Date Published: 05/27/09

Niger Delta: Ezeife canvasses end to military action

Former governor of Anambra state, Dr. Chukwuemeka Ezeife yesterday advised government to withdraw troops from the Niger Delta, insisting that the situation does not warrant such level of bombardment.

Ezeife who spoke in Abuja noted that though it was criminal for some Niger Delta militants to engage in kidnapping or wanton damage to public installations, the situation in the area does not call for full-scale military unslought.

Condemning the activities of the militants, whom he noted have deviated from the “freedom fighting” concept they initially claimed, he maintained that it was wrong for government to embark on the destruction of civilian villages or to target at innocent people.

He noted that though it is “understandable that federal government should be frustrated on the situation in the Niger Delta, especially as the militants seem not to be “Freedom Fighters” we know because there is a preponderance of criminality in what they do, Nigerians are not happy over what government is doing there now.

“However, nothing justifies Nigeria bombing from the air; shelling from the sea, into civilian communities and villages that are not a dean of criminals. 

The elder statesman, who was Political Adviser to President Olusegun Obasanjo, explained that such aerial bombardments will create the impression that the nation is at war with itself.

He also cautioned on the negative psyche such military unslaught might leave on the youth in the area and other places, which he explained was far more important than reducing an entire village to rubble because of few elements.

 “It does not sound right that Nigeria should be bombing Nigeria .  I therefore call on Nigeria to cease further action.  The fact that these militants have been damaging several facilities does not justify the shelling and bombardment of communities in the Niger Delta on communities that are civilians,” he stressed.

He called for concerted effort at finding lasting solution stressing that both government, the communities, companies operating in the area and youths in the area, must close ranks.

Analyzing the current political situation, Ezeife thumped down the nation’s leaders, insisting that they have failed the populace in the past ten years.

He also blamed politicians for always compromising officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), whom he noted “were always a willing tool waiting to be compromised”.

He said that the only remedy for the current political situation was to dismantle existing political structures and start all over, as he noted that the current polity has been irredeemably corrupted.