NIGER DELTA AMNESTY AND A TRAITOR NAMED BOYLOAF?

Icheoku asks, does this man understand what it was that he allegedly fought for all these years? Does this man, who ordinarily looks like a bandit and a criminal linchpin know exactly the implication of what he just did, by abandoning a cause which all the people of Niger Delta has come to identify with, as their only hope in the despondency of Nigeria? Is this man a patriot of the Niger Delta or an opportunist who was holding out to cash in his notoriety at a future right time? We at Icheoku.com are bamboozled, surprised, perplexed and worried that Boyloaf Ebikabowei Victor Ben has sabotaged the struggle in the Niger Delta; and so has completely and without more, now sealed the fate of the Niger Delta as a defeated and voiceless people!

Like a canary/parrot, he is already singing and calling names; as well as pointing his dirty stump accusatory fingers to some people who he claimed were incohute with the struggle and were tacitly backing the effort clandestinely? Icheoku says, the Hausa-Fulani federal government of Nigeria will maximise the money paid to buy him and turn him into a traitor to the fullest. They will surely exploit intelligence extracted from him to get to the under-belly of whatever remains of the struggle; as well as those "marked enemies of the Nigeria State" still holding out. We warned previously on the divide and conquer tactics of the Hausa-Fulani northern Nigeria, and once again, regrettably though, they have deployed it to a decisive victory over the Niger Delta struggle. We are so livid at the treachery of the bandit named Boyloaf, that none of his explanation makes any acceptable sense; since the release of Henry Okah was not the primary reason founding the struggle to constitute a condition precedent to accepting amnesty? Henry Okah was just a blimp on the radar, an intervening happenstance which added some dimension to the struggle and which now, unfortunately though, appears to be corroding the fabrics of the struggle.

Our fear also, is that the Nigerian security operatives will use intelligence gathered as a result of this treasonable defection to bait the hold-out freedom fighters, and possibly kill them off. Boyloaf, Icheoku asks, why? At least if you were tired of the struggle, you should have quietly disappeared like Tompolo Government Ekpemupolo, instead of foolishly exposing your identity, knowing fully well that you will in no distant time, become history? Just like Mohammed Yusuf of the Boko Haram was summarily dispatched to silence him from implicating certain high and powerful, possibly some people will feel threatened with your diarrhea-mouth and hatch a plan to permanently shut it for you? Remember in Nigeria, anything and everything is possible. It is treachery, it is dangerous for a supposed "general" to crawl on his knees to surrender to his oppressive masters without a fight; and now that you have lost your bargaining powers, no one will take you any serious anymore as your problem have become solved.

The good news however, is that a "Boy and a Loaf" with just 32 other knee-jerk deserters does not constitute the entire Niger Delta struggle; and hopefully logistics will be reconfigured to checkmate and countermand whatever actionable intelligence you may pass to the other side. What amnesty are you accepting when you have not committed a crime or was arrested or tried or convicted? What are you agreeing to be forgiven of? Why did you make it so easy for your oppressors to ensnare you so cheaply? How much was your price that you would forsake your people of the Niger Delta and jump ship too soon, abandoning them to their fate, which cannot improve under the current dispensation and inequities in Nigeria? Honestly speaking, if one were to ask you, what were you able to achieve with all these huffing and puffing of these past years, there is really nothing for you to show for it; - the tension of these years which just went up in flames with this your thoughtless decision to defect. Remember, we are not advocating that you continue with the struggle, assuming that you lost appetite to push on because "others are making money on the back of the struggle"; but at lease you would have gone out in a trail of blaze of glory or just quietly take a walk and disappear never to return and without revealing your identity; that way you would have remained a legend? But now, Boyloaf is a turn-coat of the Niger Delta struggle!

Luckily enough, Boyloaf is not MEND nor does he speak for the group. Hopefully, his position will be effectively filled by a more trustworthy patriotic Niger Deltan, who will continue to push forward the agenda of fairness and justice of and for the people of Niger Delta in relation to their oil? Henry Okah was not the reason for the struggle and it is a misnomer for Boyloaf to try to adumbrate that his MEND "is accepting amnesty following Henry Okah’s release"? Icheoku says, what a complete balderdash and a futile attempt at remaining relevancy in a struggle which he has harmed by his desertion. What about the communities of Gbaramatu kingdom in Delta, Odi in Bayelsa, Elem, Tombia in Rivers that were completely annihilated by the federal army, who will now stand up for them, Boyloaf? It would appear that by this his thoughtless decision, Boyloaf is now cooked, done and out waiting to be devoured by Nigerian hungry hyenas? He has betrayed his people and the other side will hold him off in suspended distrust, as they cannot completely trust a person as scary looking as this angry man from the creeks.

