Relocation of Petroleum Institute, handiwork of Lukman ~ Rev Dagogo-Jack
Recently, there have been developments in the Nigerian polity. Recently, the South-South Governors held a meeting and came up with a decision to back out of the amnesty arrangement by Mr. President as a result of the planned relocation of the Petroleum Institute from Delta State to Kaduna. Also, the President just made new appointments for top management of the petroleum sector, which critics viewed as portraying a northern agenda. Bittered by these developments, Rev Minaibi Dagogo-Jack, a social critic, called on the Telegraph, which is one of the leading regional newspapers that have been in the forefront in pushing on the Niger Delta struggle on Monday to bare his mind. It resulted in an interview with Alice Micah. Below are excerpts:
Telegraph: Sir, could you introduce yourself?
Dagogo-Jack: My name is Minaibi Dagogo-Jack, I was the guber candidate for the 2007 elections for the Fresh Democratic Party (FDP) in Rivers State.
Telegraph: The South-South Governors just held a meeting and came up with a resolution that says they are backing out of the amnesty arrangement, as a result of the Federal Government’s decision to take away the Petroleum institute from Warri to Kaduna. What is your reaction to that?
Dagogo-Jack: Well, I think it takes the grace of God for these South-South Governors to have come up with such decision. You will understand that we do not have enough governors from opposition parties from the South-South, it is only Adams Oshiomhole. In the midst of where you have more PDP governors, talking in this manner, you will see the level of intimidation, the level of marginalization being suffered by the Niger Deltans. It takes only the grace of God to do what they have done. And I tell you it is the grace of God that has led them to do this thing. You know this thing started with Governor Amaechi who boldly spoke out on this issue of marginalization. Now let me tell you, for the purposes of the records, that the Petroleum Institute in Effurum, Warri, that is about to be transferred to Kaduna is the handiwork of Rilwanu Lukman who was brought in to fulfill the games of the cabals, the northern cabals geared towards intimidating, undermining and killing our people. They have come to implement their agenda. Kaduna that they are about to take this petroleum institute to is the home-state of Rilmanu Lukman. He wants that institute to be there so that Kaduna would have a lot of higher institutions. And when there are lots of higher institutions in that state, in will enable the creation of more states and allocation of more petroleum resources. That is what Rilwanu Lukman is playing and I want to say without fear, that if you look at the petroleum institute in America it is cited in Texas, that is where oil is produced. If you look at even the petroleum conference they held recently, it was in Italy. And these things are likened to where oil is being produced. I don’t know why we are playing these things differently here in Nigeria and yet we are expecting the American President to visit us. It is quite unthinkable. Another thing that I need to mention here is that, they want to relocate the petroleum institute from Effurum, Delta State to Kaduna, still maintaining the institute here, like they said it is geared towards making our children at the low level and middle-class to learn technical works at Delta State, they are only taking the university section to Kaduna. Niger Delta are the people that should study the lower-class and middle-class technology, they shouldn’t study what will earn them degrees for them to have placements at the petroleum sector. That is the strategy they are trying to bring. God will never allow it. We shall take another strategy this time around, to call on men of God to arise on their priesthood, because what I see is an Islamic agenda, and God will not allow this to happen.
Telegraph: Sir, still talking of backing out of the amnesty. Don’t you think this will spell doom for the Niger Deltans. I mean, don’t you think it will spur the boys to more action?
Dagogo-Jack: Let me tell you something. The decision taken by the governors is not just as a result of the relocation of the petroleum institute from Effurum, Delta to Kaduna State. There are other two factors. One of them is that, if you look at the amnesty arrangement by the Federal Government, there is no concrete post-amnesty arrangement, nothing. And so you call out these boys for amnesty, you try to give them peanuts every month thinking you want to rehabilitate them. After the period of amnesty, what is there for them? So we are talking about sustainable arrangement. The governors have seen that there is no sincerity in this thing. They were only trying to be kind and more formal in their presentation. Otherwise, for people like us, we shall continue to tell them that they are not sincere at all. The amnesty thing is just to corner favour in the international scene and also to ask our boys to come up, then they can now begin to implement their agenda. The next thing that made the governors to come up with such decision is the issue of the Petroleum Industry Bill in the National Assembly. It is quite unthinkable, my dear, that the Niger Deltans have been crying of obnoxious laws in the Petroleum Act and all that in the constitution. And for a President who has the Niger Delta as one of his 7-point agenda, I was expecting Mr. President to introduce a bill that will repeal any of these obnoxious laws. But all we can see is for him to add to the obnoxious laws. This I mean, no reasonable governor can contain it. Let me tell you something, God is about to do a new thing in the Niger Delta. Otherwise, I don’t think that a PDP Governor can have the guts to speak the way these people have spoken. It is the grace of God that has made them to speak in this manner. My dear, the intimidation is too much and we are weeping in our hearts that enough is enough.
