For Peace In South-East, South-South

By Wale Sokunbi

Nigeria has, for some weeks now, been reeling under protests by Niger Delta militants and pro-Biafra groups demanding self-determination and a number of other things from the Federal Government. Hardly any day has passed in recent weeks without gory reports on the bombings of oil pipelines, destruction of other critical oil facilities and killings of protesters, that are capable of distracting the government from the very serious challenges confronting the nation.

(*pix: vanguard)

With the incessant protests and destruction of oil facilities, the impression that is being created is that some of our compatriots are tired of the continuing existence of Nigeria as one country and would prefer to opt out of the Nigerian arrangement. The response of the security agencies to this unfortunate scenario is only succeeding in further hardening the agitators. Scores of protesters were reportedly killed by soldiers in Onitsha, Anambra State, during the celebration of the 49th anniversary of the declaration of the Republic of Biafra by the late Chief Odumegwu Ojukwu, on May 30, while the military also laid siege to the Gbaramatu hometown of one of the leading Niger Delta militants. The government’s response to this situation has not stopped the Niger Delta militants from continuing with their bombing campaigns and threatening the Federal Government and the entire country.

Whatever the problem is, one thing that is clear is that the best way for the militants to achieve their objectives is not by destroying whatever is left of the country. They will do much better to channel their grievances against the state through their recognised leaders and National Assembly members to the appropriate quarters so that they can be addressed and resolved.  The problems that are currently blowing against the soul of Nigeria are such that can topple the nation’s ship of state, if not immediately and properly addressed.  As things stand, the nation’s economy is walking a tightrope on account of the fall in the price of crude oil in the international market.

The delay in the passage of the 2016 Budget has thrown the economy into a bind. Power supply is getting more epileptic, while inflation has gone through the roof. The pump price of petrol has almost doubled.

Buhari And The Niger Delta

By Ken Agala

On Thursday morning news broke that President Buhari had cancelled his trip to Ogoni due to threat to his life from the Niger Delta Avengers. This is a very wrong move as the President must have handed over the required impetus to the militants and thereby emboldened them.

*Buhari

Even Jonathan’s ‘chickening out’ of going to Chibok at the peak of the Boko Haram insurgency, is less of a ‘Chickening out’ than this. But I know a President can’t move against his security report and I wrote about this when Jonathan was called names for cancelling his Chibok trip.

While Nigerians were shocked to read a report that our oil production has gone down from the agonizing 1.4 million barrels to 1.1, a few days ago the Avengers bombed three more crude oil wells even when the military carried out an invasion of Gbaramatu kingdom and other Niger Delta communities.

With the Presidents action, the Niger Delta Avengers have received credible endorsement as a group to be respected and I believe many conscripts will begin looking for how to join them .

Frankly speaking it is despicable to be talking about cleaning up some Niger Delta communities while more environmental degradation is strategically perpetrated by Niger Deltans.

But there is a law called The Law of cause and effect. Every effect is the result of a cause and every cause must have an effect

When President Buhari in his brutally frank manner told his US audience last year that he can’t in all honesty treat regions that gave him 95% votes equally to those who gave him 5%, I expected that his party men from these 5% regions would have openly protested and forced him to withdraw the statement. That statement was very wrong from a President who has a mandate to treat everyone equally.

I expected Mr. Presidents media team to tactically twist that statement in way that it’d give some form of confidence to people from the 5% region but they rather coined the name ‘wailers’ for these 5 percenters .