By Okee Sdyney-Obiukwu
The amnesty programme enunciated by former President Musa Yar’Adua of blessed memory, made the Niger Delta region largely peaceful for socio-economic activities, until President Muhammadu Buhari came along, and almost immediately he had settled into office; set about dismantling the entire framework which had created the enabling environment for oil exploration, which essentially bankrolled Nigeria’s political economy, to thrive.
President Buhari had threatened to shut down the Maritime University which was then yet to fully take-off, he also launched a manhunt for the former warlords-Tompolo, Asari Dukubo et al, who he had alleged were corruptly enriched by the Jonathan administration. Finally, to fend-off likely resistance, he unleashed the military on the region, especially Bayelsa and Rivers States.
That narrow-minded action of the president resuscitated the familiar insurgency in that region, and the conflagration that followed seriously diminished the production capacity of oil corporations operating in the country, and eventually crippled the nation’s mono-cultural economy. Consequently, Nigeria steadily drifted into economic recession.
While President Buhari was depleting Nigeria’s foreign exchange on medical vacation in a British hospital, even as concerned citizens including this writer prayed for his recovery; then acting president, Professor Yemi Osinbajo; rolled up his sleeves and proactively engaged the stakeholders in the Nigeria Delta and other radical tendencies in other regions, to achieve broad-based peace, that will engender healthy socio- economic activities.
Within, a short period, his patriotic efforts helped by political sagacity paid off and a relative across-the-country peace returned, because Nigerians are amenable to peace when governed with civility and sincere persuasion.
As oil exploration fully resumed in the Nigeria Delta, Nigeria’s economy also steadily recovered to the point where, experts now claim we are crawling out of recession. But all that gain, may soon suffer a reversal due to another wrong-headed and narrow-minded decision of the president.
Again, this time in the south-east of Nigeria, President Buhari has rolled out armored tanks and blood thirty soldiers, to carry out what the military has dubbed “operation python dance” to raid and bully the five states, populated by the Igbo ethnic nationality. And also force the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) Nnamdi Kanu, into house arrest.
Recall also that, during the run up to the 2015 presidential elections, Buhari as APC’s candidate had threatened to make the country ungovernable, if the PDP rigged him out in the election. This also means that, unlike former President Goodluck Jonathan, he would not have conceded defeat, if the result hadn’t favored him.
With the social media awash with reports of attacks of Igbo communities in Kaduna and pockets of Hausa-Igbo clashes in Rivers Sates, it is only a matter time for the crises to fester into other states, and escalate to another civil war, if not halted now.
Already, the media is counting between 12-15 civilian lives lost in the current military operation, which naturally snowballed into a clash between the military and supporters of IPOB. Journalists, going about their lawful duties of recording the sad incident, were not spared of the fury of the soldiers, who reportedly pounced on them manhandling them and smashing their gadgets. Is this our own home grown democracy?
The whole exercise smacks of a premeditated action, judging by the fact that, this despicable military operation is coming only a few weeks after the federal government said it was heading to court to get Mr. kanu’s bail revoked, since its conditions have been serially violated, according to the government’s spokespersons.
The question every well meaning Nigerian is asking-why the hurry to use military might to deal with a matter, which the court or the police can handle.
Some have called this a deliberate act to provoke another war in the south-east, giving the Nigerian military controlled by the Hausa-Fulani a long sought-after opportunity, to decimate people and properties in the region. The Igbo nationality haven recovered from the despoliation of the civil war fought in the 60s. Yet some say, it is a hurriedly cooked plan, to punish the south-eastern elite, for failing to call Nnamdi Kanu to order after he was released on bail.
Yes, Nnamdi Kanu’s utterances are quite offensive to the sensibilities of the other ethics groups, and should be cautioned by Igbo leaders of thought, but his modus operandi has remained peaceful. As at date, IPOB, unlike other insurgencies in the country, is not known to engage in violent agitations, blood-letting or taking anybody hostage.
Contrary to what the security advisers and aides of the president may be telling him-that there is the urgency to checkmate Kanu, even if with iron-fist tactics. The recent incarceration of the IPOB leader has conferred a messianic toga him. Kanu had been doing his clandestine thing, without much attention given to his activities, even among the Igbo race, until the Buhari administration elevated him to a heroic status.
Now President Buhari is unwittingly pushing Kanu’s social status to that of a martyr. Why so? Because the more government persecutes Kanu without addressing the cogent issues of marginalization that he has put on the front burners, the more his supporters will be emotionally tuned towards him, and see him as the divinely ordained liberator they should hero-worship.
It is time for the APC led federal government to rethink its strategy in dealing with IPOB. Osinbajo’s successful mechanism of trustworthy dialogue should be put on test run in the south-east. It might turn-out a win-win situation for all, and Nigeria will be better for it.