Last Saturday, President Umaru Yar'Adua reportedly met and dialogued with persons nominated by the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) to negotiate on its behalf towards working out a lasting peace in the Niger Delta region.

The team of negotiators, code-named 'Aaron Team' by MEND, consisted of former Chief of General Staff, Vice Admiral Mike Akhigbe (rtd), Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka and Major General Luke Kakadu Aprezi (rtd).

Messrs. Henry Okah, Farah Dagogo and Amange Denzel Kentebe attended the meeting as observers.

Instructively, the meeting was coming in contradiction to the earlier position expressed by Minister of Defence and chairman of the Presidential Panel on Amnesty and Disarmament of Militants, Major General Godwin Abbe, when he insisted that the federal government would have nothing to do with the 'Aaron Team', who he said, lacked the competence to speak for the militants.

It would be recalled that MEND had two months ago, named the 'Aaron Team', which it said would dialogue on its behalf towards an acceptable disarmament of its fighters.

In a statement by its spokesman, Jomo Gbomo, the militant group said, "Some eminent Nigerians have graciously accepted to dialogue on behalf of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) with the Federal Government whenever the government realises the need to adopt serious, meaningful dialogue as a means to halting the violent agitation in the Niger Delta.

"The Nigerian government so far has not shown any willingness to dialogue, preferring instead to make wild unrealistic threats, purchase more useless military hardware and dole out bribes to traitors to our noble cause as has been obvious in its so-called disarmament process.

"These eminent persons will be known as the Aaron Team and have our mandate to oversee a transparent and proper MEND disarmament process that conforms with international standards as the current disarmament process is flawed and lacks integrity."

Saturday's closed-door meeting with MEND negotiators at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa may have opened a new chapter in the ongoing process to arrest the unending crisis in the Niger Delta region. This is more so given that MEND has on its part described the parley as auspicious.

"The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) can confirm that a formal first meeting between the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the MEND Aaron Team took place on Saturday, November 14, 2009 in Abuja, Nigeria.

"The parley, which lasted for over two hours, was frank, cordial and useful," the group said in a statement.

Similarly, Kentebe described the proceedings of the meeting as showing that President Yar'Adua is sincere and determined to bring about lasting peace in the Niger Delta.

Significantly, the public interest, which the Yar'Adua-MEND parley has provoked, may not have been unexpected considering that the militant group has over time been at the centre of violent agitations in the region.

Arguably, more than any other, the group had exhibited remarkable strength, outspokenness and tenacity, which have given it a dominating presence in the region in recent time.

This situation has remained so pronounced that the group, at a point, arguably represented the face of violent agitation ravaging the oil-rich region.

Secondly, among the militant groups operating in the Niger Delta region, MEND has been the most vocal in the antagonisms that trailed the unveiling of the amnesty programme of the Federal Government. In fact, while some among its ranks and files have embraced the programme, others have not only acted otherwise, but have remained in the creeks, talking tough and keeping the flag of the group flying high.

Consequently, the government's decision to now engage MEND in dialogue, contrary to its earlier position that no such opportunity would be available after the expiration of the amnesty programme, comes as another significant gesture in the implementation of the Yar'Adua's peace package in the region.

According to Chief Fred Ibu of the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC), the federal government's gesture is most welcome as it holds good promise of achieving the desired peace in the region.

"No doubt dialogue has remained the preferred option in approaching the Niger Delta crisis. For one, force has proved costly and ineffective as violence begets violence. For the other, it will be morally very wrong to use force against the very people that have suffered injustice in the hands of the nation over all these years.

"So we need dialogue as our ultimate panacea to the problem, and the government's recent meeting with the MEND's team should be seen as one wise move to make the dialogue all-inclusive. Dialogue, by its very nature and goal, must wear such character, without which it is ab initio worthless.

"Therefore, I align myself with the decision of President Yar'Adua to take the bold step of extending a hand of fellowship to MEND. It is one very promising way of addressing the very complex problem in this region," he said.

Similarly, Chris Alagara, lawyer and member, Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP), hailed the move by the federal government, saying the issue is not about who is wrong or right, but the important thing is that the government has acted maturely to ensure that sheer pride does not rob the nation of an opportunity to bring an age-long problem to an end.

