By Obi Nwaknma
PRESIDENT Umaru Yar Ardua has offered amnesty, within a six-month time frame to the so-called militants of the Niger Delta. Various reactions have trailed the announcement. Many have hailed it as a welcome move towards settling the beef in the Niger delta that has led to insurrection.
Many see it as a futile gesture borne from a misreading of the situation. Other people see it as an elaborate game of wits in which the federal government has made an opening gambit.
Many others see a cynical twist in the president’s gesture. The poet and playwright, and Nobel laureate, Wole Soyinka in fact, in the swell of the early reactions, accuses the Nigerian authorities who have proffered this amnesty of “amnesia,” meaning, they had quite conveniently forgotten to read the minutes of our last meeting in 1967, with the last civil war, whose end-game politics has led in more than a remote way, to the current situation.
At the core of that war was the federalism question and its locations of the power of the state and of the federating units of the union to act, each with its sovereign will. Within the meaning of that sovereign will was also the rights of the federating units to self-determination, including the rights to economic determinism, or what many now call “resource control.”
The unresolved questions of 1967 now haunt us. Even the other poet and playwright, Johnson Pepper-Clark, an Ijaw who stood solidly on the federal side of the old conflict seems now to have reversed himself and taken a thoroughly regionalist position regarding the rights of peoples to self determination and economic justice. In an essay
“Armistice First in the Niger Delta,” J.P. Clark says: “Since no Nigerian administration has ever cared, militants in the Niger Delta, as a matter of history, are only carrying on the struggle begun in the last century by political leaders like Dappa Biriye, Ernest Ikoli and Udo Udoma to win equal rights for their people in our unequal federation where majorities proudly accommodate themselves, while containing the minorities, handed over to them, without consent or consultation, by a retreating colonial power.
They are following the example of Adaka Boro, Amangala and Nyananyo who died in the Civil War, fighting to perfect the union. It is the spirit of their own Kaiama declaration inspiring them to seek justice for their own people in a land where all people should be free and equal to draw on their individual resources, while respecting the rights and claims of their neighbours. Regrettably, it has been government of the majority by the majority for the majority.”
The last statement of this excerpt, about majorities, is of course too worn out to be true. In any case, read between the lines, it is clear that J.P. Clark’s moral pillars of 1967 that saw the “federalist” and the fierce Nigerian nationalist in him seems in other words to have turned into pillars of salt seeing the increasing military devastation of Gbaramatu and other places in the Niger delta.
But let us for a moment look at the stock and quality of the olive branch, that is, the amnesty offered to the militants of the Niger delta by president Yar Ardua. It would seem that the president’s gesture amounts to a cynical use of rhetoric to douse an epic conflagration.
This is why Amnesty will not work: first, as the spokes persons of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), the core movement leading the insurrection in the Niger delta have consistently reminded the Federal Government, the movement has not asked for amnesty.
They do not demand it as pre-condition for settlement.
They do not seek the federal government’s indemnity to crime because, in their position, they are not criminals or bandits; they are a movement of resistance that challenges the current status of nation.
Negotiations for disarmament
They remain entrenched, and their demands are in fact clear: they will not go into any negotiations for disarmament until the federal government meets the core of their demands: the release of Mr. Henry Okah, the withdrawal of the federal army from the Niger delta, and of course, the restoration of the 50 per cent derivation principle which guarantees the rights of states to economic justice.
To press home its position, MEND has had to prove that it could act with enough force and freedom in spite of the military cordon in the Niger delta by willfully targeting and destroying the infrastructure of the multinational oil giants whom it sees as historically complicit with the Nigerian government in maintaining the unjust state of affairs.
In short, MEND’s demands seek plainly to revisit the national question, and this is the true olive branch that would provide grounds for disarmament. Let us, of course, not overlook the subtle threat behind the federal government’s offer of amnesty and the six-month window for disarmament.
Presumably, beyond the six-month, and failing which the militants are unable to heed the imperatives from what it considers its magnanimity, there would following a more devastating military incursion and operation in the Niger delta. The use of force will certainly be futile.
Besides, the Niger delta is a tough terrain to operate. Its phalanx of creeks is a natural coverage for the kind of guerrilla activity which the Niger delta militia or resistance has fully adopted. If anything, they have learnt one or two things from the mistakes of Biafra .
But more importantly, they are in vast protective zones of action, a fact which was obvious to the Americans in 1975.
