Cheta Nwanze: Crime definitely pays around here (Y! FrontPage)

Chxta back

You see, whether the Niger Delta militants had a genuine grievance against the Nigerian state is a moot point. The point is that they took up arms against the state; which by any definition within our constitution and without, is a crime.

In August of 2011, the Federal Government announced the approval of a “Transitional Safety Allowance” for ex-Niger Delta militants. That sum was separate, and in addition to, the N65,000 that each militant had been collecting monthly since the start of the “amnesty programme”, and separate from the foreign excursions that these militants had been undertaking since the beginning of said programme.

In April of 2013, under two years, later, the same FG has set up a committee to consider an amnesty for another set of “militants”, the Boko Haram insurgent group. This despite the fact that Boko Haram have on their part made it quite clear that they are not interested in amnesty. As a matter of fact, the Boko Haram group have laughingly declared that they, and not the FG, ought to be the ones giving amnesty. It is quite significant that the Boko Haram amnesty shindig comes at the same time that a group of “former militants” in the Niger Delta have taken up arms once again against the Nigerian state.

The Niger Delta militancy, it must be said, was the result of decades of neglect by the federal government, of the goose that lays Nigeria’s golden eggs. It remains true that the VAST majority of Nigeria’s foreign exchange earnings come from that region. It also remains true that the region has been criminally neglected by succeeding governments at the federal level, including this one, headed by someone with roots in that region. I spent the last weekend there, and while I admit that there are some federal projects going on, it is not nearly enough to bring the region out of the bog.

For fairness, it must also be stated that there has been an attempt by the government beginning from Babangida (3%) through to Abacha (13%), to redress the situation. Since Abacha’s 1995 Constitutional Conference, the states of the Niger Delta have earned more than the other states of the federation in the monthly allocation bazaar that happens. This additional earning is ostensibly to enable a better life, yet, there is almost nothing in each of these states to show for the extra income. Our “militants” never thought to bring the state governments to account.

The militants themselves, despite the fact that “they were fighting for their people” actually turned out to be fighting for their own pockets. Hence the much publicised war between Soboma George and an alliance led by Ateke Tom in the aftermath of the 2007 General Elections. That war was blatantly a war for access to Rivers State Government patronage, and not a war for the survival and rights of the people of the Niger Delta.

Under President Obasanjo, the approach to dealing with the militant problem was indeed carrot and stick. The military Joint Task Force was a permanent presence in the Delta, but occasionally, militant leaders were invited to Abuja, treated lavishly, and silenced. The cycle began to repeat itself, and gradually, the stick has altogether disappeared, and the militants are now being treated to genetically modified, sweetened carrots.

What is interesting, what I found in the last weekend which I spent in the Niger Delta, is that the neglect of the Niger Delta has not abated. We are still being treated to committee after committee being set up to address the Niger Delta problem, but ordinary people in the region have lost so much faith in the Nigerian state’s ability to bring justice for them that they have simply started fighting for justice in the home countries of oil multinationals through the courts there.

You see, whether the Niger Delta militants had a genuine grievance against the Nigerian state is a moot point. The point is that they took up arms against the state; which by any definition within our constitution and without, is a crime. To make matters worse, in the course of their taking up arms against the Nigerian state, they have indeed turned on Nigerian citizens, and have looted, raped, maimed, pillaged and plundered. Yet, NOT ONE militant has been hauled before a court of the law and sentenced. Oh, scratch that! Henry Okah fell foul of some powerful people, and will be away, incommunicado, for at least the next decade, in far away South Africa, whilst those who continue to play ball have been rewarded, and are being rewarded lavishly.

In all of this, ordinary citizens from the Niger Delta are routinely denied compensation that they deserve. They have not been invited to the Hilton in Abuja for any largesse, they have not been given 65k a month, neither have they been sent to Sri Lanka for training. By the way, what major industry is located in Sri Lanka that we are sending people there for training? Last time I checked, they do not produce tea in the Niger Delta!

This is the same kind of amnesty our government wants to grant Boko Haram. Ordinary citizens of the north, who have suffered in the hands of this evil, will not even get as much as a pat on the back by the state, but the people who took up arms will be given gratification.

At the end of the day, the dangerous message that the Nigerian state is sending is that crime does pay. If you decide to go to school, educate yourself, and work in civil society, you will be denied an 18k minimum wage, you will not have opportunities for jobs, and you will live in squalor. However, if you pick up a gun and go into the bush for a while, you will be called to the round table for discussions, and given a generous stipend to boot. That is the message the FG sent out with the Niger Delta, and that is the message the FG is sending out in handling this Boko Haram thing.

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Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.

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