The US Consulate General in partnership with the US Department of State Bureau of Conflict and Stabilisation Operations, CSO, recently launched a conflict mitigation initiative in the Niger-Delta region.

“We will be discussing ways we can partner to make Nigeria’s upcoming 2015 elections the most peaceful, free, fair and credible in its history. We will also exchange ideas on how we can arrest the malignancy of financial corruption that eats away at Nigeria’s democracy and economy”.

For the name of that hospital, it is reported, is none other than that of General Sanni Abacha, a vicious usurper under whose authority the lives of an elected president and his wife were snuffed out.  Assassinations – including through bombs cynically ascribed to the opposition – became routine. Under that ruler, torture and other forms of barbarism were enthroned as the norm of governance.

However, since 2012, that project has also benefited from enhanced funding as result of funds from the Subsidy Reinvestment Programme (SURE-P). As a result of the SURE-P funds and some other funds we are trying to access, I want assure you that the entire corridor would be rehabilitated

The continuous killing of innocent lives in the North is so unfortunate and very disheartening. The government at this critical stage should not allow the shedding of innocent blood not to mention the magnitude of the losses recorded.