1967 State creation was my idea, says Dappa-Biriye

Chief Harold Dappa-Biriye can be regarded as a member of the endangered specie of pre-independence nationalists whose ranks are being depleted. But late last month, the old man clocked the age of 80 and as part of the one-week activities marking his crossing the Rubicon into the rank of octogenarians, he chose to keep a one year old promise to EDDIE WILLIAMS, our Port Harcourt Correspondent.

He had promised to give his life reminiscences to Eddie if God permits him to witness his 80th birthday. Looking strong and sounding very articulate, old man Dappa-Biriye took Eddie through his life history and in the process revealing fundamental points about the turning-points in the history of Nigeria which celebrated 40 years of independence last week.

Excerpts:
I was born 26th of September, 1920, and so, they will start the week 10 days before that date, at Peterside-Bonny. I am a Bonny man, and I’m sure you know that. So, from the Bible as well as the Quoran, the length of what God gave to somebody at the age of 80, that person was Moses, and we were told that Moses did to God some special grace by which he was able to save the Israelites in Egypt from Pharaoh. And he had a magic wand, which he Moses brushed the Red Sea in search of what was called the Land of Canaan.

"So, you see some of us who are Christian minded think about some of these important events. I’m a Christian, I’m an Anglican, and obviously I stick very strictly to where my parents brought me up in. I’m not a gambler who gambles into every Christian denomination. However, what I’m saying is that to me and to some Christians like me, this symbolic year in the Bible has meaning and the relevance of the 80th year to me is that it has to be ceremonies. That is why I listened to the South-South people’s conference. I would not want to expand it further, because every day of it is a little bit cumbersome, and if it can end in one day better. But since I am acting in concert with this group of people, it is their concerted view that matters to me.

"I was born by, Christian parents and Christian grandparents. But certainly, it was a comfortable birth. I was born by parents who were well-to-do. My mother gave birth to about fourteen children, but of the fourteen, two were girls, twelve were boys. Many of the boys died, leaving about seven. A man born in 1920, not now, was born when Nigeria itself was dark. you managed to feel free from these dark days – today of better days of comfort and success. and when a man has gone through all that in this 80th year, he has to thank God. So when you are talking about celebrating it, I don’t celebrate what I didn’t create – this is a heritage I got from God. what I will just do is to do a ceremony for it in thanks to God."

Obviously, when I was a child, I was a bit precocious because at my age of 7, I used to turn over dictionaries for my father who was a schoolmaster as well as a student. I attended Bonny Government School, and from there I went to Kings College, Lagos, which in those days was a prestigious college with a lot of facilities. However, I finished in Kings College in the middle of the Second World War. Certainly, it was a period of distress in the world."

"Those who wanted to study more could not do so because they had to do it outside Nigeria, and then it was a dangerous thing to travel out to the U.K.. However, I was not keen on going abroad because I thought I had to use what I have acquired already for my good first, and then if there was need for me to have more knowledge I could go across."

"So, when I returned from Kings College in 1941 December, I found out one important thing – the Ijaw tribe was very handicapped. At that time, there were 25 provinces in Nigeria, and the Ijaw tribe was scattered in three or four provinces. We were in what was known as the Calabar Province, we were in Owerri Province, we were in Warri Province. so just like that. So, obviously, we did not have a platform or bridge for collective action. I told my father and his age group that they should try and organise a front that could act as a platform for the Ijaws. So, my father’s age group formed what was called Ijaw Rivers Peoples League (IRPL)."

"My father in 1941 was about 41 years having been born in 1901, and he was the President-General of the League. A man called Ebenezer Opugoloya was the deputy president. he was from Okrika. Now, the league applied in 1942 for a special 26th province, and by 1947 the province called the Rivers Province was granted. So, this was my first success, that my concept was accepted by my elders, and promoted to a point of recognition. However, by 1947, when the province was created, the problem of reorganisation had started in Nigeria, in that the British who merely formed this country wanted to talk about regrouping the provinces."

"So, we were grouped into one province there in Enugu called Eastern Nigerian Provinces, and then another set of provinces in the Western Nigeria, another set in Northern region. Each of these provinces led to what became regions." "My school of thought did not quite concede to the issue of regionalism because we knew it was going to strangle the smaller group of people, and so I started what I called "stateism." I said that instead of a Rivers Province, we should have a Rivers State, and this agitation of course gained ground because the concept was accepted by lots of people down here." "You must note that I did not use my father’s platform because it was not a political party. it was just a social organisation trying to recognise the problems of the people and pursue solutions to those problems. but of course as a political visionary, I tried myself to form a political party.

"By 1950, Nigeria had the first constitutional conference in Ibadan where the country discussed the political prospects of the nation and the prospects also of an executive government — how Nigeria can take part in executive government. Then, it was an executive government by the Whitman. However, the 1950 constitutional conference was approved, but was agreed that another one should be held in 1953, this time around not in Ibadan but in London. So, the London conference of 1953 could not conclude its work as it had an additional year of up to 1954 where it decided that there should be regionalism – that is the group of provinces should be called regions and would be given authority to use money released to them by the whiteman as well as the authority to organise and govern themselves, because up to 1954, the whiteman had saved up to £100 million British Pounds."

"Well, the Elders Chiefs and Peoples Conference was a private sector and indigenous organisation. You can see the word there – Ijaw Rivers Peoples League – the tribe known as Ijaw was the most disabled, and Rivers was then the name given to us by our neighbours as waterside people. so you can now see that we make sure that we capture both the Ijaw tribe that was floating around and the Rivers people who had always been around here but they were not specifically Ijaws."

