Nigeria will never break-up, says Allen Onyema, the man who brought peace to Niger Delta (2)

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.