 |
| Barrister Allen Onyema |
“I took a
tremendous risk to my life and the lives of my children and family because a
lot of people who were benefitting from what was going on were really against
me but I was making sacrifice to my country.” This is Barrister Allen Onyema illuminating
his experience in the attempt to bring peace to his country at a time when the sovereignty
of Nigeria was highly threatened by activities of militants from a section of
the country. Without any support from those in authority, he commenced the heroic
act, moving from the north to the south, west and everywhere, only for one
reason- he loves Nigeria so there should be no disintegration of any kind.
“I was going from place to place, the
State Security Service men were all over me; they didn’t understand my
mission, they were following me day and night and they saw what I was
doing. I am sure they wrote a report on that.” As he progresses and
pushing further in the north and exploring the Niger Delta where the
militants in social disorder protesting alleged neglect of their area,
an idea came for Onyema; that is to go the way of the famous Dr. Martin
Luther King Jnr. in his attempt to change the incidence of violence in
the country. Martin Luther
King Jr. was an American Baptist Minister, Activist, Humanitarian, and
Leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement who led the U.S.
Civil Rights Movement from the mid-1950s until his assassination in
1968.
“I
now started getting in touch with the King Centre in Atlanta because of
Martin Luther King’s non-violence philosophy and you know non-violence
is a very powerful ingredient that one could use to subvert violence.
Mahatma Ghandi used it to get independence for the Indian nation without
encouraging the people to shed blood or fire any shot. Martin Luther
King used it in the United States to destroy official segregation
without having to encourage his people to kill anybody. It all means
that you can bring about social change without encouraging violence.
Then I believe ethnic and religious riots could be brought down without
encouraging people to go into violence. 
“The Niger Delta issue could be
sorted out without the boys taking to arms. I believe this because
Non-violence philosophy has worked in some other parts of the world to
bring about a peaceful change, so non-violence is a powerful tool with
which you can change the unbending person, you can disabuse the mind of
the violent man to become civil.” Onyema noted.
With much interest in the
philosophy, the workaholic airline owner, set out in search of who to
train him and his team in the King’s method of subverting violence with
non- violence tools but at the initial stage of the search he met stony
wall in the American Embassy where the team was refused their request
for visas.
Shedding light on this effort,
Onyema said the search led him to Dr. Bernard Lafayette, a longtime
civil rights activist and organizer, who was a leader in the 1960s Civil
Rights Movement. “The search led me to him but I never believed I could
attract him because that is a great worldwide statesman, so I thought
who am I to attract him. I wrote him that I will like to bring my staff
to train. He was the Director, Centre for Non- Violence and Peace
Studies, University of Rhode Island in Kingston, United States. While I
was doing this nobody ever asked me where you got this money. Nineteen
of us went to the American Embassy, they turned us down; they did not
give us visa but I can’t blame them, may be they thought we were running
to America. I tendered my account statement running into millions and
other documents but they did not oblige us maybe because of the number
of people that was to go with me,” the peacemaker narrated.
“We made a second attempt and
they still refused and I now wrote to the Centre for Non-violence. I
said please come to Nigeria and train us; it is not about going to
America, we are serious. I want to uproot this incidence of violence in
Nigeria especially in the Niger Delta. So the man one day wrote and said
I want to go and see this man. He is reminding me of Dr. Martin Luther
King, I think he has something to offer. I celebrated that email because
I knew something was going to happen. So he came to Nigeria and about
19 of us including my staff were trained for the first programme.
“We advertise the programme for
Nigerians to now apply. Nigerians used to go to UBA to buy forms. That
because I am publicity shy, a lot of people didn’t know my background.
They thought I started with amnesty programme, no way; I was there
before amnesty. My activities facilitated amnesty. That was why on
November 23, 2012, a group of people, the Eminent Friends Group decided
to honour me because they felt the country has not honoured me enough
and they gave me the PAN Nigerian Nationalist Award at the Oriental
Hotel in Lagos and you have all the ex-militant leaders attending to pay
homage for what I have been doing for this country and some people are
trying to rubbish because of self centeredness.
