NDCSC welcomes the decision of the new Obama administration not visit Nigeria at this time , following the abysmal failure of the President Yar’Adua led administration to meet any basic tenet of democracy , good governance and human security. The clear message that Obama sends to Nigeria, is in keeping with his avowed statement upon inauguration to the effect that the age is gone past, when so-called leaders engage in civilian despotism and ride roughshod on the liberties and livelihoods of their citizens .
The decision to visit Accra first, in his initial trip to Africa, extols the major achievement of Ghana in liberal democracy practice; a is a pointer to the fact that Nigeria like Kenya are fast failing states, running what at best may be described as diminished democracies fraught with absolute corruption. It is noteworthy, that the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Nigeria, visited Washington, D.C a number of times to practically lobby for this visit, and was duly and rightly bluffed. It is also heart warming that some good Nigerians are rasing the heat level on the Nigerian regime in policy circles all over the world. In current geo-poliical context, this is a major set-back for Nigeria; that inspite of its population size and strategic economic wealth, it is still considered as second best by reason of poor leadership capacities.
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The NDCSC notes that President Yar’Adua’s lack of political will in dealing with the Niger Delta crisis, electoral reform process, and effective management of its own national budget is incumbent on how civilized nations see and rate Nigeria through a most retarding regime today. It is also very clear and well understood in policy making circles in capitals of world democracies, that the President of Nigeria is very sick, and that sick people cannot offer any leadership that can be considered meaningful in any manner. This is further evidenced in the present poverty of decision of the President to abdicate his responsibility to military men to invade communities of the Niger Delta region and glory in slaughtering of Nigerian citizens in ‘self defence’, and pursuit of ‘criminals’.
The NDCSC notes that the President have preferred to turn a blind eye to the real criminals within his party, government, in the military outside of it, and his friends in the private and multinational oil sector that are leading the oil bunkering industrial complex , small and light arms proliferation that has brought the Niger Delta into its current disastrous state. The present war is obviously a war to open the creeks of the region for an unfettered illicit oil deals, nothing more. The ex-governors of the Niger Delta who stole the resources of the people with impunity, created a sense of helplessness and hopelessness that also led some youths to a call for arms, are still being prevented from facing justice by this regime, making complete nonsense of the regime’s rule of law mantra.
The NDCSC notes that Mr. President had an invaluable opportunity to implement atleast the recommendations of his own Technical Committee on the Niger Delta, beginning with militancy and conflict measures, which would have made the latest maiming, slaughtering and displacing of unsuspecting citizens in the region unnecessary, but he preferred to listen to the hawks in the military who advised him that DDR is not necessary because they were not in a war situation, instead preferring a military defeat which has left citizens slaughtered in their hundreds if not thousands, and homes razed, under a regime that has no shelter policy.
The NDCSC notes that from Adaka Boro to Ken Saro-Wiwa, the federal government of Nigeria has responded to the demands of the indigenous and minority peoples of the Niger Delta, in a genocidal manner, whether it is Odi, Umuechem, Choba, Odioma , Agge and today Gbaramatu kingdom communities. In all these, level of gross human rights violations following military occupation in the region, has remained hidden to-date, by reason of military arbitrariness. The judicial slaughter of Ken Saro-Wiwa, destruction of Odi and others failed woefully to cow, nor stop the peoples of the region to demand for just treatment from very repressive regimes; it is unlikely that the present expedition aimed at intimidating dissent, collective punishment of young and old, women and children, shall void the demand for justice from the over-punished and dehumanized peoples of the impoverished region. The Military cannot defeat justice in the Niger Delta region.
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The NDCSC therefore, calls on the Federal government to call off the hostilities and killings immediately, and embrace a peace and conflict transformation process, in order not to create a worse and faceless monster by this action. Contrary to believes in some quarters, militancy as an option, has widespread support within communities , across the region and beyond. Military peace as opposed to just peace cannot hold in a rights empowered Niger Delta.
Finally, the NDCSC calls on the United Nations Committee on Human Rights and the organ responsible for indigenous and minority rights, to urgently dispatch a team of rapporteur to the Nigeria to investigate first hand the level of gross and attested human rights abues – including extra-judicial executions, inhuman degrading treatment, torture, rape, cultural, social and economic rights in the Niger Delta, before the evidence disappears without trace.
Signed:
Anyakwee Nsirimovu
Chair
Niger Delta Civil Society Coalition(NDCSC)
2B, Railway Close, D/Line, Port Harcourt. Rivers State.
Niger Delta Region. Nigeria. Tel/Fax: 234-84-231 716
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