"So the Ijaw-Rivers Peoples League was formed in 1941 under my father’s leadership, and it grew up as a geo-political programme, not necessarily a political party. However, from 1941 to 1950, it remained a purely geo-political programme of these people, and some of us who felt we should have a political front had to develop what was known as Rivers State Congress."

"On the concept of this new movement, I had to suggest that the individual programme of the Ijaw-Rivers people should remain, and since most of the people were civil servants, they couldn’t come into purely political party, and since our aim was to have a Rivers State, and a Rivers Province had been formed but overtaken by circumstances those who were not purely civil servants agreed that we form a Rivers State Congress, and I think I was appointed the secretary. Chief Inko-Tariah was made the Chairman. The congress moved on from 1951 to 1953."

"Other members of the congress included people like one Egi of Nembe. in fact people came from each of the areas: there were a bit of the people from Ogoni like S.F. Nwika who was a member of the Legislative Council. I must not forget that some Ikwerre people were equally in the forefront like Chief E.J. Oriji and some of their brilliant undergraduate lawyers and politicians. You may know that the condition for political development as we moved on to 1956 were dictated from Britain, and they were that we should have a constitutional review in 1953. That programme took place in London, but could not conclude and so, it came back to Nigeria in 1954. but of course in that 1954 they agreed that there will be a constitutional conference in 1956. So, the composition of the 1956 Constitutional Conference was now to reflect substantial shades of political opinions in Nigeria. but this gave us a little bit of puzzle. We had developed ourselves but we knew that we couldn’t develop into substantial shades of political opinion."

"What I thought they mean by that was those who were the majority party in the legislature either as majority or opposition party – this was how we conceived it, and now, I decided to make up the question of treaties, knowing that Lugard when he was in Nigeria started by signing treaties with various people, and the treaty he signed with the north was that of cession of their territory in addition to ceding their political rights.but down the coast, he did not sign treaties of cession, he signed treaties of friendship and protection. And putting all these together, they formed substantial shades of political opinion in Nigeria.

You see, government interpreted this as the rights of chiefs in the three different regions to be involved in constitution making from 1956 upwards. So, Britain and Nigerian governments, including the regional governments agreed that in each region there should be two chiefs. For the Western Region, the Ooni of Ife and the Ewi Ado-Ekiti were chosen. For the Northern Region, the Emir of Katsina and the Emir of Kano were chosen, while in the Eastern Region, government made sure that the Rivers territory was reserved to have one seat, and the rest of Eastern region to have one seat. So, in the Rivers territory, Kings and peoples of that territory decided that Biriye should go and represent them. For the rest of the Eastern region, a man called Chief Eyo Essien of Uyo was made to go and represent them because he was the President, Eastern Chiefs Conference."

"Before this concept of two chiefs was allowed, Chief Essien had been the President of Eastern Chiefs Conference, so they could not dislodge him at that stage – long laughter…. What happened then was that the next year during the 1958 Constitutional Conference they dislodged him. They made up their mind that they got one man from Owerri Province to replace him (Chief Essien).So, he and I went in 1957 because the 1956 conference did not take place – there was a Foster Sutton Tribunal against Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe. You know Azikiwe was played into a programme where he was said to have taken public money to pursue private business, and so, an inquiry was set up to probe the incident. But whatever that happened, it came to be that the Tribunal said that Dr. Azikiwe was liberalising credit to his people…long laughter…. That was how he classified the thing because the money was removed from the African Continental Bank (ACB) and that was actually how the Ibos had more money in the then Eastern region to put into their businesses."

"But, you must note that the main exercise was to dampen the man’s ambition and image because it didn’t really give Azikiwe free liberty to display in the 1957 Constitutional Conference. The Premier at that time in the Eastern region was this young man…eh em…. I think it was Okpara. Yes, it was Okpara. At this time, Zik had gone over to be the Governor-General of Nigeria. Now, in 1957, when we got there, I discovered that Chiefs from the Northern region had a Northern House of Chiefs, and Chiefs from the Western region had a Western House of Chiefs – but there was no Eastern House of Chiefs at that time, and so I used that now to start my problem with them. I reasoned that we could not be in a country of disparity, and the issue of chiefs as the basis of promoting substantial shades of political opinion had now been accepted – that we needed to have an Eastern House of Chiefs – so the philosophy was accepted, but we were reminded that we did not start this particular claim at home before coming to London, so that we should have a small committee to present a paper on that kind of matter. The committee was quickly arranged, but it was not a discordant subject matter, the Ibos were not there as chiefs. there was no Eastern House of chiefs, but we were resolved to do something."

"However, we patched up ourselves there, and we presented a paper and the conference accepted that there should be an Eastern House of Chiefs. The number was given, but the details were left to be worked out in Nigeria – details in the areas of classification of chiefs, and the recognition of chiefs. Well, it was quite interesting anyway."

"But, it must be noted that the main issue I raised at that conference was the fear of the Nigerian minorities, and because of that fear the entire conference agreed that there should be a commission of inquiry which was later known as the Willinks Commission of Inquiry – Sir Henry Willinks QC – he was made to head an inquiry of five persons, and they were asked to go into Nigeria and look into the fears of Nigerian minorities and make proposals on how to solve these fears whether real or ill-founded. So, when this inquiry came into this country, obviously the NCNC, particularly a man like Michael Okpara did not take kindly towards it. So, he tried to dissuade the people of the NCNC to virtually boycott it or oppose it. Those who made sure we cherished it helped it to secure materials and submissions were the Niger Delta people. And to that extent, we succeeded in making the commission see the importance of ecology, the politics of our nation, not that based on tribalism alone. but we made sure that the Niger-Delta ecology was brought forward as a basis for giving us separate government from Enugu.

