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Nigeria: Gordon Brown's Offer, Greek Gift-Falana
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Vanguard (Lagos)
16 July 2008
Posted to the web 16 July 2008
Samuel Oyadongha
Lagos
LAGOS based lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana has dismissed as Greek gift the British Prime Minister offer to assist the Nigerian government to quell Niger Delta crisis describing the move as a ploy by the British government to set up military base in the region.
"We stand ready to give help to the Nigerians to deal with lawlessness that exists in this area (Niger Delta) and to achieve the levels of production that Nigeria is capable of, but because of the break down of law and order the problems have not been able to be achieved," Brown had told a news conference at the G-8 summit in Japan.
Reacting to Mr. Gordon Brown's pledge, Mr. Falana who described the offer as surreptitious move to set up British military base in the Niger Delta called on the British Prime Minister to mind his country business by addressing the increasing wave of knife crime and other forms of youth restiveness which have continued to claim scores of innocent lives there in the United Kingdom.
Mr. Falana in an online reaction made available to Vanguard wondered why the United Kingdom which saw the need to dialogue and negotiate with the Irish Republican Army (IRA) could turned around to incite the Nigerian government to wage full scale war against the people of the region.
His words, "the official announcement credited to Mr. Gordon Brown, the British Prime Minister, last week, to the effect that the government of the United Kingdom had concluded plans to help the Nigerian government in prosecuting the war against militants in the Niger Delta should be seen as a surreptitious move to set up a British military base in Nigeria .
Otherwise how does the United Kingdom which dialogued and negotiated with the Irish Republican Army (IRA) turned round to incite the Nigerian Government to wage a full-scale war against the people of the Niger Delta?
"The offer of Mr. Brown should be dismissed as the British Armed Forces are part of the Imperialist Coalition Forces which have failed to win the 5-year old Oil War in Iraq . In particular, Mr. Brown should be told that Nigeria does not need his Greek gift as the British Armed Forces have never performed professionally better than Nigerian soldiers in any United Nations Peace Keeping Operations in recent time.
"President Umaru Musa Yar'adua should therefore reject the unwarranted offer of the British Government and embark on meaningful negotiations with the Niger Delta Militants without any further delay.
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"Finally, Mr. Brown should mind his own business by settling down to address the increasing wave of knife crime and other forms of youth restiveness which have continued to claim scores of innocent lives in the United Kingdom."
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