| Photo by Jane Scherr |
Oronto Douglas Interview: Conversations with History; Institute of International Studies, UC Berkeley
| Photo by Jane Scherr |
Page 5 of 6
What about the role of government here? You suggested earlier that the government of Nigeria, after independence, was perceived by you and your people as a colonizer. What do you see as a long-term solution for a place like Nigeria, made up of, I think, 250 different peoples, and in situations where some of them are located in resource-rich areas, on the one hand, but areas where they are tied to the environment and don't want it destroyed? What does the political future look like for a place like Nigeria?
We believe that discussion, debate, and dialogue are key to the resolution of the issues in the Niger Delta and Nigeria. We have suggested, and the debate is on, that there should be a sovereign national conference where these various ethnic nationalities can come together to discuss their relationship to the state, how we're going to relate with each other, what kind of federation we want. Right now, Nigeria is called a federation, but, in reality, it's a unitary government. The federal authority rules Nigeria with an iron fist. It will not put up with any opposition from any quarters. And so we need to change that; we have to unite. We believe that Nigeria should remain as a country if we can resolve the issues that are being raised by the federated units. We are saying that we need to protect our culture, we need to protect our way of life, we need to protect the environment, we need to respect human rights, we need to make progress in terms of our aspiration to development. We need to provide clean water, we need to provide electricity, we need to provide food and medicine for the sick, and so on. Government is not interested in all these, and this is where the conflict is coming from. We are saying that that must change.
So we need to discuss, and in discussion, the issues we have raised must be analyzed. We have called [for] and we are demanding resource control. When we talk about resource control, we mean that we want to be in control of the air that we breathe. We don't want to breathe polluted air. We want to be in control of the forests and the land, where the wildlife and the rain forest bring forth life. We want to protect the waters. We don't want those waters polluted; they are our vital resources. Oil and gas are temporary resources that could evaporate, that could go away over a given period. It is not a key issue, say, over a thousand years. Because we are going to be there for many more years than that! We have been there for more than 10,000, 20,000 years, as human memory can remember, and there is a possibility that we will remain there for more thousands and thousands of years. But oil is very temporary. When it's finished, it is finished. But the people, the land, the environment, will remain. The challenge is: what is going to be left to be integrated? An impoverished land that after 2,000 years cannot be healed, or what? These are our legitimate worries. We are calling for resource control by our people.
The same is true in the United States. The people of the United States must call, must demand resource control, in the sense that you must have your right to breathe clean air. You have a fundamental right to clean air. You must have the right to swim in a stream or a river -- it is a fundamental right. You must have the right to eat food that is not polluted or poisoned by chemicals. These are resources that you as a people should have control of. Right now, it is not in the hands of local people, whether in Nigeria or in the United States. It is in the hands of big government and big corporations. This is what we are for, and this is why we are fighting.
An obstacle to elevating consciousness on these issues that transcends the view of a particular government or, say, the oil companies, is the multiplicity of communal identities. What is the answer? On the one hand, making people realize these universal concerns that you're articulating about the environment -- you want to be able to have clean water wherever you live -- but on the other hand, this competition for resources that focus around ethnic identities?
You see, the beauty of having different ethnic nationalities can not be imagined. The various ethnic nationalities in Nigeria present us like a balloon in a rainbow, with beautiful colors as the background and we are floating in the air. We love that. We want Nigeria not to be a straight-jacketed, one-ethnic nation. The beauty will be lost. You know, a strong point about Nigeria is that you have these various ethnic groups who, maybe not of their own will, have been brought together to live together. And the aspiration of the ordinary Nigerian is to be able to create a nation where every nationality will have a place, will not be threatened, will be protected.
It is true that bringing oil into the equation, especially in the Niger Delta, has heightened tensions because of the manipulations the government and oil companies have been able to put in place. Before oil, there may have not have been conflict over where a particular boundary is, even if they are aware. The true communal conflict resolution strategies, the African way of resolving issues, these matters have always been resolved without unnecessary shedding of blood. But with oil, and with the government, and with guns, and with bullets, and all that being thrown into the equation, with profits having a domineering role in all this, you'll find that this conflict becomes heightened, and our people are brought together to fight against one another. Over the past year or two, they are beginning to realize that there is a desire to put them perpetually at war, while their oil is taken away. At the same time, they have realized that when the conflicts are going on, the oil never stops flowing, it keeps on flowing. So they realize this, and they are beginning to rethink that, "Look, it is not because of anything [between us.] I think it is because of the oil, and so we must stop fighting."
So the realization is on. The mobilization to bring about this realization has been tough, has been intense, it has been quite nerve-wracking, but I think we are getting there. It's a gradual process, and we will get there.
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