Although, the commission of inquiry wanted to identify what was the Niger Delta for their purpose, those who appeared before them gave probable evidence where the Ogoni people under the leadership of F.K. Nwika – came there and gave consent to the programme for which they were there, expressed their own fears too. Similarly, people in the Warri area supported the fears of the minorities, and consequently the commission of inquiry approved the Niger Delta Special Area to consist of the Ogoni Division, Degema Division, Brass Division and Western Ijaw Division – this is how these four divisions were pummelled with what was known as Niger Delta special area, and the Niger Delta Development Board was authorised to be formally set up under a law for the purposes of a Niger Delta special area and its development."

"But, you see the matter was to go back to London in 1958 for approval by the constitutional conference and when it went back to London, it was formalised.but it had only the authority to initiate ideas and submit these ideas to three different governments – the Central government of Nigeria, the Government of Western Nigeria, the Government of Eastern Nigeria. If these governments accepted the suggestions made as a result of any research, then of course they could be executed, and the Niger Delta Development Board was to have an initial life of 10 years, after which of course, the Nigerian legislature should be able to see whether that life could be extended or altered anyhow – so that was how we ended up ourselves marching on to independence in 1960."

"Well of course, in 1959, I formalised my party called "Niger Delta Congress." And when I formalised that party I made sure I built an alliance with the Northern Peoples Congress (NPC) because the Northern Peoples Congress was still looking at their own life as a geo-political one, but well I told them that there could be no question of how you people could still confine yourselves in the north – that you must look at yourself as people entitled to rule the country, and you should also be able to extend beyond your boundaries. I told them that political parties have no limits – their limits were as wide as public opinions could accept them."

"Certainly, you can see that the emphasis of the British was to recognise the majority tribes – the Ibo majority tribe, the Yoruba majority tribe and the North as a whole as one tribal unit, and if you watch what had happened in 1895, how the whiteman had reared up the northerner. a man called Major Von, resident of Sokoto in 1895 wrote home to Britain that these Fulanis are natural rulers that they should be trained for rulership. So, Britain gave him the authority to co-opt the leaders of the Fulanis/Hausa group into their training system – that is how you found that the Emirs in the North emerged and there was indirect rule. So, by the time, 1895 to the middle of the following century, you find out that the whiteman had used his own language to improve the linqua franca in the north – it was Hausa — the Fulanis were made to learn Hausa. So Hausa/Fulani hegemony was using Hausa as the native language and English as English language – so they had two binding languages. Obviously, this kept the people in the north together as one bloc."

"In the South, we were not one bloc, the Yorubas found themselves an intensively useful group of people for themselves, and they were being competed with by the Ibos, and around the Ibos too were the Ibibios – at this time, the Ibibios had what they called the Ibibio Union when they started to send their boys abroad to go and study – people like Dr. Udo Udoma. But the Ijaws did not get themselves together in that fashion. My small Niger Delta Congress had to be formed, to contest election to show that we also had our own political ambition and identity. We were lucky to win one seat in Brass Division, and that was the seat we won in the name of Melford Okilo – now a senator. Now, because I had an alliance at the centre with the Northern Peoples Congress, this was the 1959 election – because of this alliance, the Prime Minister accepted from me Okilo and made him Parliamentary Secretary. That was also when Shehu Shagari was made Parliamentary Secretary. to now answer your question on the political variables it was prudent when I looked at my right and left in the South that I needed a giant to terrify them.

You see, with a giant in person and position in politics like Sardauna of Sokoto, like Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, you find out that the status of my party was completely enhanced, and was equally respected by any other person in the country."

"Well, your own man should create that opportunity for you in the first instance if he was knowledgeable and competent in the norms of Nigerian legislatures, but a small beginner and a small boy like Okilo at that time could not exert that kind of influence. The influence we could make was a matter resulting from say the Niger Delta Development Commission which was created out of my argument in London, and which of course exposed us to use a number of experts. The Board, you would recall was given some money if it was able to get experts that had knowledge and through their own research could produce what was acceptable, obviously you lobbied your own people in the Federal Government to apply their own findings and recommendations. You know, we could be a government on our own with just one man in the Federal Government, and in the regions of course were occupied by the NCNC in the East, and Awolowo’s Action Group in the Western region, and these were tribally oriented and governance anyway was such that you remained in your minority party only to be seen and not heard."

"After independence, we could not involve ourselves so much – three years after independence, there was a constitutional conference which wanted to strip her Majesty of her authority in Nigeria – before this any law in Nigeria was signed by a representative of the Queen and at that time the Governor-General represented the Queen, and to that extent the laws made by the legislatures had to be endorsed by the Governor-General on behalf of the Queen. So, we decided now, (that is the Nigerian leaders) that it was time to have real independence – that was why the 1963 Constitutional Conference came on to exclude the Queen’s authority in the making of our laws."

