The King & His Books
THE BAYELSA State Traditional Rulers Council is open to visitors, without bias. In the course of the last presidential campaign, King Bubaraye Dakolo, Chairman of the Council, was only too glad to receive in audience Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, before he became President and Commander-In-Chief of the Armed Forces, Federal Republic of Nigeria. In like manner, he received Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, as well as Peter Obi, and Kwankwanso in his office.
“They each received one or two of my books,” said the king, “just so that they can read books of choice that would help with governance. For some of us, the sustained argument is that oil and gas is at the centre of life in Nigeria. Leave it out, and the equation goes wrong.”
In the three-year period he has served as Chairman of the Bayelsa Traditional Rulers Council, King Dakolo has not only played host to high-caliber visitors; he has equally drawn public attention to the Council by showing up at colourful events, putting up appearances at strategic fora, and speaking with passion on issues close to his heart. He has also been at the centre of events himself.
In 2021, the grand launch of his first book, Riddle Of The Oil Thief, attracted an array of dignitaries within and outside government circles. Colleagues of the king from his days at the Nigeria Military Academy showed up to cheer the new author, their distinguished ranks visible upon their epaulettes.
In his submission at the occasion, Governor Douye Diri drew attention to the literary vitality of the king, and called on government officials and the general public to read his book in order to be better enlightened about the politics of oil and gas. He went so far as to recommend the book for study in all secondary schools and higher institutions of learning in Bayelsa so that students can be well acquainted with the cost of pollution in the oil-producing communities.
The event was so colourful, and the goodwill generated by that first book so far-reaching that, in 2023, the king invited the public to another presentation of two more books at the Diepreye Alamieyeseigha Banquet Hall. As may be expected, the occasion was graced by a cross-section of book lovers, government functionaries, and literary enthusiasts of all description.
“I think the problem in Nigeria is ignorance,” says the king, resurfacing from a deep reflection on the travails confronting the nation. “People don’t understand the riddle of the oil thief. They don’t understand the consequences of oil and gas exploitation. I have written five books on the subject, and I hope Nigerians will get to read them. They will get to know why we have insurgency, banditry, and oil thievery.
Apart from Riddle Of The Oil Thief and Once A Soldier, the biography of the king, Dakolo has spilled more ink. His pan-Africanist credentials are to be found in his third book, The African Voice. Its successor, Pirates Of The Gulf, deals with the intrigues of maritime security at the international level. The Kingfisher, his most recent book, tells the story of the symbiotic relationship between the people and the variegated maritime species that also endure the continual abuse of the environment. Each book explores the unrelieved anguish of the Niger Delta people and the harsh realities of living in the polluted swamp, in spite of the invaluable resources in oil and gas bearing communities.
Conscious of the swift passing of time, and the imperative of recording today for the sake of tomorrow, King Bubaraye Dakolo is already at work on a new book project. With the tentative title Gateway To The Atlantic, this new book explores the havoc of flooding and erosion suffered by the people of the Niger Delta. The book takes its bearing from the flood of 2022 when the king and his family had to wade through high waters along the East-West road to get to the airport in Omagwa.
After a successful book event in Accra, Ghana, the king and his beloved queen had to be conveyed by an interventionist party of military rescue officers who ferried them to safety from the relentless menace of the flood. In appreciation of their gallant efforts, the king hosted the band of officers to a feast at his palace in Ekpetiama, and won himself an idea to write a new book on what happens when the Kainji Dam opens up and overflows its boundaries.
Beyond tracing the trajectory of the deluge, flowing from the upper course through the middle course, to the lower course, and the characteristics which go with each course, the new book proposes to question government’s efforts at checking the hazards of flooding, and raise concerns about government’s sincerity in providing final solutions beyond occasional palliatives to victims of flooding.
“As we know, the wealth accruing from the Niger Delta is centralized,” the king points out, “but when the flood comes, the damage is localized. So, they centralize our monies, give us 13 percent, and take 87 percent of the total. When the flood comes, they still expect us to combat flooding with the meager 13 percent. Anyone talking about this issue should pay attention to the leaking roof first. Anyone who wants us to check flooding should give us all our monies, for a start.
