Icheoku could not but laugh at the sudden British interest in what eminently qualified as Nigeria's purely internal affairs/matter. The same Britain who stood by and watched Olusegun Obasanjo perpetrate election-terrorism on Nigerians when he foist an unelected sick man Umaru Yar'Adua on Nigeria as their president; and later went ahead to recognise Umaru Yar'Adua as the elected president of Nigeria; stating that the election was purely an internal affairs of Nigeria and should be left as such. Britain treated the sham election as Nigeria's internal affairs; now they want to come and suck some crimson delight of Nigerians in the guise of assisting the Northern Nigeria government to "restore peace" in the Niger Delta? What an arrant nonsense - all the British is doing is to secure a source of their oil supply and preserve the jobs of the employees of British Petroleum as well as the Shell Oil's and also guarantee cheap heating energy for her domestic population back in Britain. That is what happens when no real patriot is in office or position of power in a country like Nigeria to tell these colonial masters that their colonial days are since over and that they should leave Nigeria alone! Umaru Yar'Adua has no real mandate to be the president of Nigeria in the first place, since he never won any election and hence is kissing every "behind" of every world leader for some sort of legitimacy with their recognition. His mentor Olusegun Obasanjo gave away Bakassi as a sacrifice, now his puppet Umaru Yar'Adua wants to give the people of Niger Delta as sacrificial offal to the bloody British; and their bloody Sunday in Ireland readily comes to mind. But it will not come to fruition, not this time, Britain!
Since the 1914 forcible "creation" of Nigeria through amalgamation of the Northern and Southern protectorates until Nigeria's "quasi" independence in 1960 and thereafter, what benefit has Nigeria derived from Britain? Nothing, Zilch, Nada in the real sense of it. Now they want to pretend that they are the knight in shinning armour coming to the rescue of the oil in the Niger Delta. Since all these years of ongoing suffocating and very subjugating oppression in the Niger Delta, where was Britain? Why have Britain not asked their Hausa/Fulani minions, why has their oppression persisted all these years and for such a long time now? Or is there a conspiracy between 10 Downing Street and Kaduna Mafia/Arewa Consultative Forum to hold other Nigerians hostage forever? Nigerians are daily starving to death; there is no motor-able roads therein; malaria sickness is becoming pandemic; HIV/AIDS is equally ravaging Nigeria; 419 and other related frauds are going on in Nigeria and sometimes with help from British Banks who accept deposits from these fore-sworn economic enemies of Nigeria that one is forced to ask, where was British abatement of these crimes? A resident of Britain or any other western country cannot make a one-time deposit exceeding ten thousand dollars without declaring the source of the income followed by a meticulous verification of the source; but the reverse is the case with "expatriate depositors" whose huge deposits are used to prop the British economy! There is no working telephone network in Nigeria until the recent "revolution" of mobile telephones; no drinking water; no power supply etc. Yet Britain did not offer assistance! Where was British help in any of these areas of dire need for the people of Nigeria? Now they are rushing to sell their weapons to Northern Nigeria like they did with Saudi Arabia and the attendant bribery scandal. Weapons with which to kill Nigerians but not British people? Why the sudden interest of Britain to gallop in on chariots to rescue Niger Delta! Tell it not in Garth. This cannot be out of love but for some mundane economic selfish interest good only for the people of Britain and if in the process, some hundreds of thousands of Niger Delta people are slaughtered, so be it. After-all they are just Africans? Where are British scholarships or visas to assist indigent Nigerians especially the Niger Deltans have a shot at life? Why haven't the British home office made effort to have their carrier British Airways change her evil-ways of treating Nigerian travellers in their airplanes like they are sub-humans each time they are passing through Heathrow or through their territory? Suddenly they want to help Nigerians by killing off some Nigerians of the Niger Delta origin? For the British, it is easier to just kill off some "black monkeys" than to waste resources trying to even feed them?