“So what I did was to get this
man to train me and my staff and then of course from there we started
monthly training programmes. What we wanted to do was to train a
critical mass of Nigerians that could also be trainers to expand the
scope, so that was what I did. As I continued to run the programme,
Nigerians were embracing it and money started rolling in.
 |
| ONYEMA teaching Nonviolence |
Yes money was rolling in for
Onyema as people were rushing to him from the north, south, west and
everywhere. There was enormous patronage from professionals including
lawyers, accountants etc. even military personnel and officials of the
State Security Service were not left out because it was a very powerful
programme but the real bucks that gave Onyema a strong pecuniary footing
streamed in when he started training the militants from the Niger
Delta.
“As I was doing this, it was
working and a lot of people were coming to the programme. It was then
also that I started taking militants, training them and taking them out
of the country to South African to train. So a lot of people, the
international communities, the Americans started noticing me even before
my own country, Nigeria. The American government showed interest in
what I was doing while the Nigerian government just looked the other way
but I continued with what I was doing.
“I was getting these militants,
their parents were bringing them. I was training and nobody asked me
where I got the money from. I was doing this for my country until Shell
Petroleum now came in and said yes we want to partner you. The first
time they came they were coming three days to our programme to bring
people, the Niger Delta boys and I said look, I have closed
registration. They couldn’t believe it; they went with the thought that
who is this Nigerian who will not want Shell to invest in his programme.
Who is this guy? But I said I am sorry, I can’t take your people now,
you come next three weeks because next month we are having another
programme therefore you have register on time. They couldn’t believe it
that any Nigerian could do that but that was a show of integrity, that’s
not about money and they respected that. So that time Shell came with
some militants, we trained and transformed them and we started using
them to train others. Then the whole thing was like wildfire, I took a
tremendous risk to my life and the lives of my children and family
because a lot of people who were benefitting from what was going on were
really against me but I was making sacrifice to my country.
Barrister Allen Onyema recieving a dignitary's badge of honour from the Mayor of Tuskegee, Mr. Omar Neal
“That sacrifice today contributed
immensely to the peace and tranquility we are all enjoying now. Many
people did not know that some people almost paid with their lives to
bring about what we are having today. I continued doing that and I got
Shell to be like a partner. Shell saw the success of that programme, the
American government through the embassy was attending my programmes
they were taking notes and saw what was happening and before you know it
Chevron entered. So these oil companies were rolling in millions. From
this I will like to say Allen did not just emerge today. These companies
were just pumping money into my hands seeing the fruit of what I was
doing. I was the one who reconciled Shell with Afam community. I was the
one did that for them to do their power project and it was a very
successful part of my programme.
Enjoying the gains of Onyema’s
efforts, Shell made it almost a bi-weekly affair turning in a lot of the
militants for training at a very massive cost. There was a radical
change in the life style of the deadly militants as Onyema’s training
pragramme disarmed and humbled them. The news of the Martin Luther King
student began to spread like the wildfire in the harmattan season thus
winning more patronage for the programme.
Onyema said “Seeing the huge
success, Chevron later entered, and everybody saw the programme as a
means to the end of insurgence in that part of the country. This is
because we were training these boys and still sending them to the camps
to destabilise the camps. So their boys who saw the new lifestyle of
those we trained wanted to be like them and they too were coming. At a
time American started giving us visas to go for higher training. The
American government actually helped; the government through the embassy
here gave some support in all these things by allowing us to come for
our training programme and it was very helpful.
Barrister Allen Onyema teaching Nonviolence at the University of South Florida in Tampa, U.S.A.
“They were interested in seeing
that the issue of violence in the Niger Delta becomes a thing of the
past. Other oil companies joined and before you know it, the Akwa Ibom
state government under Attah sent for me. He said man; you are doing a
great job. I never knew Obong Victor Attah from anywhere before. In
fairness to him, he just sent for me. He rose from a meeting and said I
want to meet this Nigerian who is doing something wonderful. I want you
to train people for me, I want you to train over 100 people, I know it’s
going to cost me billions but I want to do it. And they paid; after
this he said Allen please go into the creeks, get them from wherever
they are and transform them. We need to fight this war intellectually
not with arms that was Obong Victor Attah.
