Quelling Militancy in Post Amnesty Niger Delta

The success of the amnesty programme of President Musa Yar Adua is not in question any more. What is in question however, is the fear of skeptics of the sincerity of the federal government in delivering its post amnesty pledges. It is also true that government largesses are not keeping quiet about government good intentions for the people of the Niger Delta.

The recent federal government pronouncement that ten percent of oil derivation will be given to oil producing communities was received with a lot of excitement by people from the South South region and by followers of the Niger Delta crisis. Causing even more excitement is the federal government intent to include this ten percent derivation policy to oil producing communities in the Petroleum Industry Bill currently in the National Assembly.

All hail President Yar Adua. “PDP – progress for the people.’ For once in more than twelve years since the party came into existence, have they been seen to be doing the right thing. Good as it may look, there are questions about this federal government pronouncement of relinquishing to the oil producing communities a whopping ten percent of oil revenue. The question is, which community falls under the classification of 'oil producing?

I was just wondering how the oil companies under the GMoU arrangement are able to categorise communities in the Niger Delta as oil and non-oil producing communities. If a particular community is given a development grant based on the premise that an oil company operates in their home land, what happens to the many other communities which suffers from oil spills, destruction of farmlands, aquatic and marine lives, and pollution of their source of clean drinking water?

I can not understand the logic whereby you give money to community A as oil producing, whereas community X, Y,Z gets nothing and yet suffers from the effects of oil producing activities in its neighborhood. A situation such as this is bound to spell doom.  Obviously, the so called ‘oil producing’ communities will be happy, the oil companies will enjoy relative sporadic peace from beneficiary communities, but other non-oil producing communities suffering from the effects of oil production activities which are not beneficiaries of such grants from oil companies and the federal government will be agitated.

A larger proportion of the restive youths in the Niger Delta who are now fighting in the creeks are actually from the so called ‘non-oil producing communities. Both the oil companies and the federal government should know that there is a big price to pay if this issue of ten percent derivation to oil producing communities is not well managed.  The situation may degenerate into intra-communal clashes leading to a retraction of militants to the creeks.

The success or failure of the post amnesty programme largely depends on how the oil companies and indeed the federal government is able to structure the distribution of the ten percent derivation to oil producing communities. 

Nigeria Will Not Be 'Fool At 50'

Happy Independence Day! I celebrate with you as Nigeria clocks 49 years. We have a few things to be happy about and celebrate. Surely, we can celebrate one Nigeria. At least we can still say we are one 'indivisible' entity. I am not celebrating accomplishment, but us, because you and I are still one family. We have passed through thick and thin, and have had our differences and engaged in several battles. But today, 49 years after, we stand strong as one 'happy' family. Kudos! You deserve more and I believe in the coming years you will earn your deserved rewards.

There is a bright future ahead of us and there is great hope that together we can make it. Let us remain one family and relinquish religious bigotry, sectarianism and tribal divisions. It is only by so doing that we can take head-on the very many opulent challenges before us.

The need to redress our developmental concerns should be the focus as we strive to strengthen this luscious family of ours and tackle the poor power supply situation. Provide good medicare programmes and upgrade our medical facilities. Construct roads and build bridges. Produce enough food to feed our families. Introduce quality education for our sibling and effective transportation system. Provide clean drinkable water and conducive living environment, and most of all, free and fair electoral process that will promote equity and justice.

These goals are attainable and I indeed strongly believe so. But, we must be united in one purpose, to strengthen our resolve to make this great Nigeria family one truly indivisible one that every one of us will cherish and guide jealously. As we look ahead to the future, I wish you good health, wisdom and patience. You can always count on my support.

Finally, don't forget that we have common enemies, and we must support all efforts to eliminate them. Key amongst them are corruption, bad governance, electoral fraud, 419 scam, child abuse and human trafficking, and not forgetting armed robbery and assignations.

Again, wishing you God's blessing.

Happy Independence Day!

Missiles on Wheels

Sadly, only a couple of weeks ago, I lost a close family friend in a ghastly car crash along the Lekki - Epe expressway, involving a commercial vehicle,  whose driver, probable drunk and driving without head lamps, ran across the road to the other side of the road, causing a head-on collision with her official vehicle.

Every day, we see many commercial vehicles and tipper trucks, driving along the Lekki Expressway without head lamps at night.  I have seen a big truck drive on this road with two of its rear tires completely absent, and was rolling on bear reams. Believe it or not, the road safety officials are all over the place. Whether they themselves see these things or not is not left for me to say.