The consolation is that the Niger Delta under the Geneva convention reserves the right not to be oppressed any further! They have the right to defend their existence and ensure their survival; and that includes the right to armed struggle to free themselves from the shackles of an going systematic oppression in the hands of the Feudalistic Northern oligarchy and all their British collaborators. Until Nigeria really secures her independence from Britain like the United States of America did with their 1776 war of independence, when they kicked the British butt, there is no hope for the ordinary people of Nigeria including the Niger Delta people. Britain will forever remain the puppet-master pulling all the strings in Northern Nigeria vice-hold like on power! Nigeria should be able to manage her affairs without any British interference or dictates; this can be so successfully done so as to make dependency on these foreign powers redundant. Also credible elections should be given a chance in Nigeria, so that a real patriot might one day emerge to lead Nigeria out of its quagmire to the promised land! President Umaru Yar'Adua is today being held hostage and blackmailed by the world including Britain, because of his status as a product of an election fraud or an election that was never held in Nigeria! So 
in his desperation for recognition, "President" Umaru Yar'Adua is ready to do whatever it takes! Whatever bidding the colonial Britain demands of him, including the slaughtering of his people of the Niger Delta just to have the semblance of legitimacy! No meaningful person especially a president should permit such a perversion, to surreptitiously massacre his people under the guise of protecting the oil resources of the Niger Delta. A good president instead, should say "No to British imperialism! No to the British coveting of Nigerian oil resources! No to the British military aid to "fight" Niger Delta activism! Icheoku calls on Prime Minister Gordon Brown to take his British troops to Afghanistan, Darfur-Sudan, Iraq, Somalia and Congo as well as other hot spots of the world, where they are needed and SHOULD PLEASE LEAVE NIGERIANS ALONE, especially the Nigerian peoples of the Niger Delta!
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Christy 'Apena' Essien-Igbokwe , the wife of Jegede Shokoya of the New Masquerade and Nigeria's lady of songs is dead; she was 51years old. Although her family claimed that "brief Illness" killed her like so many Nigerians; Icheoku retorts that it was most likely AKwa Ibom voodoo and remote control that was used to arrest her. It is on record that she had fallen out with the governor of her native Akwa Ibiom State and have been having a relentless war for political turf with the governor? So who knows whether she was sacrificed to Ekpe cult or even Alusi-Okija as an offal; afterall African science is still very much alive and portent. May her soul rest in peace.
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Govt changes N'Delta talks, Yar'Adua woos UK investorsFrom Tunde Oyedoyin (London), Martins Oloja, Madu Onuorah (Abuja), Kelvin Ebiri (Port Harcourt), Willie Etim (Yenagoa) and Bertram Nwannekanma (Lagos)
ReplyDeleteNIGERIA and Britain yesterday intensified efforts to improve relations and end the lingering crisis in the Niger Delta.
Also, the proposed Niger Delta summit may bear a new tag and wear a new look.
While President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua focused on how to attract foreign investors into the oil and gas sector, his host, Prime Minister Gordon Brown addressed the insecurity in the oil-rich region.
Brown pledged to work with Nigeria to improve security in the Niger Delta region. In his response, Yar'Adua proposed the creation of a "maritime security training centre" in the region. Brown said Britain would help the Federal Government to "identify a training and advisory support package."
Some aggrieved Nigerians led by the Ijaw Peoples Association (IPA) staged a peaceful protest at the Chatham House, home of the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London, against Britain's decision to give the Yar'Adua administration a military back-up against militants in the Niger Delta.
Here in Nigeria, the Presidency said yesterday that the proposed summit on the Niger Delta would take a different form from previous exercise. Vice President Goodluck Jonathan said that a committee would be set up to review all previous reports on the Niger Delta with a view to analysing and updating their recommendations which would form part of the proposed talks.
A statement from the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the Vice President (Media and Communications) on the outcome of Jonathan's meeting with governors and opinion leaders from the oil-producing states on Wednesday night, said that the proposed talks might not be referred to as a "summit."
Instead, it would be "a dialogue of stakeholders on finding the way forward."
The Guardian however learnt that the President's team was divided over the military option featuring in the agenda of the two leaders. According to a source in the entourage, Bayelsa State Governor Timipre Sylva preferred Yar'Adua and Brown to concentrate on the development of the Niger Delta. A governor from one of the northern states was said to have insisted that the military option be included in the talks.
