Just on the face of it, separating imagined ghosts and real demons is obviously a tricky business that requires the baptism of the Holy Ghost. However, from the latest disclosures of President Olusegun Obasanjo’s covert arms purchase for the clampdown of Niger Delta Rights Activists (commonly referred to as militants), it is obvious that to him, the era of affirmative action or feigned direct intervention in correcting decades of neglect of the area and its people seems to have come to a close as far as his government is concerned. Pathetically, this Obasanjo frame of mind may also have been genetically transmitted to the cloned PDP presidential flag bearer who seems not to have any iota of idea of his own idea about anything.

 

The Presidency’s categorization of the Atiku’s exposé of government’s weapons deal as a plan designed to incite the people of the Niger Delta in order to scuttle the transition programme was not only an insult to the people of the region but could best be described as a calculated mischief packaged to dodge the real allegation.

 

Though critics of Vice President Atiku may call this revelation a gimmicky, even supporters of the Obasanjo-led PDP government would admit that its policy on Niger Delta is startlingly clumsy and at best repressive. Common sense would have made right thinking Nigerians to accept that what Atiku actually meant was that there can be a different approach to the solution of the Niger Delta problem.

 

Reading the media reports on the pronouncement by Atiku even kids can deduce what the man actually meant. He said rather than the fire-for-fire approach which has never worked and will never work, direct engagement and dialogue of all strata of stakeholders of the region would produce far more positive results both in re-dressing the development imbalance and instilling lasting or rather genuine peace in the region.

 

Atiku during the commissioning of his campaign headquarters in Abuja accused the Presidency of ordering the NNPC to immediately release $2 billion for the purchase of weapons to wipe out militants in the Niger Delta. “I will channel that money to the development of the area because if the area is developed, the people will not carry arms”, he was quoted as haven said.

 

But in a surprise reaction in the media two days later, Mr. Uba Sani, the President’s Special Assistant on Public Affairs, accused the Vice President of incitement and of plans to destabilize the country. That is not the issue. President Obasanjo should come public to tell Nigerians that he did not sign a $2 billion arms deal with an American firm solely to frontally deal with the agitating people of the Niger Delta especially those the government labeled as militants and some traditional rulers.

 

Whether Obasanjo likes it or not, the Niger Delta has become a top election issue and whosoever the people of the region will vote for must convincingly state what programmes he/she has for the region and how such programmes are going to be implemented and within a clearly defined time frame. The last two presidential elections in this country were won by President Obasanjo and the PDP based on the abnormally massive votes (obviously rigged) got from the Niger Delta states. Yet the region cannot claim to have gained anything tangible in terms of infrastructure from the present administration. Worst still, the PDP presidential flag bearer for the forthcoming April election seems not to have any idea of his own, especially as pertains to the Niger Delta question.

 

Though it may not be enough at this point to effectively calm the tensed nerves of the agitating people of the area because they have heard so much from the Abuja gangsters, at least Vice President Atiku Abubakar, the AC presidential flag bearer stands as the only contender for the presidential slot that has shown anything that can pass as an articulate and workable programme for the Niger Delta region.

 

In his policy document entitled From Reform to Prosperity, believed to serve as the working document for his government when elected as the president, Atiku if for nothing, has been able to put together a what looks like a strategy to address the Niger Delta question.

 

He promised to create a Federal Ministry of Niger Delta with the NDDC as a parastatal to accelerate the development of the region as was done with the development of Abuja.

 

In addition to appointing an oil minister of Niger Delta origin (with the full powers of the office), Atiku also said he would accord higher value to the principle of derivation in revenue allocation and decentralize derivation policy to community level.

 

How else can anybody describe the Atiku Vision for the Niger Delta if not to say that at least the man has a clear strategy and workable ideas on how to begin to address the injustices being done to the people of the area by the federal government?

 

The coast guards initiative comprising mostly of indigenes of the Niger Delta to protect lives and property not only in the region but across the nation’s coastal areas and territorial waters, if implemented as promised in the Atiku Vision would not only create jobs but would give the youths some sense of being part of what is going on in their area.

 

In the policy document, Atiku also promised to promote the concept of Niger Delta indigenous local content in the oil and gas sector including the associated marine services in all its ramifications to guarantee that the people of Niger Delta derive equitable benefits from the sector.

 

Atiku also identified a number of environmental and human capital development initiatives which he plans to implement to bring peace and development to the region. This at least shows that the man has highlighted some of his agenda for the region which will be used to assess both his genuine willingness and integrity in the future if is elected into office.

 

With all sincerity of intention and from his focused ideas on issues of the region, if Atiku has not been attending the presidential forum on the Niger Delta, it is not because he does not care about the region as falsely claimed by the Presidency. It is because the presidential forum has become a hollow, time-wasting television show where serious contributions are ridiculed and participants are harangued and shouted down by an all-knowing and comical moderator.

 

Rather than waste his time at such hollow rituals, Atiku has spent his time bringing together respected stakeholders to draw up proposals for solving the problems of the area as encapsulated in his policy document. 

 

If not that the current government rode on the back of Nigerian people without telling them what to expect from it, why the Presidency would accuse Atiku of treason on the basis of comments made on the Niger Delta in his capacity as the presidential candidate of the Action Congress (AC). As he is asking Nigerians to vote him into office as an alternative to the PDP flag bearer, Nigerians expect him to convince them on an alternative vision.

 

As the leading presidential candidate, Atiku is at liberty to offer the people of Nigeria, and the people of the Niger Delta in particular, his programme for resolving the myriad of serious social and security problems of the region. This does not in any way amount to a breach of security or breach of the Official Secret Acts.

 

President Olusegun Obasanjo is currently personally leading PDP presidential campaign to persuade Nigerians to vote for the party candidate Umar Yardua on the basis of the policies and programmes of the Obasanjo Administration. Is it not reasonable to expect that in the same electioneering campaign, such policies and programmes would come under the issues that any serious opposition candidate would examine and offer alternative points of view? This question is left for not just the Niger Delta people but the entire citizenry to answer.

 

Following his pronouncements as reported in the media on pressing national issues, it is obvious that the man Atiku believes that only genuine dialogue and commitment to the principles of justice, equity and rule of law demonstrated through a combination of measures will effectively address the Niger Delta question. It is no treason to offer another way of looking at this problem which the Obasanjo-led government had displayed deliberate lack of political will to confront with human face.

 

Is it not better to anchor the entire Niger Delta policy on human capital development and security, built around a political process rather than recourse to only law and order? It is left for not only the people of the Niger Delta but the entire people of Nigeria to answer.

 

To say that the coming elections will be won and lost on issues which affect us (Nigerians) as a people is an understatement. And the candidate Atiku Abubakar has rightly identified and elevated the problem of the Niger Delta as a priority issue which deserves urgent and sincere attention.

 

SENIOR FYNEFACE, ELELEWON STREET GRA II PORT HARCOURT.