4 September 2008
editorial
Last week, unidentified criminals, masquerading as militants, abducted an Israeli businessman from his Port Harcourt home. The abduction was timed to rhyme with the visit of the Israeli Ambassador to Rivers State with a retinue of Israeli businessmen and women who were seeking investment opportunities in Rivers State.
What the intentions of these felons were, apart from their ridiculous demand for a ransom of over N1.2 billion, are yet to be established. What can, however, be inferred is that the abduction appears to be a deliberate attempt to embarrass Governor Rotimi Amaechi, who has repeatedly stated that criminals had usurped the Niger Delta struggle.
These kidnappers seemed to have banked on the governor doing business with them, to be in their good books, a common practice in the Niger Delta. The struggle by the peoples of the Niger Delta for more equitable treatment by the Nigerian state, a struggle which has received massive sympathy and support from Nigerians of conscience is in grave danger of derailment.The Israeli was released after about a week.
Criminals have infiltrated the just struggle of the people. It is difficult now separating genuine militants from the criminals. The extent of the criminalisation of the struggle has diminished it. At fora to discuss the challenges of developing the Niger Delta, the criminality shares equal attention with the germane issues of poverty, environmental degradation and deprivation.
They may sound as excuses for people not listening to the agitations from the region, but criminality has its disruptive impact on oil production and development of the area. Criminals of all hues, some from outside the region, have latched onto the new business of kidnapping, and while they are at it, they masquerade as militants. Two year old children are being snatched from their parents; old parents are being abducted from their homes and huge ransoms demanded. Fatalities have in some instances occurred. How could these aid the development of the Niger Delta?
It is instructive that the main groups driving the agitations in the region are opposed to this criminality. Moreover, the activities of the criminals are causing irreversible damage to the economy of the Niger Delta States. Development which the people have been clamouring for has ceased.
No meaningful development is taking place in the zone because kidnapping of construction workers has scared the construction firms away.
Contracts designed to alleviate the sufferings of the people cannot be executed. No contracting firm of note is ready to work in the zone. Julius Berger, Setraco and firms fled after their staff were abducted for ransoms.
Work has since stopped on the East-West Road, the main effort to open up the Niger Delta. Rivers State is particularly worse off. The State which became a massive construction site with the advent of the current regime has since been turned into a ghost town.
It is time leaders in the zone and those genuinely fighting the course of the Niger Delta peoples stopped the criminality which has overtaken their fight for equity in the Nigerian state.
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