THE GREAT NIGER-DELTA ROAD
By Ojo Aderemi.
"In 2013 it was said that oil export accounts for only 13 percent of the National GDP. Well if you still believe in that oax, the current recession is your answer. Nigeria ran into recession with the crash of the oil worth in the global market. A simple analysis for dummies."
THE AGREEMENT
It is a periodical ritual for my sister's kids to come over to Ibadan to spend their long holiday(s). Last year they were around to disturb the hell out of my destiny. Three of them. Two girls and a boy. They usually stayed until their school resumes. They are of Itsekiri/
Yoruba origin. Double "wahala". While sleeping they come wake you up. They don't care. They don't fear.
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The agreement was to go drop them off at Mosoga, Delta State. I have been there many times -through books. The first time I physically touch the soil was exactly one year ago -January 15, 2016.
PODO MOTOR PARK, NEW GARRAGE (IBADAN)
10:33 (ante meridian)
We were still waiting for the last passenger after 3 hours. The road is usually busy but the Podo motor park was as problematic as the man that built it -Ajimobi. The users are not as refined as the motorpark itself. The park looks modern only for it's newness. The users flood you with noise and saliva. The economy of a nation affects the character of its people.
11:06
The last passenger arrived. She was an old woman of about 65 years. She spoke Edo and displayed the character of a "no nonsense" person. She was not nice to my cousins but I was nice to her. She had been given a bad 100 naira note. She began banging the door to get back a better note from the drink seller that gave it to her. When the driver moved before the door was shut, I ordered him to stop and made sure she was comfortable in the car. Melo laye oun? Life is slim.
11:24
CRIN
11:33
We had reached the third police checkpoint. The kids slept off and after I had made sure they were around where I could feel their movement, I slept off.
12:19 IJEBU MUSHIN, OGUN STATE
The state is home to the popular Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta. There in Ijebu Mushin, you feel the touch of "ancientness" if there is any word like that. Ancientness, not in terms of the precolonial era. There was really not so much not so much I observed about the town except the plethora of advert banners. The town must have many graphics designers.
THE ROAD
12:38
This road accommodates just four vehicles traveling at the same speed. Thick bushes flank the road on both sides. If you travel half a mile from Ijebu Mushin into the road, a forest of palm trees will greet your sight. From there down to the Oil region of South Southern Nigeria, you will understand why Nigeria is poor. I do not know the complexities of agricultural science but I am intelligent enough to understand that Nigeria can build a richer economy if the oil palm plantations can come back. Nigeria historically was the largest palm oil exporting nation in the world. Indonesia now exports larger quantities of the product.
The reason we may never leave this level of abject poverty in Nigeria is because we don't have leaders who are visionaries. One idiot can wake up one day and decide to be a local government chairman. He will win of course. Nigerians choose their leaders with closed minds. Nigerians now lack the political wherewithal to install a progressive in power. The revolutionary spirit of the Nigerians of the 1980s and 1990s is not dead but it is very low. During those periods, Nigerians were tough to deal with. The government, although corrupt and repressive, was always afraid of the Nigerian people. There was the fear that Nigerians would rise and take power from the oppressors. In fact, as of 1989, the most popular and most powerful politicians were labour activists and student unionists. The people didn't take any rubbish from the government.
The crowning legacy of that generation was the removal of Ibrahim Babangida from power through popular pressure.
13:04
Thinking
13:17
Yes! That reminds me. You can't understand the political importance of this road without first understanding the geographical relevance of it. The road connects two economically relevant regions of the country, South-West and South-South, together.
[INTERRUPTION]
I bought my cousins groundnut and banana to keep them from disturbing my thoughts. But then I had to supervise the consumption process. I made them promise that they won't trouble me with urinating before I gave them water.
13:42
We had a brief rest at a restaurant. The frontage of the restaurant was dirty. The kids didn't care. All they wanted was ice cream or yoghurt. I tried to remove the obsession from their minds but no. I got a satchet of yoghurt for each of them. I had to supervise the consumption process again.
BENIN-ORE ROAD
14:45
In 2003 when my Dad was Assistant Commissioner of Police in Umuahia, Abia State, I had gone with my mum and younger brother to visit him at the place. I had had the inspiration to become a police officer when I saw the kind of power he wielded. His neatly ironed uniform. His yatch finely placed on his combed hair. He was a tough anti corruption police officer though. During that period, the Benin-Ore road was like a road in a war zone. Preferably World War One. It took us almost an entire night to finish the road. It was a large Marco Polo bus.
Things seemed to have changed now. The potlike holes on the road were no more there. It is not advanced but it is better.
