AMNESTY package to gulp over fifty billion Naira! That was the headline in one of Nigeria's newspapers recently. So I told myself, we have done it again. Yes we have done it again!! I cry for my beloved country. The President just created the Niger Delta Ministry with a budget and Ufot Ekaete and co are still finding their feet in the creeks. A Niger Delta Technical Committee was earlier set up headed by Mittee. God knows how much was spent before they submitted their findings and recommendations that are yet to be implemented or being implemented in piece meal as convenient. Different states in the region have set aside different amounts for rehabilitating warring youths from their budgets and the list goes on and on.

What are all these trying to achieve - To provide a peaceful environment for the Federal Government and the oil companies to gain from the exploration, extraction and exploitation of oil and gas! The Federal Government's fortune is going down! Yes that is the reason. No more, no less. And who is aiding and abetting it? We Nigerians from North to South! Even in the face of all this, a certain group of Nigerians are benefiting from the organised chaos. As Bodie Thoene rightly said in his Warsaw Requiem, it is true that what is right is often forgotten by what is convenient. It appears that it is more convenient for us Nigerians to appropriate funds the way we like as this is the easy way to enrich ourselves.

Why are we running around like headless chickens? Why are we confused about what to do to bring peace? A total of (N50 billion) fifty billion Naira has been proposed by the Presidential Panel on Amnesty and Disarmament of Militants in the Niger Delta to make peace in the Niger Delta region. But wait a minute! Why was the Niger Delta Ministry created? What is the role of the NDDC? Before the creation of the Niger Delta Ministry, some of us suggested that there was no need to create a Ministry but have a Presidential committee for the rapid development of the region and handling the burning issues which should bring about peace. A rapid development by a presidential fiat would assuage the so-called militants. Because once they are involved they are not likely to carry arms. However, nobody cared to listen or people chose what is convenient. So who is advising our President? Because I know he has not visited the area to see things for himself. It is even in the news that he has shelved a visit to Bayelsa. The reason for this can only be known by him no matter what any body says. We all know that the cartel behind the Niger Delta problem will do everything to ensure more money is spent carrying out meaningless and unproductive ventures to their benefit. How long shall we continue to punish ourselves? I hope the President remembers that time is not his best friend.

Our problem is within us. As Victor Hugo said "Have no fear of robbers or murderers. They are external dangers, petty dangers. We should fear ourselves. Prejudices are the real robbers; vices the real murders. The great dangers are within us. Why worry about what threatens our heads or purses? Let us think instead of what threatens our souls". We are our own enemies. The real enemy of the Niger Delta and Nigeria is the cartel that is always looking for new ways to siphon Nigeria's wealth for their personal benefit.

So now that another way to appropriate money has been advised, let us ask ourselves what is the budget for the Niger Delta Ministry and the NDDC will be used for? This problem is a national issue though most manifest in the Niger Delta. It is therefore pertinent to ask how much is being spent in Rivers, Delta, Bayelsa, Edo, Cross Rivers and Akwa Ibom to rehabilitate militants. How many militants have been rehabilitated in these states so far? Are the militants already rehabilitated on a list? How are the various states working together for this single task of disarmament and rehabilitation?

When the issue of Niger Delta became an electoral thing, we came up with the idea of a Ministry. Why have we not thought about a Ministry for Disarmament and Amnesty since? I think we should create a Ministry for this? After all, is this not what we have always done? I believe there are enough justification for a Ministry my fellow country men. Yes a Ministry of Disarmament, Amnesty and Rehabilitation. Come to think of it, there are arms every where in the country from the North to the South. During the various riots that have taken place in the country at different times, arms have been used indiscriminately. It is true that those arms used did not cripple oil production leading to loss of income for the country but people used arms and they destroyed lives and properties and they still have them. I am therefore of the opinion that disarming militant youths and giving amnesty should be extended to all parts of the country. This is why a Presidential committee is not enough. We need a Ministry! We need offices of the Ministry in each state. The presidential panel's recommended concept is the return of arms for full rehabilitation and freedom from prosecution. I understand part of the panel's recommendation also is that Governors should compile the least of those that will embrace this golden opportunity. I thought this has already been started in some states? However, do we not think that this will concretize the opportunity for some of them also to have their boys in preparation for 2011? We all know that was how the whole thing started back in 1999.

The amount of money budgeted for the exercise can be a take-off grant for the Ministry of disarmament, amnesty and rehabilitation. We can hire a secretariat for the Ministry from one of the houses owned by top politicians which they have built with stolen funds. We can start the lobbying for who is going to be the Minister. May be then the state with the largest cache of arms will own up as the Minister will come from there. Even if the elders of the state refuse to own up, I am sure a youth group who knows their armour capacity will write a petition to the presidency to justify why their person should be the Minister highlighting the number of AK47s and GPMGs they have. There may even be groups like the militants that will give reasons why one of their leaders should be made the Minister. After all they are they ones who know where the arms are and the quantity. This is our country Nigeria. This may therefore be the best form of disarmament.

Part of the presidential panel's suggestion is that the publicity will be done at the community level and national medium will be included because it is important that all Nigerians are aware of the amnesty policy, appreciate the message of peace, and collectively participate in the peace process. Where is the Nigerian National Orientation Agency? Do they still exist? Are they still funded? Will part of the 50 billion Naira be given to them as part of their funding? For so long in the country, we have talked about primary health care at the community level which involves publicity at the community level and up till today, we have not gone close to what we want to do. We know that many communities also procure arms to defend themselves when there is ethnic feud. I therefore hope we succeed with publicization or rebranding this time with disarmament and amnesty. 

Blaise Pascal (1670) once said "The strength of a man's virtue should not be measured by his special exertions, but by his habitual acts". Let us as a country have a way of doing things that will positively impact our lives now and in the next generation by stopping fire brigade approach to issues. We have done so many things for convenience rather than them being right.

Robot  # 1 | 02.07.2009 11:49

AMNESTY package to gulp over fifty billion Naira! That was the headline in one of Nigeria's newspapers recently. So I told myself, we have done it again. Yes we have done it again!! I cry for my beloved country. The President just created the Niger Delta Ministry with a budget and Ufot Ekaete and co are still finding their feet in the creeks. A Niger Delta Technical Committee was earlier set up headed by Mittee....Read the full article.

NWANZA  # 2 | 02.07.2009 12:30

=Robot;368557>AMNESTY package to gulp over fifty billion Naira! That was the headline in one of Nigeria's newspapers recently. So I told myself, we have done it again. Yes we have done it again!! I cry for my beloved country. The President just created the Niger Delta Ministry with a budget and Ufot Ekaete and co are still finding their feet in the creeks. A Niger Delta Technical Committee was earlier set up headed by Mittee....Read the full article. Why not have the minister of defence do the job? This money will disappear & the ministry disolve before Nigerians wake up the next day.

Silent 1  # 3 | 02.07.2009 19:09

This amnesty stuff is either a Nigerian-scale hoax, fraud or simply ill-conceived and ill-timed. Amnesties are not offered as appeals to the concsience, or to reason, rather they are dated appeals to self-interest (maybe mutual) -- a honorable leeway from certain destruction or/and to minimize physical and psychological damage; they are offered in the face of grim realities. What realities do these "militants" face? They are not militarily pressed; not ideologically challenged; not economically pressed........ not pressed in anyway that I can see. Just why should they abandon the robost lives they are living and accept an amnesty? I used "militants" instead of militants because those "militants", I figure, are mostly criminals (whose only cause is the pocket). Where in history, where in the world, has amnesty worked with criminals? It wont work here, and I can't cure the sickening feeling that the goverment knows it wont!