“If we have all our monies, we can negotiate with other upstream states and decide whether to build our own dam, or ensure that the trough is dredged periodically, or else consider if the existing dam should be removed altogether. What’s happening now is comparable to buying a generator, not servicing it for sixty years, and still expecting it to perform optimally. If you focus on what the state is expected to do and leave out the causative agency, then you’ll be missing the mark. We need to see the full picture of how flooding comes about, and understand that it is more man-made than natural.”
The king is glad that Governor Douye Diri thought it fit to put together a standing committee on flooding and erosion, following the last flooding disaster in Bayelsa, in the hope that members might come up with expert opinion about what could be done to contain the menace of flooding. According to the king, one of the strengths of the Douye Diri government is that the Governor has put in place competent performers in the various ministries, people who truly understand what service is all about.
If he were to give a royal advice to the Governor, what should he focus on in the next three years? “Well, he already has what he calls the ASSURED agenda. He wants to give attention to agriculture, health, education, etc. But specifically, because of what I represent, I feel strongly that our woes as a people are entwined with the way oil and gas resources are administered in this country, and I want him to pay close attention to that.”
Bubaraye Dakolo ascended the throne of his forefathers on May 14, 2016. He looks forward to his tenth anniversary next year. The very thought of it causes him to reflect on the journey of his life up to the present. Born at Otuabagi where the first oil well was drilled, he grew up at the refinery quarters in Eleme. He lived through the civil war as a boy, and remembers walking on naked pipelines from the refinery quarters in Eleme all the way to Okrika, distracted only by ships sailing into shore to load cargo oil for export at the refinery jetty.
He returned to Otuabagi as a college boy, and would often explore Itokopiri, the particular site of Oil Well One, living as he was in the official quarters of the European oil workers. “I have taken people from all kinds of NGOs to that site, including visitors from the United Nations and the World Health Organisation. I’ve taken them through the creeks. The lie continues that Oil Well One was located in Oloibiri when, in fact, it is located at Otuabagi.”
Having read Chemical Engineering at the University of Port Harcourt, Dakolo describes himself as a core scientist, but he also read Education and became comfortable as a classroom teacher for the better part of six years, before proceeding to Coventry University, England, where he studied Terrorism, International Crime and Security. He has also been an activist, working side by side Oronto Douglas, the famous environmental and human rights lawyer of blessed memory.
“I have been to almost every oil field in the Niger Delta,” says King Dakolo. “I came to understand that the Nigeria-Biafra civil war was fought because of oil, contrary to what anyone would say. The popular slogan of the day, “to keep Nigeria one is a task that must be done,” was for the sake of oil. In like manner, the secessionist slogan, “On Aburi We Stand,” was again for oil sake. The Aburi agreement was about keeping the oil rights in the Niger Delta region. It was already agreed upon, but it soon became clear that this region would be richer than the rest of the country, so more trouble broke out.
“Every other tribal interpretation is a cover-up. The truth revolves around the control of the oil and gas resources in the Niger Delta swamp. In 1969, after the liberation of all the export terminals in Rivers State, General Yakubu Gowon promulgated Decree 59, moving oil and gas rights from the regions to the center, and it’s been like that since then.”
Needless to say, King Bubaraye Dakolo is a soul with a serious cast of mind to life, and the affairs of his nation. He is overly concerned about what happens around him, and aspires to live a better life in the land that bred him. He is equally blessed with a great sense of humour, and has done well to spice his books with profound ironies and witty quips that bring laughter to the lips. To hold a conversation with him, in fact, is to learn a few hard lessons about life while still being tickled in the ribs.
How has it been like presiding over the affairs of a Council constituted by men old enough to be his fathers? King Dakolo chuckles and takes a deep breath. “When you become a king,” he says, “automatically you become the oldest man in your kingdom. So, the truth is that there is no one older than me in Council. We are peers. I may look young, but in actual fact I am one hundred and six years old. The king next to me is probably eighty-eight years old. And they all understand that I’m representing them well, so the relationship is quite cordial.”
