Reuben Buhari
1 November 2009
Lagos — After the decades-old conflict in the Niger delta region with resultant loses in scores of lives, properties and revenues in billions of naira, the federal government amnesty programme which expired on October 4, saw thousands of repentant militants renouncing their confrontational tactics of drawing attention to the plight of the region.
To tackle the challenges of addressing the region's plight, a one-day national summit was held to draw a developmental roadmap for the region in Kaduna, capital of Kaduna State.
President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua, while commenting on the summit, said the one-day event aims to consolidate on the gains of the success of the amnesty granted militants in the region on June 25, 2009 to October 4, 2009, which also has the goal of repositioning the area for holistic socio-economic transformation.
Titled: "Post-Amnesty Confidence Building Measures: Principles, Strategies and Prospect," and sponsored by the Bayelsa State Government in collaboration with the Centre for Alternative Policy Perspectives and Strategy, (CAPPS), the summit, according to Yar'Adua who was represented by Chief Ufot Ekaette, Minister for the Niger Delta, that the unconditional acceptance of amnesty by erstwhile militants marks the beginning of an era of unhindered, sustained and coordinated development in the province.
According to the president: "I have met with the governors of the region, stakeholders, groups, as well as the directly relevant ministers and senior federal government officials with a view to speedily putting in motion a comprehensive programme of rehabilitation and reintegration." Yar'Adua said the success of the amnesty programme has raised Nigeria's profile as an indivisible and cohesive nation capable of providing answers to issues that had torn other countries apart.
"That we have been able to implement an amnesty that had no pre-conditions attached to it testifies to our ability and resolve to succeed and chart a new course for our nation and people. The early resolution of the Niger Delta crisis, present one of the best opportunities for Nigeria's growth and development. That is why we need to honestly answer the question: what next?" the President emphasised.
In answering that question, the summit organisers brought together prominent Nigerians that include former Nigeria President, Alhaji Shehu Shagari, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Dimeji Bankole, former Chief of General Staff of Nigeria, Commodore Ebitu Ekiwe and Chief Olu Falae.
Others are Governors Namadi Sambo, Katsina, Ibrahim Shema and Dr. Joseph Wayas, former Senate President, Chief Barnabas Gemade, Dr. Joseph Golwa, Director-General Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution, HRH Prof Chike Edozien, the Asagba of Asaba and Justice Mamman Nasir, who chaired the occasion, among so many others.
On why the summit was held in Kaduna, Yar'Adua explained that holding the summit at the Arewa House, venue of the event is "to provide an avenue for our brothers and sisters outside the Niger Delta to better understand and appreciate the federal government's efforts at entrenching peace, stability and prosperity in the region. He further explained that "this meeting is taking place in Kaduna, outside the Niger Delta, is an indication that the Niger Delta question is a national issue that deserves the support and cooperation of all Nigerians."
Governor Timipre Sylva of Bayelsa State, while giving a keynote address titled: "Finding Common Grounds: Oil Conflict, Minority Rights, and Amnesty and Geo-Strategic Relations in a Democratic Nigeria" said the Niger Delta is a little Nigeria comprising the best there is and the worst that there can be.
According to him, "the Niger Delta is a microcosm of the larger commonwealth, a contiguous region of contradiction and painful contrasts, where daily the issue of poverty and development, oil and power politics, inter-ethnic harmony and communal eruptions, wealth and its lack, and an awe-inspiring ring of nature's flora and fauna coexist with the excesses of ecological waste and environmental degradation, all playing out on a daily basis a drama of life and certain painful death."
Sylva, after highlighting all the challenges of the area that includes oil conflict, minority rights and geo-strategic relations in a democratic Nigeria, concludes his nine-page address by saying that the "dark days of violence are behind and what is needed is to restore hope to the Nigeria project, in rebuilding trust among Nigerians and in repairing damages to relationships, and in mobilising all collective energies, talent and special endowment with which to transform our fatherland as one of the leading nations in the global community."
He also added that all what is needed for the success of the amnesty is a continuity of the entire developmental plans outlined by all stakeholders in the region. After the applause had died down and other speakers had taken turn to highlight what needed to be done for the region, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Dimeji Bankole was given the opportunity to speak, and after he had spoken, it was as if a bomb had been dropped in the packed hall.
