Niger Delta Militants Spoil For Fresh Attack
Piqued by protests in the northern part of Nigeria over the emergence of Goodluck Jonathan as the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for this coming April polls, unrepentant militants of the Niger Delta, are bracing for a fresh ''Oil War'' . The Spokesperson for the Joint Revolutionary Council (JRC), Cynthia Whyte, said in an on-line interview on Friday that their arms struggle is still on course.
Excerpts:
On President Jonathan's emergence on the platform of the PDP JRC: Goodluck Jonathan is President of the Nigerian State . His emergence is of not much concern to us. What matters most to us is what he is able to do for the long suffering people of the Niger Delta. The people of the Niger Delta have long suffered injustice in the hands of the Nigerian state. This is even more evident in the recently witnessed political activities in the country.
In spite of the sacrifice that the Niger Delta and its people have made for all of the Nigerian state, we still saw how a gang of self centered politicians from the North worked together to plot the down fall of Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, a son of the Niger Delta.
They worked to undermine him. They fought to disgrace him. They schemed to malign him. They refused to even consider for a minute that he comes from a region whose resources they have leeched on for decades.
It was painful watching the unfolding reality. These people have no regard whatsoever for the people of the Niger Delta! No respect for our sacrifices towards the sustenance of the Nigerian state. Really shameful!
Q)Some Northern leaders are still hell-bent on sticking to zoning.
JRC: The energy with which those bands of Northern leaders have stuck to zoning should be a wake-up call to all leaders of the Ijaw and Niger Delta territory who have forsaken the fullness of the pursuit of resource control for the people of the Niger Delta.
We are now witnesses to what the North would have done if the oil was in their land. They would have fought to keep their oil and their resources, detonated bombs in populated areas and massacred Southerners in areas with heavy southern people concentration.
If only the youths and elders of the Niger Delta will stick to and then intensify their clamour for resource control, then it would be a worthy match for the Northern clamour for zoning in spite of the fact that the emergence of Goodluck Jonathan was a product of circumstances.
Atiku Abubakar has made hundreds of millions of dollars from the Niger Delta. Together with his principals in the years before, they coerced oil companies to patronize their companies. They amassed unbelievable wealth right in the heart of the Niger Delta while the people of the Niger Delta sat and watched likes slaves and fools.
Today, one of Atiku Abubakar's concern, INTELS is one of the richest companies in West Africa having fleeced oil companies and created a near monopoly in oil and gas logistics.
Today, this same Atiku is now using the wealth he has amassed from the Niger Delta to undermine Jonathan a son of the Niger Delta. Funny, isn't it?
How many Niger Deltans are as rich as Atiku? How many Niger Deltans are as rich as TY Danjuma? How come Niger Deltans have not been able to harness their own oil and gas resources like the likes of Atiku and Danjuma?
What is it that makes it possible for Atiku and Danjuma to have reaped billions of dollars from the Niger Delta and its resources yet the owners of the land still wallow in squalor?
It is up to Jonathan to do the right thing for the Niger Delta.
People like Orubebe and Diezani should begin to focus and do the right thing rather than being carried away by the instruments of office.
Demonstrations in Northern cities
JRC: It is really shameful. Monies derived from the sale of crude oil obtained from Goodluck Jonathan's home state has over time been used to build infrastructures like roads, bridges, airports in those same Northern cities and yet those people are being sponsored to demonstrate against the emergence of Jonathan. How does that sound to you? Where is the respect for our people and the sacrifice they have borne for this country?
Did the people of the Niger Delta demonstrate when Buhari, IBB and Abacha took over government and looted this country to penury?
Did the people of the Niger Delta take to the streets when the likes of IBB, Yar'Adua and Abacha shared out oil blocks and oil lifting rights amongst themselves?
Come to think of it, those states where the civil unrests are higher were the states that Major Gideon Gwarza Orkar wanted to excise from the Nigerian state.
The demonstrations in those states are capable of inciting the people of the Niger Delta. The next few days will tell.
Our struggle is on course
By Sampsom Akanimo