Niger Delta’s Fake Mothers

Comfort Obi

Will the real Niger Delta Mothers step out to be counted.
Will Niger Delta Mothers step forward and, with one voice, curse the fake Patriotic Niger Delta Mothers who, over the past couple of months have done nothing but drag motherhood, especially mothers from the Niger Delta on the floor. Will they step forward and expose this fake group which sponsors are doing everything to destroy every responsible and patriotic son and daughter of the region, and in the process, present the region as unintelligent. Will the Niger Delta mothers please step forward and expose the cowards, obviously men, who are mocking the sacred roles of mothers. Where did this group which flaunts two names, Chief (Mrs.) Juliana Ibianichuka as president, and Lolo Irene Emeruwa, as Secretary, spring from?
To answer the questions, two things should be made clear. One, there is no group, registered or unregistered, known as The Patriotic Niger Delta Mothers. Two, no woman is involved in any such fake group. Meaning: The fake group is made up of cowardly politicians who have made so much money out of the crisis in the region, and are always uncomfortable when there is a semblance of peace. These are a few politicians, and so-called elders and leaders in the region, who have suddenly become relevant, and have been, no thanks to years of criminal neglect in the region, catapulted to where they never thought, even in a nightmare, that they would get to.
In the various advertisements in the media by the group, which has cost it about five million naira, it has elevated lies and falsehood to an art. Those involved pretend they are fighting for the good of the Niger Delta. But it is the direct opposite. In a bid to hit the region where it would hurt most, they chose, as their target, a federal government agency, the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), which since its establishment in 2001, has put a smile on the face of the region. They chose to rubbish the Commission, and in the process discredit the Federal Government so as to continue to reap from the crisis in the region. For the benefit of doubt, it is not that the brains behind this shameful act don’t know that the NDDC has done well. They do. In the history of the region, especially since the criminal neglect of the region took the centre-stage, no agency, or state government, has positively affected the lives of the people in the region more than the NDDC.
From roads, bridges, health care, water, skills acquisition, electricity, boats, education, vehicles, to employment, the NDDC has provided all. Indeed, a good number of the region’s indigenes have become millionaires, thanks to contracts they executed on behalf of the NDDC. Men, women and youths have been empowered to the hilt. The NDDC has intervened in every possible way to lift the lot of the zone. Majority of the people are appreciative. But a small band of mercenaries has been in the vanguard of trying to pull down the NDDC. This is why.
The band is fighting one man, the Managing Director of the Commission, their own son and brother, Timi Alaibe. For the number of years Alaibe has been there, from being the Executive Director (Finance), to finally becoming the Managing Director, he has been under some of the most cruel and senseless attacks. There is no crime agency where petitions have not been sent in their dozens, be it the EFCC or the ICPC, against Alaibe. Fake bank statements had been circulated. Everything has been done to put him to shame and so, get him out of the Commission. In the history of investigations in this country, Alaibe and the NDDC go down as the most investigated. Their financial books have been turned upside down and inside-out. Yet neither the NDDC, nor Alaibe has been indicted.
In the face of all these, Alaibe and the NDDC have remained focused. His thinking is that the interest of the Federal Government and the Niger Delta people supercede all the personal attacks on him. His family has not been spared. But of all these attacks, the recent one mounted by the fake Patriotic Mothers of Niger Delta takes the cake.
It began a couple of months ago when this group decided to desecrate motherhood. It is not registered. It has no address. The only address it flaunts is a ramshackled building located at No 225 Sapele-Warri Road, Delta State. And the so-called two mothers who signed bore Igbo names. So, you ask: Why Igbo names? Why not Ijaw, Urhobo or Itsekiri? The signatories lack credibility for many reasons.
