Daily Independent (Lagos)
Adam Adedimeji
8 July 2009
(Page 2 of 2)
How do you see the war between the Joint Military Task Force (JTF) and the Niger Delta militants?
I wouldn't like to call it war, you see, war is much more serious thing. I don't think there is any war in Nigeria for now. What is happening is that the militants are doing something illegal which the government is trying to control. As far as I am concerned, there is no war between the JTF and the militants. What the JTF is trying to do is to stop the acts of criminality being committed by the militants. There is no war between the JTF and the militants.
Do you think the way Federal Government is addressing the issue will yield any positive result?
I always believe in dialogue, violence cannot cure violence, in situations like this, what I recommends is dialogue. If Israelis and the Arabs can one day go to the conference table and tried to resolve their differences, there is no reason why the present situation in the Niger Delta cannot be solved through dialogue. I believe that dialogue is the only solution to what is happening in the Niger Delta.
But, we are not using dialogue, it seems it has failed
Even if dialogue seemed to have failed at a certain period of time, it remains the only solution that can cure problems. I just gave the example of Israelis and the Arabs. Israel was created in 1947 by the League of Nations and the moment Israel was created, not even up to a year after, the first Arab\ Israeli war erupted. That time, the Arabs will never like to talk to Israelis but eventually they had to talk. So, dialogue still remains the only solution. Even if there is war between two nations, at the end of the day, it is dialogue that will still solve the problem.
Some States have enacted laws that make kidnapping a capital offence; do you think this is necessary?
Well, you see, passing stringent laws to counter certain criminal acts is just a way of trying to solve the problem on hand. I do not think that making kidnapping a capital offence will stop it and I give you the reason. After the civil war in Nigeria, the use of arms to commit robbery became very rampant, government of the day went on to make armed robbery a capital offence and till today, it is a capital offence but that has not stopped armed robbery. We still have armed robberies in the country.
So, armed robbers, despite the fact that if they are caught they will face death penalty, they are still robbing with arms everyday. That will show you that making stringent laws does not and might not cure that particular act. But, I sympathize with governors who are doing that, they are just doing so at least to show that they are doing something. Because when you have a problem at hand, you just don't fold your hands, you must do something rightly or wrongly to counter that particular thing.
How do you describe the political situations in Anambra State?
There is nothing unusual in the happenings in Anambra State. What bothers some people is when Obi came in; the Supreme Court decided that his term in office will begin when he was sworn-in as governor. So, many have been wondering what happens to the executive actions taken by his predecessor, Ngige whose election was declared null and void.
My opinion is that even though Ngige's election has been declared null and void, executive actions taken by him will still remain. The actions of public officers will remain or will be presumed to have been rightly done until the contrary appears. And you know that in government there should be no vacuum. The act of government avoids vacuum, there must be somebody there to exercise power of government at a particular time. It would be wrong in my view to say that all actions taken by Ngige, the former governor is null and void that would not be right.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2009 Daily Independent. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