"Obviously, there was nothing much the minorities gained because afterall the minorities were mere insignificant in the majority parties. Our people wanted to be members of the majority parties – the NCNC and Action Group in the South because there they thought they had political coverage and prospects of being in public offices. So the idea of these people using the basis of a political platform as pedestrian for their own selfish interests and aggrandisement or personal growth was in vogue at that time. Not many people thought of politics as philosophy that should guide the society in its actions. However, in 1963, we tried to go on, but unfortunately for the country some school boys organised themselves to go and do a coup…" – "there are those who just wanted to do a coup without wanting to rule, but the fact remains that whoever goes to do a coup must rule with it…"If you just go to do a coup and you are no where nearer to rule with it then you are a school boy – this is my own concept, it is not a political concept, because to them it was more like a fun. Eventually, however, the school boys’ coup did us a bit of good. The good which it did was that these boys went and killed a lot of peoples’ fathers – in the north they killed people like Sardauna of Sokoto, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, people like Chief Samuel Ladoke Akintola, Emmanuel Okotiebo – you know, no Ibo man was killed. The people like Michael Okpara were here in Enugu dancing around. So, that annoyed the northerners and the pogrom followed, and then Ibos were slaughtered like animals in the north – they were running helter skelter looking for coverage, and some of them came to take my party cards. Even those who were opposed to me in the north in the NCNC ran down here to take the Niger Delta Congress party card, and I wouldn’t know if some of them are alive…it is a long time now. At that time, if the northerners saw the NDC card with any Ibo man he was spared as they believed that they came from the Niger Delta area, otherwise they would shoot them down."

"Well, obviously, some of us would not forget those we lost in that carnage, but we knew that it was Ibo man’s ambition to rule this country, and they felt that if they killed every person that were ruling the country as they (Ibos) were mostly in the military at that time, particularly as they had command of the officers cadre in the military and the Sergeant Majors who carried the guns were down the rank, and their own concept of the military takes one order, and that when this order is given the man at the bottom must carry it out. So, they felt they could use this military action to rule the nation – this was their (Ibo) ambition, and so, Ironsi took over, and at this time, Ojukwu took over ruling the Eastern region, and because an Ibo man like him was ruling the country, he (Ojukwu) did not have the ambition to go and kill him. He confined himself in holding meetings in the Eastern region under what he called "Assembly" until when Ironsi finished his activities, and came down to Ibadan and was killed in his house – they the Ibos thought he disappeared. That he went to Russia to get magic…this country is a funny place you know – they said he went to bring crocodile, that no person could kill him, that he could disappear – that was the stupid thing that went on in this country for some time, amongst Ibos more or less. So when Ojukwu called us to Assembly meeting, incidentally he sent me this circular letter, but I refused to go. I told his D.O. that I was not owing the government, and hence no reason for me to answer his call."

"Eventually, he got somebody like Ibiam who was his Chief Adviser, and you would recall that Ibiam had been the governor in the East before the army took over, and when the army took over, those governors were made advisers to the military governors. So, one Sunday morning, I saw them in my house – Ibiam met me at number 73 Bende Street. So, when my boy came to tell me that someone was looking for me at the door, and when I looked out, it was Ibiam, and I was surprised. I then asked him Sir, what is the problem that has brought you here – he said yes that he told the police to tell me to come and see him at Enugu in the last one week, and that I did not come and that when he waited and did not see me he decided to come himself as he reasoned that this boy (me) won’t come…laughter.

I said, well sir, your message reached me, but I recalled that many people would leave their houses to go on far, but would not even get to where they had set out to go. So, your own call coming through the police and they are not the kind of people I would trust anyway and because of police I would just leave my house to go for a call across the country, and I decided not to. What I did was to go to one Dr. Fiberesima, a physician like Dr. Ibiam to take a permission that I wanted to travel and I told him that was why he did not see me. I also wondered why Ibiam did not ask his confidential secretary to write to me, instead of asking the police to fetch me; and of course he saw my lines of reasoning."

"However, he could not speak up about what he wanted me for, but after a while he spoke up and it was at that point that I decided to honour his invitation, and that of Ojukwu."

"I think it was standing on a poor and illogical concept – first on a poor geography as it was hinged on the Bight of Biafra. You know at that time the geography we got from the whiteman included certain names or descriptions we understood and those we didn’t understand – there was one name Bight of Biafra, and that name involved our own part of Nigeria – the sea side and land side of Nigeria, and this was what Ojukwu translated into his Kingdom, and those of us who did not believe in his own programme made sure we tried to carve out the East-Central State from the neighbours of the East- Central people. So, when I was carving out the states of the country for the south, we carved out Lagos, the Western, the Midwest, Rivers, South- Eastern, the East-Central states. And so, if any person wanted to make any claim he was made to confine it to his own area. And of course when I brought forward the issue of states to Gowon, he said well Chief go to the north and if your friends agree with you come back I will create it immediately."