They are so cowardly they deny their sex. No woman would tell the type of unintelligent lies they told. They are so empty-brained they pick a fake address. Isn’t it a shame that a group which has spent about five million naira on adverts would have a ramshackled house as its address? The house belongs to a struggling family which can neither afford doors, windows, nor change the roof of the house which has been partly blown away by the wind. Yet, in their most recent advert, the group, instead of hiding its face in shame, or shutting up since it has been caught in its lies, shamelessly defend the address. They say the house belongs to a hapless woman whose address they decided to use. Why? If they are genuine, and are so rich, why not get an office. Nobody in the house has any knowledge of either the organisation, or the fake signatories. For all the millions of naira they are spending on adverts, they don’t even have the facts on the NDDC. You would ordinarily think that a group which is ready to spend such an obsene amount of money would, at least, have its facts correct. This group cannot even differentiate between Billions and Trillions. It claimed that the NDDC has, in the past six years, received the sum of N3.8 trillion from the Federal Government. The truth is that the Commission has received less than N100 billion from the FG from 2001 to December 2007. This amount represents only about seven per cent of the money released to the zone by the FG. The Niger Delta states got 71 per cent, while the LGA’s received 22 per cent. So, can the group compare what NDDC has achieved with its seven per cent to what the states, and the LGAs have achieved with their 71 per cent and 22 per cent respectively? At least, about three of the states will cover their faces in shame. During the Obasanjo regime, it is on record that on a state visit to one of the states where he adopted a son, there was no project to commission except those executed by the NDDC. They present the region as unserious by criticising, out of mischief, the Niger Delta Master Plan, a document which has received rave reviews in the media, and acknowledged both nationally and internationally as a bedrock for the development of the region.
In case anybody thinks that the fake group has no reason to spring up, it does. Two things account for its sudden birth. First: There has been a serious agitation from well-meaning Niger Deltans and especially the zone’s State and National Assembly members as well as the state governors for the release of the sum of about N300 billion owed the Commission by the Federal Government. The aim of the mischievous adverts against the NDDC and Alaibe is to stop the FG from releasing the fund. The sponsors of the group know very well that with such an amount of money, the NDDC would perform 300 per cent better than it has already performed. Problem is: they stupidly think that the honour would go to Alaibe. They selfishly think it would raise his profile more than what it is now.
The second reason which is a consequence of the first, is politics. In the life and death politics in the Niger Delta, especially in Bayelsa State where Alaibe hails from, not a few people see him as a threat. His profile and achievements, his compassion for the people, especially the underprivileged, which culminated in his popularity in the state, has made formidable enemies for him among a clique. Yet, Alaibe has either been instrumental, or has in no small measure contributed to the stability of almost all the governments in the state. He is appreciated when his contributions and force help stabilise them. Thereafter, he is ganged up against, and he becomes a common enemy.
Alaibe’s case may be worse, but it has become a recurring decimal n the Niger Delta politics. You have a group of confusionists, a group of two-for-a-kobo individuals, whose stock in trade is to pull any brilliant brain in the zone down by peddling falsehood. They thrive on blackmail. They jump from house to house, from office to office, looking for who would pay them to pull others down.
But for mother-luck, they did that to Vice President Goodluck Jonathan when fate thrust the governorship seat of Bayelsa State on him. Some of those who are eating from his palm now were against his becoming a governor, or the Vice President. They alleged that he fought against former Governor DSP Alamieyeseigha, a man he served loyally as a deputy. They did that to the former Governor of Rivers State, Dr. Peter Odili. I know it is God that gives positions, but one of the reasons, aside from Obasanjo’s wayo, why the Niger Delta missed the Presidency is that sons of the zone were against it. But we must thank God that after everything, an understanding human being emerged as the President. Yet, the role played by this clique must not be forgotten. They say something else in the night, and the opposite in the day.
But back to the fake mothers in the Niger Delta. Members of the group should be ashamed of themselves. And so should their sponsor(s). They have so much money to propagate falsehood, yet thousands of people in the zone are living in abject poverty. With that amount of money, they would provide a decent accommodation to those living in their fake address, No 225 Sapele-Warri Road, Delta State.
So, they are Niger Delta mothers? What have they done about the crimes, especially the senseless kidnapping of innocent people, more especially women and children, going on in the Niger Delta? What have they done about the gangsters who take over streets in broad daylight and shoot randomly, killing innocent people? Good mothers should protest against such crimes and work for peace. They should threaten to walk naked in the streets over such crimes, and not over the NDDC.
Finally, security agencies should strive to expose this group and any other such groups. Somebody must be giving them the millions of naira they are wasting on falsehood. They should find out who. And for the media, the time has come to insist that whoever brings materials that are false, and are deliberately aimed at over-heating the polity, should be photographed, and the addresses confirmed. By doing that, the wheat will be separated from the chaff. And nobody would think and/or feel that once media houses are paid, anything goes. Yes.