allAfrica.com: Nigeria: Militants Destroying S-South, Says Amaechi (Page 1 of 3)

GOVERNOR Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State says the Niger Delta struggle, as it is presently being prosecuted, is not ideological and the militants are breaking the laws of the country by carrying arms.

Governor Amaechi who delivered the keynote addresss at the two-day South-South Legislative Retreat on Constitution Review, 2008, organised by Vanguard Newspapers suggested that the way forward was for the Federal Government to use force to disarm the militants since they are criminals, after which they would be socially rehabilitated.

Pointing out that he does not care whose ox is gored as long as he has spoken the truth, the governor stated that he had over N100 billion of Rivers State funds resting in the bank which he could not use to provide water, roads, electricity and other amenities for the people because of the activities of militants, who have scared investors and contractors away from the state.

His address: "The first aspect of my speech is what most of us are here gathered for: 'Is this country fair to the Niger Delta people? Have we been fairly treated? As we look at the laws, I have some of the laws that I have indicated, which also, you can find in the programme. I won't dwell much on it because that is why we are here. If you look at the National Inland Waterways Act, it has completely marginalised our people.

The Act even makes it possible for the Federal Government to even control the creeks and I am told, by the military officers in Rivers State, that we have about 3,000 creeks in Rivers State. It means that the 3,000 creeks in Rivers State all belong to the Federal Government. The implication, therefore, is that even if the Rivers man wants to collect sand, he has to go and get licence from the Federal Government.

There is the Territorial Water Act, that one again implies..., before, our people can go up to the ocean to fish, now you cannot, it is again created for the rich, for those who own trawlers from Rivers State, Bayelsa State to go to the high sea, fish and export and our people who used to go that way to fish can no longer fish. We are marginalised in that regard.

"There is another law that is called the Exclusive Economic Zone Act. It is structured in the same way for which you have to get licence to be able to exploit natural resources, including oil. The Petroleum Act, all of us know what it is. In the 1963 Constitution, we used to have 50 per cent derivation, now we are struggling with 13 per cent even though the constitution says not less than 13 per cent. We don't need constitution amendment to do that.

The constitution simply says not less than, it means you can get up to 70 per cent. Now, that is skewed against us. The Land Use Act is the worse even though I am a beneficiary as a trustee as a governor, but, it should not be so, our people should be allowed to own their land and they sell it as much as they want, land is capital.

The same thing you see in the Oil Minerals Act, the Oil Pipeline Act, and the Oil Terminal Dues Act. In fact, the Oil Terminal Dues Act relocated the people of Finima from where they were to where they are now with disregard to our shrine. Our grandfathers that were buried on that soil and all that, and how much was paid?

It is by virtue of one of these Acts that the Federal Government will pay you N2,000 maximum for coconut tree and you know that if you harvest that coconut tree for one year, you will get more than N50,000 but for the Federal Government to uproot that coconut tree, they will pay you N2, 000 and they have denied you your source of livelihood for the whole year. I will not bore you with all these; all of you know all that, which is why we are here.

"Let me take you to the most important aspect to me. The most important aspect is, we are gathered here, Federal Government is visiting us with injustice. Should we also visit ourselves with injustice? Should we? We are, we do and we are visiting ourselves with injustice. And I can tell you how we are doing that.

"The first thing to say is that in Baghdad, you know what the war is about. Don't you? It is a religious war between the Shiites and the Sunnis. In Rivers State, in Bayelsa and other parts of the Niger Delta, who is fighting whom, what is the war about?

What is the shooting about? The kidnap cases that are taking place are against whom? When you came into Port Harcourt, you saw it as a graveyard. This is not the old Port Harcourt that we used to have. There are three principal economic centres in Nigeria: Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt.

We are by ourselves killing our own economic centre. In the comity of nations, we cannot compete as we should because the nerve centre of our economic activities is beginning to disappear. At the same time, Lagos is beginning to become the hub of oil activities in Nigeria because we are on our own asking Lagos to assume the position of being the oil capital of Nigeria and we call it militancy and I call it criminality.

"The way to define criminality is that anybody who breaks the laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is a criminal. The law says we shall not bear arms and so, anybody who bears arms has committed a crime and so, they are all criminals.

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