"So, at this time, I had proposed twelve states – six in the South and six in the north. For Gowon, and for a boy at 31 years he could not initiate it, obviously he relied on the political leaders of the country for guidance, and so when I put the political programme before him, he looked at the issues I had raised, particularly as they were not tribal but critically ecological. At this stage, I picked up a man called Zumo Efeke of Amasona and went to Kaduna, went to Hassan Katsina, who was the military governor of the north where he had already arranged a meeting of the northern emirs, but because I did not know how to speak Hausa and still now I don’t speak Hausa, they decided to send me a small team of ten people led by J.S. Tarka and met us at a veranda where we stood for about thirty minutes. I explained to them that my mission was to persuade them to agree that regionalism was outmoded and replaced with stateism, and that if that was agreed to, we will have twelve states in the country in the first instance – six in the South and six in the north. So, they asked me what was the six in the south and I gave them their names as already enumerated. After this, Tarka told me that he did not agree with Rivers State, that rather a COR state – that is Calabar-Ogoja Rivers, and I said well that I was not there for political slogans, because COR state was a political slogan of Chief Awolowo and his group like him (Tarka)…that I was not there for that type of game, but that I was on a scientific analysis politically and that I was making my proposal in that context. That for sure that a COR state was not realistic on ecological grounds. So, his own very people who came out to the veranda with him attacked him and asked him what his business was with the proposal put forward in relation to the states they want in his area, and that they should concern themselves with knowing how to approach their own matter, and so of course he (Tarka) kept quiet when his people hushed him down. So, they agreed that they would in turn divide their own north into six, but that it could not be done while standing at the veranda as they would go back to think about how to get about their own."

"In the interim, they asked me to go back to Gowon and inform him that they were in agreement with the concept of stateism, and that they would get back to him in two days time to give their own six states, and exactly in two days, by about 1.00a.m. on the second day, they flew to Dodan Barracks in Lagos to place their case before Gowon and after listing their own six states they left back to Kaduna."

"Gowon was not the original initiator of the concept of stateism. Remember that Gowon was a young boy of 31 who was flown down from Sandhurst England to rule Nigeria after the counter coup that toppled Ironsi, and so, was trying to find his feet, but because of course Ojukwu had taken a stand which was up to his extent of claiming Biafra, we were then left with the critical option of working out a system where we will remove from his Biafra the South-Eastern and Rivers State, and we created the idea then that whoever had a claim should limit to his own area, which of course was a simple logical argument, and so the state creation exercise had no relevance to the civil war – what happened was that when the concept gained ground, and Gowon as Head of State accepted it, Ojukwu threatened him and it was published. Ojukwu threatened that if he (Gowon) accepted it that he Ojukwu would secede – this was also published and so at this time we found out that Ojukwu was getting ready to fight and for sure the Rivers Leaders of Thought had had a documentation of what I carried from Port Harcourt to Gowon in Dodan Barracks."

"The concept was clearly written, and obviously Ken Saro-Wiwa had to use it as an appendage to his book: "On the Darkling Plains"

"I must tell you that every politician admires what he uses as his own basis of success. So, to me military rule is more admired by me because they agree with me. Afterall, my elder brothers during the early democracy did not agree with me. So, I had no option than to say that I admired the military boys who came in and bought my ideas and went ahead to implement my ideas. So, it is natural. Not that I discard democracy, no, but democracy did not buy my ideas when it should have been bought. My elder brothers like Chief Awolowo, Azikiwe (he was 15 years older than myself when he was alive), while Awolowo was 10 years older than me – they felt that Harold Dappa-Biriye was too young to make them change their own views, and in any event the advantages given to them by Britain gave them areas they can stand and rule was certainly something they won’t gamble with."

So, obviously, politicians must compete, and what was advantageous to them they would use, and so when I found out that the military had any basis of action of their own, and Ironsi had died when he was not expected, and Gowon was a young man, I caught him, and so I used him to understand the need not to hate every person, including ourselves. So, this is why I say I believe in a corrective military rule than the democracy that I did not know its basis. Like what I said before, you look at what in politics would be of assistance to you and consistent to your own drive, and by my reasoning generally any military rule should be a corrective regime and if it is used in that stride I support it.

However, in all honesty, and in the case of Nigeria, all of them were not corrective – some definitely were, and I will tell you that the regime of Yakubu Gowon and the regime of Murtala Mohammed were corrective regimes. I am holding these views because when Gowon first came into office, his own was a surprise position, and as a young man he did not have the mind to gamble and grab, so, he did not mess up himself – his own difficulty was that when he had stayed up to five or six years, and eventually he said he was going away in 1976 only for him to turn round to say that 1976 was not realistic – this was what divided them in the military – one side supported him, but of course the bigger side said and insisted that he must go, and so, Mohammed was asked to take over from him. And when Mohammed took over, Obasanjo was his number two, and Mohammed said that they would be there for four years and even though he was killed prematurely by Dimka, Obasanjo kept the four years pledge on the dot."

"So, when you see some people doing things in a corrective manner and they are confining themselves within their own prescriptions, I admire them."

"Of course, Gowon created the first twelve states at my instance and this was a radical change in the constitution of the country, and honestly it was not an easy change. It was the greatest change that took place since the arrival of Lugard to Nigeria. Murtala agreed to be here for four years, and was quite familiar with me too in that when he became Head of State, he was looking round on how to form his government, he asked me and I advised him to look for people within his own age group. I told him clearly that I can’t be a minister under my children. So, he spent a lot of time with Maitama Sule trying to see where Biriye could be fixed and assist them, so he decided that I should take charge of culture – that was how Mohammed appointed me Chairman of National Council for Arts and Culture. He gave this appointment on a letter for five years, but I finished it in three years and during this period I had gone round the country putting the people up on the issue of culture, so that it was an important aspect that had to be re-established to become a force."

"So, when Murtala was assassinated, I was very unease. Even the military at that time said that they had lost somebody, but that Biriye had lost more – a man like General Haruna said so.

At the time of his death, he had got all my policies and was ready to start implementing them.

