Written by Prince Tubo Johnson Aghogho
The intention of this write up is to provide information and to educate the general public on the historical perspective of the subject matter, and not deliberately to badger the sensitivity of readers. It’s therefore imperative to assume that every fact laid down here in, hit the bull’s eye.
In this regard, I would like to announce upfront and ahead that no insults are intended by either the title, or the facts as captured in the message.
The Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC 1and by extension the Niger Delta region came into existence as an effect of the long and extensive agitations by the minority ethnic nationalities in 1957 at which time a body known as the Sir Henry Wilkin’s Commission was set up to look into the fears of the minority tribes and the need to create more states mainly in the present days South South region or geopolitical zone from the old Eastern region.
Which is to say that the question of the NDDC and the Niger Delta region wasn’t just a project that started in 2000 by the president Olusegun Obasanjo government.
That the NDDC and it’s ancestral umbilical, the Niger Delta region are products of necessity for the rapid development of the South-South geopolitical zone, also known as the BRACED states of Bayelsa, Rivers, Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Edo, and Delta.
The region sits about four (4) degrees fahrenheit above the equator. And It largely cover the area where the Niger River basin empties and/or discharges it’s stones and dirts (components) to the Atlantic Ocean. The region is the oil and gas hub of the country. Which is to say that the Niger Delta region is the last southern land boundary where the Niger River empties it’s water to the Atlantic Ocean which is within and around the Bight of Bonny (Biafra) and the Gulf of Guinea.
The common historical, ancestral, and cultural bond and affinity shared between and among people of the region cannot be disputed. For instance, the Edo (Bini) and those of the Delta people (Itsekiri, Urhobo and Isoko) were both in the old Western region before the creation of Midwest region to separate them in 1963. In the same vein, the people of the Ijaws in present day Bayelsa and Rivers State, and that of Akwa Ibom and Cross River states were both part of the old Eastern region before the creation of states on 27 May 1967 prior to the outbreak of the civil war.
Which is to say that, while not be disputing the fact that at one point in the history of the country, the Niger Delta people were wrongly lumped together in the then old Western and the Eastern regions. However, that has become a thing of the past, and that, all things have become new. We now have six (6) states in the region, namely Bayelsa, Rivers, Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Edo and Delta states – the BRACED states or commission.
As a result, these six states now constitutes the Niger Delta region or geopolitical zone, while we have five (5) states in the South-East geopolitical zone which includes Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo states.
So, what are the points and arguments that precisely instigated the write up or may have inform the writer for the rebuttal to the subject matter?.
Recalled that the reason and purpose for the establishment of the Henry Wilkin’s Commission was to ally fears of the southern minorities which were under the old Eastern region, which by implications mean that those of old Cross River and Rivers states have been separated from the Eastern region effective from May 27, 1967. Which lay claim to the fact that the appropriation of the Bight of Biafra, now Bright of Bonny as it was renamed by the federal government of Nigeria in 1975, by the people of South East, is no longer tenable, and hence should be disregarded and discountenanced.
It’s therefore pertinent to shed a little bit of facts and information concerning the origin of the Bight of Bonny (Biafra) which the people of the South East region lay claim so dearly.
It would be recalled that one of early European explorers, a Portuguese named Duarte Pacheco Pereira who identified the area (region) and named it the Bight of Biafra in an account he made between 1501 and 1508. The place is located in the West African coast between the Niger River (the Niger Delta region) in Nigeria and Cape Lopez in northern part of Gabon. It traverse through the coast of southern region of Nigeria, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon on the Atlantic Ocean.
However, as a result of the civil war in Nigeria which culminated in the secession by Lt Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu in 1967 and 1970 when the war ended, he proclaimed the region as Republic of Biafra.
But with the creation of old Cross River and Rivers states in May 27, 1967 even before the republic was declared, and with the subsequent creation of Bayelsa, Rivers, Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Edo and Delta states, it made that declaration, appropriation and proclamation, null and void, absurd, and hence illegal.
On the other hand, having recognize the fact that the Niger Delta Development Commission and indeed the Niger Delta region, is the heart of Niger River basin upon which the South-South geopolitical zone was created or established, there’s absolutely no need to bring in together of Ondo, Abia and Imo states to be part of the NDDC and it’s ancestral umbilical cord, the Niger Delta region, as South West and South East Development Commissions have already been established by the federal government of Nigeria.
That, lumping together of states from the Eastern and Western parts with the Niger Delta region (South South geopolitical zone) as a result of oil production is a misrepresentation, misplacement of body knowledge, a misnomer, absurd and abused of geographical expression. After all, in those states, they can as well set up or create parallel South East and South West oil Producing Area Commissions to take care of those regions.
That the proclaimed Republic of Biafra did not stand before between 1967 and 1970, and so, shouldn’t be sustained either in the 21st century and beyond. What is needed right now, is that, the people of the South East region, should embrace peace and learn to co-exist with others in love and unity, without recourse to any action for separation or separatist sentiments, as there is strength in togetherness and Unity.
In conclusion, while I sympathize with the people of the South East region for the heavy presence of military personnel, and other security forces – police crack squads, secret police, vigilante and non-state actors who are killing people indiscriminately, it should be noted that it’s because of the killing and kidnapping of innocent citizens and the separatist agitation that’s been the rationale. That the South East states, as landlocked as they are, should not be seen to have been involve in the argument to be part of Bight of Bonny or Biafra, when they are not part of the Niger Delta region or South South geopolitical zone that shares national boundaries with the Bight of Bonny and Gulf of Guinea as the case may be.
Therefore, the report which was purported to have been released on 22nd December 2024 by a Human rights group made up of lawyers from South Eastern extraction entitled, “Nigeria: Ocean of innocent blood flowing in the East” and “Human Rights made in Nigeria”, where they referred to the South-South geopolitical zone as South-South region of Eastern Nigeria, is absolutely a misrepresentation of fact and absurd. They should know that in geography, there are four cardinal points namely North, South, East and West. That, those old days are gone, and that, the South-South geopolitical zone is different from the South East geopolitical zone. May God help the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