What Bankole basically said was that even though Nigeria had not been fair to the Niger Delta, which has been producing the fund with which a city Like Abuja was built, the region, should however; hold their leaders responsible for all their woes. He also adds that with the huge amount of money the Niger Delta States collect from the federal government, there is no reason why the quality of governance in a state like Lagos should be better than what is obtained in Bayelsa State.
"If we are to be honest with ourselves, we have not been fair to the Niger Delta. We have been unfair to the Niger Delta. The Niger Delta has been producing the funds with which we've been running this country for so many years. The funds we used to build Abuja where I came from this morning, those lovely roads and bridges and offices came from the funds from the Niger Delta.
"I have not seen such bridges and roads in the Niger Delta. I haven't. Until those roads and infrastructure comes to the Niger Delta, well, we'll continue to put the request on the front burner of the Nigerian politics," Bankole rattled the audience. He added however, that things have started to change in the region. Bankole advised the governors of the Niger Delta region to judiciously utilise the money they collect from the federal government.
"Some of you who have been to Lagos in the past one year, I'm sure you'll notice the difference. And I'm not shy to appreciate that there is a difference in Lagos. It's good governance. Like I said, there are differences in Nigerian government today. But I'll tell you, the Governor of Bayelsa State collects 9.2 times more money than Lagos State from the federal allocation. That's a recent development. Don't compare it with 20 years ago.
"I know that Rivers State collets more money than the entire North Eastern part of Nigeria, today. I know that Akwa Ibom State collects more money than the entire North Western part of Nigeria today. I know that Bayelsa State collets more money than the entire North Central states of Nigeria. Nigerian budget this year was around N3trillion. However, by the time you add the budget of the Niger Delta states alone, it is over N1.5trillion.
"There are, may be over 140 to 150 million people in Nigeria, but the Niger Delta has about 17 million; the remaining 130 million is outside the Niger Delta. Those are the facts that 10 to 20 years from now, people are going to ask me, people are going to ask the governor of Bayelsa, people are going to ask all of us here that what we did when these facts were being put on the table.
"Now, we have an opportunity. With these funds there must be a difference because the people of the Niger Delta would begin to ask questions of their leaders on how these monies were spent. We may have excuses in the past that we were unfair to the Niger Delta. But those are no longer excuses today. Because we will ask you, when they ask me, I'll say go and ask them, they were the ones. What did they do with that money? Nobody is going to come from Abeokuta to tell you what you should do with your money in the creeks. If anybody is telling you that, he's lying. You should ask yourselves about how your money was spent," the Speaker emphasised.
He also said oil will not solve the Nigerian problem or even that of the Niger Delta, but only the creation of the middle class through mass employment. "My own is this, there is no solution to the Nigerian issue, Niger Delta or otherwise in oil. Oil will not produce the solution. It's very simple. The technology involved in the development of oil cannot employ Nigerians. If it cannot employ Nigerians, it cannot solve the Nigerian problem.
"The only technology that oil has in common is drilling and that is water, drilling water. We cannot compare any other development strategy. Therefore, our continued dependence on developing technology in the oil sector will not solve the collective problems of not only the Niger Delta, but Nigeria as a whole. So, let's just forget it. It's not going to work, it has never worked anywhere in the world.
"However, to solve our problems is the creation of the middle class, the creation of employment, mass employment and if the North does not take the initiative, nobody is going anywhere in this country. Our dear fathers, emirs, governors, presidents of northern extraction, 80 per cent of our arable land are not cultivated. And if you cannot cultivate, you cannot process, and if we cannot process, we cannot get anywhere.
"So, the solution has to be with the performance of governance as far as I'm concerned in the largest and most populous African country with its major population of northern extraction, it has to be done. It's not a hundred meter race, it's a long distance race. It's not a one year or two year thing, it's a long way and you've done it before. You did it 50 years ago, you can advise us on how to do it. All I've said is my opinion which may be wrong, but I doubt if it's too far from the truth," he said with thunderous applauses from the audience-packed full hall.
Meanwhile the one-day summit, which also had in attendance some ex-militants leaders like General Boyloaf ended with lots of paper presentation from knowledgeable speakers, and what is left is for all the talks to simply be translated into concrete and focus development for the Niger Delta so as to completely say goodbye to the dark days of resorting to militancy as a means of addressing any perceives wrong.
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