"And of course, when he died, Obasanjo kept strictly to the time frame, and this was what made the whole world respect Obasanjo." "So, as far as I am concerned then and even now, I see Obasanjo as an achiever in that if you understand what you want him to do, he endeavours to do it. Look, in the first instance, he kept his exit time in 1979. Let me tell you, any man without any conscience or capacity to serve could have buried himself unnecessarily. He did not allow his own number two – Yar’Adua to push him out – he pulled him out with him strictly on the dot of the fourth year. As an achiever, he managed to have what was FESTAC 77 – this was however designed during Gowon to make Queen re-visit Nigeria, but Murtala and Obasanjo did not agree, but they now in turn redesigned it. During that event Obasanjo insisted that the war canoe in Port Harcourt that was displayed for the Green during his first visit in 1956ss be drought down to Lagos because my father was the leader of the war canoe regatta at that fine. The canoes were then brought from my place in Peterside Bonny – so Obasanjo by that festival created an indelible impression of this country. So, after the festival I told Obasanjo to get somebody to take over the council and that I would go back to my home as a professional politician with the approach of the return to democracy, and at this point I resigned."

"My return to politics was informed by the fact that my programmes right from the period before independence were still floating and hanging and I decided to create a fresh platform on how to pursue and realise them. So, my joining UPN at that time was one of such efforts, it was not like that I was too keen or found that Awolowo the most reliable ally. You would recall that because of my representation in the London constitutional conference the Niger-Delta development problems were recognised. Now, Sirs Tafawa Abubakar Balewa had to send for the Dutch to come and coach him as to how to handle Niger-Delta development knowing that the Dutch are sea people like us, and being a trained statesman, he did not want to gamble. Now, when the Dutch come, they listed a variety of things that needed to be done, and the first was to redesign Nigerian road system that would go far into the Delta." "Along this line of policy, Sir Balewa now deviced roads, that were supposed to go from Mbiama – Yenagoa, Ogbia-Nembe-Twon Brass – this he called F227; another road called F228 was supposed to go from Owerri – Oguta – Degema – Kalabari; then a third called F230 was to go from Ogoni – Bonny. So those were concepts that had been hatched, but not executed, and when Mohammed was in office he took from me these papers, called Obasanjo and reminded him that these were chief’s priority programme – the Niger Delta Development Board and the roads listed." "However, when Mohammed was alive, Obasanjo gave priority to them, but when he was killed Obasanjo downgraded them, and instead set up what he called basin authorities instead of fine-tuning and funding Niger Delta Development Board. I begin to wonder what all these basin authorities he set up had been able to achieve, and these whole systems I mentioned which are mine are still floating. He has now come with the idea of NDDC which we are waiting for him to land."

"So, in talking about NPN, I was not really a UPN member – I did not see any real thing in the new sets of parties that came up at that time, and so I did not seriously attach myself, I was rather looking for acquaintaniship on issue that had arisen from independence as represented in London, and did not see the leaders of political parties then as those who had philosophies that could give results to the requirements of societies, and hence, I was quite distanced from them anyway." "There was nothing spectacular about the parties and their leader were not political philosophers"

"I could not assess those regimes that did not come as corrective military regimes – like Babangida’s regime – Babangida has respect for me personally because he was always wanting me to come across but this Tonye Douglas of ‘boy did not ever do what his boss wanted him to do by passing on information about such invitations to me… His is such that he likes being a recurring decimal in every administration. All the invitations Babangida passed on through him to me for discussions he did not, not even one, and would you believe that even up to now he never had the courtesy of saying to me that Babangida at that time wanted to talk any reasons that made him not to pass them on to me. However, I did not want to quarry him because I was not too keen." "Having involved myself with the earlier regimes, I did not consider it worth the while to bother myself about the younger ones. I have a lot of prestige to maintain you now, whatever circumstances I find myself or are prevalent in the country at any given time."

"To me Buhari was not a politician – you see he was somebody who was guided by a master that was far away. You see he was the Petroleum Minister under Obasanjo, and he made this arrangement in the country about a second LNG which he did not follow up. You see I don’t like going into things that are not productive. So, to me Buhari did not have the political punch. I think that Idiagbon had a stronger character, he was more pushful, but whether he was honest with all that I couldn’t say, but I know he had the gets of wanting to get results. Buhari did not have the political characteristics. I think Idiagbon to me would have been a grabber if he had live longer because he was so systematic about what he needed, and such persons, mark you, are dangerous… if what you need is not what the nation needs I am not with you." "Abacha was not my man at all, you know, because you see when e was here in Port Harcourt, he killed an Ijaw boy for nothing – once you do that you are no longer with me. The Ijaw boy was a police officer and his duty then at the old Airport in Port Harcourt was to check those who were moving in an out of the airport, and when he saw Abacha and querried him. Abacha did not have any proof on him that he was an officer of the army, and even though the Ijaws boy allowed him to pass, he bore grudge against the young man as he later returned to organise his army boys to come and shoot him. I had a very bad hatred for him."

For Abubakar, I did not know him intimately. The only thing was that when he visited Port Harcourt and heard that I was around, he invited me to come and talk with him for thirty minutes. The main focus of our discussion was the need for him not to waiver about his commitment to get Nigeria back to democracy, I also discussed about the hand-over from independence. However, I did not know if he has the capabilities to go along the issues I raised with him, especially in relation to the hindering issue of development in the Niger Delta, I did not know him that much."

