Guardian

THE name of Major Isaac Jasper Adaka Boro entered the lexicon of world revolutionary mythology on February 23, 1966, when his guerrilla army declared the Niger Delta Republic to secede from Nigeria. This historic event occurred a few weeks after some young Nigerian army officers had, on January 15, overthrown the first post-independence government headed by Prime Minister Abubakar Tafawa Balewa who was killed in the coup. The majors who staged the coup could not form the government of radical change they envisaged. In a few days, Major-General Johnson Umunakwe Aguyi-Ironsi, the most senior Nigerian army officer, was made head of the military government. His assumption of office did not bring relief to the oppressed minority nations of the country who were victims of hegemonic politics by the populous ethnic nations.  In fact some of the ethnic minorities suffered more in this period than they did under British colonial rule (1900-1960).

The February 23 declaration of sovereignty for the Ijaw people of the Niger Delta was instigated by long neglect and reckless exploitation of the oil and gas resources of the area. Just before the uprising took place, Boro had complained that, “If Nigerian governments refuse to do something drastic to improve the lot of the people, a point of no return will be reached.” February 23, 1966, marked the point of no return. In proclaiming the all-Ijaw Republic, the Boro insurgents said: “Today is a great day, not only in your lives but in the history of the Niger Delta. We are going to demonstrate to the world what and how we feel about oppression.”

With the above brave words, the Boro-led Niger Delta Volunteer Force sailed into the creeks from Kaiama, now in Bayelsa State.  Within a few days the armed group took over several facilities of Shell, the major oil multinational company that had plundered the region from 1956 when oil was first discovered in commercial quantity in Oloibiri, also in Bayelsa State. Incidentally, Boro was born in Oloibiri in 1938. The military junta of Major-General Aguyi-Ironsi mobilised to crush the Boro-led rebellion. After 12 days of fighting, the better-armed federal troops overwhelmed the insurgents. Adaka Boro and his two comrades – Nottingham Dick and Samuel Owonaru – were tried for treason in a Port Harcourt federal high court. They were found guilty and sentenced to death. The trio were taken to Ikoyi Prison in Lagos to await death by hanging.

But auspicious fortune and history intervened. In July 1966, Hausa-Fulani army officers killed Aguyi-Ironsi in a revenge coup. The then Lt. Col. Yakubu Gowon became head of state. On May 27, 1967, the Gowon government created 12 states, including Rivers State, now Rivers and Bayelsa States. The demand for an autonomous state for minority nations of the Eastern Region had been made since 1947. This gesture of creating new states was intended to assuage the fear of the oppressed minorities. Three days later, May 30, the besieged Igbo sections of the former Eastern Region declared the Republic of Biafra with Lt. Col. Odumegwu Ojukwu as head of state. In July, the Gowon administration began a war to bring down the Biafran rebellion. The Federal Government needed the support of the nations of the Niger Delta to prosecute the war and the Ijaw people on the Nigerian coastline became strategic partners. Inevitably, Gowon granted amnesty to Adaka Boro and his comrades and they opted to join the federal army to do battle with the rebels. Boro received the rank of major and went to the Bonny front en route to liberate Port Harcourt from Biafran control. In May 1968, Adaka Boro died mysteriously “in action” and his body was buried in Ikoyi cemetery in Lagos.

Although Boro died at 30, his revolutionary initiative became a template for wars of national resistance against oppression and exploitation by the predatory Nigerian government and its multinational oil accomplices. By the time the Nigerian Civil War ended in favour of the federal army in 1970, the Nigerian state had tightened its noose of exploitation on the oil-rich Niger Delta region. The Petroleum Decree 51 of 1969 was the first poisoned arrow directed at the heart of the resource-endowed Niger Delta nations. It should be noted that from the 1950s the principles of derivation governed the distribution of revenue earned from each of the three regions. On the average, a region received at least 50 per cent of all government revenue derived from its territory. The formula of derivation also applied to money earned from crude oil exports from 1956 till 1969. The Petroleum Decree 51 abominated and dismantled this progressive, federal policy. In effect, the decree automatically converted the oil and gas areas of the Niger Delta into economic vassals or colonies of the federal military government.

Four decades after the war, the legal instruments of resource dispossession are still intact. The essential features of the Petroleum Decree 51 are retained in Section 44 (3) of the 1999 Constitution thus:

Notwithstanding the foregoing provisions of this Section, the entire property in and control of all mineral oils and natural gas in, under or upon the territorial waters and the Exclusive Economic Zone of Nigeria shall vest in the government of the Federation and shall be managed in such a manner as may be prescribed by the National Assembly.

