Comrade Joseph Evah is National Coordinator, Ijaw
Monitoring Group and former National Secretary,
Ijaw Monitoring Group. In this interview, he says
the people of Niger Delta are proud of President
Goodluck Jonathan inspite of his defeat at the March
28 presidential election.
President Goodluck Jonathan is on his way out of
office. How do you rate his performance?
Glory be to God that my generation witnessed the
emergence of a Niger Delta President in Nigeria. It
gives a historic and great feelings. I will score him
above average. We would say, he performed in a war
situation. Jonathan, like General Yakubu Gowon before
him, are war Presidents that Nigeria had produced.
During the Biafra war, General Gowon never
performed development-wise. He embarked on
developmental projects at the end of the war in 1970.
Gowon spent three years, fighting to stop the war and
unite Nigeria. But the Boko Haram insurgency was
more of a scientific and terrorist warfare with global
connections.
Boko Haram was deadly, basically making Jonathan’s
government to concentrate on fighting insurgents to save
Nigeria from degenerating into the worst civil war in
Africa. But for Jonathan’s handling of the situation,
this could have degenerated into one great religious
war in the continent. So we give him kudos. A
religious war in Nigeria as happens in the Middle
East is easily imagined than experienced. Jonathan
saved this country, but we may not realise it today,
historians will accord him a rightful place. He
deserves special award.
There are those who say, he was not only defeated at
the polls, that he was a total failure?
Those who say this are not sincere to themselves. The
North never had it so good in their history. Despite all
the obstacles they created for him, Jonathan performed
creditably well in several sectors and across geo-
political zones. There is no Nigerian President, dead
or alive, who can beat the developmental records of the
Jonathan administration. He worked for the love of
country. He surrounded himself with all kinds of people,
irrespective of tribes, gender or religion. Tell me any
Nigerian leader with a better developmental record.
He assembled the best brains in the country to achieve
results. He had in his cabinet, great minds like Hon.
Kingsley Kuku; the great orator, the late Oronto
Douglas; Ambassador Igali; Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-
Iweala, among others, men and women dedicated, who
placed Nigerian in the world map as the biggest
economy in Africa.
I wept the day the former Minster of Sports, Abdulahi
from Kwara State left the cabinet because his boss
was part of the governors that broke away from the
PDP. A young man who was focused should not have
been kicked out of government because of politics. On
television, radio and newspaper, I made my positions
clear. I begged Jonathan to keep an eye on his cabinet
and his team. I suggested the inclusion of the likes of
A.K. Horsfall, Timi Alaibe; Col. Abubakar Umar,
detribalised Nigerians, who were capable of giving
direction to government. All our suggestions fell on deaf
ears. Several factors, some self-imposed, led to this
defeat.
The greatest being sycophancy and blackmail. Those of
us who told the bitter truth to the President were
ignored. We expected that by the time he left office,
there will an airport in Yenagoa; a coastal road from
Calabar to Edo extending to Lagos; we expected
factories and industries and sea food production centres
across the region and the creation of mega cities with
modern facilities for the people. Afterall the crude oil
that sustains Nigeria is sourced from our land. We
however understood it was not possible for a war time
President to achieve such feats but he was able to use
the amnesty programme to empower and educate some
youths in the region and the East-West road also
came alive during this period. The truth is that
Jonathan performed creditably well in other parts of
the country. Our children will learn from this
experience and do better than our generation, when
next God gives their generation another opportunity.
How do you see the new political alliance of the
South-west and the North?
We wish them goodluck. The Owelle of Onitsha, Dr.
Nnamdi Azikiwe did everything to stop what has
happened now. Zik rightly felt that if the West and
North came together, it will affect the survival of the
Nigerian state. He ensured that this kind of alliance
never happened. If Zik was alive he would never have
allowed Jonathan to create this political order. We
look forward to Vice President-elect Osinbajo
surrounding himself with technocrats of Yoruba origin
as advisers and aides. They will replicate what Chief
Obafemi Awolowo did as Finance Minister under
Gowon’s rule. to pursue the development of Yoruba
land. Meanwhile, Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu regales as
ceremonial president, calling the shots in Nigeria, just
like Queen Elizabeth II does in Great Britain. That
suits the overall desires of Tinubu as he moves to
develop Yoruba land.
Did you think it would have been better to serve your
region first before serving other Nigerians?
In Nigeria, you serve your region first, because the
rest of the country would not voluntarily give us
power. Since Nigeria’s independence, we remain the
most deprived in terms of development, despite the
resources which is used to manage the affairs of the
country. Again, they gave us the name ‘minority’. So,
it was important that he used the opportunity to focus
on our people first, while expanding development to
other parts of Nigeria. Like they say, ‘opportunity
comes but once’. But we are not bitter because
Jonathan has broken the spiritual jinx that our region
was incapable of producing an elected president in the
country. Jonathan has opened the gate of the
Presidency for our children and their children’s
children, so our children are now free to occupy that
seat.
There was a time you organised a deliverance service
for Aso Rock. Why did you do that?
It was historic. I called men of God across the Niger
Delta and sponsored the service. One beloved brother,
Mr. Ken Etete, provided over 5,000 Bibles which
was distributed to all the participants free. This enabled
them carry out that spiritual exercise in Lagos. I did
that to mark Goodluck Jonathan’s 100 Days in office.
You remember I was the spokesman for Ijaw National
Congress when Ken Saro-Wiwa was hanged. I went
ahead to stop the dredging of the River Niger using the
courts, during the military. I was brought up in Yoruba
land. I sent four petitions to Oputa Panel and the
Panel was shocked by the level of mistreatment the
Niger Delta had endured from the Nigerian state.
I joined activism when MKO Abiola election was
annulled. I was the coordinator of non-indigenes for
the actualization of June 12 and we fought the military
for insulting Nigerians. But today our people in
government don’t value us. They don’t allow us to
advise them because we are not gamblers.
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