RE: AMNESTY: LIKE NIGER DELTA MILITANCY, LIKE BOKO HARAM

Earlier on, a friend had posted this to me and noted some points and I need you guys to read through this very carefully and then see what some of us have been saying for a very long time now.

I fought hard to ignore writing a response but eventually conceded. I thought it was necessary to reply this article written by Thephilus Abbah and Shehu Abubakar who obviously are contributors or journalists for a Northern Nigeria based newspaper, Daily Trust.

This article, from these two Daily Trust journalists or so, will show you what Boko Haram is really all about and why there has been no real resolve from stakeholders in the North to contain it.

Rather than rise up and challenge the Boko Haram menace, they stand up to make excuses for the bandit infidels called Boko Haram. What the writers of this article have done for us, is show us what Boko haram is all about and why Boko Haram is still there.

Did you guys see the roll-call of the members of the Northern Elders Forum who visited Bayero recently and spent a bit of time talking nonsense? Ango Abdullahi, Former Army Chief Dambazzau etc etc.

Have any of their families been so murderously attacked by Boko Haram elements? Would they demand for amnesty for Boko Haram if they were at the receiving end like the many Christian families that have suffered that pain and misery at the expense of the Islamic extremist?

When the Maitatsine riots started in the 1980s, was an amnesty granted to the Islamic fanatics and extremists who started it?

Anyway, the writers of the article wrote about General Sarkin Yarkin Bello and the JTF attack on Camp 5. They wrote about the various things the JTF picked up from Camp 5. They wrote about a cybercafe in Camp 5. They wrote about rosters and duty schedules in Camp 5.

Yet, possibly as a result of stunted reasoning, they refused to mention that Camp 5 has also been the venue to many meetings of key agitating groups with negotiating teams of Ijaw Elders, Niger Delta Stakeholders and many other groups.

They did not even mention that the Vice President at the time, Dr Goodluck Jonathan, much to the shock and consternation of many, had stubbornly visited Camp 5 and had face-to-face discussions with the leaders of key militant camps and asked them to drop their arms and discuss with government on what they felt needed to be done to heal the Niger Delta of the years of exploitation, despoliation, environmental degradation, neglect and marginalisation.

For decades since oil was discovered in the Niger Delta, billions of dollars of oil revenue have been harvested from its lands while the region continues to be desolate as forsaken. There are many who cannot understand why the region that lays the golden eggs continues to remain so forsaken.

So the demands of the various agitating elements in the Niger Delta was simple. Some wanted to control their resources directly. Some others felt a secession from the Nigerian state would help heal the wounds better. Others felt that the whole discussion boiled down to ending the years of neglect that had been meted on the Niger Delta region.

The leaders of the various militant groups were known and were regularly communicated with. Up until today, the demands of these groups can be googled up on the internet and researched upon. They demanded for infrastructure development in the Niger Delta. They demanded for a right to control the billions of dollars of oil and gas resources that came out from their land. They demanded for reparations for the destruction of the land, air, waters and lives.

Little wonder the likes of Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka and other Nobel laureates took it upon themselves to visit the Niger Delta see things for themselves. They finished their expedition in shock. Many of them did not even know that the condition of the people in the Niger Delta was that bad.

Those who compare the agitation in the Niger Delta today to the savage antics of dementia-driven religious extremist groups like Boko Haram should be made to undergo compulsory mental therapy.

A group of perverted religious extremists have been going around bombing Christian churches, Police Stations and military facilities. They have killed tens of thousands of innocent christian men, women and children. They have gruesomely murdered many others in frighteningly unbelievable situations.

And yet all we can get today from these bunch of northern elements, elders or not, is GIVE THEM AMNESTY. God help them.

Late President Yar'Adua gave amnesty to Niger Delta militants because he understood that they had a cause. He knew that they wanted development in their lands. He knew that the Nigerian state had not been fair to the people of the Niger Delta. He knew that all stakeholders need to be talked to. He knew that most of them had expressed a desire to come to the table and negotiate on the future of the Niger Delta.

He knew that the Governors of the various states of the Niger Delta had been talking to them. He knew that key officials of his government had been talking to them. He knew that elders of the Niger Delta had been talking to them. He knew that they were real and their demands were not unrealistic.

The leaders of the Niger Delta struggle were real. Their demands were real. Their agitation was real.

It was in this light that the key drivers of the Niger Delta struggle were given amnesty so that they could be a critical part of the process to heal the Niger Delta of the years of deprivation that had been meted out on it and its people.

To equate the activity of Niger Delta agitators and Boko Haram's murderous onslaughts against innocent christian men, women and children represents the height of despicable wickedness, insensitivity and treachery on the part of those who have chosen the path of making such comparison.

I pray that their families will never have to go through the anguish that the savage Boko Haram elements have put other families through.

What Nigeria needs now is a total boosting up of our security processes to ensure that all citizens are adequately protected from the workers of iniquity, crime and criminals.

The state must strengthen its capacity to contain crime, catch lawbreakers and punish them sufficiently.

Giving amnesty to a group as savagely barbarian as Boko Haram is another way of accepting that the security process of the Federal Republic of Nigeria has failed.

Those who have committed such grave wickedness against fellow human beings and have brought so much sorrow to so many families must not be allowed to go unpunished. They must face the law.

If amnesty must be given, it should be given to those who work with government to arrest the sponsors, drivers and soldiers of the worst thing that has happened to Nigeria in a long time - Boko Haram.

Time will tell.
Written By George Kerley