Buhari May Review Amnesty Programme, Not Scrap It

 – Eradiri

National President of Ijaw Youths Council (IYC), Udengs Eradiri, in this interviewUzo Chikere talks about the way forward the nation, the new administration and other sundry issues after the 2015 general elections. Excerps:

What is your thought on the general elections that brought in President Mohammadu Buhari’s administration?

Frankly speaking, very bitterly we lost the election. We lost it not because we didn’t do our homework but because the President just wanted to be a statesman. Let me put it that way because I don’t want to open can of worms. I don’t want to x-ray the process that we went through but the truth is the elections have come and gone, Nigerians have decided on the kind of leadership they want and I think this country needs to move forward.

The electoral process has affected the economy, business and our way of life. Let us put it behind us so that we can move ahead. So far so good, the thing that President Goodluck Jonathan did is best in trying to put Nigeria on the speed lane of progress. Maybe he couldn’t communicate properly some of his works which made Nigerians to express their frustration at the polls. For us, we are learning to accept the true reality that we lost what we have yearned for over the years to get political power at this level and so we have moved on.

How do you think this will affect South-East and South-South, are you disturbed that there could be the possibility they would be marginalized by the APC-led government?

I’m not afraid. In fact, the opposition should know that the outcome of the election especially in the South-South and South-East, tells you that the President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari is not widely accepted as the President of Nigeria. It is the APC that should be afraid that they have just had a process that showed that they are not widely accepted and must begin to do what it takes to quickly harmonise this two regions into their leadership. Buhari has to win the heart of our people because these are two regions that have a history of agitation for self-determination and secession from Nigeria. It is already a time bomb and so they should not go home and celebrate.

They should rather go back to the drawing board and ensure they do whatever it takes to court ethnic nationalities and co-opt them into the new administration.  I hope the concern should be on the part of the winners of the election rather than on our part because they know that we own the economy of this country and that we are going to constantly remain on the negotiating table regardless of whatever leadership that comes into power in Nigeria. They cannot ignore us. They have the political power and we have economic power. We need to be symbiotic for there to be progress. All the bogus expectations of Nigerians will amount to nothing if the people of the Niger Delta decide to be aggressive towards the new leadership.

There are insinuations that the new government will stop the Amnesty programme, what is your take on that?

People making such insinuations are trouble makers who want to cause problems for the new administration. Buhari must be wary of such individuals because they don’t mean well. We will not be begging for the amnesty because no government that has vision will wake up and scrap the amnesty programme. I know Buhari has something upstairs, so he won’t contemplate that. He would be shooting himself on the foot if he does that.

It is simple economics, if you stop the amnesty, you will not see the money for your bogus economic plans. But if you sustain the amnesty there will be more money flowing in. Even in this dwindling economic situation in Nigeria, we still need oil to be flowing in order to have the resources to pay salaries. It is still this amnesty programme that has sustained the economy to the point that we are. They managed to share about N300 billion recently, which is the lowest that we have ever had. So, if they stop the amnesty programme and the over 20, 000 trained Niger Delta youths go back to the creeks, there would  be sabotage in large scale, and the entire country will bear the brunt. The APC has reasonable sound minds, they can only review the process if they feel the programme is a conduit as some have alleged. The Buhari administration can review the amnesty programme but not scrapping because the truth is that it has brought peace in Niger Delta, sustained the economy of this country.

Some people are already presenting themselves as leaders and spokespersons for the Niger Delta, given APC’s victory in the presidential election. What do you say to these people to avoid tension in the South-South?

Even when President Jonathan was still on seat, Niger Delta people who benefited from him; Ijaw people who took all the jobs from him are the ones scrambling now in front of Buhari claiming to be representative of the Ijaw people. These people will begin to create conflicts and faction in the leadership of organisations in Niger Delta just to show to Buhari and APC that they are the ones in charge. So, when there is a focused leadership they will try everything possible to divide the house. Those are the things that have already started and we will continue to warn the public to look at them because we will resist them. Some of them were those who stoned Buhari when he came to campaign there in the past, today they are the ones before Buhari claiming to be the best people in the Niger Delta. They are already fanning the ambers of crisis in the region. The President must be wary of these individuals; the APC must note them properly because they have no say in the Niger Delta.

If you are to set agenda for the government in the area of security, what would be your priority?

President Buhari, if he is not a fanatic as we suspect, should be able to call his people to order so that they don’t go ahead killing Christians because the Boko Haram saga is about eliminating Christians in the North. Now that he has taken over leadership and this leadership is being supported by the West, we expect that the West and their allies will prevail on him to call his people to order, so that they can stop the killings going on.

In the area of infrastructure, what is your advice to the Buhari administration?

My take is that the government should pay attention to the Niger Delta the same way the Goodluck Jonathan government paid so much attention to the North. Go and see the multi-billion dollar projects Jonathan initiated in the North because he felt that he needed to appease them, but even at that, all they wanted was power and no other thing and they have gotten it. We expect them to also give us the same attention, because if the South-South gave them attention, we expect them to also give us attention, after all, the amnesty programme was orchestrated by a Northern President, Bayelsa State was created by a Northerner, and so we have always seen them as people who will always pay attention to our environment. That’s why Ijaw youths are saying let’s allow them the opportunity to take power and see their body language. We have some level of confidence that it might not be as bad as people are insinuating.

The 2014 National Conference came up with lots of recommendations, which the Jonathan administration was unable to implement before it lost the election. Would you advice the new government to go ahead with the confab report?

If you read our communiqué after our meeting, which reviewed the 2015 electoral process, part of our demands from the Buhari government was that he should not scrap the amnesty programme; he should focus on our environment; he should clean up the environment as contained in the UN report and expand it to other parts, and that he should implement the National Conference report. Knowing that his party did not participate in the confab, we call on the international community to in the same way, they conspired to remove President Goodluck Jonathan, to also conspire to put pressure on Buhari to implement that report because all Nigerians came together, to discuss and arrive at a common ground, so that our country would be on the right path. The report might not have been 100 per cent acceptable or full proof to solving Nigeria’s problems, but at least, it is a step towards the right direction.

We have already said that the international conspiracy should also conspire to put pressure on him to accept that report because the South-West, South-East, North, Middle Belt, South-South all supported it. Everybody came together and arrived at a document and IYC has always held that position. I was addressing the Black Caucus in US congress not long ago in America and I raised those issues. Nigeria already has a starting point, which was the national confab. Our agitation from time immemorial has always been that the middle ground should be a sovereign national conference. So, if the outgone administration had seemingly put up something that looked like a sovereign confab that brought Nigerians to discuss and resolutions were reached, let us also try and implement them, and see whether they will take us to the Eldorado that we expect.

Do you believe Buhari has what it takes to fight corruption?

Already we are hearing stories of people exploiting people who want to see Buhari. We also hear Buhari warning people because he knows that some people are already collecting money on his behalf. I read in one of the dailies how members of the APC cabinet are bribing some party leaders who are making them believe that they can take them to Buhari to retain their office. Is that not the worst form of corruption? The same people who preached change are using the same thing they accuse others of to extort money from Nigerians.

The truth is that Nigeria will not change until something drastic is done and so far it is within the confines of this democracy to go to court to prove somebody guilty of an offence before you can jail him, the circle of corruption will continue. So, if Buhari thinks that he can bring the military style, he will have his house full of litigations because some of these things that you see are being hyped by the lawyers so that Buhari and his people will jump into it for them (lawyers) to continuously make money.