Nigeria: Costly Mistakes in the N. Delta

opinion

Atlanta, Georgia, USA — I predict that a denouement of the riddle of the Niger delta will soon come. The agenda is being set at this trial. Whether the peaceful ways favoured will prevail depends on what the oppressor decides, what signals it sends out to the waiting public" - Ken Saro Wiwa, October 31, 1995 ( on the floor of the Ibrahim Auta Military Tribunal)

The Guardian of January 27 , 2006, referring to his interview with Reuters Television in Davos, Switzerland, reported that "Obasanjo declined to comment when asked if he believed the crisis ( hostage -taking in the Niger delta ) would be resolved by negotiation or by force". However we have now seen Obasanjo's choice- military option. And Chief Olu Falae again offered a clue into the inner workings of Obasanjo's mind when he said of him : "The man is just wearing his civilian agbada on his military self". The situation in the Niger delta is getting uglier as the Nigerian government continues to see military solution as the best option in handling the crisis and the people who have evidently been driven into acts of desperation, continues to get hardened. We continue to witness massive re-enforcement of troops in the Niger Delta, in desperate attempts to overpower the " militants". And so in a vicious circle of the Niger delta death game violence is being replicated in are a.

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