I have always wondered why in Nigeria, we do not celebrate those who fought for this country in the manner the Americans rever their founding fathers and great leaders like Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King. How many of us compulsorily learnt about Ahmadu Bello, Awolowo, Nnamdi Azikiwe? We know of them but do we know how they helped in bringing about this great country called Nigeria? I recall during the 2011 elections, I mentioned something about the Great Awo and his laudable policies and someone asked me "this Awo sef, what did he do for Nigeria?" Where do you begin to tell someone that schooled in Nigeria all her life that Awo's educational legacy is still being enjoyed in South West Nigeria. If we do not encourage feelings of pride in our own people, who will do so for us? Perhaps it is the ethnicity problem again rearing its ugly head and preventing us from giving credit where it is deserved, regardless of what ethnic group we and the deserving person belongs. Well, we need to start engendering feelings of pride amongst ourselves for our people that have excelled, especially, those who fought for us.
In Niger Delta too , we have our own leaders that fought for the the oil producing regions to have control over their resources or at least enjoy from it small. Leaders like Isaac Boro, Ken Saro Wiwa, to name a few. How much do we celebrate these leaders? I must praise those who have organised the Boro Day in different parts of the world to ensure that the Boro legacy lives on. There was a Boro Day held in London sometime in August. Who was Major Isaac Adaka Boro? As Wikipedia, the internet encyclopedia explains, Isaac Boro was a university leader, a teacher, policemen, army officer who believed that the Niger Delta people should benefit from their oil wealth. He led a militant group, The Niger Delta Volunteer Force, who declared a Niger Delta Republic in 1966 and clashed with the Nigerian army for 12 days until the Niger Delta Volunteer Force was defeated. He later fought for the Nigerian army, delivering the Niger Delta from Biafra's hands but was subsequently killed in mysterious circumstances. When you visit the website of the Adaka Boro Centre, it features his book "the Twelve day Revolution" which sheds more light on Isaac Boro.
The struggle for control being enjoyed by minority groups, like the Ijaws, certainly did not start today. It did not start from the days of Ken Saro Wiwa, as many believe. As far back as 1966, Isaac Boro was fighting for this. Is it right for us to ignore him now that the Ijaws have some measure of control over their oil. Should he not be acknowledged? You look at the self called "militants" of today and you wonder- "whose cause are they fighting?" Why are they still kidnapping anyone today? Can they honestly say they are fighting the same cause Isaac Boro fought? With there being an Ijaw State (Bayelsa) and an Ijaw president, is this not the time for these "militants" to drop their guns and see how they can work with the Governments to ensure the Ijaws use this opportunity to attain the goals the fight for resource control sought to achieve.
His Excellency, Chief Timipre Sylva, (Governor of Bayelsa State) attended the Boro Day in London and his speech was a challenge to all of us aggravating for change. He clearly pointed out that educational empowerment is the tool for the kind of change the Niger Delta currently needs. Yes, we have some resource control, however, if we do not have the know how needed to manage these resources, we will lose it all and the whole struggle would have been in vain, indeed. I recall seeing many youths in the various Bayelsa communities I visited during my tour of the schools participating in the Bayelsa State Child Development Account Project (see www.bayelsacdastars.com) sitting and in some cases swimming, idly, at 11 am in the morning. There were some that just could not get jobs after graduating (and we tried to encourage these ones to be patient for the Bayelsa State Government to implement its job creation goals) but there were those who dropped out of school believing that: "why should we go to school when we have oil in our State." That kind of thinking is certainly the one that we should all fight against. This is the thinking His Excellency believes should be exorcised from the hearts of any Ijaw man, any Nigerian. The victory does not lie at gaining control of the wheel, it lies at where you take the resources. We should all collectively work at ensuring we employ the resources effectively to transform our State and lives.
Nigerians, we need to celebrate our leaders and inculcate feelings of pride in the young ones on the achievements of these leaders. Our education curriculum should include our history from a young age. It amazes me that most of our schools -secondary schools too- today embrace British and other curricula exclusively to anything Nigerian. Who are we telling these children they are? As part of the CDA STARS Club curriculum, we identify some Bayelsa Heroes (Heroines) and discuss their achievements with the CDA STARS during the after school classes, to encourage the students that with hard work they can indeed be stars.
As adults enjoying the legacies of these past great leaders, let us find new ways of ensuring we will constantly be victorious in our search for a better world. I agree with His Excellency- education is the only way we will discover levels of victory that today seem beyond our reach.
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