With all of these endowment on display by the south south elite, they have been unable to manifest in the real world and lift their people and environment from the doldrums, why is this so? Because they are selfish, they are extremely self centred. Once their personal needs and wants, including their bloated egos, have been assuaged, they forget their fellow kiths and kin.


What legacy has any of our south south leaders of recent times left behind for the people and generations unborn in the areas of education, health, science and technology, infrastructure, good governance and others?

An individual or interest group does not make a nation, it is made possible by a collective of different interests working towards a common and shared destiny, but, when you think that because you are comfortable and in a vantage position and you use that position to satisfy only your narrow interest, the result you get is the situation that we have found ourselves in the south south or Niger Delta region of Nigeria.


Our south south leaders are too selfish and cowardly. They will never speak out with one voice on issues that concerns their common survival. So it becomes very easy for outside forces to come into their midst and divide them. Once a few of them are bought over, they can turn the whole region into a raging battle field. That is why a region that has given so much to the national growth and development now lies desolate.

There is a Marshall plan on going and supported by the world bank to rehabilitate the north east for the destructions that the people of the north imposed on themselves, nothing is being said about the Niger Delta whose environmental pollution was caused by external forces in collaboration with the federal government, yet the leaders are fighting themselves over nothing. Why a region that is actually feeding the nation, yes feeding the nation, is the one carrying the scourge of the monkey pox disease beats ones imagination.

Why is a region that is so blessed finds it difficult to pay workers salaries and even offer youths free education? Why is it that a region that feeds the nation cannot have control over its youth? The answer is docile and selfish leadership. That is why a region that claims to feed the nation cannot boast of basic infrastructure. What an irony! Some will say that we have the Niger Delta Development Commission, NNDC, and the Ministry of the Niger Delta, you ask the questions; who is controlling the NDDC? Who makes the appointments? Who releases money for projects? Are the releases done according to the law setting up the body? Who controls the expenditure? It is only one who feels the pinch that knows the pain.

Paradoxically, those we refer to as uneducated are the ones now in the saddle and treat us as vassals. They are better organised towards a common cause of leadership. When it concerns affairs related to their common interest, they will speak with one voice, whether they are APC party or PDP or whatever party. Even in the haranging of the PDP, how many from the north have you seen come out to blow their top like the loose canons we have in the south. It is said that ‘empty barrels make the loudest noise’, so it is with us – all noise and no action.

We only know how to pull ourselves down. We plant for others to come and harvest. We prepare the meals for others to come and ‘chop’ and we build for others to come and enjoy. That is affliction, it is the labour of the foolish. We keep fight over nothing, while outsiders smile to the bank, unnecessary rivalries. Look at the appointments in all federal institutions and parastatals in the south south, who are those in control?

Why must we fight over what is supposed to be for the common good of the people? Ogidigben gas project, Export Free Zone, Maritime university, Petroleum university, East west road, South south rail projects and others, why can’t we have them done peacefully without bickering? Anywhere a project is sited in the region the people will benefit from it, we fought over the siting of Ambrose Alli university at Ekpoma, today the whole region is benefiting from it.

Let us not destroy the common or general good because it over rides our personal or group interest. Justice reigns or pervades where the common good of the people is considered first before parochial interests.

South south leaders must wake up to their responsibilities. They have slept for too long. At the rate they are going, they will not be able to bequeath anything to the next generations . President Buhari has requested that the World Bank give priority to the north in their project allocations and work is going on there, even Kaduna, the political capital of the north is having its fair share. I have not seen any northern leader come out openly to complain about where these projects are sited ot names given to them. But in the south, if you are not sharing in the pie, it must not see the light of day. ‘Our mumu don do’. Our South south leaders must re-examine their ways.

https://www.vanguardngr.com/2017/10/docility-south-south-leadership/?_e_pi_=7%2CPAGE_ID10%2C1116492591

Till the Ijaws are made to drop thier CONQUEROR'S MENTALITY against the other Ethnic Nationalities in the South/South, so long will we continue to retrogress because of the likes of EK Clark who believes in foisting the AMBAKADEREMO'S DYNASTY not only on the Ijaws but to other Ethnic Nationalities in the South/South.