Following
the deadly attack on the NNPC oil exploration team to Maiduguri which
left many dead, Nigerian writer, Emmanuel Ugwu has issued a reaction.
Nothing proves Nigeria’s status as an oil alcoholic like the 50
dead bodies of the NNPC oil exploration team to Maiduguri. The scent of
oil had us staggering into the killing field, with our eyes open; hence,
the slaughter at the tryst of the country’s thirst for oil and Boko
Haram’s blood thirst.
It’s an open secret that the death cult is holding out in the
Maiduguri axis. Their bestial predation in that zone is a staple of the
news and a travel advisory in its own right. They are vigorously
contesting the single story of their extinction.
They launch expeditionary raids. They dispatch suicide bombers. They perpetrate cruelty to shock.
Yet, Abuja decided that the task to beard the lion in his den could
not wait. The spoil of oil must be sampled even if the occupied enemy
territory that harbors it is one of the most dangerous spots in the
world. It had to be done now.
Ibe Kachikwu, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, said
that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation ‘embarked on the
venture despite the risks in order to grow the country’s crude oil
reserves’.
Affecting the demeanor of grief, he proceeded to announce the
suspension of the fool’s errand, a fait accompli already imposed by the
terrifying death toll. He said: "Certainly, we will not go back
unless the military give us a clearance, just like we didn’t go in
before they gave us a clearance.”
The "we" Kachikwu in that remark, mind you, is the royal we: the
self-exaggerating plural that is the preserve of the proud nobility. Its
invocation did not imply that the minister was eager to rush into the
frontier where the 50 were slain. He was not part of the flock of
sacrificial lambs that went into Maiduguri. If he were part of the
‘’we’’, he would have partaken of the massacre. And it’s precisely
because he was not a physical casualty in that bungled essay that he
could afford to threaten to try his luck again based on another military
‘’clearance.’’
Kachikwu abandoned his discretion and authorized the Maiduguri
(mis)adventure because his own life would not be on the line. He knew he
would watch the doomed safari from a safe distance. He would relax in
his gorgeous office while the lesser mortals venture out to taunt
Abubakar Shekau.
Now, if the oil seekers had managed to make reasonable progress
under gunfire and returned safe, Kachikwu would have appropriated their
sacrifice and owned the success. But he has refused to take
responsibility for his misjudgment and their resultant massacre. He
explained away the tragedy as if it were a trivial loss.
Kachikwu is the typical Nigerian Oga-at-the-top. They regard your
human value as inferior. They conceive of you as a guinea pig, born to
serve the experiment of their fantasies. You are the means to their end.
Kachikwu neither resigned nor apologized. Instead, he promised to
repeat the foolish attempt. "Certainly, we will not go back unless the
military give us a clearance, just like we didn’t go in before they gave
us a clearance.”
Ibe Kachikwu has blood on his hands. If he is normal, he should have murder on his conscience.
The man in the street knows that, under the circumstances,
traversing Borno state involves a high element of risk to life. Kachikwu
cannot claim not to know that Maiduguri and environs are not congenial
to oil exploration activities. The odds were that the team would be
ambushed by Boko Haram.
But he chose to embrace a go-ahead that flied in the face of facts on the ground.
For over a year, the Nigerian military has been beating its chest
over the "degradation of Boko Haram." They tout "degradation" as
‘obliteration.’ They talk dismissively of Boko Haram as a vanquished
rebellion; defeated, demoralized and demobilized.
The ‘clearance’ they issued to Kachikwu was consistent with the tenor of that evidence-free propaganda.
Kachikwu should have had enough common sense not to suspend his
disbelief. The reality he saw on the television every day affirmed that
that part of the Lake Chad basin consumed people like the Bermuda
Triangle. And he knew the Nigerian military better than to put much
stock in their boast.
This is the same military that rained bombs on the IDP camp at
Rann. It had presumed the sanctuary of the hapless refugees to be the
hideaway of the terrorists. The erroneous bombardment wasted 54 persons.
Six months and an inhouse inquiry later, the Defence Headquarters
confirmed that the error was indeed due to "lack of appropriate
marking." In order words, they bombarded on a wing and a guess: they
unleashed death on the off-chance it would hit the right target.
Nigerians deserve to know the real reason why Kachikwu signed off
on that suicide mission. Was he really motivated by the need to grow
Nigeria’s crude oil reserves at a time when production level has climbed
to 2.2 million barrels per day? Or was trying to ingratiate himself
with President Buhari? Was the junior minister too desperate to report
good news to his boss who ordered him to "intensify" the exploratory
work in the inland basin on the Chad Basin and Benue Trough areas?
The Maiduguri mission reeks of sycophancy. Kachikwu, the first
class grade graduate, seemed to be scrambling to win the prize of the
highest performer in the class of ministers. The oil of the Niger Delta
is at the crux of the chaotic "restructuring" altercation troubling the
polity. A token of success from the oil search in the North would have
sufficed to calm down the agitation.
He wanted to perform the miracle of sensual pacification. The
murmurs of the Israelites ceased when Moses struck the rock and water
gushed out. Likewise, the agitations of Nigerians would cease if he
struck oil in Shekau’s backyard.
The daredevil stunt has sadly created a new set of widows and fatherless children.
Nigeria hung the Ogoni Nine for the sake of oil. Nigeria fed the
Maiduguri 50 to Boko Haram for the sake of oil. Nigeria would rather
shed blood to gain oil.
Nigeria is that country that defines itself by its crude capacity.
Our existence is validated by oil. Nigeria is an oil arrangement just as
a river is a body of water.
The rest of the world is weaning itself of oil and transitioning to
a green economy. The west is racing towards the normalization of the
electric car. Nigeria, the spoiled and retarded adult suckling, wanders
off on a different track, searching for another virgin oil reserve to
suck, another Oloibiri to rape.
Acting President Yemi Osibanjo ordered the same generals who
manufactured the fake clearance to relocate to Maiduguri. He mandated
them to effect real clearance of the area.
The carnage that had been going on in that place for a long time
did not elicit a presidential directive to relocate. But the generals
must redeploy now. Because we need to win the tug of war and get crude
flowing from that place as soon as possible.
We can’t have enough of crude oil. Though, the more of it we drink, the more we perish like the broke village drunk.
Too bad there is no Oil Alcoholics Anonymous to help Nigeria!
***
Written by Emmanuel Ugwu
You can reach Emmanuel at immaugwu@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @EmmaUgwuTheMan.
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