The king is fond of flipping through the pages of his books, all five of them, one after the other, to savour passages that appeal to him at a personal level. In his spare moments, yearning for expression, he mumbles his paragraphs to himself, and gets fresh enlightenment about aspects of the subject that might have been missed, nuances that may have to be highlighted in future books. And with every book, the king gains stamina to go one more mile.
“I have been particularly scandalized by the definition of the oil thief,” the king maintains, recapping a subject that remains an open sore begging for healing, as captured in his first book. “Victims of oil thievery are being killed, tortured and maimed every other day, when the actual culprit lives far away, enjoying the best of life. I searched the literature, and discovered that nobody has written anything in that direction. Given my new position, I began to write on it. I filled an obvious gap. Till date, it is difficult to find an oil thief in Bayelsa. He just can’t stay in the creeks. He will need the fire brigade and all the security apparatus to guard him. He will leave as quickly as he came.
“The real oil thief has the best properties in Lagos and Abuja, England and America. He has yachts and private jets. He is in control of ships and ocean liners. In the last sixty years since efforts to curb oil thievery began, if you take inventory of those in detention, not one oil thief has been jailed in this country. Everyone they have been chasing about are simply victims. That is the gap I filled with that document.”
Once A Soldier, his second book, is the story of a Nigerian born in the Niger Delta. It recalls his years in the military, in the 38 Regular Course of the Nigerian Defence Academy, no less, and the circumstances under which he left. “My elder brother, Captain Perebo Dakolo, was involved in the 1990 coup, and paid for it with his life. The regular question posed in my face at that time was this. Are you the brother of Captain Perebo Dakolo? You should not be here. In other words, my brother’s crime was visited on me. Otherwise, I would have been a General in the army by now.”
The African Voice, his third book, is an account of the king’s experiences in Ghana when he was invited to speak at a book event in Accra. The trip opened his eyes to the affinities between both countries, sign-posted the conviviality of the human spirit, and underscored his essence as an African. He could see himself in the context of the foremost African leaders that have ever trod upon the continent. He could trace his prime inheritance, his proud heritage, as cultivated in the mould of Mansa Musa, Kwame Nkrumah, Nelson Mandela and everything in between.
“I wrote three books in two years, and became a Fellow of the Association of Nigerian Authors, ANA, alongside someone who has written forty books. After that, I’ve written two more books. Pirates Of The Gulf dwells on maritime security. The most recent book, The Kingfisher, stands out in its own way. The kingfisher has a shared destiny with me, long before oil and gas. It has been chased out of its natural habitat. It now breeds in my home. It is handicapped. It can’t attend symposia. It can’t protest, or write books. It can only sing and chirp.
“The kingfisher is not alone. There are other species, all victims of oil pollution. So, in this book, I’m talking about the burden of the Ekpetiama man, the burden of the Nigerian in the creeks, from the point of view of the vulnerable creatures which are smart enough to know that it is safer to dwell in my home than in the polluted creeks of the River Nun.”
King Dakolo loves music, just like the kingfisher. If he is not listening to the clatter of his laptop keyboard, he is tuned into a song in his subconscious that soon comes alive in a hum at first, and then a soulful outpouring of sound and feeling, and therefore a change of mood for the better. He listens to his favourite songs, not just for the rhythm, but for the deep profundities of meaning contained in the lyrics.
Not surprisingly, his books are interspersed with occasional recreations of whole stanzas from his pet artistes. Every song does well to uplift the spirit of the king, soothing the mood of the moment, granting him fresh revelations, and bringing his trademark sparkle of a smile to his handsome face.
Bubaraye Dakolo’s first love is the same woman he took to wife many years ago, a noble daughter of Ijaw land with an illustrious ancestry stretching back to Daniel Ogiriki Ockiya, first translator of the Bible into a Niger Delta language. Their romance built up surely into a marriage made more permanent by the lovely children they begat. Queen Timinipre Dakolo, Igirigi I of Ekpetiama Kingdom, wife of the king, provides all the support at the home front, and continues to inspire the royal father in his endeavours from day to day.