The governor allegedly received the support of officials of the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office, who prevailed on the delegation to allow the proposed military action listed on the agenda.
Even Yar'Adua was said to be reluctant in discussing the military package with Brown because of the controversy it had generated in Nigeria and overseas.
Standing before the business community, Yar'Adua left no one in doubt that he knew the exact steps to take for Nigeria to become one of the largest economies in the world by 2020. He tried to silence his critics and convince the doubters as he presented his economic blueprint to British investors, whom he urged to stake their resources in the country's power and energy sectors.
"Nigeria is more of a gas nation and with 184 trillion cubic reserves, we're inviting investors and companies to partner us," he said. The President promised that "we will give concessions to prospective investors. We need serious investors in the downstream sector. We need massive investment in the downstream, because we've changed the way government does business in the past five years."
Yar'Adua continued: "We've taken government out of business and still taking business out of government." He spoke at a breakfast meeting held at the Grand Ballroom of the Hilton Hotel, Park Lane yesterday. Government, he said, "is supposed to regulate competition and provide the enabling environment, and this we've done by putting regulations in place for fair competition."
He told the jam-packed audience that his administration had carried out reforms in the power sector and "we want our iron and steel sector to take off so as to transform the economy."
As a demonstration of his commitment to this objective, Yar'Adua said that two weeks ago, he signed the Infrastructure Bill and sent it to the Senate for ratification. He also said the Lagos/Ibadan and Benin/Sagamu roads were receiving attention.
The President also spoke on his administration's anti- corruption crusade. "Anti-corruption campaign is taken seriously and it's being fought vigorously. This time around, we'll fight the root cause of corruption," he said.
Yar'Adua also had harsh words for those engaged in oil theft. According to him, "stolen oil will be declared blood oil, and the leaders of the Group of Eight (G-8) rich nations have promised to support the initiative."
The Chairman of Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, Intercontinental Bank Vice Chairman, Dr. Erastus Akingbola, Oceanic Bank Managing Director Mrs. Cecilia Ibru, Daar Communications Chairman, Dr. Raymond Dokpesi were among Nigerian businessmen in the audience.
Jonathan had in an interview with the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) explained why the word summit would be dropped from the proposed dialogue.
He said: "When you use the word summit, it is a problematic word now because the people feel that when you say summit, people will come from everywhere, different memos, sentiments, and they will say it is a jamboree. It is not really what they want. We will raise the issues, present it before the Federal Government and we will dialogue. Let's leave it at that point. We are not using the word summit."
The British High Commission in Abuja last night issued a statement on Yar'Adua's meeting with Brown.
In the statement signed by Second Secretary, Mr. James McLaughlin, he said the two leaders' discussions covered a wide range of bilateral issues, including ways to achieve long-term sustainable peace and development in the Niger Delta region.
"As set out in a joint statement at the meeting, the UK acknowledged the Nigerian government's commendable efforts to bring about peace and reconciliation in the Niger Delta.
"The UK government will work with the Nigerian government to ensure oil production brings prosperity, including improved livelihoods for the people of the Niger Delta. The UK has offered to assist in providing 'robust accounting systems' and security to reduce the 1.5 million barrels a day of oil production currently lost every day in Nigeria.
"It will also work with the Nigerian government to identify training and advisory support, which would help to improve Nigerian capability to provide security in the region."
Meanwhile, human rights activists and militia groups in the Niger Delta have condemned UK's pledge to provide Nigeria military training to secure oil supplies.
Attacks on oil installations and the kidnapping for ransom of oil workers have cut Nigeria's production by about 25 per cent.
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) said yesterday that "without justice, security and peace will be elusive."
Also, Patrick Naagbanton of the Centre for Environment, Human Rights and Development (CEHRD), has said Brown did not understand the problems of the Niger Delta.
"He's acting on the spur of the moment. He needs to have a better understanding of the situation. It will just lead to a mushrooming of hardened armed groups."
Anyakwee Nsirimovu of the Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law (IHRHL) based in Port Harcourt, Rivers State said the offer was a "public relations exercise. "It's a systemic failure. Government does not want to improve the capacity. They are deliberately running a one-party state with no alternatives.
