Amnesty will not succeed if...

The amnesty programme of the federal government has not achieved anything for the people of the Niger Delta according to Annkio Briggs, a Niger Delta activist.

Speaking at a press briefing yesterday in Lagos, Ms. Briggs said "as the amnesty stands today, the government is the only one benefitting from it". The activist, who was dropped from the Aaron Team established by the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, MEND, described herself as the only female voice in the agitation for the Niger Delta. The team was established to hold negotiations with the federal government on behalf of MEND.

"The Under-17 football World Cup was held successfully and the output of crude oil has increased from 800,000 barrels per day at the peak of the militancy to 2.4million barrels per day, just two months after the amnesty. All these have favoured the government. Yet, the amnesty has not achieved anything for my people of the Niger Delta. There is still no security of lives, food and environmental security for the people of the Niger Delta," she said.

"The concept of amnesty as it has been proposed is not what will lead to what the people have been agitating for. We are seeing the Tompolos and Boyloafs of this world and others hopping from one meeting to the other in either Port Harcourt or Abuja."

Commenting on the constitution of the Niger Delta Technical Committee, she said that "for me and my people the technical committee does not exist. A committee demanding that 25 per cent of the resources should go to the Niger Delta people is falling short of our demand of taking our entire resource and paying taxes to the federal government."

The Yar'Adua administration constituted the Niger-Delta Technical Committee to deliberate and make recommendation to the government on the way forward in solving the Niger-Delta crisis. She referred to the technical committee as "Yar'Adua's NDDC - Niger Delta Development Commission." A commission set up by the Olusegun Obasanjo administration to come up with a roadmap for the development of the region.

Flying militants abroad

Ms Briggs said fears that suspicion will derail the amnesty deal is justified. "The suspicion is encouraged because the militants have brought out all they have. It is now the turn of the federal government to do something for the entire region. As of now, the system of education in Nigeria is dead, private individuals now own schools right from the pre-kindergarten to tertiary institutions, the government has failed the nation with the dearth of education and they claim to be demobilising and camping the militants, who need to develop skills to make a living," she said. "How and where will they get this skill?"

Ms. Briggs said that "the militants should be flown abroad so they can get the required skill that will make them eligible to work anywhere in the world and develop the Niger Delta as well."

Corruption and Niger Delta leaders

Ms Briggs described claims that leaders of the Niger Delta are also responsible for looting the region's resources as discouraging. "We are deeply frustrated when people tell us that we should ignore the corruption of our over 50 years and get the region's leaders to account for the stealing in the last 10 years. That is very frustrating" she said.

Pinning it all to electoral fraud that have marred various elections in the region, she said "when people do not vote their own choice to power, they have limited the way to hold them accountable. It is the responsibility of the federal government to hold the Niger Delta (leaders) accountable, they put them there.

When governors have God-fathers that influence their election from other regions how will a fisherman hold such accountable?"

Dealing with the Aaron Team

Ms. Briggs declined to comment about the Aaron Team, saying "whether I'm on the Aaron team is not an issue for me and my people. I am not going to talk about the Aaron team. That has been my stand when I was appointed on the team and I still maintain that as I have been dropped from the team." "For me, issues to talk about are the Nigerian Constitution, the rights and ownership of the land in the Niger Delta, the water and the resources. Who owns them and who does it belong to must be determined," she said.

"The bar must be raised for everybody in Nigeria. Whatever is good for me, we must agree upon and no one must stand in my way. We clamour for a sovereign national conference which will ultimately lead to self-determination. Nigerians need to know that we are different people that make-up this country, I don't know why people are running away from discussing ethnicity when there is no law to show that we are one nation. We must have a new constitution, because the constitution took away the rights of the Niger Delta."

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) announced the nomination of Ms. Briggs as a member of the Aaron team in September. However, MEND dropped her from the team two weeks later.

Other members of the Aaron team are Okhai Mike Akhigbe (a retired Vice Admiral), Wole Soyinka (a professor and Nobel laureate), Luke Kakadu Aprezi (a retired Major General), and Sabella Ogbobode Abidde.

According to MEND spokesperson, Jomo Gbomo in a statement on October 20 said that she has been replaced with Amagbe Denzel Kentebe ‘by mutual consent'.

Yar'Adua should come visiting

Ms. Briggs said the nation's president should visit the Niger Delta on the invitation of the Niger Delta people. "He should not come and commission a road, or lay the foundation of a water-logged airport that is being built in his name." He should get on a plane and land in Port Harcourt, get in a chopper and fly over a particular area, come down and get a car to drive him to the waterside and see what needs to be done for the Niger Delta. Holding meeting in the villa, getting presidential jet to pick the militant boys, putting them in Hilton and shaking their hands live on television is not what we need."