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War in the Delta By Kevin Etta Jr.
The federal government deserves applause for the current policy of taking a stiffer military approach to pacify the restive Niger Delta region and for deploying the armed forces in a full-scale invasion of the area. The objective is clear: to capture or kill the militants and their leaders and neutralize the volatility in the region to such an extent that will allow the functioning of the newly established Ministry of Niger Delta and other efforts to develop the area, consistent with the decades’ long agitation by legitimate interests in the region.
Total war, while always undesirable and almost always the result of failed political solutions, is in some cases necessary and in many cases (as in this one) inevitable. A situation where militants bear arms illegally and prosecute a protracted campaign of piracy, arson, and terror against Nigerian citizens and interests cannot be justifiable and must not go without reply by a functional government – except it is dysfunctional, as in some examples around the world (i.e. Somalia).
Unfortunately, innocent civilians -- men, women, and children -- will be caught up in the carnage; some killed, others maimed, and many displaced and mentally scarred by the face of war. This is why war is undesirable. However, the ultimate responsibility for these unfortunate incidents lies at the feet of those who provoked the situation through kidnapping, murders, arson, and terror against innocent citizens and institutions – some of the institutions having been established for the purpose of bringing the very development the criminals pretend is the basis for their illegal activity.
We must give credit to the federal government as credit is due, and encourage them to not falter or fail, but prosecute this campaign until they are able to achieve measurable and verifiable success in eliminating the scourge of militancy in the region. We must also strongly urge the military authorities to ensure as far as is possible in the circumstances of such a conflict that collateral damage in the form of civilian casualties and displacement is kept to a minimum. Furthermore, federal and local officials must ensure that adequate humanitarian provision is made to assist and accommodate those seriously affected and impacted by the hostilities consistent with universal conventions and international law.
But we must also highlight the failure, once again, of the president and his media managers to utilize an opportunity to enhance the president’s stature and shore up his leadership profile. We don’t expect the president to have announced this military strategy in advance (which would negate the element of surprise). But once the campaign got underway, he might have gone on national television to publicly spell out his administration’s objectives in launching the invasion and give Nigerians a sense of what would constitute a successful campaign from the administration’s own perspective (and not run the risk of expectations being set high or low by the quizzical public). The president would also have had the opportunity to lay out, once again, his own vision of a roadmap for pacifying and developing the Niger Delta region consistent with Nigeria’s strategic interests and consistent with the decades’ long agitation of the region’s legitimate and true leaders.
We can learn from America’s President Barack Obama, who seizes upon major crises as opportunities to speak directly to the American people about his vision for achieving success versus the challenges they face – thereby accomplishing two things: the first, that he enhances his stature as a leader and a communicator; the second, that he galvanizes, not necessarily everybody, but a sizable swathe of the general public who now become casual foot-soldiers in mobilizing and steering public discourse in the direction of the president’s stated goals.
If Barack Obama has taught us anything about leadership, it is that leadership is as much about intellectual grasp, grit, and breadth, as it is about being able to take the center stage and speak to the issues publicly with a vision and a view to enlisting the broader populace as foot-soldiers in your cause.
God save Nigeria.
Kevin Etta Jr. Dallas, Texas, USA
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