Yar’adua and the strides of October
By FOLA AROGUNDADE
FEW people gave it much of a chance. At best, Yar’Adua’s amnesty plan for Niger Delta militants appeared like one of those gimmicks successive Nigerian governments dish out at regular intervals to bamboozle or hoodwink Nigerians while governments do everything but govern. The Niger Delta war had raged for years. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) had square up, almost man to man, bullet for bullet with the government’s Joint Task Force (JTF). In fact MEND had appeared ready, able and willing to fight the Nigerian government to a stand still, even showing a capability to strike off-shore and in far-off Atlas Cove in Lagos.
And for a number of reasons, the federal authorities could not unleash its full potentials on the militants. While its military might was not in doubt, it was apparent that President Yar’Adua lacked the political will to do “the right thing” and bring MEND and associates to their knees. Then, out of the blues, like the magician pulling one last rabbit out of the hat, came Amnesty. At best it was like a corny joke, a last-ditch attempt by a failing comedian to sway a decidedly uncooperative audience. Surely, the militants were not losing, even if they were not winning. So why should they hand in their weapons. And to make the joke cornier still, they had a specific period (October 4) to surrender the weapons for free.
Yes, they will be taken care of, quartered and fed for a period of time, get a daily stipend and all their sins forgiven. And a meaningful development of the Niger Delta area will take off immediately. But hadn’t we heard all that before? So Nigerians, and the media, scoffed at the idea; especially when figures of between N10 and N50 billion were bandied about as budget for the Amnesty idea. And, as expected, three weeks into the six-week time frame, only small fries, little known militants showed up with their equally pitiable armoury. Naturally, skeptics of the idea strutted with their ‘’we know it wouldn’t work’’ swagger. And then holy of holies, a few days, in fact 72 hours to the expiration of the ultimatum, the dam broke. The big masquerades; the elusive; the fiery, fearsome, fearful and real commanders changed the tune and tempo of the music when they began to emerge.
And before our koro koro eyes, the impossible began to manifest. Without firing a bullet, without unleashing any of the arrays of weaponry recently acquired for the purpose, Umar had recorded victory in the Niger Delta. He, 29 months after, thus fulfilled the first in his seven-point agenda; bringing peace to the troubled Niger Delta. Reading his body language, it appears that the President means to go the whole hog. He is in touch and constantly meeting with the repentant militants and seems desirous to fulfill his own side of the package.
His insistence that Niger Delta governors will not manage the ten percent equity in the joint venture operations in the area, preferring that the communities participate and benefit directly from the gesture is quite instructive. Award of 44 contracts worth N179 billion in the area is another indication that it is well with the Niger Delta. A collateral benefit from the cessation of hostilities in the Niger Delta is the promise of 6,000 mega watts of electricity by December 2009. Constant vandalisation of gas pipelines had put a question mark on the ability to deliver this pledge. Now everybody is upbeat again. The project is now quite feasible. Thus, President Umar Yar Adua may be on track to deliver yet another of his seven-point agenda.
Some would say however that Yar Adua’s biggest score
last month, in the 29th month of his 48-month tenure, is the successful resolution of the ASUU (Academic Staff Union of Nigeria Universities) led strikes in our universities. Since 1999, ASUU, as well as other unions in the universities, has successfully shut down our institutions of higher learning for at least a few weeks every year. This year it appeared like a do-or-die affair until Mr. Strike himself, Comrade-governor Adams Oshiomh ole was corralled into the stalemated situation. And he did for Umar what successive governments have been unable and /or unwilling to do. And so, the universities would be abuzz again, there will be no collective bargaining again (or so they say), and there will be no national shut down in our university system again.
Thus in a space of 30 days, President Umar Yar’ Adua has scored three very important goals, that put together, have tremendously eased tension and given just a little hope that maybe, something good could still come out of this Nazareth. Finally, here’s hoping that the president will continue to listen to the persons or group that advised him to soft-pedal on deregulation of the down-stream sector of the petroleum industry. Desirable as deregulation is, some fundamentals have to be put in place, and the people need to be persuaded, over a period of time, that deregulation is the only way or go: that deregulation can and may actually lead to lower prices of the petroleum products.
Arogundade, Media Consultant, contributed this piece from Asokoro, FCT. E-mail-fol_arg@yahoo.com
