Two seemingly unrelated events occurred at the same venue, last Tuesday, in Port Harcourt. Yet, they were both inextricably linked to the bigger picture around the hot issue of amnesty for militants and the prospects for lasting peace in the Niger Delta.
First was the stakeholder Town Hall meeting on the Presidential Amnesty for Niger Delta militants held at the Atlantic Hall of the Presidential Hotel, Port Harcourt, at which members of the Amnesty Committee, led by Marshall Ayarile, explained details of the amnesty plan to those who attended. At the event were activists, women’s groups, youths -including some who declared themselves as militants or were representing them. The other event was the first annual memorial lecture in honour of Marshall Harry, the Kalabari /Ijaw businessman and politician who was brutally murdered in the early hours of February 5, 2003 in his Abuja home by assassins believed to have been deployed against him from Port Harcourt.
The event was chaired by Muhammadu Buhari, one-time military head of state turned politician. The late Marshall Harry, was one of the founding fathers of the People’s Democratic Party in Rivers State, who had a falling out with the party leadership, including the then governor, Peter Odili. Mr. Harry changed camps and began to work with the All Nigeria Peoples Party and its presidential candidate, Muhammadu Buhari.
In the heat of the fractious politics of that year, Olusegun Obasanjo, who was president at the time, had declared that, winning the elections that year was a ‘do-or-die affair’. In the hall where the amnesty meeting was holding were some of the thousands of youths who had worked with politicians during the various elections, bearing AK47 rifles, maiming, killing and frightening away voters.
Some of them, having been declared wanted by the Rivers State governor, Rotimi Amaechi, did not show up, but sent representatives. One of thse who did not attend was Ateke Tom of the Niger Delta Vigilante. He was represented by his lawyer, Uche Onyeagucha, who articulated the fears of many members of the various armed groups over their safety and the concerns of many Niger Delta people about the sincerity of the Federal government in its declared purpose.
Onyeagucha said his client “would like to have more details about the amnesty and arms return, his safety and those of the members of his group”. One participant gave voice to concerns of person who were victims of the violence in the Niger Delta asking, “all attention is on amnesty for the militants, but what is in this plan for the victims of the militants’action?” An issue of major concern is the N50billion announced as the sum budgeted to the committee for its work which has obviously not been released.
Plans for development
Another participant, Humphrey Nsirim, was also concerned about the safety of persons who wanted to return arms, in view of reported killings by the Joint Task Force and the mobile police in the Niger Delta. He was worried about long-term plans by the government to “lay a foundation for the deepening of the democratic experience through the conduct of violence free elections, in view of the reality that the greater number of ‘militants’ in the Niger Delta are a creation of the political parties. Nsirim runs an NGO, Hope for the Hopeless, which started out as a Christian praying group and found itself counselling many young people in the city of Port Harcourt and other communities in Rivers State, who have been involved in violence, but wanted out.
Felix Tuodolo, first President of the Ijaw Youth Council, raised an objection to the composition of the committee, and called for its expansion, saying that the committee was towing the same line of approach originating from Abuja, that had collapsed in the past, resulting in deeper turmoilin the oil bearing areas.As the committee moved across the Niger Delta to Edo,
Ondo and other centres of militant activity, more questions and concerns continue to pop up. Of these, the most outstanding, centred around the resolution of the issues of development of the Niger Delta, resource control and true federalism.
Yet another meeting of elders of the Niger Delta, called by Edwin Clark drew attention to these concerns, as well as the non-implementation of the recommendations of the Niger Delta Technical Committee headed by Ledum Mitee, former president of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People, MOSOP.
Clark and the elders had issued a communiqué in which they asked that the elders serve as the contact to “the Fighting Boys” in the amnesty plan. However, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), soon announced its rejection of the elders. In a troubling departure from the past, it also denounced any links with known bodies such as the IYC.
”We are aware that there are many opportunistic groups and individuals that take advantage of situations such as this to make themselves relevant and line their pockets by acting as middlemen,” Clark said. “MEND has outlined its strategy as far as Hurricane Moses is concerned and when we choose to have a team speak on our behalf, we will make it public”. The committee’s work looks daunting, but with these declarations, it is clear that tougher days lie ahead.
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