"Today, I want to say that we have to train and retrain ourselves for democratic rule. What I mean here is that many people have gambled into our legislatures, and these people are essentially political neophytes and as you can even see from their words in parliament and their words are uncooked. And it must be realised that it takes a long time for one to know what to say politically. But however, I don’t want people to condemn and write them off, we have to look at them and at the next turn of election, we have to pick the night ones. We must give them the opportunity to retrain themselves."

"For Obasanjo himself, it is too early to accept or condemn him. He has only been in this new concept for one year. I remember he invited me for breakfast last two months or so, and there I told him that I don’t eat too early… 7.am was too early for me to chop but I took coffee, but the man who came with me can eat with him, but I told him that what we need to do is to re-examine the nation’s needs, and know what priorities he is likely to offer – the NDDC which he has on his own came with seven years and seven days after the matter was brought up to him by me at Rio de Janerio. I said well he is an achiever – when he was in Works he helped his people and built all the flyover in Lagos, and so in the case of the NDDC, he should put his head and eyes down about what can be done and what cannot be done – we don’t want any fishing port business have, we want an area that is replanned to give a new outlook. Well, he told me he would do it before October I let him land the NDDC first, then we will know how to assess him than he has assessed himself."

"My vision for Nigeria is that you people should give room for Nigerians to enjoy the effect of stateism. If you look at the country now people do not hate their neighbours as they did before. Even among the Ibos, they are now more accommodating to and for themselves. So, stateism has brought a new attitude to life in Nigeria. So, I want Nigerians to accept the concept of live and let live, and by this going by the new concept of Obasanjo that the three major languages should be in the constitution, we should allow others to also be in the constitution, and those are Ijaw Language, Munchi, Kanuri – let us expand a little our scope of horrizon of vision if we wants to co-exist in happiness with one another."

Interview granted to Eddie Williams of the Comet Newspaper, Lagos

Source please.
Or is this just another dumb, revisionist garbage you pulled out of your asss?

Ejiné: Source please.
Or is this just another dumb, revisionist garbage you pulled out of your asss?

http://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/iarticles/1967%20state%20creation.htm

Harold Dappa Biriye the GREAT lives forever!

Those of them that fought for the creation of Rivers State including like Elechi Amadi were dealt with by Ojukwu during the Civil War. Read Elechi Amadi's Sunset on Biafra.

God bless the soul of our father, Harold Dappa Biriye. He will ALWAYS be remembered in Ijaw history.

[quote author=OrlandoOwoh post=18403592]Those of them that fought for the creation of Rivers State including like Elechi Amadi were dealt with by Ojukwu during the Civil War. Read Elechi Amadi's Sunset on Biafra.[/quoteoook







OK! I did not know Hundreds of Thouands of young Igbo men volunteered for military service in order to prevent the creation of states out of the regions, I was under the mistaken assumption that Ndigbo fought and died because of the massacre of over 100,000 easterners in the North......... please do not overestimate your relevance to the life of a typical Igbo man today, The Most High has wiped the tears of Ndigbo several times over since the so-called independence of Niger Delta.....................we are dragging nothing with you guys rather Ijaws connived with our ikwerre and Ogoni brothers to treacherously deny Ndigbo their hard earned properties sited in port Harcourt after the war! today in the same port Harcourt the same properties are now being bought back by the children and grandchildren of those whom you so viciously dispossessed. Karma is a bitch !!

our oil fields in Egbema and Afam that were ceded to Rivers state has not turned Port Harcourt to Dubai or Monaco but New Igbo cities will continue to emerge as we continue to regain sovereignty over our lands and affairs, Whom God has blessed no man can curse. we wish you guys well but maintain your lane and all will be well.

Nigeria is a tragedy. After over 100yrs of Nigeria Union, things are worse off. The best thing for this country is to identify all the ethnic groups in Nigeria and have all inclusive ethnic conference to decide how to be together or separate via referendum. This is the only organic way to be or not.

So you want me to read this long rubbish abi?

you prefer military regime to democracy because you can just wakeup put some papers together and hand it over to them to implement for you.is that not selfishness ?

One of the major pioneers and fathers of ethnic division/tribalism in Nigeria.

'. I must not forget that some Ikwerre people were equally in the forefront like Chief E.J. Oriji and some of their brilliant undergraduate lawyers and politicians. '
Can we pick anything from above?
It is not today Ikwerre people started to disassociate themselves the Igbos. It wasn't after the civil war.

So an Urhobo man (Ejoor) introduced the arabic inscription on the Nigerian Army logo, a Bini man (Akenzua) told Gowon to betray the Aburi Accord and now we learn that an Ijaw man was the one that sold the idea to Gowon for regions and resource control to be scrapped and states to be created. Very interesting...

What an interesting read. I've heard of this name but never knew the capacity of his influence. Today I know better and I believe if he was still alive would be full of regrets. Ken Saro Wiwa his colleague regreted before he was executed. He chose to align with the devils just so he could threaten his brothers. Quite revealing of his personality. What's the fate of his people currently with the tribalism he helped to sow in the polity? His latent hate for the Igbos was glaring and Edwin Clark seems to be of the same school of thought. Posterity will judge everyone for their contribution in the affairs of all the association they belong.

Off the top of my head I could wager the man is a bastard. Reading through he just confirmed it.

nku5:
So an Urhobo man (Ejoor) introduced the arabic inscription on the Nigerian Army logo, a Bini man (Akenzua) told Gowon to betray the Aburi Accord and now we learn that an Ijaw man was the one that sold the idea to Gowon for regions and resource control to be scrapped and states to be created. Very interesting...