Another very dangerous practice by commercial bus drivers along the Lekki - Ajah axis, is that they disconnect the fuel tank of their vehicle and use a plastic container which they keep at the booth of the vehicle with a hose connected directly to the engine.  This same vehicle transport school children and workers and some lapping the other.  Obviously, this vehicle is a dynamite waiting to explode.

The rate of accidents on the Lekki - Epe expressway is worrisome. The authorities are completely overwhelmed and appear to be helpless while we loose our loved ones to car accidents on a daily basis. The lack of government presence in the Lekki Peninsula axis is very visible, and it time for government to increase it presence.

I am also calling on the traffic agencies to be more committed to their duties and take up the challenge of safe-guarding the lives of our loved ones and family members who ply this route and patronize these commercial vehicles daily.

Let there be Peace in Bayelsa

It is a pity and indeed shameful that Bayelsans are busy fighting themselves while other States are pushing development with all vigour. The same thing happened during the Awolowo - cocoa era. While Awo was busy developing the West, other regions were busy engaging in political wrangling.

Let us be wise and stop fighting. We should concentrate and seek ways of developing Bayelsa State. Presently, States like Lagos, Aqua Ibom, Cross Rivers, Enugu and some others are focused and are busy developing their towns and cities, and here we are busy fighting.





The time will come again in future as it is now, when we have to give account of what we did with the resources available to us now. As usual with Nigerians, then, shall we again start putting the blame on the federal government? We have every opportunity now to move our people forward in the political, economical and fiscal arenas.





I really pity us, because, I hear all kinds of degradating comments about how "we like enjoyment too much," "we are lazy people," "we are illitrates," "we are trouble makers," so on and so forth. Really, when you pause and look at how our people behave, how we manage our resources, and how we run the government of the State, you can not but wonder whether all these negative lies and not true afterall.





Are we really serious at all? Bayelsans, let us be wise. Let us stop the fighting now. We should rather focus our energies on other areas. We should for instance capitalize on the Amnesty programme, and start deploying effectively the resources of the State and massively develope our infrusture with the seriousness it deserve.





Individual wealth will not get us anywhere. Personal wealth dies when you the owner passes away, but infrastructure remains as a legacy for our children. We should drop ergoism, selfishness and party differences and we should all put our hands on the plow without looking back.





We can not always be the back benchers in the affairs in the Nigeria federation. Now is the time to make a change. Peace to all Bayelsans and happy holidays.

Why Are Media Houses in Distress?

The emergence of new media in modern communications has lead to the development of wide ranging applications and opportunities in the ICT environment globally.

In Nigeria however, the impact of new media in our local media is greatly masked by the ineptitude of employers to provide adequate incentives to practitioners, who are poorly remunerated and often owed back log of salaries.

The implication of this is the lack of interest by new media practitioners to seek gainful employment in media houses and therefore unable to contribute to the expected growth and development of the practice in the sector and the country at large.

Until employers and other stake holders in the media industry pay adequate attention to these concerns, the expected positive impact and economic growth the country stand to benefit will continue to be elusive.

Though this is arguable, the truth however is that a lot of media houses worldwide are already paying the price for not embracing new media. Many are shutting down because they cannot keep-up with competition and are unable to key in and deploy new media technology in their operations.

Essentially and without over-emphasizing the fact, our local media houses are responsible for the dearth in new media practice in the country.

Power Supply, Key to Malaria Prevention

Malaria is transmitted by mosquito, a tiny blood sucking, desperate and often annoyingly noisy insect particularly around the ears.  Malaria is the number one killer of children in Nigeria and a major cause of weakness and fewer in adults. Malaria is traced to the cause of poor performance of the general work force and low productivity in mosquito infested environments.

Efforts by researchers in Nigerian universities and drug manufacturers have not yielded any appreciable result in the prevention and treatment of malaria. The national rate of malaria infection is still very high. Malaria control still remains a challenge in Africa where 45 countries, including Nigeria, are classified as malaria endemic regions, and about 588 million people are said to be at risk, according to the WHO, World Malaria Report 2008.

Nigeria is visibly the focus of global efforts aimed at eradicating this deadly malaria parasite. The recent disbandment by the federal government of Nigeria of chloroquine, a popular anti-malaria drug commonly used for the treatment of malaria, and introducing in its place, new sets of drug called artesunate, artemisinin, artemether and lumefantrin as substitutes. This is a major research effort by Nigeria universities and scientists to eliminate the deadly malaria parasite currently ravaging the region.

