P/Harcourt – Recent killings by Fulani herdsmen and the slow pace of the cleanup of Ogoniland, among other challenges bedeviling the country may have induced another round of threats from the Niger Delta region.
Specifically, the Federal government, from all intent and purposes, may be said to be chewing more than it can contain with barrage of problems; from 21-day ultimatum issued by the Niger Delta militants under the aegis of 21st Century Youths of Niger Delta and Agitators with Conscience, CYNDAC, to stop the nationwide killings by the herders as well as killings by the police in recent times.
Similarly, Ogoni elders have issued a stern petition to the government’s minister of state for petroleum, Dr. Ibe Kachukwu to retrace his steps from the suspected move to sneak oil companies into Ogoni to commence exploration and production of oil even when the cleanup exercise has not taken any significant shape.
Though the militant group was not very specific as to what it would do apart from declaring the Fulani herdsmen ‘enemies’ of the Niger Delta and Nigeria in general, it will be foolhardy on the part of any government to treat such threats, coming from a dare-devil group, like the Niger Delta militants with levity.
The country now boasts of over two million barrels of crude oil production daily which is due to the relative peace in the Niger Delta region in recent years. With the gruesome activities of the Fulani herdsmen and the killing of farmers in the north east and middle belt, food scarcity is likely to be the next enemy of Nigerians in the coming months.
It therefore becomes worrisome should the militants from the oil producing region make good their threat of tampering with the oil flow thereby impacting in the most negative form knowing that the country is still suffering from the relics of recession despite the government’s graphic defense which lacks the needed potency to convince any informed mind.
Stakeholders in the Niger Delta have called on the leadership of the various militant groups in the region to jettison the idea of engaging in a violent approach following the massive killings tactfully orchestrated by Fulani herdsmen mostly in some parts of the Northeast and Middle Belt of the country.
Rather than any act that would worsen the already pathetic and sorrowful development in Nigeria, the militants have been enjoined to carry out a social crusade of encouraging their members and millions of youths in the region to get their permanent voters’ card, PVC, with the aim of voting out any government that is incapable of protecting lives and property of the citizenry.
Speaking on the strength of the recent threat given by the Niger Delta militant group to the federal government to end the spade of bloody killings in the country, the national coordinator of the Niger Delta Coalition Against Violence, NDCAV, Comrade Lekia Christian said though the bloodbath has reached an alarming state, “it still does not call for another round of violent action as a remedy.”
Lekia pleaded with the militants to adopt a civilised approach by encouraging their grades to go for their PVCs even as the general elections fast approach so that they can vent their anger on a potential bad government or leadership with the power of their vote.
He however chided the Federal government, particularly, President Muhammadu Buhari for waiting until the militants have to pose a threat over the killings and the northern Christian association of Nigeria, CAN, which visited him in Abuja recently, to speak out on his determination to rise up to his avowed constitutional responsibility for the protection of lives and property of Nigerians.
Although the president has condemned insinuations that he is supporting killings as handiwork of evil-minded people, the NDCAV leader stated that the President may have given room to Nigerians to insinuate that because he (the President) is a Fulani man, that is why he has developed cold feet to act promptly in bringing the killings in the country to an end.
“May be because the President is a Fulani man, that may explain why he is so reluctant or unwilling to wield the big stick in arresting the carnage in the country. As a commander-in-chief of the entire Armed Forces, how will a sitting President explain the kind of killings going on in the country now when the whole world knows that Nigeria is not at war with any country?
“The President has given so much room for a variety of insinuations by Nigerians. And at this point, anybody is right to insinuate or allege anything. You cannot continue to fight corruption when Nigerians are dying in hundreds almost on daily basis. This is a clear sign of a failed government. A failed country.”
Comrade Lekia warned strictly that Nigeria was sliding into another round of civil war. “The drums of war are beating very loud and clear. We don’t want another civil war. We should learn from the bitter lessons of Rwanda, Sudan, Syria and other countries that are currently undergoing one phase of civil strife or the other.”
He called on the executive arm of government to respect the view of the National Assembly, especially the Senate that the service chiefs should be changed to enhance the effectiveness of securing the lives of Nigerians in any part of the country.
There have been insinuations by both Nigerians and international organisations that the country’s security architecture had compromised its integrity by allegedly aligning with the terrorist groups to unleash mayhem on the citizens of the country in such targeted states like Benue, Taraba, Adamawa, Yobe, Borno and Plateau among other states of the federation.