Until people can take a role in confirming or rejecting the people in power, it's just a PR exercise."
The Ijaws in United Kingdom joined others Nigerian groups in peaceful demonstration at the Chatham House London to express their objection to the proposed British military assistance to Nigeria.
The demonstrators under IPA of Great Britain, said the fragile peace in the Niger Delta was given another deadly blow with Brown's offer to provide military assistance to the Nigerian government to stem the unrest in the region.
In a statement made available to The Guardian by the Ijaw National Congress (INC Europe), Chairman, Dr. Felix Tuodolo, he said the Prime Minister's gesture was unnecessary at a time when the Nigerian government was talking about a Niger Delta summit geared towards a negotiated settlement of the crisis.
Tuodolo said: "Mr Gordon Brown's statement provoked the immediate collapse of MEND's three-week-old ceasefire in the oil-and-gas-rich region of the Niger Delta. The people of the Niger Delta have seen too much blood shed because of their oil. Mr Gordon Brown's military assistance to Nigeria will further encourage the Nigerian government to bomb, maim, kill, rape and intimidate the people of Niger Delta."
MEND said that what ought to be tagged blood oil was the 50 years of criminal neglect of the Niger Delta which has caused countless deaths of the impoverished people who had no access to good water, health care and those that had been killed by extra judicial murders.
MEND spokesperson, Jomo Gbomo in an online interview with The Guardian, urged Yar'Adua to show the same enthusiasm and action he had taken to solicit military support from Britain to the challenges facing the region.
The Action Congress (AC) in Rivers State also decried the recent warning by the British government to its citizens to keep away from the Niger Delta despite the enormous resources and efforts of the federal and state governments in restoring normalcy in the region.
Some youths suspected to come from Ologbobiri in Southern Ijaw Local Council were alleged to have attacked and blown up the Tibidapa Flow station belonging to the Nigeria Agip Oil Company (NOAC) yesterday.
The youths at 1: 30 a.m. allegedly exploded dynamite on an oil pipeline causing great damage to the facility, which carries crude to the main flow station.
The Joint Task Force Commander (JTF), in Yenagoa, Lt.-Col. Chris Musa, told The Guardian that he had reports of an explosion from that area, but that he could not really ascertain if it was caused by saboteurs or a mere accident.
Nigerians protest at British PM's office
ReplyDeleteFrom Tunde Oyedoyin, (London) Kodilinye Obiagwu (Lagos) and Kelechi Okoronkwo (Abuja)
NIGERIANS in the United Kingdom (UK) have continued their campaign against Britain's intervention through military support for the Federal Government in the Niger Delta.
Some Nigerian activists, who took the campaign to 10, Downing Street, the British seat of power and the Nigeria High Commission, also narrated their brief encounter with President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua on the oil-rich region's conflict when he visited London last week.
According to the convener of the Liberty Forum, Mr. Kayode Ogundamisi, who led protesters to meet Yar'Adua on Thursday at the Royal Society of Arts, the President pledged not to work against Nigerians on the issue.
He told The Guardian after Yar'Adua delivered an address at the institute that the President said that his views were not well represented in the media on measures to end the crisis.
At exactly 10.54 a.m. last Saturday, Roland Ekperi, the President of Ijaw People's Association, (IPA), knocked on the door of 10, Downing Street, the residence of the British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, holding a sealed A4 white envelope. It was a petition asking that the British government should not send military to the troubled Niger Delta under the guise of assistance to Nigeria.
A pleasant looking police officer answered, popped out his head to receive the letter, promising: "I'll make sure he gets it," before slamming the door as Ekperi's six-man group marched on. Outside the gate of Downing Street, about 30 others looked pleased on seeing their leaders accomplish their mission. They kept singing solidarity songs and waving their placards, while the group inside posed for the cameras . Dele Ogun, a lawyer and pan-Yoruba activist was among the protesters. Like him, others too didn't know they were simply affirming a Yoruba proverb - t'egun eni ba joore, inu atokun re adun - (when a masquarade dances well, the cheerleader will surely be happy).
