Emergency Rule In Rivers State: The International Conspiracy

In 1933, Hermann Josef Abs, the Nazi Bank manager, proposed the resetting of the world political dynamics. Before this period, it was widely believed by scholars that Monarchs had the sovereign authority over her subjects and largely referred to as a sovereign. But after the Renaissance period of enlightenment, philosophers disagreed and began to posit sovereignty of the state. With the concept of sovereignty torn between the monarchy and state, an atmosphere of internecine relationships arose leading to distrust, conflict, and violence. Emergency rule became imminent, each party resorting to self-help and violence to intimate and suppress the opponents  into obedience and loyalty.

In the ensuing power struggle, the people, hitherto the subjects of the monarch and state, emerged stronger to be recognised as sovereign. In contemporary political theory, the people are known as the sovereign with the power to determine and endorse legitimate authority.

Interestingly, Hermann Abs was also the banker to Adolf Hitler and the third Reich. In the Abs proposal, neither the monarch, the state nor the people is sovereign, but corporation; organised business outfits driven by profits.. Development was now a euphemism for exploitation and resource control. 

In 1886, the United African Company received a Royal Charter, granting legal backing to George Taubman Gouldie by the British Monarchy. Two years earlier, Otto Von Bismark of Germany had convened a conference of European nations in the scramble for Africa. No African representative attended, and the agenda was the forceful expropriation of African territories and resources.

In 1958, Mr. Abs became chairman of Deutsche Bank with the agenda of establishing the rights of business over the state and the people; a sort of Magna Carta for private business investors. He argued that the instrument is needed for special international courts that could protect capital and businesses from the meddling of politicians and local entities in any country. The business Magna Carta was to place private investment above the government. In this scenario, we live two worlds; government and corporation intersecting each other when they meet in Investor State Dispute Settlement, ISDC court in case of dispute and misunderstanding. 

In September 1964, in Tokyo, Japan, the proposal resurfaced during the 19th annual conference of World Bank. The major agenda of the conference was to protect, promote, and drive interests of corporations to make profits above the control of states by establishing the Investor/State Dispute  Settlement ISDS  system worldwide. Out of the 103 countries and delegates that attended the meeting, 21 developing  countries with huge mineral resources and rare earth metals vehemently opposed the motion, but a voice vote was used by the presiding officer to ram the resolution through in 30 seconds. The implication of this event on the global stage is now the subject of controversy in Nigeria and Rivers state in particular.

This controversy and debate triggered by global oil politics is the realisation that oil has become the new currency of power and its predicament on oil bearing communities like Rivers was first recorded in 1887 when King Jaja of Opobo was deposed as a monarch and sent into a forced exile by the British authorities for non compliance with terms of “an agreement “ with the British Monarchy. After all, as we say now is Rivers state, agreement is agreement. The subject of controversy and disagreement between King Jaja of Opobo and the British Monarchy was access to palm oil, a major driver of the industrial revolution in Great Britain after the abolition of slave trade.

Subsequent activities of big oil corporations also triggered protests in developing countries where hydrocarbons are exploited, creating environmental and public health hazards. In August 1958, the peoples of Oil Rivers Protectorate, a colonial nomenclature for the present-day Niger Delta area, protested to Willinks Commission of Inquiry on the fears of minorities in Nigeria. Those fears are  now manifest in Rivers state, laying the foundation for Jan 1990 protest and declaration against Shell Petroleum Development Company in Port Harcourt as personae non grata by the Ogonis. The protest and confrontation against the petroleum giant in Ogoniland appeared to have gone contrary to the objectives of business Magna Carta proposed by Abs in 1933. The fall out this confrontation by the Ogoni for preventing unfettered access to the crude oil in their land led to the hanging of Ken Saro Wiwa and eight others Ogoni mathyrs through a controversial court judgment sanctioned by the General Abacha led military junta in Nigeria.

Since the deposition of King Jaja Opobo in the colonial Oil Rivers Protectorate in 1887 until today, not much has changed save for the local elites replacing the foreign imperial brigands and bandits. The imposition of state of emergency in 1993 and the killing of over 50,000 people in Ogoniland is a testimony that the new currency of power is oil, where rare earth minerals are the priority of government over human existence in Rivers state.  The reckless exploitation of oil and gas, which the Rivers people consider as the blood and oxygen their soil would remain the greatest environmental challenge unacceptable to the people of Rivers state. The UNEP report of 2011 on Ogoniland has clearly stated that the environmental impact of the activities of the oil giants in Ogoniland would take over 30 years to remediate and urged Shell Petroleum and the Nigerian government to clean up the mess.

Within and outside Nigeria, the struggle for resource control, acquisition, and regulation of hydrocarbons, precious metals, and other rare earth minerals have been catastrophic. Many developing  states have been accused of placing business and commercial interests above the environment and human lives. Security agencies are routinely deployed to protect oil and gas facilities of oil giants without any regard or consideration for human rights. These corporations now place themselves above the state, and soon, their collaborator would be held to account one way or the other.

In the African sub region, Patrick Lumumba of Congo was murdered by the CIA to gain unfettered access to the natural resources of that great country. The same fate befell Col. Mouma Ghadafi of Libya. Several conflicts around the world, particularly in developing countries, are caused by the struggle for resource control and access to mineral resources. Several violent conflicts around developing countries in Asia and Africa are vestiges of vested business interests of corporations with backing of the courts where the ISDS clauses have been slipped or inserted in small prints into bilateral or multilateral business agreement as a corporate insurance policy for foreign investment and development.

With the discovery of oil by the Chinese in 600 BC, its subsequent exploration by Col. Drake in Pennsylvania, United States, in 1859, the story had been that of tragedy for the people of the catchment area of oil production and Eldorado for the investors and traders. From the seven oil sisters of Mobile, Chevron, Texaco, etc.. the story hasn’t changed as oil remains the major subject oppression, violent conflicts, espionage, and death by vested business interests using state apparatus as a veritable tool in connivance. In most cases, posterity has always held them to account in the wee hours of life.

Marcel David Reich, popularly known as Marc Rich, the acclaimed oil king of Glencore and the untouchable US citizen lived as a fugitive for decades in a remote village of Zug, Switzerland hiding from the U S law enforcement authorities until his death in 2013 after President Bill Clinton had granted him a presidential pardon. Here in Rivers state, it is hoped that other commodity traders and agents of oil skulduggery would not escape justice. The brazen acts of impunity to subvert the cause of justice and brigandage will also not go unpunished.

Hon. Bernard Mikko 

Former Member of House of Representatives.

Send Us A Press Statement Advertise With Us Contact Us

 And For More Nigerian News Visit GWG.NG