14:58
DURING THE BIAFRAN WAR
Ore was the first place where the Ibos were halted during the Nigerian Civil War (1967-1970). The entire contingent of the Nigerian Army had been completely destroyed in Eastern Nigeria, the Ibo dominated region. The Ibos had successfully carved Biafra out of Nigeria already. Colonel Odimegwu Ojukwu was the popular leader of the Biafran nation. The Ibos had unanimously agreed to secede from Nigeria. But Ojukwu, probably out of stupidity or unquenchable lust for power, decided to take the conquest to Lagos, south-western Nigeria. The Biafran rebels had successfully had a victorious push across the Niger River until they reached Ore (in Edo State).
General Yakubu Gowon was the military Head of State of the country then. He had succeded Johnson Thomas Aguiyi Ironsi, an Ibo military General who was killed in a military coup in 1966. Ironsi had succeded the post colonial Prime Minister of Nigeria, Tafawa Balewa in a bloody coup which was deemed to have a tribal imprint with the Ibos at its core.
Truly the Hausas were in power at independence in 1960 and the Ibos were interested in power too. So were the Yoruba politicians. But corruption rather than tribal sentiments or bigotry shaped the first coup. The Ibos were deemed to have taken power through a military coup. Yes the Ibos took power but that was not the reason for the coup. Ironsi himself, an Ibo General, was marked for death too. The coup consumed several Ibo military officers too. Officers like one Lieutenant Colonel Arthur Unegbe in Lagos.
THE REVENGE
Hausas and a few angry Yorubas military officers staged a revenge on the Ibos. This resulted in the deaths of several hundreds of Ibos in all regions of the country except the South-East. Many Ibos were beheaded and their bodies dumped inside the Niger River. That was when they were being repatriated back to the East in August. Many Ibo women fell into premature labour after witnessing the gruesome killing of their husbands. Most of them (the murdered men) were Nigerian soldiers.
BENIN
15:40
2 Passengers alighted
15:53
The pogrom of 1966 (July to August) made secession a non negotiable demand for them. Ojukwu declared war. The Biafrans were heavily prepared to hold their defenses but not strong enough to push as far as Lagos. The wrong tactics were part of the shortcomings of the Biafrans. The Ibos eyed Lagos but didn't estimate the geographical terrain of the region. They put their fire power on one single file. A defeat of that file was a defeat of the Ibos in all ramifications. They didn't put up enough defense position on the Atlantic Ocean. This lead to the quick and swift defeat of the Biafrans eventually.
16:00
Ore was the place where the historical clash between the Nigerian Army and the Biafran Army happened. All the non Ibo soldiers had died. The telecommunicati
on system was being manned by Ibos. Lagos didn't know anything was happening. No soldier, who did not support the Biafran course was allowed to get out of Eastern Nigeria alive but one. His name is Alabi Isama. He was a rugged soldier who escaped and managed to reach Lagos. He tipped off the Nigerian forces.
16:06
The commander of the Nigerian forces was Benjamin Adekunle. He was known as Black Scorpion. He was a tough Army General who took back territories for the Federal Government up to Owerri. He was almost done with the Ibos when he was replaced with another terror -Olusegun Obasanjo.
16:47
OGHARA
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MOSOGAR, DELTA STATE
-Many minutes past 5 o'clock (post meridian)
The vehicle seemed to slow down a bit. The Janarich Petrol station was now defunct. The frontage was dirty and the open iron fence was rusty. The youngest of the kids went to grip on it. I didn't like it but I had to pay attention to too many things at a time.
The luggages were very heavy and with three kids, I couldn't cross to the other side of the expressway. I beconed at the bike men on the other side. They didn't answer. I whistled and waved at them.
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The bike man spoke exactly the same way I have heard many of the men of Delta State origin speak. Pidgin.
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Mosogar is a poor settlement in Delta State. The poverty is quite visible. There are too few rich among them. The poverty, of course, meant that the people would be both uneducated and neglected. As I heard from locals, the local elders do embezzle the monies meant for the development of the place. The people blame the bad state of electricity (in the town) on witches. Some of the locals were said to have confessed to being witches and wizards. The reports said they died after confessing. Blah blah blah blah blah blah.
The oil region covers a part of south-western Nigeria, all of south-southern Nigeria and a part of south-eastern Nigeria. Oil accounts for a major percentage of the national GDP. 13 percent was the estimate in 2013 but with the impact of the reduction of value of oil prices on the global scene, oil seems to take a larger percentage than 13. Nigeria economy is not diversified. The recession in the country exposed the reality of things.
THE END.
Ojo Aderemi,
Mosogar, Delta State, Nigeria.