Telegraph: We are talking of rehabilitation, rehabilitation. But if you look at one of the things that pushed the boys into carrying arms, apart from the neglect of the Niger Delta, is illiteracy and they are talking of rehabilitation. Nothing is being mentioned in terms of education…
Dagogo-Jack (cuts in): No, let me tell you something very clearly. Look at the two years of the administration of Yar’Adua. It has nothing for the nation. I am sure you have been following the deliberation of the National Assembly over this year’s budget alone. We have reached almost half of the year and they have not been able to have capital project on the ground. 25% the National Assembly gave to them is just because majority of the National Assembly members are PDP members, so they try to pity them. Otherwise, I will score them 0.7%. Recurrent expenditure, expenditure to buy stationery within their own confines, expenditure to pay their hotel bills and all that, 100%, they can do it because ‘pepper’ moves from level to the other. And then you begin to see a situation where capital projects that we will call real development are not done. All they say is that they do not know the locations and all that. You don’t know the location and you don’t ask question. It is an offence not to implement things embedded in the budget. It is an impeachable offence and I think we shall encourage the National Assembly to do things in line with the law and God on our side, something good will happen.
Telegraph: I read one of the national dailies and I saw that Mr. President has appointed new top management personnel for the NNPC. And if you look at the list very well, you will find out that most of the key positions, even that of NLNG are manned by those from the Hausa extraction. Don’t you think this is a Hausa agenda?
Dagogo-Jack: My dear, this is what we are saying. Look at the cabinet, the present National Executive Council, major and key positions are being given to the northerners. The northerners are Nigerians, we agree. But in a situation where the President of this country is a northerner, I do not see any reason why other sensitive offices should be assigned to northerners again. When we say this is the Federal Government of Nigeria, the Minister of Finance, a northerner, Minister of Works a northerner, Minister of Petroleum a northerner, CBN Governor a northerner, PHCN a northerner, it is terrible. Now, talking about the petroleum, Rilwanu Lukman is a northerner and every time, petroleum minister, petroleum minister. I have said this several times, I don’t know if he forgot his keys at the petroleum ministry that he wants to be petroleum minister all the time. It is not proper. To be very frank to that man (Lukman) and with due respect to him, he is there to fulfill people’s agenda. Come to talk about it again, you see a situation where the NNPC, like the question you asked, the major repositioning, Finance was placed in the hands of a northerner, Audit was placed in the hands of a northerner, Accounts of NNPC placed in the hands of a northerner, so that if the accounts is messed up by the finance, the audit can cover up and correct it somehow for them. You talk about the marketing, the leadership is a northerner, you talk about exploration, a northerner. So where do you place the Niger Detans? It is like they have made the decision to take over all major offices, no matter what the Niger Deltans want to say. I think it is unfortunate. I think it is bitter. We are bitter in our hearts. If we are a Federal Government of Nigeria, we must understand that the people that produce the oil and gas are being marginalized, are suffering, no jobs, no food.
The governors are trying a bit in their own way. But then the Federal Government, what have they been able to do. Let us talk of Rivers State, for instance, can we boast of one project from the Federal Government, no. Then you are talking about even the petroleum sector, the ministry and you come and give us a Niger Delta ministry. I have been saying this, that giving a Niger Delta ministry to us does not make any difference at all. There has been a ministry of women affairs, which has never made any impact on women, so it is nothing to me. Therefore, I want to repeat that from the various Niger Delta states, let all clergies and men of God arise. It is time to call on God to intervene. I cannot call on the youths to pick up their guns, no. But I know that the spiritual controls the physical. If we stand up to say no, and call on Jehovah who is greater than any other god of these cabals things will change.
Telegraph: How will you rate the performance of the Rivers State House of Assembly as compared to the National Assembly, I mean in terms of trying to ensure that Mr. President implements the fiscal budget?
Dagogo-Jack: Well, the Rivers State House of Assembly has men that I respect, but there is problem in the workings. They are not doing anything that really shows that they are really checking the Governor. All you see in Rivers State, as for me, is Amaechi as a person, not even PDP. I am saying that it takes the grace of God for the Governor to be able to separate himself from the virus called PDP, because any man that is really engulfed with the PDP virus can never do the little he has done here. Now let me say this, that does not mean that Governor Amaechi has no errors. There are a lot of errors he is also doing, but people need to encourage him in the little he is doing to do better. But the State House of Assembly has a legal right to check this man, not him as a person, but the government and various ministries. You look at it, we are talking about the various ministries. We have the ministry of Urban Development, we have the Ministry of Education, we have the Ministry of Finance, we have several ministries. We have spent more than half of the year. Have they sat down to assess the various ministries? If they have assessed the various ministries, they will be able to know how much is allocated to them and what they have been able to do on the ground. Based on that, they will be able to know if the various ministries are performing or not. If they are not performing, it will enable the governor to know where there are loop holes and all that. He is one man and cannot do every thing at the same. But all I am saying is that the State Assembly is not living up to expectations at all. The CNPP wrote a letter to the Speaker since last year seeking an audience so that we can dialogue on the way forward, till today as I am talking with you, we have not gotten any reply. But very soon, the opposition will come hard on them, if they don’t know how to do it, we will teach them.
Telegraph: It’s been wonderful talking with you
Dagogo-Jack: Thank you.
