Nigeria Content Online

Is “Niger Delta” an
environmental, political or economic definition? Does it have a
homogenous nationality in it, irrespective of an identity of that
unique tunic we call a “jumper,” and hat costume? When the traders at
the Wuse Market in the FCT hassle you to have a look at their
‘south-south collection’, you probably know what they mean. The jumper
is about 200 years old, and not of Ijaw origin or creation.

This was what
natives of the Niger Delta saw British merchants wearing in the 18th
Century, when they docked to load cargoes of slaves and palm oil. These
white men were sometimes called “hooligans” in the UK, after ruffians
from an Irish family living in South London. Bottles of whisky and
schnapps thrown overboard by foreign traders are dredged up and sold as
cultural artifacts in the Niger Delta till this day. If you meet an
Irish Mr Hooligan, please do not laugh; there’s nothing wrong with him.

Fashion simply
revolves. Great entrepreneurial types, successful designers and
technical people often retain an important sense of heritage in
creating a new style. Today in Nigeria, this dress-code of British
hooligans is identical with oil wealth, political authority and
dignity. It may be of minimal interest, but you never know the origins
of what you acquire or imitate from other cultures. It’s like you don’t
want to enter a restaurant kitchen to see how the food is prepared if
you want to enjoy your meal.

Heads are turned,
security men rush to open doors when men clad in this ancient outfit of
the British Merchant Navy alight from heavy Hummer Jeeps at the big
hotels in Abuja. Tailors in Nigeria are now churning out jumpers and
hats. A new elite, political, south-south identity is born! Why not?
Everybody loves a winner. Nigerians are suddenly falling over each
other to identify with and claim origins from the Niger Delta.

Fraudsters use the
jumper-and-hat to dupe, boasting of being either ‘militants’ or oil
magnates. My friend of over 50 years started wearing the jumper with
hat just a couple of years ago, claiming, “I have to show where I come
from. I’m a free-born!” I wonder that this Niger Deltan didn’t know
this all along.

New politics

As we approach the
general elections of 2011, there is a noticeable shift from tribal to
resource-based politics – even though ethnicity remains the hidden
epicentre of associations. Numbers of individuals in a particular tribe
are now less important than the size and value of minerals in a
particular area, inside the soil. If geopolitics is increasingly
encouraging Nigerians to show how much they ‘own’ in natural resources,
one has to wonder where we place individual or even group excellence
and civic organization.

Countries have gone
to war with each other over land and resources, but within a nation the
dangerous competition over resource rights must be snuffed out through
land reforms and satisfactory fiscal federalism. This is what
proponents of a Sovereign National Conference are talking about.

No one is exactly sure of the physical expanse of what constitutes
the Niger Delta, South-South, or Oil-Producing Areas, or the
demographics in these undefined enclaves. Under a resource-based
democracy, the fear of a backlash from resource-poor folks should not
be ruled out. That could be in the form of armed conflict.
Nevertheless, it has to be remembered that mineral resources are not
limitless, and few environmental conditions are permanent. Once oil is
struck in the Chad Basin of Borno State, I’m sure Nigerians will hurry
to adopt the fashion of the Kanuri.