Beyond Armed Militancy and Amnesty

The Niger Delta area of Nigeria magnifies a picture of lawlessness and instability occasioned by pervasive poverty, stagnation, environmental degradation and criminal neglect.

This situation led to numerous armed groups roaming the maze of the mangrove swamp and creeks seeking who to kidnap, steal from, plunder and rape. Criminals mingled with true representatives trying to liberate the people.

The region is characterised by tempers flaring over gas flaring. Oil spills pollute the streams and dreams of these impoverished host communities. Imagine a situation where oil theft, rape, kidnappings, drilling and killings are normal everyday occurrences.

There is however a prevailing sense of accomplishment in President Goodluck Jonathan’s government that the volatile issues of the Niger Delta have been addressed. In one of his frequent postings on the social media network, Facebook, the president celebrated that peace had returned to the Niger Delta as the warring militants had turned their swords into ploughshares. The “repentant” militants were granted amnesty and are now undergoing a rehabilitation exercise in batches.

Militancy is an offshoot of the crisis engulfing the region. But the struggle goes beyond arms running, kidnapping, blowing up oil pipelines, stealing massive amounts of crude oil, killing and raping of women which is the image the militants have created. The ongoing amnesty and rehabilitation programme will not solve the problem of oil spills or that of the poor woman whose only farmland has been polluted by the activities of oil exploration or the poor man whose family members suffer health hazards occasioned by gas flaring and ground water pollution.

There is a need to demobilize the various armed groups and reintegrate everyone naturally. This is a welcome process. But it must be carefully worked out, if any success is to be made of the amnesty programme. Amnesty to militants should not be treated a stand-alone initiative or the panacea to the ills of the Niger Delta region. It has to be part of an integration, healing and developmental process. There is a need to address the issues of environmental degradation, unemployment and lack of basic infrastructure. There needs to be improved corporate social responsibility and human resources development such as youth empowerment programmes.

The amnesty programme on its own does very little to address the concerns of the local people of this impoverished region. The warlords and so-called repentant militants were mostly fending for their own pockets. Their rehabilitation does not begin to scratch the basic reasons for the crisis in the region – which is at the core of the agitations. Issues of oil spillages, environmental degradation, unemployment and provision of basic infrastructure need to be addressed. Those are the fundamental issues that triggered the struggle.