Barrister Henry Iyalla, spokesman of the Ijaw Youth Council, IYC, was equally miffed by the snail approach government seems to adopt to tackle the killing spree in the country by the herdsmen which in the eye of the CNN anchor person, Christine Amanpour, is a terrorist group by all standards and operations.
Iyalla said that the Federal government can only undermine the threat by the militants to its own peril. “The issue of threat, counter-threat and agitations are not new to this government. First, three years into this administration, the Niger Delta region has nothing concrete to show from this government as a region that provides the wealth of this nation.
“There is no solid effort to alleviate the sufferings of the people of the area. Now, Nigerians particularly Christians are being slaughtered in the north while a government that swore to an oath to protect their lives is folding hands and watching in total despair the killings going on unabated.
“Apart from being Christians, all the people that have been killed are Nigerians. Some of them are Niger Delta people. We cannot continue to allow this carnage of the highest order to continue unchecked. It is painful that the President appears to be indulging in this senseless act by his body language of not willing to go after the killers even when they are known.”
The IYC spokesman appealed to the Federal government not to by any reason undermine the threat posed by the militants. “If they do, Nigeria will go to its knees economically. Today, we produce 2.3 million barrels of oil. If any installation is hit, the story will be too unpalatable to tell especially as we are going into an election year.”
On the petition against the minister of state for petroleum, Dr. Ibe Kachukwu by the elders of Ogoniland to cancel the scheduled meeting with the representatives of the government, he expressed disappointment that rather than concentrate holistically on the cleanup exercise, government was busy signing contracts for the exploration of oil in Ogoni.
Barrister Iyalla said the whole essence of launching the cleanup exercise in June 2, 2016 was all about a political gimmick to extract support from the Ogoni people and whip up sentiment from Nigerians against the previous administrations especially that of former President Goodluck Jonathan who as an indigene of the region could not take a significant step to remedy the heavily polluted Ogoniland and by extension, the Niger Delta environment.
It is not very clear why HYPREP, an agency set up by government to drive the cleanup exercise is yet to have an office in Ogoni where the pilot project is being directed. “They operate in a caravan,” Iyalla said. Besides the paucity of funds, the exercise is not faster than a snail speed. People are already wondering whether the United Nations projection of remedying the land in thirty years would be achieved.
Suspecting that Kachukwu had introduced another template to hoodwink the Ogonis to surreptitiously draw in Oil Companies to commence oil operation, the elders of the Ogoni in the petition signed by Senator Bennett Birabi, Dr Desmond Nbete, Ledum Mitee, former MOSOP President, Baritor L. Kpagih, Prof. Johnson Nna, Chief Monday Abueh and five others, expressed worries that there were moves to resume oil exploration in the area without due consultations.
The elders, under the aegis of Gbo Kabaari Ogoni urged the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo to call the Petroleum Minister to order over the engagement process of personnel for the cleanup process, stating that unwholesome conditions were being introduced in the exercise by the minister.
“The attention of Gbo Kabaari Ogoni, the Elders Forum of the Ogoni People, has been drawn to a so-called “Stakeholder’s Engagement” with Ogoni People with the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (MSPR) slated for the 9th of July 2018.
“The main objective of the meeting, according to the invitation sent to a few selected persons, is the resumption of oil and gas production activities in Ogoni land on the basis of an alleged agreement of an earlier meeting that the resumption of oil and gas activities in Ogoni MUST now be a condition precedent for the much hyped clean-up and remediation of the Ogoni environment under Hydrocarbon Pollution and Remediation Project (HYPREP).
“Gbo Kabaari Ogoni is very saddened and concerned about these developments and wish to reiterate our position that, considering our recent history, the issue of resumption of oil and gas activities in Ogoni is such a sensitive matter that requires a thorough and painstaking engagement process with a far broader stakeholders than the few handpicked persons currently engaged.”
The elders stated that it was wrong for the Federal Government to tie the clean up to resumption of oil and gas exploration in the area, adding that no significant progress has been made in the clean up after about two years of flag off.
“We are further seriously concerned that two years after the much publicised flag-off ceremony for the clean-up of Ogoni land as recommended by the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) by the Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources is now tying the expected commencement of the cleanup and remediation process to resumption of oil and gas activities in our land by his preferred company.