His words: "By accepting to dialogue with MEND, the Yar'Adua government has averted what could have been a serious loss to the nation as brought about by sheer ego. You will recall that the government had earlier insisted that the end of the amnesty period would foreclose any further negotiation with the militants, and one would easily predict that in order to save its honour, it would rather stand on that much publicized position and not wanting to be seen as being weak or compromising.

"But contrarily, the government has opted to still hold out the olive branch despite its earlier position. It is a commendable move and it shows a sign of maturity and humility. It is important that the government has acted the way it did without allowing itself to be distracted by the question of who is right and who is wrong and who should bow to each other and who should not. I think this is a good sign that there is a serious determination to get everything right after a long time of hesitation."

Alagara said the only thing required is consistency on the chosen "path of dialogue so as to consolidate the already achieved results as well as realize further objectives."

He however, cautioned against what he termed "tendency towards mere palliatives" as against pursuing a permanent solution, saying such would only take the nation back to square one.

"The key factor that has repeatedly punctured previous attempts at achieving peace in the Niger Delta is that such attempts have invariably failed to address the problem from the holistic perspective of pursuing a total sustainable development of the area. Such holistic solution will forever remove the need for strife in the region because anybody choosing to perpetrate violence when such ambitious developmental effort is visibly ongoing will only be on his own," he said.

But contributing, Chief Laz Uzomah, Lagos-based lawyer, said while the effort at dialoguing with MEND is welcome, such gesture will only be meaningful if it is extended to other agitating interests in the country without waiting until they resort to violence and hostage taking like MEND.

He said it is the failure of the government to pay reasonable attention to the grievances of a group like MEND that has brought the nation to the current stage where violence has become the "ideal tool" for expressing discontent.

He said, "I welcome this development, but my fear is that it may yet be another expression of our dangerous culture of listening to genuine agitation only when the agitating interests have adopted the unhealthy approach of using violence.

"As it is today, the government should, as mater of urgency, begin to engage other interests in the country in constructive dialogue without waiting until they become restive as MEND.

"The Igbo for instance has been crying against marginalization, so also some other groups in the country. These cries may be genuine or may not be, but the bottom line is that none of them deserves to be ignored. Proper attention should be given to each as a matter of principle and proactive approach to national problems.

"It is only through such that we can consolidate on whatever gain that is likely to come from the federal government's ongoing dialogue with MEND. This is because while MEND's agitation may be resolved today, that of another group may only be waiting for the appropriate time to begin to manifest and then we are back to where we started, declaring amnesty and seeking dialogues.

"So, by choosing to talk with MEND, the government has acted wisely, but still, will act more wisely if it follows it up in regards to other agitating interests in the country."

Alagara who reasoned in similar manner, observed that MEND represents only one out of the several interests to be dialogued with in the effort to bring peace to the Niger Delta region. He said the government of Yar'Adua should equally engage other identifiable interests whose understanding and cooperation will be required to achieve success in the region.

His words: "There are many other interests to dialogue with in the efforts to fix the Niger Delta problem. MEND is just one out of the many agitating groups. And mind you, it is an Ijaw group when we are talking of the existence of tens of ethnic groups in most of the Niger Delta States.

"Besides, other interests who are not necessarily militant in nature do also have some issues to thrash out with the authorities. The government should also try to engage them in a creative way. Although each of these groups is fighting the same course and has common objectives, the need for all-inclusive engagement cannot be overemphasized as everybody needs to have that sense of belonging in order to cooperate fully with others."

Alagara identified MOSOP as one of such groups, which should not be ignored. He said each of the several groups and interests agitating in the region, by the virtue of its peculiar experience, has something to contribute to the ongoing healing process as distinct from what the other may have.

"There are various groups agitating in the region. Basically, all are asking for one thing, which is economic justice. But given the peculiar experience of each of these interests, there will necessarily be some variations in the stories which each one has to tell and in the contribution that each has to make.

"This underscores the need for all to be heard. MEND is one of the interest groups agitating and it has its own side of the story to tell, it has its own contributions to make. The same thing applies to MOSOP and other groups.

"So the situation we have on our hands, as delicate as it is, calls for such wide and exhaustive consultation to make the targeted success more probable," he said.