President of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), Ledum Mtee, has warned that the reconciliation that President Umaru Yar'Adua is offering leaves much to be desired, even as the Rivers State governorship candidate of the Action Congress (AC) in the 2007 election, Tonye Princewill, raises the question of sincerity and confidence for the presidential olive branch to yield any positive fruit.
Speaking to NEXT on phone from Port Harcourt, Mr. Mitee said he believed that the framework for amnesty that Mr. Yar'Adua is advocating "should be a process and not a one-off thing." He said there should be mobilisation and reintegration for the process to last and that these must be carefully worked out.
Mr. Princewill however said the key issue is trust. "Due to their previous interactions with each other, the federal government has become something of an untrustworthy negotiator, just as the militants are not any better," he said. "Confidence building measures are needed for the amnesty to be of any meaningful benefit to both parties."
Mr. Princewill said the issue of amnesty was not for the federal government to decide because the crimes were state crimes. "I am not a lawyer, but all the lawyers I spoke to gave me the impression that it doesn't appear that the federal government can grant any amnesty in this matter. Only the state governments are in a position to do so since they are state offences," he said.
Mr. Princewill also echoed Mr. Mitee when he stated that "for any amnesty to be genuine, it must include a process of development, disarmament and disengagement and a proper committee must be set up to walk the process through by incorporating a concrete process of decommissioning of the militants."
The Ijaw Youths Council (IYC) last Thursday asked the House of Representatives to provide legislative backings to the proposed amnesty offer to the Niger Delta militants.
The Chairman of the IYC's committee on security and economic development, Felix Tuodolo, also called for the intervention of the international community in the peace process in an effort to put an end to the lingering crisis in the region.
The national Chairman of Host Communities Producing Oil and Gas in Nigeria, Alfred Bubor, alleged that the management of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) paiwd the sum of ₦1.2 billion to militants to police the pipeline, instead of investing such into the community development.
Mr. Tudolo argued that the amnesty option should be properly gazetted so that subsequent governments, after the present administration of Mr. Yar'Adua, would not renege on the offer.
He said the military action in the region has turned thousands of people into refugees, even as it has paralysed economic activities and reduced the nation's revenue from oil and gas.
Mr. Tuodolo said: "The glamour of amnesty is not the end of it. What of the agitations by the Niger Delta people for a better environment? There is a trend to the struggle. In the 1960s, our people cried out in the rooms but the situation has escalated to carrying of arms. With this present issue of amnesty, the case can get worse if this situation is not addressed. We are going to have a graveyard peace for some months and for some years, but they could result to using of bombs in order to register their demands," he said.
Mr. Tudolo stated that in order to effectively deal with the problem in the oil-bearing region, there should be a five-fold strategy, namely, disarmament, demobilisation, re-integration, re-orientation and re-organisation.
Levi Ajuonuma, Group General Manager, Media and Public Affairs of the NNPC, however, denied that the corporation paid ₦1.2 billion to militants. Mr. Ajuonuuma explained that the money was the sum of the contract awarded to an indigenous company for the repair of Chanomi Creeks by a former Group Managing Director.
"While we would not want to join issues with any group, we would like to say that the issue of ₦1.2 billion has been variously explained and cleared; we would appeal to the oil-bearing communities to cooperate with the NNPC in the bid to develop the nation," he said.
The Ogoni
Ledum Mitee, President of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People, said the announcement of the amnesty was a welcome first step. He said, "The challenge will be how it is managed. I do not think that the idea is to treat amnesty to militants as a stand-alone initiative. It has to be part of a whole process, because you do not want to create an impression that it is only when someone carries arms that there is a response to what he is saying.
After all, the fertile ground that militancy has found expression here has been because of the under-development of the area and the fact that people here do not believe that they have sufficient stake in the resources of their land. So if you just say, because people have carried arms, you just set them free... I do not think that is the whole idea.
"I also believe that the challenge here for all of us, not only the government is how the process is managed, especially the area of rehabilitation. First you have to manage the idea of where do you rehabilitate people to, particularly where some people may have committed obvious crimes in their communities.
It is also a question of how do the people who are the victims feel? Again you must be thinking of skills acquisition and gainful employment in order to reintegrate. You also need to expand it in a way that it covers also not only those who have carried arms, but those who have not. Because you do not create the impression that it is only those who carried arms that you are going to reward. I think it is a welcome development.
I think we all need to embrace it and work with it. I will think that the government should not pretend at anytime that it is just a security issue. Religious leaders will have a part to play, communities will have a part to play; even society has a part to play."
Amnesty smacks of favour
Aduche Wokocha, Head of Business Law at the Rivers State University of Science and Technology said the Niger Delta issue did not begin as a common criminal activity.
"You grant amnesty to criminals," he said. "The Niger Delta crisis was a response to what you can morally call criminality on the part of the government against the people of the region of the country. And so, granting amnesty is as if you are doing a favour. It does not seem to address the issue. The issue is the injustices done to the people of the region.
"Amnesty will be interesting if it is followed with clear steps taken by the country to correct the injustice done to the region. Anything short of that will only be a short term palliative that will appear to stop the fighting in the region. Yes, you can grant amnesty.
But that amnesty will only make sense if you address the issue that led in the first place to the campaign, and that is to correct the imbalances. Repeal the Land Use Act and the mineral laws that divest the people of what belongs to them. Reform the country to true federalism so that regions and people can take care of themselves with what they have."
Voices in support
Lagos lawyer, Carol Ajie, said the offer, and the money attached to it, should not be seen as a bribe. "The government is not offering bribe," she said. "The ₦50 million is budgeted to buy back arms and armoury, stocked and deployed, because a responsible government desires peace, development and security. Militants should lay down arms on conditions that there must be development in the Niger Delta within an agreed period. So, let's give peace a chance. If they don't want the money, they won't be forced to take it. But peace should reign for sanity to return to the war torn region."
Assam Ekanem Assam, Head of Practice, Lexforipa-Calabar, said the amnesty offer "should not be seen as a sign of weakness rather a sure recognition by the government that there is legitimacy to the demands of the agitations of the Niger Delta.
It therefore must be respected as an effort towards achieving a solution to the problem. The President has given a 60-day time-frame for the exercise and we will hold him bound to his promise. Those who treat the Presidential offer with cynicism need to move away from the failings of the past and try a new course."
The President of Civil Rights Congress, Shehu Sani, however said the amnesty is not likely to work "It is not going to solve any problem," he said. "After all, militancy is not a cause, it is an effect. Effect of years of abject neglect, exploitation and plunder by the federal government, states and oil multinationals in that part of the country. It is not going to change anything. It has become a lucrative business and the only way to neutralise them is to make sure that those issues that gave them reasons to pick up arms are actually solved."
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