The NDDC Appointment: Isoko Gradually Taking Her Place In the Nigerian Project -By Ijebu Afoke Dickson

Ijebu Afoke Dickson

The appointment of Dr. Ogaga Ifowodo as the Delta State representative in the new but yet to be constituted Board of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) can be described as unusual, unexpected or even unlikely by many standards. Ifowodo’s entry in politics began sometime in 2013 when Isoko elders and youths invited him from the United States of America to run for the position of the representative for the Isoko Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives.

The perceived thinking of this set of elders and youths was that Ifowodo’s education, training, exposure and personal qualities would afford the Isoko nation quality representation in the green chamber, but their hope for quality representation was cut short by money-bag politicians. In spite of the vagaries and challenges Ogaga Ifowodo faced in his party’s primaries, his loyalty and commitment to the All Progressives Congress (APC) has never been questioned.

Shallow thinkers and people with short term material interests wrote Ifowodo off politically as a greenhorn, yet in spite of this mis-characterisation, he remained calm and unfazed while supporting his party, the APC. Most youths are probably unaware of Dr. Ifowodo’s sacrifices for a unified Nigeria, and for example, between 1997 and 1998, he was held in preventive detention for six months under the military dictatorship of General Sani Abacha over his views and human rights activism. Excerpts from the memoir of his prison experience have been featured in Gathering Seaweed: African Prison Writing (Heinemann), New Writing 14 (Granta), Nigeria’s Vanguard newspaper, and African Writing, etc.

Many youths do not also seem to be aware that Dr. Ifowodo, a poet and writer, was lecturer at Texas State University, San Marcos, USA before he answered the calls to return home in 2013. Ifowodo, a holder of a Masters Degree in Art (MFA) and Ph.D from Cornell University, New York is also a lawyer. He studied law at the University of Benin and worked for eight years as a rights activist with Nigeria’s premier non-governmental rights group, the Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO).

Dr. Ifowodo has published three prize-winning books of poetry: Homeland and Other Poems, Madiba, and The Oil Lamp. His poems have been translated into German, Dutch and Romanian and have also been widely published in anthologies and magazines, including Voices from all Over: Poems with Notes and Activities (Oxford University Press, 2006), Step Into a World: A Global Anthology of the New Black Literature (John Wiley, 2000), The Times Literary Supplement, Poetry International, English in Africa, The Massachusetts Review, etc. His debut fiction piece appears in AGNI. Ogaga Ifowodo is a recipient of the PEN USA Barbara Goldsmith Freedom-to-Write Award and of the New Word Award of Poets of All Nations based in the Netherlands. An honourary member of the PEN Centres of the USA, Germany and Canada, Ifowodo is also a fellow of the Iowa Writing Programme.

In the heat of the Dr. Ifowodo for House of Reps. Campaign in 2014, there was undeniably overwhelming support and encouragement for him from Isoko and non-Isoko people; and with a clear message of Dr. Ifowodo’s coming representing a watershed, there was a feeling of fresh hope because many were tired of the poor representation in Isoko Federal Constituency. Today, it has been confirmed that people of the Isoko nation and all lovers of the Isoko, the world all over, are celebrating this appointment of a proud son of theirs, onto the board of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).

Isoko people are happy because they are one of the ethnic groups in the Delta that have been contributing to the wealth of Nigeria since 1957 when the second Oil Fied in commercial quantity was discovered in Uzere after Oloibiri. There are seven Oil Field in OML 26 and 30, covering an area of about 1.580 sq/km and average production of 300,000 barrels per day located onshore in the Isoko Area of Delta State. Despite the Isoko contribution to national wealth and her peaceful deposition, successive governments abandoned Isoko people as only police stations can be found as the Federal presence in Isoko land. It is only the Isoko in Delta State that has never benefited from Federal Government’s appointments as Ministers, Ambassadors, Special Advisers etc., from 1980 till date.

As such, this appointment is one great impetus for a change of mind the Isoko that their nation finally taken up its rightful position as a crucial stakeholder in the Nigerian project under the President Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government. The spontaneous jubilation that followed Ifowodo’s appointment has naturally evoked certain negative reactions from long established political demi-gods; and through the actions of their political merchants across the Isoko nation and some sections of the social media, the serious fears of these demi-gods in becoming politically irrelevant should Dr. Ifowodo succeed politically has been very palpable. These sporadic forces seem to be combining resources to play out various schemes and propaganda.

The reasons for these organised and coordinated attacks are not so far-fetched. First, human being by nature become envious when anyone they feel superior to appears favoured beyond their wildest imagination. Second, the towering profile of Dr. Ifowodo as a highly seasoned and respected intellectual and social activist can stir the envy of even the most self-conceited politician from Isoko land. Third, Dr. Ifowodo’s attitude, which repeatedly conveys his adamant preference for genuine development rather than the sharing of contracts and the spoils of office with the political cabal is also generating ill-will from these powerful quarters. There is ample evidence from the activities of these nefarious forces that they are very well organised and heavily resourced and are hell bent on frustrating Dr. Ifowodo, mainly on the basis of political differences.

I wish the original premise for which President Muhammadu Buhari chose Dr. Ogaga Ifowodo as the Delta State representative on the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) board ahead of other Deltans is allowed to manifest, rather than the distractions of petty political squabbles. Standing idly by whilst a few increasingly desperate political demi-gods and their willing mercenaries deprive Isoko land a slot in this federal administration will rob the Isoko people of their fundamental right to development, which Ifowodo is well positioned to anchor.

We Isoko people must remove the scales from our eyes so that we can clearly see where to stand in the struggle against decades of artificially erected differences foisted on Isoko land by a narrow political elite that seeks control in perpetuity, while counting public office as a birthright to be handed over to their children.

Certainly, this is one key prominent position that has come to Isoko people in recent years, yet an NDDC Commissioner is not the biggest that would berth in Isoko land, other “big ones” are still coming. I plead with my fellow Isoko youths to defend our choice, as on this path lies our hope to achieve our full potentials. Those in support of Dr. Ifowodo’s appointment in the Niger Delta Development Commission are much more than the few against him.

Ijebu Afoke Dickson writes from Isi in Isokoland, and can be reached through afordick@yahoo.com