By Azu Akanwa
Comrade Joseph Evah is no new person to issues and politics of the Niger Delta. The Ijaw-born activist has been a strong pillar of the Ijaw struggle and sees the current political dispensation as God’s chosen time for the deprived oil-rich region. He therefore takes exception to any comment and arrangement that will hinder the total emancipation of the Niger Delta. Evah spoke to Vanguard at the Niger Delta Hall of Fame, Lagos.
Is it true that the South-South people are divided over Jonathan 2011 ambition?

There is no division. We are saying the rest of the country should cooperate with us. We are the  feeding bottle of the nation and we are yet to takeover leadership for 50 years and now that God has zoned the presidency to us, we ask the rest of the country to accept God’s zoning and the whole region are in one spirit and one accord in the matter.

What could have prompted that decision to hold on to the presidency in 2011 when the PDP zoning is against it?

In the first place, PDP is not Nigeria. The country is bigger than PDP. The Niger Delta has done all the sacrifice to encourage other regions to takeover leadership. Remember that in the First Republic, it was the political party led by our eternal hero, late Chief Dapa Briye that formed alliance with the party from the Northern region, giving the alliance a national outlook to enable Tafawa Balewa, to form government and when civil war threatened Nigeria, it was Mid-Western region led by Major-General David Ejor that resisted the breakup.

Even during the Second Republic, our people line-up behind the North to encourage the defunct NPN to have national spread and again when the military annulled June 12, our leaders like Ovie Kokori suffered in jail. I was the coordinator of non-indigenes for the actualisatiion of June 12  as we mobilised to stop military onslaught on Lagos and South-West while I was also the publicity secretary of Ijaw National Congress, INC, when Ken Saro Wiwa was killed. This is apart from our boys like Capt Empere and Capt Dakolo among others that were killed over April 22, 1990 Okar coup. So we have suffered for this country and we expected the North to appreciate our people long time loyalty to their leadership in this country and support us.

We expect the North to be the first people to always stand up and endorse any of our demand but to our pain, it is the North that will always kick against anything that we demand for in Nigeria. That type of betrayal is worse than Judas Iscariot’s betrayal. That was why our leaders led by Chief E.K. Clark walked out of the Obasanjo government organised political conference. Our leaders were so bitter that the North is against every demand from our region. And they walkout, it was the greatest thing ever done by our leaders and now we want the North to repent.