To those insinuating about the
source of his wealth, Onyema has this to say, “Yes they paid me
handsomely, I made money no doubt but I made my money genuinely. I was
busy taking tremendous risk to my life. I was doing this at the time I
was staying in Novotel Hotel in Port Harcourt and some of these oil
companies were putting me in five, six, seven different rooms at the
same time with pseudo names to protect me because some people didn’t
really like what was going to happen. They saw the end of the game.”
“It was not long when Yar’Adua
and Jonathan took over and they now started asking questions that who is
this Allen Onyema and that was how they contacted Timi Alaibe. They
asked from him that is it true that this guy is doing all these and Timi
said yes. He was said to have also informed them that there was
somebody amongst the militants who almost killed him, but he later saw
the person preaching non-violence in the community telling people that
he has changed from his old ways.
 |
| Barr. Onyema honoured with Chieftaincy title |
“So Timi and the President said
why not get the Ex-militant leaders themselves to go for the programme
and. Timi approached the leaders who agreed to send their boys first and
truly they sent the worst of their commanders and we trained and
transformed them. That was the beginning of Amnesty. Yar’Adua now said
in that case something could happen and Jonathan was busy moving from
camp to camp pleading with the people to give it up. So they embraced
non-violence and we trained them and they proclaimed amnesty. People
will remember that when they were camped somewhere issues of rape and
whatever was prevalent but when Allen Onyema came to Obubra to train
them it was a different ball game. I handled the best non-violence
programme ever in the whole world.”
For these pains and troubles to
ensure that his fatherland is not torn into pieces as a result of ethnic
diversity and the tremendous threat to his family life and business,
Onyema is not happy that as an Apostle of Peace, his country has failed
to appreciate his good works. He said, “I deserve the highest award of
this country. I am coming out again to say it that I deserve to be
honoured with the highest national award this country could give. I am
not blowing my trumpet.” But even with his self esteemed position no one
in government appears ready to give him ears hence he has not been
remembered for inclusion in the list of awardees of national honour
since the inception of his nonviolence programme which has truly given
relevant peace to the Nigerian society.
“All the 30,000 ex-militants
passed through me. They must pass through the Nonviolence programme. The
international community is not really interested in training them as
pilots; they are interested in the training that will disabuse their
minds permanently from believing in the efficacy of violence as a tool
for change. And who did it? Myself with my staff; at the time when it
was tough, when they were coming out of the creeks with bullet wounds
and all sort of things, they looked like tigers, not many soldiers could
even face them but I took the flag. We could have died in Obubra. You
know what it meant to be in an enclosed place with 1,500 people, some of
them were murderers, some were kidnappers and today Nigerians are
saying Oh! The amnesty is this; it is that because the peace is now
there.
 |
| Dr. Martin Luther King |
“I am sure if Boko Haram had told
Nigeria that give us three trillion naira, we will stop forever,
Nigeria would have paid it, and they will forget it. So we have been
able to solve the issue of the Niger Delta but a lot of people have
forgotten where we were coming from; that at a time Nigeria was
producing barely six hundred thousand barrels a day, some people
sacrificed their lives, ours was number one to bring about that change
without arms. I had no one to protect me yet all the militants passed
through me in Obubra. That Obubra is an enclosed place where anything
could have happened to me and my staff. We gave this country a powerful
programme.
Onyema is stupendously rich; he
has made legitimate money enough to sustain his generations yet to come
if wisely spent. However, the Apostle of Peace needs more than the money
that his bravery to dare the devils in the creeks unprotected had
fetched him. What remains for Onyema is a National Honour which will
place him on the same historical platform with his mentors, the ilk of
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Mahatma Ghandi and Dr. Bernard Lafayette Jr.
No comments:
Post a Comment