allAfrica.com: Nigeria: Verbal Storm Over Gambari (Page 1 of 1)

IT was a heated affair last week at a news-stand gathering in Okoko, Lagos, as parliamentarians passionately debated the unfolding drama over the planned Niger Delta Summit.

It all began when a parliamentarian, by name Nelson Okubor, queried the motive behind the insistence of those pushing for the retention of Professor Gambari as the Steering Committee Chairman of the Summit.

"I cannot understand why the Yar'Adua government and some people are insisting that Prof. Gambari must be the chairman of the Niger Delta Summit when people in the area said they don't want.

Is it by force that he must be the chairman? I don't believe with what I'm seeing that the Yar'Adua government really wants peace in the Niger Delta.

In fact, I suspect that there is a secret reason why they want Gambari to be there at all cost and they are yet to tell us that reason." he stated with disapproval.

Parliamentarian Paul Odemokpai immediately picked it up from there and said: "That is true; I don't really think they want peace in the Niger Delta. Why should Gambari, of all people, be the one to preside over a summit organised for Niger Delta people?

This is a man that is well-known for his negative feeling towards Niger Delta people, especially the way he worked against the interests of people of that area during the Abacha regime. Now, he wants to come and preside over the affairs of the same people he had condemned in the past.

That one cannot work and Yar'Adua will be toying with the peace and security of this country if he insists on having his way on this matter".

For Willy Akporhono: "What Yar'Adua is trying to do is very clear now. He is just acting out a

Northern script to hijack and manipulate the Summit to favour the North in whatever report or decision that will come out of it. That is why they have chosen somebody like Gambari to head it because they know he does not like Niger Delta people".

But parliamentarian Ismaila Farouk did not share this view. According to him: "When it comes to organising a summit or any other programme for that matter for the sake of finding a peaceful solution to a national problem, we should not allow mere sentiment to destroy everything.

Yet, that is what many Niger Delta people are doing today. Look, Professor Gambari is an international diplomat who is held in high esteem in many parts of the world; many world leaders respect him a lot. This is a man that even the United Nations has appointed at different times to head peace missions to some troubled spots in the world.

So, if the UN finds such a man worthy enough to be entrusted with such important assignments, why are we then trying to give the impression that he is not competent to handle a similar assignment in his own country? Why are we always fond of running down our own people, even when the whole world is celebrating them?"

Paul was quick to respond to this as he quipped thus: "That your argument cannot even convince a little child to accept Gambari as the right person to head the Niger Delta Summit and I will tell you why.

Many years after he handed over power as a military head of state to an elected government, Obasanjo was treated as an international statesman by many world leaders and organisations. And it was because of this that they supported him to become Nigeria's elected president in 1999.

But did the fact that he was respected in the international community make him a good president for Nigeria? No, because after eight years in power, he left Nigeria in a big mess.

Talking about Gambari, he cooperated with Abacha to show people of the Niger Delta real pepper and, through his support, Ken Saro-Wiwa, who was a hero of the Niger Delta struggle, was executed as a common criminal.

I mean, where's the justification in allowing a man like that to lead discussions on what to do about the Niger Delta problem when the man himself is part of the problem of the Niger Delta?".

Before Ismaila could fire an appropriate retort, parliamentarian Francis Ejehere rallied to his support by arguing thus: "I don't agree with you that Prof. Gambari is part of the problem of the Niger Delta. No, that is not true.

If you say he's not qualified to chair the Steering Committee of the Niger Delta Summit, that's a different matter.

If we're saying that because of what he said or did in the past he has become the enemy of the Niger Delta people, that is taking the argument to a ridiculous level. After all, there are many Niger Delta leaders who worked with Abacha during that time and some of them have served as either governors or ministers in this dispensation.

Why didn't the Niger Delta people reject them for what they did during Abacha's time? While I'm not saying that Prof. Gambari was right to have said some of the things attributed to him under Abacha, let us consider his qualification to head that summit on merit.

The idea of calling for a foreigner to head the Summit is not right when we have competent Nigerians to handle it. We should not in a bid to get back at Gambari for his past sins ridicule ourselves in the eyes of the world.

So, I think we should just forgive Gambari for what he said in the past and let him serve as head of the summit, especially if doing so will help the country find a permanent solution to the problem in the Niger Delta".

But the anti-Prof. Gambari parliamentarians would not shift ground on their conviction that the Nigerian diplomat was bad news as far as the Summit was concerned. "You're just wasting your saliva for nothing," responded Willy. "We say we don't want Gambari, full stop," he submitted as if with finality.

Other like-minded parliamentarians indicated their support for his statement with an emphatic shake of their heads. This, however, did not discourage Ismaila and Francis from arguing in favour of a Gambari headship of the Niger Delta Summit.

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