“We are saddened that a Minister in a government avowedly committed to due process and anti-corruption should even contemplate making resumption of oil activities in Ogoni a condition for cleanup of our land, even when no attempt has been made to even engage on or redress the ills of the past.
“We find this clearly insensitive, to say the least, especially at a time that the federal government is revisiting the ills of the past in some other communities with a view to redressing them,” it read further.
Meanwhile, the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP)) may pull out of the rescheduled stakeholders’ meeting slated to take place on 9th July, 2018 at the home of King G.N.K. Gininwa, the Gbenemene of Tai in Ogoniland.
MOSOP said there was no agreement for oil operation to resume simultaneously with the cleanup exercise. “We want to state emphatically that we had no such agreement with the minister.
“We consider the comment on oil resumption in Ogoniland not only as a deliberate ploy to frustrate the focus of our petition to the minister but a mischievous means to delay the process of restoring our polluted environment.
“We note our disapproval and disappointment in this statement as it clearly indicates the dishonesty of government and questions the integrity of the Ibe Kachikwu-led process.
“We recall that the meeting with the minister of state for petroleum, Dr Ibe Kachiwu was sequel to our petition complaining about the constant harassment of the Ogoni people by some oil industry actors notably Robo Michael Limited, and Belema Oil Producing Limited and the threat their actions posed to the life of the president of MOSOP and other key members of the organisation.”
Fegalo Nsuke, spokesman of MOSOP in a statement said that the Abuja meeting was the first they had with the minister, Ibe Kachikwu, and that there was no possibility at all that such decisions could be taken without consultations with the Ogoni people and getting their consent through a congress and a general assembly.
The misrepresentations in the invitation letter are therefore not only “deceitful, they are a deliberate and mischievous attempt to incite the people against the leadership of MOSOP.”
Nsuke concluded that after a thorough assessment of the situation, MOSOP has “decided to dissociate itself from the meeting of July 9, 2018 as the manipulations to favour oil resumption in Ogoniland dents the credibility and integrity of the entire process.”
Agreed that the boiling cauldron is at 360 degrees and the nation appears to sit on edge, what then is the possible palliative for the seeming dark cloud hovering the country’s political space? Again, Barrister Henry Iyalla is of the opinion that the leadership of the Myeti Allah and other such cattle association heads, should be arrested and prosecuted for their role in all the killings in the affected states.
“What is the cost of a cow to the value of human life? If this trend of unholy event continues in this country, then we will not have any option than to support the recent ruling of the court for the National Assembly to commence impeachment proceedings of the President because he has failed in his line of duty.
“You cannot continue to call yourself a President when the people you swore to protect are being killed not by external forces but herders living within the same confines with them and you are out there watching innocent people being slaughtered on daily basis.”
More potent is the position of the spokesman of the pan Niger Delta Elders’ Forum, PANDEF,Chief Anabs Sarah-Igbe who called on the President to as a matter of national concern, declare a state of emergency on the security sector.
He said the security chiefs have no business remaining at the helms of affairs of the security architecture because they have over-lived their service years. To him, the President has no reason retaining these men some of whom ought to have retired home and make way for fresh leaders and ideas to bring their best to the system.
“The security chiefs have over-stayed their service years. The President should show character and the political will and declare a state of emergency in the security sector. On the herdsmen killing, the best way to stop the menace in just one month is to go after their sponsors.
“I can assure you that the moment government shows enough seriousness in stopping the killing in Nigeria, it will start going after the sponsors of these killer gangs. They know them and they also know what to do. It takes a political will. Buhari should give a presidential order for the security forces to go after these sponsors no matter their position in the society.”
Sarah-Igbe however allayed the fears that the militants would go after the destruction of oil installations at the expiration of their 21-day ultimatum. He noted that the condemnation of the widespread killings in the country was not just peculiar to the militants alone.
“PANDEF is not happy with the rate of killing in the country. We have been meeting people and talking to other stakeholders on how to bring this unfortunate development to an end. We believe that human lives must be respected in Nigeria. Government must do everything legitimately possible to stop this killing.
“One thing we should know is that apart from the loss of innocent lives, the situation in the country does not give Nigeria the best of international image. It also destroys even the credibility of the sitting government as we go into an election year. It must stop.”
Read more https://independent.ng/herdsmen-killings-ogoni-militants-on-fgs-jugular/
