24 July 2008
opinion
Lagos — As you well know, I am a preacher of the gospel and not a politician but in our little way, we have attempted in the past to address some pressing national issues through our sermons and have occasionally offered advice to the political leaders. It is, however, sad to note that despite appeals to the Nigerian people to be patient with the government, our politicians, in the last couple of years appear to have learnt nothing and forgotten nothing.
Today, millions of Nigerians cannot commute from one point to another as a result of high cost of transportation. I am always unhappy to hear that millions of Nigerians go to bed everyday without food in their stomachs. Their children, who are seeking admission to universities daily, roam the streets of the country without a ray of hope. The Bible says: "He that oppresseth the poor reproacheth his maker."
Some of you will recall that I have always urged Nigerians to be patient with Government and be prayerful for our leaders and nation, instead of complaining that things are not working well. I do realize that there is grave danger if we continue to keep silent while the oppression of the people continues. The danger inherent is that: "Oppression makes a wise man mad." (Ecclesiastes 7:7
Power and Energy
Prominent in President Musa Yar'Adua's seven-point agenda is the all important issue of electricity. He even promised to declare an emergency in the sector. Over one year into that administration, the electricity situation has even gone from bad to worse as contractors busy themselves importing all manner of generators into the country. We clamour for foreign investment, but we have failed to provide the enabling environment for such investors to bring in their money here. No power. No water. No roads. Things that other countries take for granted
Corruption
The war against corruption, sad to say, appears to have been suspended. The government appears to have soft-pedaled on its anti-corruption crusade. The Government must wake up now to fight corruption to a standstill and save the nation from the West's bad press. We, therefore, call on President Yar'Adua to tackle the issue of corruption frontally, so that posterity will write his name in gold. There should be no sacred cows in the war against corruption.
Niger Delta
There is no gain saying the fact that all the madness currently going on in the Niger Delta region is a product of years of organized and sustained oppression of the people whose only means of livelihood, farming and fishing, had been taken away from them by decades of oil exploration and exploitation in the area. Different governments have come and made promises to them without fulfilling such promises. They had set up different commissions of enquiry to look into the problems of the area and several whitepapers have been submitted to the different administrations and yet there are no roads, portable water, electricity, schools and other social amenities for them. Their children have no access to good schools. Even employable youth of the area are denied employment for one reason or the other. And when the jobless youths of the area protest their endless years of servitude, they are labeled militants.
It will shock some of you to learn that most of the youths we call militants today have at one time or the other served the interest of politicians and were dumped as soon as the deal was over. When such young men wait endlessly for the politicians to keep their promises, they have no other means of venting their anger than to go to the Creeks. Most of the arms and ammunition in the Niger Delta today, you will agree with me, were imported by politicians who were desperate to 'win' elections. As soon as they win such elections they turn their backs on these same boys they had made very juicy promises to during the campaigns.
Another sad aspect of the Niger Delta Crisis is the role of local leaders of the area. Local chiefs and elders of the area who should be fathers to these boys have not helped matters. Some of them are known to have represented the interests of different communities before oil companies and as soon as such oil companies make payments, these local chiefs corner such payments for themselves. The boys protest the neglect of the area and the oil companies will call for dialogue. At the end, the elders who did the negotiation will declare paltry sums that were paid to them.
Worried that successive governments and their own elders have consistently deceived them and treated them as aliens in their own land, the young men of the area decided to take their own destinies in their own hands. They are not relenting, in spite of threats of heavy military presence in the area. That confirms the Word of God, that 'Oppression makes a wise man mad.'
Much as I do not subscribe to the unwholesome brigandage going on in the Niger Delta today, I will hasten to stress that past governments should be held responsible for the current violent development in the area. The situation appears hopeless but it is not. Some of you, who are familiar with the humble role I played during the Warri Crisis, will agree with me that all hope for peace in the Niger Delta is not lost. I have campaigned for the inclusion of more trustworthy religious leaders in the Niger Delta negotiations but our political leaders have persistently turned deaf ears to that. Apart from the insensitivity of Government to the plight of the people in the area which has made them to lose confidence in their political leaders, I must tell you that majority of what goes on in that area today, borders on cultism.
From the look of things, there is only one way out of the quagmire. We have found ourselves as a nation. We must return to God for a more viable solution to the festering problem in the Niger Delta. I must acknowledge the recent withdrawal of Professor Ibrahim Gambari from the proposed Niger Delta Summit. I also acknowledge the position of our people that there had been too many commissions on how to tackle the Niger Delta crisis. Instead of another jamboree, the government should take another look at all the whitepapers of past commissions and begin their implementation. The demands of the Niger Delta people are no longer new to anybody. The people want development of the area that produces the wealth of the nation or you allow them to control their God-given resources as it was done in the days of cocoa, palm oil and groundnut pyramids.
Why have we not found a leeway till now? It is because we have left God out of the problem? The earlier we involve the Church in the negotiation; the better for us as a civilized people. We don't have to wait for the US or Britain's military support to end the Niger Delta Crisis. I believe we have the capacity to solve the problem. It's obvious the boys in the creeks no longer have confidence in government and our local leaders and therefore will not trust anybody the government proposes to head another summit, except if they see some spiritual fathers who they can trust.
I believe there are still some credible men of God in this country that can be trusted and such men should be included in the negotiation with the 'militants.' Despite the charms and cultism that give the aura of invincibility, very many of the 'militants' still belong to one church or the other and have absolute respect for their spiritual fathers. We must reach out to such pastors to intercede, so that while we are praying in different churches for peace in the area, such trusted pastors will busy negotiating with them.
I am highly persuaded that only a mediation by religious leaders who are by their calling, bridge builders, can get these boys to surrender their arms and ammunition. That way, I think we will be able to dismantle all the occultist strongholds in that area.
Conclusion
In view of the failure of past efforts to resolve the Niger Delta Crisis, I implore the Government to urgently consider the inclusion of the Church in the negotiation. I am confident that the 'militants' who no longer respect government representatives, are willing and ready to trust religious leaders if included in the negotiation. In addition, I urge the Federal and State governments in the country to imbibe the spirit of selfless service to the nation and make policies that will alleviate the untold suffering of our people across the country.
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