Relative peace has return to the Niger-Delta amidst fears, doubts and usual distrust of government by the people, who can longer believe a Nigerian government that, says one thing and does another. The presence of the Joint Military Task Force has raised both fears and doubts among the people. And reports this morning has it that returnee militants are not allowed into the villages to avoid complexity, while villagers on the other hand are filing a suit against the federal government of Nigeria for the wanton destruction of property during the invasion of the Niger-Delta villages and the shoot out that lasted over a month between the government forces and the militants.
Meanwhile, reports of disagreements over the terms of amnesty have been fuming between the militants and some stakeholders in the liberation struggle in that region. On one hand, the people are asking for a full condition and terms of the amnesty as well as an unconditional amnesty. And on the other hand, some people are saying amnesty or no amnesty develop our region, create jobs, empower our people and we’ll be fine. But the usual fear of not trusting government is yet another stumbling block. Government on her part hasn’t come up with any category statement that one may say it spelt in clear terms what she going to do as militants surrender their arms. Rather she gave the militants about six month’s time limit to surrender arms, while the bait will release in bits as they co-operate.
Nonetheless an amnesty committee has been set up and it’s partly headed by a retired Army General from Bayelsa, one of the states in the region. But they’re yet to kick start the whole exercise of monitoring the surrender of arms and ammunition as well as implement the indistinct amnesty condition.
Other interesting developments that made waves includes the proposal states executives’ (State Governors) academic trip to the prestigious Harvard University for training on Best Practices; the establishment of a Petroleum Technology Training Institute in the north (Kaduna), the publication of a state law maker completely nude, swearing an oath of allegiance to the Ogun state governor at shrine in Sagamu, Ogun state and Bank frauds resulting to lost of funds; these are all developments that have generated heated debates and even outrage among Nigerians.
A cross section of Nigerians are actually querying the rationale behind such an expensive academic trip using tax payers money; while some have poured out condemnations, calling it different kinds of names. Their agitations are stem from different factors ranging availability of scholars who can handle them locally, to the need for them to have acquired best practices skills before seeking public offices. Meanwhile those attacking the setting of a Petroleum Technology Institute are saying, why take the development out of the region where the resource is being drawn from?
As for the nude photograph of state legislature boldly published first in front of the Compass newspaper, owned by the Ogun state governor before others followed suit, giving it same front page prominence; different moral and integrity issues have been raised. While some Nigerians are tagging our politicians as fetish set; others are campaigning for the removal of such people from public offices. Following the press briefing held by the affected victim admitting his involvement and pleading for the public and the press pardon; the Ogun state governor Otunba Gbenga Daniel, has come on air as well to debunk the allegation linking him with oath of allegiance in any shrine.
The case of bank fraud is another issue that is begging for image cleansing going be the dent one or two bad apples may have put on many other credible banks in Nigeria. Even though the affected banks have lay claims of ignorance on the part of the victims who were probably careless with their Personal Identification Numbers (PIN), the affected people have dismissed such claims saying they weren’t careless, and that the fraudster are working in collaboration with some banks insiders. They’ve also said that all claims so far laid by the affected banks were all fallacy.
Well it is pity that at a time when visionary leaders are busy fashioning out ways out of the global financial crisis, some mediocre in public offices are busy doing evil, looting public treasury and adding to the already convoluted Nigeria economic and political problems. And unfortunately many Nigerians have lost faith in the leadership of the country and are in deep despair. According to some critics, what Nigeria earnestly need is a revolution; yet it takes a brute and a leech to opt far a civil or any kind of war twice, especially when the 1967 – 1970 Nigerian civil war wounds are yet to be fully healed.
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