ब्लड फॉर OIL

BLOOD FOR OIL

Member of House of Representatives, Ibn NaAllah, has advocated an easy way out of the Niger Delta problem. Simply NaAllah suggested that the more than 20 million people of the Niger Deltans should be sacrifice for the rest of Nigerians to live. I think it is a novel and wonderful idea to put an end to the Niger Delta and its headache. NaAllah deserve a national honour and award for this recommendation. Did not the Bible says that if your hand or any part of your body would hinder you from going to heaven it is better to cut off that hand and enjoy eternal bliss as a one-handed person instead of going to hell with two hands or all parts of your body intact?

A barrel of oil is worth more than the lives of all Niger Delta people put together. I would suggest that the federal government should go all out and hunt for the Niger Delta people everywhere in the world and wherever they are found they should be killed as they pose a threat to world economy and peace. Niger Deltans are dangerous species and should not be allowed to live. You know any violence in the Delta affects oil price therefore the people are security risk not only to Nigeria but the entire world. To show how worthless the lives of the Niger Delta people are, the federal government, despite Nigeria’s ranking in terms of global warming and the negative impact on human and the ecosystem has been shifting the deadline for an end to gas flaring. Federal government has not clamped down on the oil companies to force them to stop gas flaring. The federal government may be doing this with a hope that the Delta people may contract a kind of flu from inhaling this flared gas and may all died off someday and leave Nigeria in peace.

NaAllah suggestion may be considered as a legislative joke or an unserious comment but there is more to that remark than Nigerians may realize. For the Bible says that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. NaAllah has voiced out the feelings of Northerners on how to resolve the Niger Delta crisis once and for all. Nyamiri shege! NaAllah advocacy is the position of the Northern oligarchy and establishment, wipe out the infidels from the Delta and peace and prosperity would return to Nigeria. The issue is that NaAllah cannot keep secret so he unintentionally leaked out the plan that the Northern Army should wipe out the Niger Delta people. Come to think of it, 90 per cent of the Mobile Policemen and soldiers currently in the Niger Delta are of Northern extraction and they cannot claim to be Nigerian Army as there is no federal character or quota system in their postings to the Delta to carry out the ethnic cleansing that is currently going on now. Remember the army ceased to be the Nigerian Army after the January 1966 coup. They are simply an army of occupation whose interest is more of sectional and economic than national interest, whatever is the meaning of the term “national interest.”

The current war in the Delta is a continuation of the civil war; remember the Niger Delta was part of Biafra. The civil war was an oil war and the current military operation in the area is another phase of the war. The foundation of “One Nigeria”, the war slogan, is oil: if oil were to be found in another part of Nigeria maybe we would have gone our different ways. The war in the Delta is a deliberate action to cow and suppress the people in order to have unlimited access to exploit oil and gas resources. Take for example the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, we were told that Abuja is a no man’s land and that the native dwellers were relocated and compensated for their lands but today we have people claiming to be indigenes of Abuja and demanding for certain rights. The Niger Delta people were never relocated or compensated for their land, oil and gas resources that had and still are sustaining Nigeria and when they demanded for their rights soldiers are send to go and wipe them out.

The current war in the Delta is not an accident or a response to recent activities of militants from the area. Rather it is a planned and deliberate attempt to wipe out the people. The current edition of The News Magazine carried a secret memo to the Military High Command on how to tame the Niger Delta people. And according to security reports the governors of Bayelsa, Delta and Rivers and Vice President Goodluck Jonathan aid and abet militancy and violence in the Delta. The report said that the governors and Vice President visited Camp 5 but did not tell us what they discuss. The security report did not tell us whether these sons of Niger Delta went to Camp 5 to declare support or pledge loyalty to the militants or asked them to lay down arms and embrace peace. The report is a deliberate attempt to indict and blackmail Niger Delta leaders and to accuse them of working in concert with criminals.

There are media reports that aid workers have not been given free access into the creeks to get to refugees that are stranded in the wake of the military raids in Ijaw settlements in the Delta. If civilians were not targets, as claimed by the Joint Task Force, JTF, Operation Restore Hope, why should the movement of aid workers, especially National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) a federal government agency be restricted from going into the creeks. If it was really an army of liberation or redemption, the soldiers should escort the aid workers to meet the refugees instead of asking them to go into the creeks with dug out canoes. How far and how fast can dug out canoes go and what quantity of relief materials can they carry? Hunger and starvation can also be used in the war against the Niger Delta people. Those who escaped bullets and the numerous air raids may die from hunger. Hunger and starvation are tested war weapons of the Nigerian Government and Armed Forces; it has been used before and is still being used in the current military expedition

There are militants every where in Nigeria: we have the Islamic militants in the North who have killed more people than the so-called Niger Delta militants. The Islamic militants have burnt churches, looted properties and destroyed lives of thousands if not millions of Nigerians and yet no punitive operation has been carried out against them. No mosque or emir palace which serve as their camps have been attacked by the Nigerian Armed Forces. The Islamic militants have done more harm to national unity, cohesion, security and stability than the Niger Delta militants yet the various probe panels have not produced any white paper or punishment for them. Is because oil is involved that is why the Niger Delta militants are of national interest. Almost every family in Nigeria has a story or knows someone who has a story to tell about the Islamic militants in Northern Nigeria. We have economic militants: the cement war is it in national interest? The current fuel scarcity is an act of economic militancy and not in national interest, yet nothing has been done to call these militants to order. What about the political militants? Our elections have always been war fares, yet no one has been jailed for electoral violence or malpractice.

The militants have raised allegations that operatives of the JTF and other powerful Nigerians are deeply involved in the illegal bunkering trade in the Delta region. This may be dismiss are mere blackmail but I had an encounter with a mobile policeman who confessed to me that he was about resigning from the Police Force when he was posted to the Niger Delta and his life and family have changed for good because he never believed he can make so much money serving in the police. This better life is not a product of salary increase or better welfare for the Police Force, so one can see that the Delta is a rewarding ground for security operatives and they are not in a hurry to see an end to the crisis in the area, abi na peace dem go chop?

I am not supporting criminal elements masquerading as militants in the Delta. My grievance is the plight of innocent civilians killed, maimed and displaced in the course of the current military expedition in the area. The military, based on intelligence reports, should know that militant camps are not located alongside civilian settlements and during their attacks should have avoided civilian casualties. Those who are supporting the current genocide in the Delta should remember what happened at Zaki Ibiam after General Malu presided over the destruction of Odi. One innocent civilian killed in error during the current military operation has cancelled whatever justification the federal government has to attack the region. The military should have done its homework well before confronting the militants. God is the judge of all and will judge every act and intention whether good or bad and every man will get his due reward. We have given our oil and gas for the sustenance of Nigeria and now they have come for our blood. Oh God of Vengeance, to whom vengeance belong, avenge for us, for we are of little strength.