The others took turns in chanting: "We don't want .." and others chorused, no war. "We want justice, we want some peace and we don't want trouble," kept filtering to No 10, as the rain descended but the protesters continued it in, as they headed in the direction of 9, Northumberland Avenue, where the Nigerian High Commission is situated. The protesters waved their placards as Ekperi and others joined the party. One of the placards was in fact, a warning ."China, Britain, America, hands off the Niger Delta." Another read, "we refuse to die in silence," while the one, carried by a nurse from Bayelsa State, read: "Free Henry Okah."
Opposite the High Commission, two Metropolitan Police officers assigned to maintain law and order were waiting. The protesters stepped up the gear inside the steel circle provided, while two of their leaders crossed to the building to deliver a copy of the petition.
A few others, including Ogundamisi chanted of "Enough is enough, the Niger Deltans are friends of the British and we refuse to die in silence," filled the air. One particular placard had the inscription: "we don't want British weapons to kill our children."
On what transpired between the group and the President, Yar'Adua said. "When the lecture ended, we were able to stop him to have a brief chat with him, even though his security aides tried to stop us. We just said, look, other countries are coming to the United Kingdom to ask for bread, but you have come to ask for bomb, this is unfair on the Nigeria people.
"He (Yar'Adua) simply smiled and said that his views are not well represented in the media. We do not believe that." We also believe that there are hawks around him, pushing him in the wrong direction. If you're able to get him, you will see that this is a man who has good intentions."
On the promise the President made on the Niger Delta issue, Ogundamisi said that Yar'Adua declared, that "he has no intention of working against his people. He wanted to say more, but he was hurried back into his car by his aides."
On his part Ekperi said: "We are very disappointed with the Federal Government, because while the Vice President is working hard to have a Niger Delta summit, then, in between, the President is trying to seek military aid from Britain, so, it's either that the government is trying to undermine the work of the Vice President or that something is wrong within the Presidency.
The Action Congress (AC) also said the agreement between Britain and Nigeria to set up a 'security training force' to help fight the militants could only worsen the crisis.
In a statement issued yesterday in Abuja by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, AC said the pact should be rescinded immediately, while the ongoing efforts to employ 'dialogue' to resolve the crisis should be pursued, especially now that the planned jamboree, tagged 'summit', has been dropped.
It said the violence in the region was only a symptom of a more deep-rooted problem, caused by years of neglect of the goose that lays the golden egg by successive governments, many of which only paid lip service to efforts to lift the oil-producing communities from poverty and environmental degradation.
Also, African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate in the 2007 election, Pat Utomi has asked Nigerians to look beyond the remarks of Brown on offering military assistance to Nigeria to deal with the Niger Delta crisis.
According to Utomi, Brown's statement is fuelled by the concern shared by most western leaders, which is access to oil.
In an interview with The Guardian in Lagos, Utomi said: "Brown and the western leaders are under pressure from their domestic constituencies over the price of oil. The British Parliament would not go along with the suggestion of bringing military action to suppress some group of people, somewhere in Africa, because they know the cost. Seeing powerful nations go into these unpopular civil disturbances in developing countries is a war without end. I think that Brown must be regretting the comment."
Utomi believes that the Nigerians should be concerned about putting "our house in order quickly. If we don't do what is right for us, we would be surprised that those same western leaders would be the first to recognise 'Brass Republic' when it is declared. All they want is an access to crude oil; they don't care if Nigeria survives."
MASSOB militants plot against Britain, over N/Delta
ReplyDeleteEMMA OGU, Owerri
Leader of the Movement for the Actualisation of Sovereign State of Biafra, MASSOB, Chief Ralph Uwazuruike, has warned Britain against sending troops to the Niger Delta, saying that MASSOB will join forces with the militants to fight such foreign troops.
Uwazuruike, in an exclusive chat with Daily Champion yesterday in Owerri, said British forces would be defeated if they came to Niger Delta because his men were ever ready to defend the people of the region.
According to him, the deployment of foreign soldiers in the region will be viewed as war between the North and South and MASSOB cannot afford to sit and watch the killing of our "brothers in the Niger Delta."