The FG is still delaying development by distractive measures-ND confrences,Amnesty/presidential pardon and all that hullaballoo.Its high time we took this actions(seriuos bombings) to the North.Lets stir up the turbulence in the North so they would know what it takes to see uniformed men daily in ur garden,kitchen and even in ur bedroom or wont JTF restore peace there too?
Why is it difficult for Nigeria to address a simple and direct issue ogf Niger delta since 1976? I dont just get it. Before crude oil emerges is there not something that Nigeria rely on? Looking back to the past president/head of states we have had, who are majorly the Hausas, i think the best person to have resolved this is was OBJ but he failed the whole nation for his third term selfish interest.
PERE, i will continue to disagree with you on blowing of pipelines. If we said Nigeria will not break, what if it does?! Then ND will have to start from scratch, huh? Let ND find a way to seize (their) properties (oil companies), im very sure Fed govt will never ever blow the place. Let them stop the flow of oil and see if Fed govt will not soon beg for mercy. If the Nigerian soldiers refused to understand the fact that they are not to kill citizens then let ND continue to massacre them (well the soldiers are mallams so they happy to kill citizens who are denying them oil money). Let the grace of God be on ND to liberate all of us from the slavery of the north.
I agree with Mr? Nwakanma and hope Mr President will be magnanimous enough to reverse himself on this ill advised amnesty and address the ND crisis. In my candid opinion, refugees in the senseless annihilation of Gbaramatu and other communities by the JTF should take precedence of rehabilitation, even before the “jaw-jaw”. MEND is articulate and precise on the fundamental grievances in the ND and silly palliatives like the amnesty will only slow our plunge to the abyss. The amnesty is dubious and only criminals will accept it and not the FREEDOM FIGHTERS. Let the JTF clear out of the region wit immediate effect.
50 BILLION NAIRA TIP, TO CARPET TRUE FEDERALISM.
Congress for the people of Ikwerre people (COLIP) Cape Town, South Africa i calling for World International conference on Niger delta. The president Engr. Ichegbo Maxwell tol dUnited Nations office at Pretoria that the solution to Niger delta case is resoursce control.
Also, He posted a question: Was there militant before adaka, Senator Obi wali, Ken saro, etc were killed. The answer is No, the issue is that the Nigerian governement and the big three do not want the Niger delta people to enjoy their God given wealth. They can kill the messengers but the message remains. We want resource control.
Nigeria is a failed state.
Long live Niger delta.
Like I always said, AMNESTY is a misnomer. But it fits the tricks and the game Yar’Adua and his friends planned to play. Someone or some people in defeat may request amnesty but this time MEND is not vanquished. Amnesty is the easiest and cheapest offer from a government that is blind and deaf to the cause of ND crises. If the word “amnesty” could attract N50 billion, what will be the cost for 50 per cent derivation or the demand for the right fiscal federalism?
Is it all communities in the south that have oil? While is the whole south eyeing the oil in the Niger Delta. Let Nigeria break into as many oil producing communities as possible. Communities without oil should form a nation of their oqn. Dont put ur long throat on ND oil, my dear. When the time comes we shall see.
if they will not give us 50% derivation..and allow the practice of true federalism
so that we can control our resources..then the fate of what happen to shell in the western Niger delta,will happen soon in other Niger delta areas….especially in livers state …it will soon be zero % oil flow .. SINCE MEND is winning and extending the hands of liberation to other oppressed areas of the region..we salute and praise your efforts ..God bless MEND
Such a beautiful informative article. I presume our VP and some ND natives in the FG ( civil servants or political appointees) employees have become selfish and stooges to used by this farse regime to perpetuate economic colonialism. We believe in MEND. Amnesty for whom? MEND, pls blast more oil pipelines and do not relent until we an SNC and Int’l conference on ND. this is for the future of ND children.
Although I am not important enough for own view points to count, I had stated right from the first day that the amnesty was announced that unless the question of resource control is addressed, the amnesty will not make any impact and that sooner or later the government will find some excuses to revoke the amnesty and put whoever they could lay their hands on in prison, tried and hurriedly executed them as they did to Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight of his Ogoni compatriots.
Any one who is closer to the president should advise him to address the resource control issue first before trying to disarm and integrate the militants. The government is reluctant to address the resource control issue first because they lack the skill to mobilize and raise revenue from other sources to fill the 37% revenue gap the a 50% derivation will create. Why can’t the government engage experts to find ways of filling the government revenue gap and grant the 50% derivation on which the 1960 independent constitution was based to solve the problem once and for all?