This is the slave mandate that has kept the oil-rich states of Nigeria in bondage for decades. This is the prime cause of the mass poverty in the areas, the restiveness of the impoverished populace and the violent and bloody repression inflicted on the people by the Federal Government and its multinational oil collaborators. From the 1990s, the protests against resource dispossession have included armed struggle, the destruction of oil facilities and the killing of innocent people by armed security outfits and wanton abuse of the environment. In the conduct of these self-determination struggles, Adaka Boro’s martyrdom has watered the trees of the freedom-seeking people.

In veneration of Boro’s revolutionary heroism and sacrifice, the Ijaw people in Nigeria and overseas have instituted annual memorial events. Some of the events have taken place in Nigeria while others were hosted by Ijaw Diaspora associations in North America. Under Governor D.S.P. Alamieyeseigha, the first elected governor of Bayelsa State (1999-2006), the commemorations assumed more visible political character. The incumbent Governor, Chief Henry Seriake Dickson hosted this year’s version and expanded the scope. Fringe events took place in Lagos where Boro’s remains are interred and in Kaiama, his birthplace. The state’s College of Education was renamed after Boro. A colloquium took place in the Government House in Creek Haven, Yenagoa on May 17, 2013.

The Guest of Honour and Keynote Speaker was the indomitable Reverend Jesse Jackson from the United States of America. His invitation signifies a turning point for the Ijaw nation and the peoples of the Niger Delta. Jesse Jackson is the quintessential African American radical thinker and political icon. A veteran of the American Civil Rights Movement, he was the first Black African to seek the presidential nomination of a major political party, the Democratic Party, at the 1984 Convention in San Francisco. The theme of his 1984 Convention Address was “Our Time Has Come”, an aspirational expression that has political resonance for the Niger Delta. Jackson broke a racial myth with his nomination and his address was watched by over 35 million television viewers.

Jackson opened his 1984 Convention Address by describing the Democratic Party as “the best hope for redirecting our nation on a more humane, just and peaceful course.” This statement was directed against the war-monger regime of President Ronald Reagan of the Republican Party who had taken America to a bloody imperialist war in Iran. Invoking the ideas of the Civil Rights martyr, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Jackson fired American patriotism in these words: “We must turn from finger pointing to clasped hands. We must share our burdens and our joys with each other once again. We must turn to each other and not on each other and choose higher ground.”

Owing to the excellent campaign programme of his 1984 “Rainbow Coalition” which brightened the fortunes of the Democratic Party, Jesse Jackson again qualified for nomination in 1988 and he themed his address, “Keep Hope Alive”. He focused his electoral appeal on minority women and working class voters of all races – Red, Yellow, Brown, Black and White – describing them as all “precious in God’s sight.” He offered to give a new leadership to new generations of Americans to restore fraternity with Latin America, the Middle East, South Africa and to support human rights anywhere everywhere. He challenged America to declare South Africa a terrorist state and to “get South Africa out of Angola, free Namibia, and support the frontline states.”

The subjects and idioms of Jackson’s address demonstrated clearly that he understood the revolutionary obligations he owed Africa and oppressed peoples of the world. As in 1984, Jackson did not become the candidate of the Democratic Party in 1988, but he blazed a path for other African Americans to follow. His performance in the 1980s brought the African Americans from the penumbra of political obscurity into the sunlit highway of relevance and significance. It was Jackson’s heroic intervention that fortified Barack Hussein Obama to achieve the breakthrough in 2008 when he was elected the first African American President of the United States of America in more than 220 years of her history. President Obama again made history by being re-elected in 2012.

The relevance for the Niger Delta

This brief portrait of Jesse Jackson underscores the political import of his appearance at the Boro Day Celebrations in Yenagoa. Expectedly he powered his speech with the long heritage of African American radicalism, eloquence, ebullience and priestly pedigree. In the Yenagoa speech Jackson recalled the anecdotes about the dire situation of the Niger Delta as a region of marginalised minority peoples, the challenges of insecurity and turbulence plaguing Nigeria’s democracy. He alerted the audience about the historic responsibility of President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan to rescue the country the way President Obama is doing in the United States. Both Jonathan and Obama are redeemers subscribed by minority peoples in their respective countries wracked by socio-economic and racial-ethnic injustice. Jackson layered his delivery with the axiomatic remark that Nigeria will triumph over its crisis, including the insurgency of the terrorist group of Boko Haram raging in parts of the north of the country. At appropriate intervals, he read quotes from the Bible to illustrate his submissions. The largely Christian audience in the hall swooned in applause. His final message was: “Keep Hope Alive” taken from his 1988 Democratic Party Convention Address. A volcanic en chore greeted the poignant slogan across the acoustic-friendly chamber of the magnificent hall. This was a perfect mood for the rest of us to build on. What follows is a synoptic account of my comments and remarks on the theme of the colloquium.

• To be continued.

• Darah is a Professor of Oral Literature, Folklore, and African American Literature, Delta State University, Abraka, Nigeria.