By Dr. Ugoji Egbujo

The Niger Delta Avengers have left a trail of kept promises and a crippled economy. They are in unambiguous terms, economic terrorists. They have    tried to hide their sophistication with a fig leaf of    poorly scripted twitter feeds. They pretend to defend the interests of the people of Niger delta but are not ashamed to publicize their diabolical    affiliations with corruption. The Avengers may indeed be naïve and reckless. But those, whose surrogates they are, who have instigated this violence , are cold , and criminally manipulative.

What the avengers represent is frightening. They represent    the prospect of the    annihilation of the largest country in Africa by small scale banditry. The bulk of the Niger Delta militants have been stunned by the roguishness of the Avengers and their ‘photocopies’. But the real calamity lies in what the Avengers truly portend.

The effective criminal    employment of ethnic tensions and separatist feelings to repudiate all aspirations to accountable governance. And the government? The coward says he runs away to live another day. But in truth he dies everyday he runs away.

Niger delta has suffered chronic injustices of deprivation, neglect and environmental degradation. Oil exploration has left the Niger delta and its ordinary people impoverished.    So for any Niger deltan , with a scheming little mind, crass opportunism can be disguised as freedom fighting. The amnesty programme notwithstanding. But    subsequent to that program, and since the consensus supports the programme, any recourse to militancy must meet new requirements of moral legitimacy. A resort to militancy by a renegade group of ex-militants is contemptuous of the collective,tyrannical. And this is why.

The Niger delta has sufficient internal self determination.The region has uninhibited political participation. It is true democracy has yielded neither effective representation nor development yet . But neither the    Hausa Fulani nor the Igbo decides for the indigenous peoples of Niger delta whom their leaders and political priorities are.    The region has the political capacity, if energies are well funneled, within the existing framework , to    pursue and defend its economic interests.

These renegade militants and their sponsors lack the moral authority to champion that cause. And no such unilateral undertaking can represent the diversity that the Niger delta is. Those who seek to plunge the Niger Delta into violence must seek the prior consent of the Niger delta collectivity. If they have the popularity they claim,and the mandate of those they pretend to represent, they should assert themselves through the states’ legislatures.

The houses can pass resolutions to support these agitations and clothe them with political legitimacy. We are supposed to    be a civilized democratic country. Easy recourse to violence is the height of tyranny. It is tragic that the government has responded to this brazen criminality with utter confusion. Demagoguery comes in many shapes. When a government abandons a principled    deterrent stand against criminality to satisfy even popular but irrational sentiments, its legitimacy depreciates.

No one expected the engagement with militants hiding in crannies in swamps to be easy. The Niger delta doesn’t lend itself to easy military engagements. But no one expected the government not to have a contingency plan to deal with foreseeable fallouts of the acrimonious 2015 elections. This    flare up was foreseeable, foreseen and foretold.    Since prevention didn’t happen, where is a containment  strategy? Sending troops to occupy    and leave    sorrow in villages, in a supposed search for militants    they know they won’t find, is baffling.

It is not surprising that the Avengers are blowing pipelines at will and growing effrontery. It is shocking that in the face of that    economic emergency of colossal proportions, the federal government has not proclaimed a state of emergency in the affected areas. A state of emergency is not synonymous with an occupation by vindictive soldiers. It is the disruption of the political linkages and loyalties that have been implicated in this criminal enterprise.

It will give room for true vigilantes to express themselves and protect their commonwealth. Rather than send the right signal, that a return to militancy would be prohibitively exorbitant, the government has declared a ceasefire and called for negotiations. The Avengers may be delinquent youths, but they are surrogates of    corruptand wily politicians.    And they are playing dangerous political games with the testicles of the nation. Corruption is fighting back and the government is, wilting.

Conversations are good, but negotiations with insurgents    while they have their fangs on the aorta of the nation cannot be passed off as consensus building. The timing of the call for negotiations elaborates the helplessness of the federal government. It speaks of worrisome impotence. The willingness to negotiate the sovereignty of the nation with renegade militants, agents of corruption, is humiliating. Such a declaration of abject weakness is an open invitation to other militants to return to the creeks.

The Avengers have during this period of timidity, euphemistically referred to as ceasefire,    gone about  blowing federal assets. Some say it’s pragmatism. I say it is a pathetic act of cowardice. No one precludes negotiations if the nation has met more than its match.Have we? Now we have set a terrible precedent. We have opened the floodgates.

But if the government is this helpless, it must be afraid of the consequences of its capitulation. Most of the ex-militants that surrendered arms under the amnesty programme are as capable as the Avengers to cause mayhem. If the Avengers are regarded with awe , if they are    appeased, then the other militants would find a return to insurgency profitable. It is true the government lacks political clout in the region and should court hearts and minds, but    paroxysms of diffidence and braggadocio won’t endear it to anyone in the country.

The rising separatist tensions in the region cannot be defused by pandering to the most violent and most cynical groups masquerading as freedom fighters. If the government reaches any sort of compromise with the Avengers the integrity of the anti-corruptionprogramme will be thoroughly and irreparably damaged. Because government’s actions , subsequently, will be treated with grave suspicion. And even acquittals of politicians accused of corruption    by the courts will be misconstrued.

The Avengers must be confronted with principled consistency. These secret negotiations with the Avengers portend no good for the nation. If  a restructuring  of the federation would save the    government these humiliations ,then it should initiate the process. But since the Avengers want an abortion of the corruption probes and the government has engaged in secret meetings with them, I have an advice for the government.

The government can grant amnesty to the Avengers and their sponsors and political patrons. But it must throw open all prisons first. It must stop all criminal cases and grant amnesties and pardons to all pending and concluded criminal cases. If the nation is so weak it cannot contain the insurgency in the delta then it must be bold enough to publicly admit her impotence. And she can lighten her shame by organizing a cathartic facesaving nation wide truth and reconciliation exercise.

And one must wonder why the government is negotiating with the Avengers while refusing any contact with the IPOB. If we have lost our virility, we should not lose our sense of equity. But what the nation    must not do is to let thieving politicians, who stole billions, walk away and keep poor petty thieves in prison.