The amnesty programme of late President Umaru Yar'Adua, which was energized by the present administration, has only achieved a temporary relief for the nation as the core issues that gave rise to militant agitations in the Niger Delta are still unresolved.
Underdevelopment, lack of infrastructural facilities, unavailability of social amenities, unemployment and deficient manpower profile, environmental degradation, etc, are some of the issues that triggered off the violent struggle in the Niger Delta. For now the oil has continued to flow without the activities of militants although the question of oil theft has equally proved more economically lethal. In all these sad events, the search for better conditions of living by the people of the region has remained at the forefront.
Nothing has proved to the federal government and those who hate to hear about better living for the Niger Delta people what peace can do to an economy. It has often been said by analysts and admitted by those saddled with the task of upping power availability in Nigeria to 6000mw that without gas which comes from the troubled Niger Delta, the target in power supply would never be met soon. Now, if peace can come to the oil region, if gas can flow, if oil export can resume, if the economy can bounce back to earn huge revenue from selling about 2mbpd and above, if Nigeria can edge out Angola as number in oil in Africa, would the FG and Nigeria not be on the course of economic recovery?
For now, everyone seems to be carried away by the noise of amnesty and the temporary peace it offers. Instead, the governors and their opponents are busy profiteering from the oil earnings. The governors of the region seem to have abandoned the credible part they towed when they did not understand what the amnesty package meant to the people.
The amnesty period is almost over but no one in the region seems to understand what happens next. Will there be resumption of hostilities? Would the FG not utilize this window to announce what it intends to do next? Why won't the FG begin a heavy mobilization of all the influential leaders in the region to arrive at a consensus of opinion on what should happen to Nigeria and oil henceforth?
The key militant groups still holding out have made it clear that they do so for want of a clear agenda to address the real issues that caused the agitation in the first place. Even if they are accused of ulterior and selfish motives, they still have a point strong enough to form a rallying point after the amnesty period.
Now, what is hollow in the entire scheme and which was the great expectation was the need to announce that the FG acknowledges that injustice led to the violent agitations and what the FG would do to resolve the crisis in the first place. The amnesty, to reasonable humans, merely offered a ceasefire kind of window in a no-victor-no-vanquished style. This would have given the FG the opportunity to pursue the peace by announcing activities, post-amnesty, that would lead to a kind of consultation/summit, conference that would finally or seriously put the issues to rest. Such issues as the split-of-the-barrel would have come up, even if fiscal federalism is not squarely addressed. What this would mean is to say: look, for every barrel of oil drilled, the owners of the land/community would get 'xyz' percent, the local council would get this, and the state would get that. The implication would be that each time, henceforth, that oil is spilled or pipelines sabotaged, the community, LGA and state where the loss is suffered would lose their share.
The FG could say, this agreement would begin by say, January 2014, but that revenue earned above 1.5mbpd between October 2009 and December 2013 would be used to execute massive infrastructural development of the region, and that the amounts owed the development agencies such as the NDDC would be released in full within this period.
EMMA OKOH
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