"All the problems in Nigeria today were caused by Britain. I think God is looking for a way to punish them. If they go to Niger Delta, they will be defeated. If they go to Niger Delta what you will have will be civil war between the North and South because the Igbo will see the Niger Delta people as their brothers. Though they were against us during the Biafran war, we have all learnt our lessons. The Housas merely used them against us. We have taken that behind us. If British people or whatever you call them come to Niger Delta today to fight our brothers, I tell you MASSOB will join our brothers to fight them".
The MASSOB leader said that the marginalisation of Ndigbo in positions of authority under the present administration in the country was real and that President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua’s government was only implementing the directive principle of state policy.
According to him, it is a state policy that Ndigbo should be kept away from top positions and successive governments in the country both military and civilian, have implemented the policy to the fullest since the end of the civil war.
"It has always been like that for Ndigbo since 1970. Every regime tends to be worse for the people of the race. When Gowon was there, it was like that, when Shehu Shagari was there it was like that. Think of Buhari, Babangida, Abacha, Shonekan, Abdulsalam, Obasanjo regimes, it was the same. The thing is that immediately after the war, there was understanding between Hausas and Yorubas that the Igbo should be kept under and that is what is happening since then. It is a fundamental policy and whoever that is there will execute the policy. After Yar’Adua, another person that will come will become the worst enermy of Ndigbo".
On the issue of corruption in Nigeria, he said that the country would not make any progress in the anti-corruption war because those spear-heading it are corrupt people. According to him, former president Olusegun Obasanjo, who started the programme was more corrupt than any other leader Nigeria has produced and yet the incumbent government of President Yar’ Adua refused to prosecute him.
" Obasanjo deceived the people that he was recovering Abacha’s stolen money but ended up stealing more than Abacha. Yar’Adua will end up being more corrupt than Obasanjo also. If he is sincere with anti- corruption programme why hasn’t he tried Obasanjo. The meaning of one Nigeria is stealing".
He said that the only way to salvage the country was for the people to carry out a revolution that would consume all the past rulers of the nation as it happened in Ghana.
Jonathan to meet Yar’Adua over N’Delta crisis
ReplyDeleteBy Semiu Okanlawon, Sola Adebayo, Mudiaga Affe and James Azania
Published: Monday, 21 Jul 2008
The Vice-President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, will confer with President Umaru Yar’Adua, this week on the way forward for the Niger Delta.
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He is expected to brief the President on the position of governors of the Niger Delta states and other leaders on the outcome of the meeting he had with them on July 16 concerning the lingering crisis in the area.
Yar’Adua was out of the country last week when the meeting, convened by Jonathan, formally rejected the summit he proposed to resolve the crisis and find ways to develop the region.
The meeting had opted for ‘discussions’ to synthesise previous reports on the development of the region.
Our correspondents learnt of the planned briefing just as the senators from the Niger Delta states said the offer of military assistance by the United Kingdom to the Federal Government would further aggravate the crisis in the region.
The Minister of Special Duties, Mr. Godsday Orubebe, confirmed to one of our correspondents on Sunday that Jonathan would consult with the President on the outcome of the meetings he had held so far with the governors and elders as well as other stakeholders.
Orubebe said,“There will be consultations at the highest level of government in the next few days. You know that the President was out of the country when we held our last meeting where the stakeholders decided on the issue of summit.
“So the vice-president, who is handling the Niger Delta matters, will brief the President on the outcome and seek his approval to implement the decision taken at the meetings.
“The ultimate decision on the matter can only be taken by the President, who is genuinely committed to the speedy restoration of sanity and put the region on the path of development. The President and the vice-president are going to meet within the week to review the outcome of the meetings.”
He, however, said consultations were still ongoing on the Niger Delta matter since the fate of the region would be decided through consensus by all the stakeholders.
“Whatever decision we are going to take will be a collective one. We are still consulting and working round the clock and we are moving on gradually to reach consensus,” the minister said in a telephone interview.
Orubebe said the committee to be inaugurated to examine all the past initiatives in the region would be made up of representatives of all the states.
Meanwhile, senators from the South-South have said the offer of military assistance from the British government would worsen the already tense situation in the region.
The Chairman of the South-South Caucus in the Senate, Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba (SAN), told our correspondents on Sunday, that what the region needed was development.
