We keep receiving conflicting and confusing information about the Niger Delta Avengers, NDA, the militant group that has been waging war on the Nigerian Government and inflicting huge losses on the oil industry for the past few months. One minute, we are told that the NDA and the authorities are ready to get together and negotiate.
The next minute, we are told that the NDA does not trust the authorities one inch and has no intention of entering into any dialogue. Last Sunday, the NDA issued the following statement to Niger Delta Elders, who had been talking to the authorities and pleading with NDA to pursue peace: “…We hope it is clear to you our Elders that the Buhari-led government is unreliable, unreasonable and irresponsible.
Can you tell the world the government official you have been dialoguing with? Is it the President? Or is there any committee that is set up [to handle a dialogue process]? “We respect you our elders.
As such, stop behaving as if the Niger Delta is a seized region. Stop acting like you are begging the government for a dialogue…”. The NDA also declared that it was not afraid of the security agencies and was up to the task of defeating them, adding that: “Since we started the struggle, none of our operatives has been arrested.
All those in detention in the name of NDA are not part of NDA…We don’t know them or have any connection with them.” But three days later, we were told, in a statement signed by a new name, someone called Ballantyne Agiri, that the NDA had heeded “clarion calls” from eminent Nigerians and the international community and had formed a dialogue group to engage the Federal Government in meaningful dialogue…with a view to achieving lasting peace, equity, justice and harmony among all ethnic nationalities.
Agiri’s statement also said that the authorities should “be ready for structural changes that should be human and development-oriented.” However, within 24 hours, NDA’s regular spokesman – Aginibo Mudoch – issued yet another statement in which Agiri was mocked as an imposter, roundly disowned and accused of attempting to deceive the public and the authorities.
We were then told that the NDA’s bellicose stance hasn’t changed and that it is committed to declaring Independence –that is, to the establishment of a Niger Delta Republic – by October 1, if the Government does not restructure the country. The NDA has also just said that it prays that commercially viable oil deposits are discovered in the North, so that Buhari can allow the Niger Delta to leave Nigeria.
Is the NDA splintering into factions? Is Agiri a disgruntled member who genuinely wants hostilities to cease or a fake with a dubious agenda who has never been an NDA member? I have no idea.
All I know is that the status quo is an unholy mess. A South-South stakeholders meeting is supposed to be taking place in Warri in Delta State today Friday August l9.
The Senior Statesman and renowned Ijaw leader, Chief Edwin Clark, says that this meeting has been arranged to forge a way forward and correct the widespread but erroneous impression that the region’s problem is an Ijaw-only problem. Speaking to journalists, Clark, appealed to the NDA – and aggrieved youths in general – to give peace a chance…and urged the government to be open and sincere.
Clark then quite rightly added that: “The underdevelopment and marginalisation of the region cannot be resolved with bombing and vandalisation of oil facilities.” I recently bumped into a traditional ruler from the Niger Delta and when I requested his opinion about the NDA crisis, he sighed and said that he very much doubts that any serious progress will be made on this front anytime soon… …unless Mr President personally takes charge of the proposed dialogue…as opposed to delegating this highly sensitive responsibility to representatives who may mean well and be competent, but aren’t likely to possess sufficient clout to tame anyone.
I totally agree with His Royal Majesty because we are in the middle of a catastrophe that can, if you ask me, only be resolved at the highest level. HUNGER! I have been told that things are so bad in the Niger Delta at the moment that when armed robbers or kidnappers enter a residence, the first thing they do is go to the kitchen to eat; and when they are leaving with stolen items or abductees, they also go with any food they were not able to consume on the spot.
There is hunger in the land and hunger makes people desperate and desperate people do bad things and the government really needs to get its act together! There are no easy solutions.
And I don’t envy President Buhari because his job is an extremely difficult one. But he promised change; and the sooner he delivers, the better. Something MUST be done to deal with crime and the causes of crime.
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