The Niger Delta Master Plan unveiled by the administration of former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, was perhaps the first serious attempt by any government to move away from the tokenism that has characterized interventions in the region said to produces the nation’s wealth. Before then, there hadn’t been any clear-cut policy on how to permanently and satisfactorily address the problems of the region.

I WOULD like to start by congratulating Governor Seriake Dickson and his reconciliation team on the marvellous breakthrough they have achieved in their reconciliation assignment.

Apart from Afenifere, the OPC and a number of noble and courageous elders and leaders hardly anyone else from the south west has spoken up publicly for the Ifes and the Yoruba in this matter and that is a crying shame.

AS political activities begin to gather momentum in Anambra State, the citizens will be confronted with another opportunity to evaluate the incumbent administration along with other contenders for the coveted office of the state governor.

On March 28th a hitherto unknown northern group known as the Arewa Youth Consultative Forum, through its spokesman, one Yerima Shetima, had the nerve and effontry to accuse Afenifere and the Yoruba nation of a “subtle campaign of ethnic cleansing” and went on to threaten us with what they decribed as “reprisals against the millions of Yoruba living in the north” if we did not stop complaining about the fact that our people were slaughtered in Ile-Ife and that the police were handling the whole matter in a selective, inappropiate and unjust manner.