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Renewed Niger Delta Militant Attacks: Re-streaming A Derailing Amnesty

November 4, 2010

Say what you like about the people of the Niger Delta: we stylishly manage our ‘peculiar’ problems with well-packaged explanations which most times turn out to be well-packaged lies.  To say that some of the former militant leaders with their followers are not angry with the implementation of the Federal Government’s amnesty programme for lots of reasons is one of such lies.

Say what you like about the people of the Niger Delta: we stylishly manage our ‘peculiar’ problems with well-packaged explanations which most times turn out to be well-packaged lies.  To say that some of the former militant leaders with their followers are not angry with the implementation of the Federal Government’s amnesty programme for lots of reasons is one of such lies.

The militants, we all know had a deal a year ago with the government called the amnesty program which was supposed to end all forms of hostilities and destruction of oil facilities.

However, the peace deal which culminated in the amnesty exercise was on Saturday 30th October shattered with an attack on an oil facility belonging to the Italian multinational, Nigeria Agip Oil Company (NAOC). Crude oil trunk lines connecting the Osiama oilfield/flowstation in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area to Brass oil export terminal was blasted with explosives.

And for anybody to say that all is well with the government’s peace deal with all the former militant groups is a daylight self deceit. The renewed attack should be seen as a wake- up call that all is not well with the federal government’s amnesty programme. It is a sign that the amnesty is actually not working or rather producing the intended results. And if it’s working as we are meant to believe, then it is not working well.

What is developing before our eyes as renewed hostilities by erstwhile repentant militants is the manifestation of a clandestinely conceived amnesty programme packaged by the greed of select privileged few opportunists in the Niger Delta who are lucky to find themselves in the corridors of power both at the national and state levels.

These opportunists are only interested in their own selfish monetary and political gains rather than for the collective good of the peoples of the region. It is very unfortunate because the latest development would obviously portray the peoples of the Niger Delta as ingrates and insatiable which we are not.

The federal government in a hurry to score political points allowed itself to be militantly coerced into completely neglecting details in the articulation of the amnesty programme. It failed to come up with a more well- thought- out amnesty agenda that would have been all embracing and more pragmatic in concept, context, content and executable pathway.

In the words of a concerned clergy from the region, “For Nigerian leadership to turn logic on its head and choose brawn over brains to initiate, analyse, conceptualise, and execute the Niger Delta amnesty programme, against international precedence, we must be ready to reap the whirlwind that is now unfolding.”

The question is: did the Federal Government keep its own part of the deal or was the process hijacked as usual as money making venture for the politicians and bureaucrats?

 If Government did not keep its own part of the bargain, then a proper investigation should be done to identify those that derailed the process and pay them appropriately.

As reported, the militant group that carried out the attack was among the first set of militants to lay down their weapons under the amnesty programme. But the leader decided to return to the creeks a few weeks ago following his “dissatisfaction” with the implementation of the programme. He was said to have called on the management of Agip to demand patronage but was turned down. The militant who did not hide his identity sent a text message to the Agip station manager in charge of the Osiama flow station promising them hell.

The Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta Affairs and Chief Executive Officer, Amnesty Programme, Mr. Timi Alaibe, would want everybody to believe that “none of the notable ex-militants has had any disagreement with the Federal Government’s Amnesty Programme since the programme took off in full scale in July this year.”

Alaibe also denied the claim that the recent destruction of Agip oil pipelines in Bayelsa on October 30th was necessitated by the inability of the Federal Government to implement the amnesty programme.

He was quoted as saying that “the amnesty office was not aware of any disagreement between any former militant leader and their supporters that could result in the resuscitation of militancy in the Niger Delta.

“Attributing such wicked act of economic sabotage to ex-militants in an attempt to gain relevance is totally unacceptable. None of the known ex-militant leaders has had any disagreement in whatever form with the properly coordinated Amnesty Programme of the Federal Government since its full-scale implementation under President Goodluck Jonathan.”

No matter how the president’s aide tries to paint the story, the government should be reminded that this unholy development should be viewed as a case that deserves urgent attention to avoid a total relapse into anarchy as witnessed in the region before the amnesty programme was instituted.

The attack as reported has already shut out 60, 000 barrels per day (bpd) of the nation’s production output with threats of more to come. So it is something that should make all Nigerians feel concerned.

IFEANYI IZEZE IS AN ABUJA-BASED CONSULTANT ON STRATEGY AND COMMUNICATION ([email protected])

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