SHOCKER!!! Who Owns The Niger Delta? Fulanis Own Niger Delta – Bala Usman 
SO WHO OWNS THE NIGER DELTA?
Bala Usman has now moved beyond General
Olusegun Obasanjo’s Land Use Decree
of 1978 to offer reasons why Niger Deltans do not own their lands and
waters. His answer is straightforward. The Niger Delta belongs to the State
of Nigeria. By that he means the
Federal Government of Nigeria. This
self-professed democrat offers two reasons for his arguments on why the
Niger Delta does not belong to Niger Deltans. First, by right of conquest,
it ceased to belong to its owners and was taken over by the British
conquerors who then handed it over to the Nigerian State at Independence.
His second reason flows from his unique theory of the geological formation
of the Niger Delta. The waters and debris that form the natural wealth of
the Niger Delta come from up North. We will consider these theories from a
man who says he is fighting for Nigerian democracy, in reverse order.
Bala Usman’s Theory of the Formation of the Niger Delta. Imperialists have
been known to be very creative in justifying their imperial ambitions. But
none can match Bala Usman’s imagination. According to him, Niger Delta lands
are only the secondary producers of oil and gas. The primary producers of
these products are up North from where the Niger and the Benue drain
farmlands, dead bodies, feces, etc., from which the minerals in the Niger
Delta are made. Therefore, quoting his words now, “those states of Nigeria,
upstream from the delta, in the Niger-Benue basin, should take exclusive
ownership and control of the river water and its sediments drained away from
them to form the delta and its hinterland, and demand their share from the
returns from the export of crude oil and gas in proportion to what their
vegetation, faeces, dead bodies, animal remains and fertile soil, generally
contributed to the making of these minerals for hundred of thousands, and
even millions, of years.”
How does one argue against this bent of mind? And yet it would be dangerous
to say Bala Usman does not know what he is talking about. On the contrary,
he does. He throws up these incredible theories. If they are not refuted, he
insists that they should inform policies. If they are refuted convincingly,
he moves on to other areas. But always, he has the ears of the powerful. So
we must regard him as a spokesman for powerful interests in Abuja and
Northern Nigeria.
First, let us grant him his argument. By the same token two consequences
would follow. First, those countries from which and through which the Nile
River flows would lay claim to Egypt and its wealth. Uganda, even Kenya,
Sudan, and Ethiopia would lay historic claims to the resources of the Nile
Delta. But obviously, that is not Bala Usman’s intention. The dynamics are
different. Second, if his argument is correct, then the farmlands in the
Benue-Niger valleys that benefit from the flow of the Niger and Benue from
and through Guinea, Senegal, Mali, Cameroon, and Niger should be claimed by
those other countries from which their fertility is derived. But of course,
that is not what Bala Usman has in mind. What he has in mind is the wealth
of the Niger Delta: how to distribute it in such a way so that his people
will have the lion share. Then Bala Usman, the Truth Master, will declare to
the world that Niger Deltans love democracy.
I think the rest of the country should understand that the barely hidden
goal behind this theory is to instigate conflict between the people of the
Benue Valley and the Niger Delta. Bala Usman will not be able to show
anywhere in the world where his theory has been tried out. He has no
scientific basis for his theory. His sole aim is to threaten the people of
the Niger Delta and then sow much confusion in the body politic. Bala Usman’
s two essays are laced with threats. Either the people he speaks for will
have their way or there will be chaos. In order words, this is an exercise
in intimidation.
There is no rationality behind these strange theories. If Bala Usman’s
theory had any credibility, then we should have oil and gas in every delta
region in the world. The Congo drains much the same sediments from upland
countries. How much oil is there in the Congo Delta? Or conversely, why
would there be any oil in the Sahara from which debris from other regions
are not possible? No, this is not a rational theory. It is all part of
mischief-making.
The Right of Conquest. Bala Usman is very angry at claims “that the modern
ethnic groups of Nigeria, like the Ogoni, the Ijaw and the Urhobo, have some
autochthonous sovereign rights over the land and minerals of the Niger Delta
and its coastal hinterland; and [that] these rights are illegitimately being
denied by the Federal Republic of Nigeria.” But what are his grounds for
saying that these lands do not belong to these ethnic groups or the state
governments that run their affairs? Shamelessly, Bala Usman plays one of his
imperialism cards, again. Hear him: “Whatever sovereign rights the
governments of the pre-colonial polities of the Niger Delta and its
hinterland had, over the soil, water, and minerals of the area, were
destroyed by the British conquest.” Bala Usman then goes into a recitation
of Lugardian decrees that sought to model the Amalgamation after the British
conquest of the Sokoto Caliphate and the rest of Northern Nigeria.
For the avoidance of doubt, let it be clearly stated that the British
colonization of Southern Nigeria did not include the alienation of lands
from their communities and even individuals. The British called the
colonized region Protectorate because the Imperial Government said it was
protecting its peoples and lands from hostile forces for the future benefits
of the “natives.” In Warri Province, for instance, British colonial officers
leased lands from communities in signed agreements that were accepted and
respected by British courts, up to the Privy Council. Why would the British
lease lands from Southern Nigerians if they assumed that their colonization
included the alienation of lands and its resources? The British also signed
agreements, so-called “treaties of protection,” with various communities in
the Niger Delta. Each of them had nine clauses. None of these treaties
talked of conquest nor alienation of lands from these communities.
The picture that Bala Usman is presenting did cover what happened in the
Sokoto Caliphate and much of Northern Nigeria. There Frederick Lugard
conquered the Sokoto Empire and imposed on it a condition that was merely
repeating what its previous Fulani conquerors had put in place. The Fulani
conquest of the Hausa kingdoms in the jihad that began in 1804 concluded
with the alienation of Hausa lands by the Fulani State. Frederick Lugard
imitated the Fulani conquerors by alienating the lands in the North. Lugard’
s attempt to extend that regime of land alienation to the South was resisted
everywhere in the South during his Amalgamation ventures. And he abandoned
it. For instance in creating a Department of Forestry for the South, he
fully acknowledged and respected the communal rights over lands in the
South. As Lugard (1912-1919: 167) himself put it, [When] “The Ordinance of
1917 . . . empowered the Government to create forest reserves . . . [t]he
rights of the natives who claimed communal ownership . . . were
safeguarded.”
Bala Usman is stating the correct situation of what obtained with the
British conquest of the North. But that was not what happened in the South.
It is sheer revisionist history to impose retrospectively the land situation
in the North unto the South. It was under the regime of General Olusegun
Obasanjo in 1978 that the Northern land usages were imposed on the South
under military fiat. For that Olusegun Obasanjo will for ever have a
question to answer in Nigerian history. But even so, the land in the 1978
Land Use Decree is vested in the states, not in the Federal Government of
Nigeria. Why should a self-styled democrat like Bala Usman be afraid of the
powers of local governments and the decentralization of powers over land
rights to the States?
The Niger Delta belongs to Niger Deltans. We have no share whatsoever of
Katsina.
Bala Usman and his people should leave the Niger Delta alone.
