Jujuman’s Poetry

The Press and Architect Mike Onolememen « NIGER DELTA AND CONFLICTS IN NIGERIA

The Press and Architect Mike Onolememen « NIGER DELTA AND CONFLICTS IN NIGERIA

The Press and Architect Mike Onolememen

The Press and Architect Mike Onolememen
“The State is reduced to a shadowy emblem which comes to consciousness only on occasions of unrest”  
 
When have I read in recent times of a Nigerian journalistic inputs that concerns itself with the non-political aspects of the people in the delta, when has a newsmagazine solely focus on their ways of living or their personal traits as citizen, or of these villagers; the mothers, fathers and family of a people who had constantly swallowed the bitter pills of the previous confrontations involving the military and the militants,  
 
More often than not, all I read is about the MEND (operating under the aegis of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger-Delta), and the modus operandi of the various groups, kidnappings for money as they seek development for the oil communities in their fathers land, and then the adage mode of identification by the press; fear-provoking freedom fighters, gun tooting hoodlums, money seeking illiterates etc 
 
credit must be given to the majority of these reporters who like a typical Nigerian ruler usually ignore the State in times of peace, and like flies feasting on a Sudanese refugee they medialize their attack, sourced by jumbo pay in time of war and conflict,  
 
MINISTER of State for Defence, Architect Mike Onolememen, must have been aware of this as he spoke to a select group of journalists early this month, because when someone mentioned one of the militant groups by depersonalizing them he responded with  
 
?We are not talking about aliens here; we are talking about our brothers and sisters in the Niger Delta? 
 
The Nigerian press in such an act of depersonalizing our own brothers seems to educate us with the acknowledgement that they are more concerned with the government rather than the ?nature of state? and can be assumed as becoming a political tool working not for the good of the citizen of the delta, but the oil expatriates, more so by the undue attention of personalizing the militants at the delta sub domains, 
 
?We are not talking about aliens here?? this quote by the honorable minister; Architect Mike Onolememen surely put the press in their place and welcomes the Nature of the Delta in the Context of the Nigerian sovereignty 
 
Well you may assume rightly that it is the character of the press to seek the story, but the Questionnaires can leave any patriot quit baffled, let us examine another Question as put forward to the minister of State?  
 
?The international community feels the government is not doing enough to address the Niger-Delta problems?? 
 
That is a good questions, but Note? the journalist asking the question did not say?how they; the press in Nigeria felt, or how the Nigerian nation as a whole felt about the situation, or the African brothers, no he didn?t, and that was the first question put forward to a new minister of state at his home town? they want the minister to know ?How The International Community Felt?? I laugh to think of it because I myself wonder what they felt 
 
?On one side are the villagers with their thatch houses with no water to drink and nothing like electricity, on the other side, you see a camp built by the multinationals for their workers, with electricity, water and other state-of-the-art amenities. The question that then readily comes to mind is: if the oil companies can provide these for their workers in the creeks, if they know that their workers cannot live in the kind of environment they found their villagers, why should they not extend the same facilities to the villagers?? 
 
The international community feels the government is not doing enough to address the Niger-Delta problems?who are the international communities, are they not the owners of the camps built by the multinationals for their workers, with electricity, water and other state-of-the-art amenities  
 
The honorable minister; Architect Mike Onolememen has shown that he doesn?t need the press depersonalization of the nature of the delta in favor of the government, and his exact words echoes it?I quite understand the issues involved in this crisis and I know that the youths from host communities are agitated that their places have been devastated by many years of exploration and exploitation and that nothing is being ploughed back.? 
 
Amid the height of possessions 
You hear the masses screaming 
In this continent it’s quite a paradox 
With much wealth yet so poor 
In this world its a shame 
The cradle of humanity is extremely poor. 
You can literally see poverty everywhere 
Its written all over the place and faces 
Just take a look around you and what do you see 
Disgruntled races 
You can see it in the eyes and stance of the people 
The bodies bent and weighted down by toil 
You can feel it in pregnant air we breathe 
And you can smell it all around you. 
 
It’s all over the town and villages 
The odor in every street and in every city 
I believe this is a problem that merit my review 
My pen my talent as the only rich store I have 
Amid the poorest continent in the whole wide world 
This poetry can afford three square meals

Writing the Delta

My write-up and poetry in this website attempts to comprehend the role of the Nigerian press in the construction and deconstruction of Niger Delta conflict with an aim of ratifying views that the current
Nigeria mass media hardly play any significant role in peace resolution aimed at the Nigerian federation 

By studying the main supposition of the newspapers in relationship with the government “Plan for the delta’ I hope to profile how the local press has failed in  “protagonist role” by not defining the responses of the larger citizens in the absence of a clear stance by the federal government