Ndoma-Egba said, “I do not have the details about the agreement with the British government; but I must say that any plan in the region that is not tilted towards a Marshal Plan is sure to further aggravate the crisis in the region. The most urgent thing for the Niger Delta at the moment is development. There should be a marshal plan for the region and not a military pact.”
The Action Congress and the Yoruba socio- poltical organisation, Afenifere, also voiced their opposition to the military assistance from the UK.
The AC, in a statement on Sunday, said Britain was putting the cart before the horse through the “unnecessary and incendiary offer” to Nigeria.
The statement by the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, ”The violence in the region is only a symptom of a more deep-rooted problem, caused by years of neglect of the goose that lays the golden egg by successive governments, many of which only paid lip service to efforts to lift the oil-producing communities from poverty and environmental degradation.
”This (military assistance) strategy amounts to curing the symptoms of a disease instead of the disease itself. It cannot work.
”There is no doubt that Britain was not driven by altruism in taking that decision, but by enlightened self interest. Or may be it is pay back time for the Brits, after all Baroness Lynda Chalker backed Yar‘Adua‘s controversial election at a time local and international observers tagged it the worst in the country‘s history.”
Also, Afenifere, through its Publicity Secretary of Afenifere, Mr. Yinka Odumakin, warned that the problem in the Niger Delta would surely escalate if the Federal Government accepted the British government’s assistance.
It said, “The pact is to protect Britain‘s interest in Nigeria, which is the oil. The British government had not taken into account the people in the region. All Britain wants is more money, more oil flow from the Niger Delta and Federal Government‘s interest in the region is more revenue as well.
“There is no way the issue of bullets will solve the problem in the region. The only way out is negotiation, but to show that you want to go and bring guns from somewhere to address the problem, you will aggravate the crisis that will go beyond proportion.”
A boardroom technocrat, Mr. Gamaliel Onosode, has, however advised that the programmes envisaged for the resolution of the Niger Delta problems should be insulated from politics.
He told the News Agency of Nigeria in Asaba, Delta State, that what was needed to deal with the challenges in the region was sustained infrastructural development.
Onosode, who is also one of the prominent sons of the Niger Delta, said, “Everybody, all the stakeholders, must work together in order to deal with the challenge, which the environment presents to us in terms of the infrastructure.
“The progammes that should be put in place must be prioritised in ways that will dramatise to the people that there has been a change of attitude. Such programme should be transparent enough to convince the people that we are not just playing politics, that we are really concerned with the challenge.‘‘
He pointed out that the problem in the Niger Delta involved not just the people of the region, but all Nigerians.
“There is no one who can rightly extract himself as not being part of the problem. So by the same token, this is our challenge. The problem in the Niger Delta is our challenge, that is, the people of Nigeria, not just the people of the Niger Delta. It is a national issue,‘‘ he said.
Afenifere To Britain: Don't Forment War In Nigeria
ReplyDeleteBy Rafiu Ajakaye, Snr Reporter, Lagos
Pan Yoruba socio-cultural group, Afenifere on Tuesday warned Great Britain not to foment war in Nigeria, with its offer of military assistance to the Federal Government, on the activities of militants in the Niger Delta area.
Yinka Odumakin, secretary of the group, insisted in a statement that the resort to military option in the past, to quell genuine protests in the Niger Delta, gave rise to the current militancy.
According to the group, the antidote to problem is not coercion, as being implied by the British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, but a political solution.
Afenifere said the offer smacks of double standard, since Downing Street employed dialogue to end similar revolts in Northern Ireland.
"We remind Britain that hard tactics did not achieve any result in Burma, Basra and Afghanistan. Britain has had to resort to negotiation after all those needless wars. Even Northern Ireland has proved that negotiations work better than bullets. Brown must therefore join the search for solution through dialogue, and not foment war in our country," Odumakin said.
The statement stated further, "President Umaru Yar'Adua seeking military help to fight the militants is borne of his misunderstanding of the issues," he added, saying the violence in the Niger Delta is a product of pent-up anger over the lip service paid to environmental degradation and poverty in the oil-bearing communities.
