As Nigerians approach the month of great decision via ballot box, there appear to be echoes of war emanating from the camp of ex-militants; now ex-agitators, they started drumming songs of war when enemies of Nigerian State–those who believe that this country of ours is an extension of their grand father’s estate, that anything short of Northern presidency come 29th May, 2015 would not be considered a legitimate government. The same disgruntled elements who promised to make Nigeria ungovernable by instigating insurgency activities to blackmail and portray President Jonathan as weak and incompetent are at it again! The same Northern cabal who view every non-Northern Nigerian as being born on the wrong side of the country have conspired with some power mongers in the Southern part of this nation to form a parallel government if 2015 Presidential poll does not go in their favour, especially if President Jonathan wins the presidential election. The same unscrupulous individuals and power-starved politicians whose most lucrative industry is politics, have succeeded in creating fear in the minds of an every average Northerner, to the extent that anyone who identifies himself with President Jonathan’s re-election bid in the North is being called all sorts names of ridicule like infidel, anti-North, etc. Some of them like Senator Bala Mohammed have been openly abused. Every pro-Jonathan politician is now being intimidated and cajoled in the North. Gen. Buhari’s posters and billboards are being pasted and erected across the three geo-political zones of the South without fear of intimidation or assaults from pro-Jonathan supporters, taking into consideration the startling fact that President Goodluck Jonathan is an incumbent president with all the powers to make or mar at his disposal, but refused to mortgage anyone’s fundamental rights to vote and be voted for. He reiterated recently what he has being saying that his ambition does not worth the blood of any Nigerian.
Sorry, there are no polls available at the moment.It is on record that up till this moment of writing this piece that none of Gen. Buhari’s billboards has been pull down or any of his campaign vehicles set ablaze in the Southern part of this country. It is something worthy of commendation that the APC’s presidential campaign rallies in the South are progressing smoothly and unhindered across the entire states in the Southern part of this country without any pro-Jonathan and PDP supporter insulting Gen. Buhari or stoning his convoy even in the home state of President Jonathan’s Bayelsa. The decent behaviours of pro-Jonathan supporters in the South in respect to the APC’s presidential campaign rallies cannot be interpreted by Gen. Buhari’s worshippers in the North as an act of cowardice.
The ignoble burning of President Jonathan’s campaign buses in Jos, Plateau State; destruction of pro-Jonathan billboards in the North, stoning of his convoy in the Gen. Buhari’s Katsina State and the recent open insult and booing of President Jonathan in Bauchi state, has drawn the ire of ex-militants in the Niger Delta region. After observer the unruly behaviours and violent tendencies of the APC’s supporters especially in the Northern part of this country, coupled with violent attacks being meted against pro-Jonathan campaigners while Gen. Buhari and leadership of the APC look the other way, leaders of ex-militant groups in Niger Delta summoned an emergency meeting of prominent Niger Delta ex-militants which was held in Bayelsa State recently to assess the ugly developments as regards 2015 presidential election.
After the meeting of ex-militant leaders that lasted hours, they rose from the meeting vowing to ensure that President Jonathan wins the February 14 presidential election, without which there would be war. The former militant leaders took the position recently in Government House, Bayelsa state, at enlarged meeting attended by the following: Mujahid Dokubo-Asari, leader of Niger Delta Peoples Volunteers Force; Victor Ben Ebikabowei, aka, Boy Loaf, and Government Ekpudomenowei, aka Tompolo. Also in attendance were the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta Affairs, and Chairman of Amnesty Implementation Committee, Kingsley Kuku; Bayelsa State Governor, Seriake Dickson and his deputy; President General of Ijaw Youth Council, Udengs Eradiri, and others. Addressing the meeting, Dokubo-Asari condemned in strong terms the alleged intimidation being meted to the people of Niger Delta, saying the people could no longer bear it again. “For every Goliath, God created a David. For every Pharaoh, there is a Moses. We are going to war. Every one of you should go and fortify yourself,” he said.
Before the recent political development, Nigeria’s oil-rich region had enjoyed relative peace as a result of Amnesty programme which culminated into astronomical increase in crude oil output which rose from pre-Amnesty era of 700,000 barrels per day to 2.3 million per day. Some many multinational oil and gas companies have started panicking as a result of this omnibus threats emanating from ex-militants leaders, because they will not want to experience another era of violent disruption of oil facilities and kidnapping of oil workers in the region. The burning questions racing through the minds of Nigerians are: who is playing with lion’s tail? Who is about staring the hornet’s nest? Will Nigeria economy survive another militancy era in the oil region? These are the mind-illuminating and thought-provoking questions yearning and longing for honest answers.
The anger of ex-militant leaders is erupting from the obvious fact that 2015 presidential election is already being rigged in favour of a Northern candidate against President Jonathan. A situation where pro-Jonathan supporters are being prevented from campaigning in the North, while Gen. Buhari is busy crisis-crossing all the nooks and crannies of the Southern Nigerian leaves much to be desired! It is very pathetic that Northern elders are unleashing Almajiris on President Jonathan’s groups in other to intimidate them out of the region, thereby given undue advantage to Gen. Buhari of All Progressives Congress (APC); whose utterances and body language are encouraging violence. The story of baboon and dog soaking in blood is still fresh on the minds of Nigerians. The Northern elders who are keeping mute while watching their children stone the convoy of President Jonathan–the president of populous black nation on earth will soon start shouting to high heavens that President Jonathan’s action is anti-North when any of those miscreants is gun down by security operatives attached to the Office of the President.
Reacting to the recent attack of President Jonathan’s convoy, Dokubo-Asari condemned the attack on President Jonathan in the North in the on-going Presidential campaigns, maintained that the survival of Nigerian economy rests on the oil-region of Niger Delta, if anything happens to President Jonathan during the campaigns, Nigeria would be history. On his part, BoyLoaf condemned the attack on President Jonathan in the North, saying nobody has monopoly of violence. He said there is nothing like one Nigeria, pointing out that oil is the only thing binding Nigeria’s diverse nationalities together. While maintaining that President Jonathan would win the election, he however said, “If the North takes power from President Jonathan, the people of Niger Delta region would take back their oil.”
Nwobodo Chidiebere, public Affairs Analyst wrote in from Abuja.