And today they are all lowlives. After all they did to stick it to the Igbos. Lowlives...all of them.

SlayerForever:
Off the top of my head I could wager the man is a bastard. Reading through he just confirmed it.

It is you and your family that are bastards!

How dare you insult our iconic Ijaw and Niger Delta leader?

nku5:
So an Urhobo man (Ejoor) introduced the arabic inscription on the Nigerian Army logo, a Bini man (Akenzua) told Gowon to betray the Aburi Accord and now we learn that an Ijaw man was the one that sold the idea to Gowon for regions and resource control to be scrapped and states to be created. Very interesting...

It is disingenuous of you to claim he asked Gowon to scrap resource control.
His call for state creation is popular till date, it brought an end to the oppressive eastern region and her western counterpart.

Who is Dappa biriye?

That was how he classified the thing because the money was removed from the African Continental Bank (ACB) and that was actually how the Ibos had more money in the then Eastern region to put into their businesses."

The man at his age is a full load of ethnic bigot.. swimming in dirty creeks..

People must have reason to quantify their poverty.



So finally as I predicted all the Interviews are all about IGBOS.....Stupid man

You know sometimes you just have to engage in some soul searching. They did all these, and then what? The Niger Delta/Ijaw creeks became an Eldorado? They uplifted themselves from penury? Their sons became internationally acclaimed? The people became world beaters/pacesetters? Today what can one say they achieve or gained? A few crumbs from the table? Gosh. Low lives...all of them.

PHijo:


It is disingenuous of you to claim he asked Gowon to scrap resource control.
His call for state creation is popular till date, it brought an end to the oppressive eastern region and her western counterpart.

I can't be arguing over something you can Google. The state system has proven to be a total failure . A calamity of an idea by Biriye dappa. So he has come out to admit he is responsible for one of our biggest problems in this country

nku5:


I can't be arguing over something you can Google. The state system has proven to be a total failure . A calamity of an idea by Biriye dappa. So he has come out to admit he is responsible for one of our biggest problems in this country

States were not, and can not be the biggest problem in Nigeria. Thanks to states we no longer have to put with Igbo excesses like forced in school to learn; 1 otu, 2 abo, etc.

The biggest problem of Nigeria is the greed, bigotry and ingratitude of some ethnic groups within the space called Nigeria.

PHijo:


States were not, and can not be the biggest problem in Nigeria. Thanks to states we no longer have to put with Igbo excesses like forced in school to learn; 1 otu, 2 abo, etc.

The biggest problem of Nigeria is the greed, bigotry and ingratitude of some ethnic groups within the space called Nigeria.

If the state system that Dappa Biriye created is working then why is Ijaw land generally poverty stricken with no infrastructure and your youths are kidnapping people up and down? Despite all the oil most of Ijaw land does not have roads or light.

After kissing the backside of the north for 60 years from Dappa Biriye, Ejoor etc what has the Niger Delta gained? -

Before this concept of two chiefs was allowed, Chief Essien had been the President of Eastern Chiefs Conference, so they could not dislodge him at that stage – long laughter…. What happened then was that the next year during the 1958 Constitutional Conference they dislodged him. They made up their mind that they got one man from Owerri Province to replace him (Chief Essien).So, he and I went in 1957 because the 1956 conference did not take place – there was a Foster Sutton Tribunal against Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe.

So in a region Igbos were the majority and constituted 2/3 of the population, we had two traditional leaders representing the region and none was Igbo.
No Igbo cried.

But when one minority traditional leader was replaced with an Igbo one, this Igbophobic old Ijaw man saw it as Igbo domination.

Wonders shall never end.

These are the sort of people IPOB want Ndiigbo to share a country with?

Azhi gbakwa!

Igboid:


So in a region Igbos were the majority and constituted 2/3 of the population, we had two traditional leaders representing the region and none was Igbo.
No Igbo cried.

But when one minority traditional leader was replaced with an Igbo one, this Igbophobic old Ijaw man saw it as Igbo domination.

Wonders shall never end.

These are the sort of people IPOB want Ndiigbo to share a country with?

Azhi gbakwa!

I saw that and shook my head. History favours us like I'll always say. Our fathers tried their best to carry them along but they always rejected it. Willink Commission exonerated our fathers further. Now I understand the anger of the Biafran soldiers. Those you're fighting for are so foolish not to understand you. It's quite frustrating.
As for IPOB, they're doing the right thing. We need to come together at least we all can see how our land have been exploited, polluted and abandoned and we've even been edged out of the control of our territories. Igbos stand is still a proposal that they can reject if they don't think it wise. It's the older and bigger that extends a hand of union not the other way round most times. This I believe will be the last of such extension of fraternity. Brotherhood no be by force.

PHijo:


States were not, and can not be the biggest problem in Nigeria. Thanks to states we no longer have to put with Igbo excesses like forced in school to learn; 1 otu, 2 abo, etc.

The biggest problem of Nigeria is the greed, bigotry and ingratitude of some ethnic groups within the space called Nigeria.

If you reject learning Igbo at least when fulanis gobble up what remains of Nigeria after our departure, you'll forcefully learn Hausa.
Two can play the game of foolish and unwarranted hatred. Swahili is the most widely spoken African language transcending national boundaries but it has its root in Tanzania. It is a national language in more than 5 African countries yet you have a problem with a people that have never been violent on your people in any recorded history. It is well o.
If the generality of Igbos decide to go it alone you guys would be the ones regretting.