The present amnesty being granted to the Niger-Delta militants like everything else with this administration is ill-planned and ill-executed. It goes without saying that this is one of the hallmarks of this administration whose incompetence is unmatched in our nation’s history. One might say, perhaps this is why many people have expressed their concerns about its eventual success.
It is because the Yar’adua administration has not taken many factors into consideration as Mosignor Kukah pointed out in his article in the Guardian, August 13th titled “Amnesty, anesthesia or Healing.” It must be said that even though the militants or freedom fighters have been able to call the attention of the world to the plight of their people through means that have brought Nigeria to its knees economically, the fight is not yet over.
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One must however regret the activities of criminal elements who have given a bad face to what is a genuine agitation of a people for self-determination. First of all, let me just express my disagreement with the public hypocrisy that has gone on over the means being used by the militants. I have discovered largely that most people condemning acts of violence publicly have a different private opinion. While they openly castigate the militants for blowing up oil pipes, behind the door, their position is “it serves the government right because they will never listen.” If you have a deaf government, you must use the appropriate means to call its attention to pertinent issues. This is the contrast between the means used by Ken Saro-Wiwa who to all intents and purposes employed civilised means to call the attention of government and the world to the plight of the Ogonis, a component part of the Niger Delta. He was killed by the government of Sani Abacha. By and large, it is becoming increasingly difficult to bring most governments in Africa south of the sahara to negotiation table through peaceful means. This is largely due to their authoritarian posture simply because they do not derive their mandate from the people. This we all know, that in a free and fair contest, Yar’adua cannot win a presidential election in Nigeria.
It must be said that successive Nigerian governments have not been sincere with its present solution to the Niger Delta issue. I believe that government is a continuum. Past administrations have commissioned panels to look into the whole problem and suggest the way forward notable among which was the Ogomudia panel. The Yar’adua administration itself set up the Ledum Mittee led committee to also look into the same problem. These reports and recommendations are now gathering dust at the Aso Rock villa. If government did not do a thing about all these recommendations, it is simply saying it is unbothered by the insurgency in the region so long as it is still possible to transact business there. Why government is a little worried now is because the insurgency is beginning to affect our oil and gas exports. After all, if the economic life line of Nigeria is cut off, the country may soon fall into a coma. It is for this reason that they are throwing everything at the problem among which is the present amnesty. It is not easy to see the insincerity of the administration because while the amnesty is going, it has kept the JTF in place so as to root out remnants of the militants in the creeks and turn the whole area into an occupied zone. That Nigerian soldiers will stay in the Niger Delta has become an abiding feature of that region for a long time to come so long as Nigeria is still a united country, and the region is still the cash cow of the nation. We all know that oil is still what is oiling our present continued existence as a united country and the moment oil is no more, the end of Nigeria has come. The federal government must be very careful in the way it handles the present crisis otherwise it will be hijacked by foreign interests who would want to create a separate country, a kind of Kuwait out of the Niger Delta. This is why it must carry out a sincere dialogue with the people of the whole region.
Only a fool in Nigeria will not know that Yar’adua is insincere, slippery, unstable and untrustworthy. For militants who are throwing in the towel as a result of this short-term solution called amnesty, they will soon realise that they have put all their eggs in one basket. Until there is a re-arrangement of things in Nigeria so that there is fiscal federalism, engaging in any amnesty is a waste of time. One of the reasons why they should take the amnesty with a pinch of salt is the recent announcement by the ever-recycled petroleum minister Rilwanu Lukman that govt intends to move the PTI to Kaduna where they are going to train senior personnels for the petroleum industry. This is not only a blatant insult but also a pointer to the fact that some sections of the country and this administration are insensitive to the concerns of the Niger Deltans.
Two things that one must tell the militants is that, one, they should have their political wing, an open face of the militancy that will be involved with negotiation. Secondly, no war of independence is going to be easy. They should know that they are in a house on fire, it is therefore foolhardy to sleep with two eyes closed. The worst they can do is to sleep with one eye closed only waiting for the day government will go back to its old ways. Nigerian government will return to these ways one day. It is just a matter of time.
Fr. Emmanuel Ogundele is with the Department of Philosophy, Ss. Peter and Paul Seminary, Bodija, Ibadan.
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