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.