As research efforts continue to produce new discoveries of better and more effective malaria drugs, we should not also ignore alternative and traditional malaria prevention methods. The campaign for the use of mosquito treated nets has not gaining wide spread acceptance, particularly in the urban cities because of the claim that it causes heat and heat rashes for children which is a result of poor power supply. There are not very many homes that use mosquito treated nets as a result.

Most urban dwellers prefer closing their windows, particularly at night and keeping their air-conditioning system or electric fans on through the night to keep mosquitoes away. This is a very effective method of preventing malaria infection, because the breeze from the air-conditioning system or electric fan blows away the mosquitoes thereby preventing it from perching.

This unconventional method is cheap and bio-friendly, but requires constant supply of electricity for it to be effective. It becomes expensive if power is provided by an individual through power generating sets. Therefore, it is imperative for the federal government and research institutes include power supply to  homes as an integral part of the malaria elimination campaign in both rural dwellings as well as in the urban areas of the country.

I am therefore calling on the World Health Organization, Unicef and all other local and international agencies in the forefront of efforts toward the eradication of malaria in African to increase pressure on the federal government of Nigeria to hasten efforts towards improving electricity supply.

Pull Down The Wall

Nigerians from all parts of the country, across sectoral, cultural, religious and political divides are strongly against any form of separation or division of the federation. The scares of the Odumegwu Ojukwu led Biafra civil war is still very fresh in our memory.

Insinuations recently by Libyan leader Col. Muammar Gaddafi calling for a split of Nigerian into Christian south and Muslim north was largely seen as repulsive and condemnable. Federal government’s spontaneous reaction and recall of the Ambassador to Libya Alhaji Aliu Mohammed, was supported by both Christian and Muslim leaders.

Obviously, Nigerians want to remain as one indivisible entity. However, there are calls for a sovereign national conference to bring about a truly federal constitution. Nigeria is regarded by a school of thought as a mere ‘geographical expression” of the British Colonial masters, brought about by the amalgamation of the north and south when leadership was conceded to the Muslim north under Prime Minister Tafawa Balewa. The British Colonialist did not follow a genuine process of unification as there was no call for a referendum therefore the absense of a consensus amongst the federating regions. This lack of sincerity of purpose on the part of the colonial masters and the lack of consensus by the different sections in the Nigerian state left us as strange bed fellows.

Nigeria is made up of diverse religious, tribal, sectional and political groupings. The killings in March 2010 of over 500 children, women and the elderly in a village in Jos Plateau in Northern Nigeria, by suspected Fulani hardsmen, was suspected to have religious inclinations. The United Nations constituted investigation into the killings fearing possible genocide.

It has become more imperative for us to seek a permanent solution to the frequent riots and clashes amongst different tribes, religious groups  in the country. It is important for us to also start to de-emphasizing those things that causes separation amongst us and consolidate those things that brings us together as a people.

The promotion of one Nigeria by the National Orientation Agency and the Rebranding Nigeria Project along cultural and political lines should be given prominence. Those attributes that tend to divide us should be masked and relegated.

For Nigeria to remain as one indivisible nation, the contraption called ‘three major tribes’ should be eliminated from our body polity. Emphasis should be on majority vote and not majority tribe. This will effectively detribalize the polity. Same applies to religion. Government should stop using tax payers money to fund religion. Rather, it should fund a new cultural revolution aimed at promoting the unity of all tribes and cultures.

Recent accusations leveled against Multi-Choice’s African Magic channel by the Igbo Youths Congress that the network is marginalizing the Igbos by not showing their local movies while giving Hausa and Yoruba films considerable prominence. Such agitations are solemn pointers to this demon called ‘three major tribe. The separation of a people along tribal lines stirs up nothing but conflicts and distrust amongst the people.

You can envisage what will happen when Multi-Choice creates an Igbo channel, people from other parts of the country will start their own agitation as well, and we will never get to the bottom of it. The solution to this, I believe is the creation of a single Movie Magic channel that broadcast films from all parts of the country regardless of region, provided they meet the required standards.

Nigeria needs to step up. I advocate a new ‘One Nigeria’ campaign that will promote peace and justice amongst the. Creating a truly one-people, one-nation ideology whereby we will no longer count tribes but votes. A new society whereby the Muslim and the Christian will become equal. Let us create an harmonious society devoid of acrimony and rancor.

When East and West Germany wanted to unify, one of the most impactful of all the things they did to achieve their reunification was the historic pulling-down of the Berlin Wall. What are our own Berlin Walls that we need to pull down?