Discordant voices from militants as Niger Delta remains calm

There are discordant voices issuing from the ex-militants of the Niger Delta over the recently held presidential election which threw up Mohammadu Buhari as President elect.

While some are soliciting for calm, others are blowing hot.

But inspite of these, observers say the general situation in the region could best be described as calm for now.

Government Ekpemupolo, a former Niger-Delta freedom fighter, known as Tompolo, who has become a multimillionaire on government contracts to secure pipelines which he was fomerly cracking up, has congratulated Buhari, saying his victory was the will of God.

In a statement by Paul Bebenimibo, his spokesperson, Tompolo appealed to Nigerians to accept the outcome of the March 28 election for the sake of peace.

“I believe that nothing can happen if God does not approve of it. I want to appeal to all our people to be orderly, calm and embrace peace. The will of the people is sacrosanct and the existing peace should be maintained.

“Peace is a prerequisite for national development. People should remain calm during the governor ship election,” he appealed.

Despite their earlier trumpeted threats, in the run-up to the election, to return to war should Jonathan lose , the militants appear to be keeping their own counsel now.

“People are asking where are the militants?” Alagoa Morris, a Delta environmental activist, told Reuters.

Morris echoed the thoughts of some Delta residents in saying he did not want to see a return to those bad old days.

Even self-styled ‘Ex-General’ Reuben Wilson, a normally garrulous former fighter, told Reuters he was “in no mood to talk.”

Oil and gas industry analysts are of the opinion that perhaps the prospect of going from luxury back to living in mosquito-infested swamps was a decision that requires some thought by the militants.
Many militants now sit comfortably in big houses with swimming pools and have built up huge business empires that can probably outlast the amnesty period.

“Considerations are different this time,” said Edward Obi, head of an environmental group. “They are self-interested human beings, and there is nobody out there to protect them now.”

However, thousands of footsoldiers also stood to lose their meal tickets if the amnesty programme, which expires at the end of 2015, was stopped. It provided a stipend for about 30,000 people while they studied, its spokesman Daniel Alabrah said.

“If you stop the programme today, it might create some kind of unrest. The expectation is that it will be extended by up to two years,” Alabrah said.

None of what had been happening addressed the underlying issue that led to the militancy in the first place. The delta’s deep sense of injustice at producing the oil that funds Nigeria’s government and pays for nearly everything the nation imports, but receiving little except environmental devastation is still there.

Having a man from a humble background in the delta helped placate that sense of injustice, but Nigeria continued to suffer oil theft and piracy on an industrial scale.

Meanwhile Mujahid Dokubo-Asari, leader of the defunct Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force, (NDPVF) is singing a different song from that of Tompolo, as he described the election of Muhammadu Buhari as mere conspiracy against the Niger Delta region, by the Yoruba and Hausa ethnic groups.

The ex-militant leader, who had threatened to unleash violence on the country if President Goodluck Jonathan lost his re-election bid, threatened to return to the creeks, adding that the election of Muhammadu Buhari as president “is a clear indication that the country is not united.”

Dokubo-Asari, who spoke through his media aide, Rex Ekiugbo Anighoro, said: “Nigerian union clearly reinforces the fact of self determination, but that Nigeria remains a very divided and separated entity whose claim to unity remains a fraud of gargantuan proportions.”

While alleging that the incoming government could attempt to undermine the interest of the Niger Delta, the former warlord, called for a return to the creeks, noting that, “The conditions that advanced the need to embrace the creeks have been sadly re energised, it is clear that a vicious government who may maim and murder is on its way.”