The statement added, "The militancy dimension has jolted the Federal Government to the realisation that something has to be done to arrest the drift in the Niger Delta. Unfortunately, it has not been able to read the situation correctly and in the process, failed abysmally to make the right moves.
"Yet social scientists have argued correctly that a social problem is not resolved either by denying its existence or ascribing it to the wrong source."
N’Delta: Presidency Rules out UK Military Support
ReplyDeleteFrom Ike Abonyi in Abuja, 07.23.2008
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The idea of securing military assistance from the United Kingdom and other foreign interests as the next option for the troubled Niger Delta has been described as “unfounded” and “definitely not on the agenda” of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua.
The President’s Special Adviser on Communications, Mr. Olusegun Adeniyi, disclosed this yesterday during an exclusive interview with THISDAY in Abuja.
It had been widely reported that the President sought the assistance of G8 countries to counter the “blood oil” syndrome in the Niger Delta and the British Prime Minister Gordon Brown was reported to have promised Nigeria military support.
The President’s visit to UK last week was also believed to be a step towards striking a military deal with the former colonial master, leading to protests by Nigerian activists in London.
“I wonder where some people got the idea that the government is adopting a military option to tackle the problem,” Adeniyi said.
The Presidential spokesman said Yar’Adua had never sought direct military assistance from UK or from any government to fight any group.
“That is just part of the propaganda. How would the President bring the British military in? Just how?” he asked.
He said that the President had always believed in a peaceful resolution of the crisis “which we must admit has two fundamental phases”.
According to him, “there is the challenge of development which he will tackle. And there is also the criminal element which he will confront. But because the problem has festered for long, the two now feed on each other but the president recognises that there is no problem that cannot be resolved through dialogue and instilling rule of law.”
On whether the issue of Niger Delta was getting out of hand for the government, Adeniyi said the situation was not in anyway overwhelming the Yar’Adua Administration and that the Niger Delta Stakeholders Summit had not been dropped.
“In fact, I fail to understand the slant given the recent comment of the Vice President which was interpreted to mean the summit had been dropped. Fortunately, I was around when the VP made the statement in question and I heard what he said. The explanation of the VP was that if people feel so fixated about the word summit, which they erroneously connote to mean another jamboree, then they can call the stakeholders’ engagement a dialogue or anything,” he said.
On the insinuation making the round that President Yar’Adua might have been shielding some of his former colleague governors and friends from facing the law in the anti-corruption fight, Adeniyi described it as totally untrue.
According to the Presidential spokesman, “it is not always good to criminalise people who have not been convicted, whether they are former governors or political opponents. Every citizen should have the opportunity to defend himself in a competent court of law.”
He said because of the extent of damage corruption had done to the system, Nigerians want faster means of dealing with the perceived offender “but the point is that we most often want to apply the law of the jungle for people we don’t like. That goes against the spirit of the rule of law, which presupposes all accused innocent until proven guilty”.
Adeniyi said that contrary to what some people say about his boss, the rule of law is not meant to protect any corrupt public official, whether former or serving.
He stressed that “the law is ever sure and while the process of conviction may be slow, under President Yar’Adua’s watch, people who steal public funds will account for their deeds. However long it takes, as the Bible says, the sinner will not go unpunished”.
On the impending cabinet reshuffle, Adeniyi said it would soon be carried out, pointing out that it is intended to rejuvenate the government toward delivering democracy dividends.
“The reshuffle will come because the President is a man of his words and there is nothing like delay. What most people forget is that the idea of the reshuffle is not just for the sake of it or to provide entertainment for anybody. It is to identify areas where things are not working as efficiently as the president wished and then make the requisite changes,” he said.
He also denied that the President was insensitive to the plight of striking teachers.
“I feel very sad about this but so does the President and you are not correct to say the attitude of government on the issue is lackluster. No, it is not. The problem is that the whole strike was designed to create a wrong impression that the federal government is the principal actor when the NUT [National Union of Teachers] officials are quite aware it is not within the purview of the president since he doesn’t pay primary school teachers. You see, the problem is that perhaps because of decades of military rule, we have more or less created an all-powerful president who should be involved in everything and our democracy will never grow if we allow such notion to continue,” he said.
• Full text of interview tomorrow.