Icheoku says, if Boyloaf and his band of deserters would not fold their hands and see the future of their generations yet unborn crumble before their eyes, or their people hungry and dying, or their infrastructure in a deplorable state, or their communities with no water or light, or oil spillage and gas flaring the order of the day, or their youths unemployed, and their region producing over 90% of Nigeria's national income; then the proper thing to do is to continue the struggle but not to just throw up hands as a surrender monkey? A popular aphorism has it that ''quitters don't win and winners don't quit', so Boyloaf which side of the divide are you on?

Icheoku says, the only reason President Umaru Yar'Adua and his band of northern occupiers are even talking with Niger Delta freedom-fighters is that they have weighed the odds of winning the battle of the creeks, and it is staked up against them! Their only meaningful option to avoid a staggering humiliating defeat is to surreptitiously throw up an amnesty-bait; and unfortunately, so many activists are biting same with some of them, now hooked. Boyloaf Niger Delta cannot win using this present position of weakness as those northern mallams are very obstinate and do not reason. If in doubt, where is Ken Saro-Wiwa who thought reason makes sense? Also where is Adaka Baro? Lately the MIA Niger Delta list has expanded to include Ken Niweigha and the Boma brothers? Reasoning is not a particular forte of northern Nigeria mallams, it never happens with them as their arrogance never allow them to hear the other Nigerians' point of view. Regrettably, Boyloaf and crew will soon find out the hard way, once their debriefing in completed and the crusading North will crush you guys and feed you to the marine animals in the Atlantic waters. Read the hand-writing on the wall!

Finally Icheoku re-affirms that Boyloaf is not a general; that he is just a petty surrender-monkey who is as spineless as he lacks conviction. We thought he was waging a liberation struggle for the people of the Niger Delta; so we ask, what changed so soon now that the struggle was approaching a turning-point that he threw the towel? Niger Delta is still where they were several years ago; the North still has both the Minister of Petroleum and the Managing Director of the NNPC; the JTF is still occupying the territories of the Niger Delta, maiming and killing the people therein; the bombarded Gbaramatu kingdom has not been rebuilt and the list goes on and on? Boyloaf, Icheoku wants to know, what about the people who have already lost their lives following you to fight a cause which they believed was greater than anyone person, including the linguine-spine Boyloaf? Anyway his name says it all – a "boy and a loaf", possibly of bread? Icheoku feels greatly disappointed by the turn of events with the Niger Delta struggle especially the sudden u-turn of some of its freedom-fighters including the Boyloaf 32.

The Hausa-Fulani 'lords of manor' in Nigeria are masterful in infiltrating, dividing and conquering. They have succeeded in destroying the Niger Delta freedom-struggle, using this technique and sure, Boyloaf has a lot of explanation to do on why his group abandoned a people in their greatest hour of need? Unfortunately, in his mad fury, Boyloaf failed to read the sign that says, "victory was very close and knocking on the door"; when he and his band of traitors threw up their hands holding white flags in surrender, and thus sabotaged it? Being the illiterate he is, Boyloaf also failed to understand that the only reason he is still alive today is because of the impermissible creeks, which terrain is not well adaptive to the Nigerian armed forces, trained in desert/dry land warfare, and hence could not easily navigate the creeks to get him. If he is in doubt, he should take a look at Maiduguri and see that no one ever gave any amnesty to Boko Haram's Mohammed Yusuf; they just cornered and shot him dead in cold-blood? We are convinced that a United Niger Delta resistance would have eventually won the battle for the control of the Niger delta oil resources, if only this "boy and a loaf" held out a little longer; and not rashly and cowardly throw out a golden opportunity to enter the history books as one of the liberators who freed Niger Delta from a long continuing repressive and retrogressive occupation by the northern mallams!

According to one commentator's query, if Boyloaf is disarming, does it mean that he has succeeded in emancipating the Niger Delta? Another advised Boyloaf to look around to see that the situation has not changed one bit nor is it any different from what it was from the time preceeding his struggle? Icheoku in signing off, says, whether this fellow, Boyloaf, is a traitor, a saboteur or just a pragmatic personality correctly reading the moment to understand the futility of his adventure or was simply too afraid to suddenly now die in the hands of the northern army, only posterity will judge. But we are emphatic that Boyloaf and crew are a band of deserters who turned their backs on the Niger Delta struggle, when the struggle was approaching its end of the tunnel's destination of light!