Date Published: 08/21/09

UNDEDSS reacts to Ekaette’s amnesty claim

The United Niger Delta Energy Development Security Strategy (UNDEDSS) has reacted sharply to the statement credited to the minister of the newly created Niger Delta Ministry, Ufot Ekaette by a certain segment of Nigerian media.

The minister was quoted to have said during a seminar in South Africa, on Monday that the amnesty granted the Niger Delta Militants by  President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua was progressing successfully with very many militants handing in their guns and denouncing militancy. UNDEDSS said that nothing could be further from the truth as his action was a deliberate attempt to hoodwink the international community into believing that the amnesty programme is on course.

Mr Tony Uranta , the Secretary General of UNDEDSS, said that he could not understand what informed the minister’s declaration when there was basically nothing of any significance taking place, in the disarmament centres or any where, almost half way through the 60 days apportioned for the programme to run. "As much as I respect Chief Ekaette, and I do want to be able to say yes the amnesty is on course, I wonder how he came about his figures or what he would want us to understand by the word 'many',” he said.

Uranta explained that, “the amnesty could be said to be on course depending on what the expectations were of whoever is assessing the progress, at any point, from beginning. If the amnesty of president Yar Adua were on course as the honourable minister were trying to sell to his South African audience, hundreds, if not thousands of militants would have by now surrendered tens of thousands of arms, signed the undertaken to renounce militancy, and probably would have started being signed up for the reintegration process. To the best of my knowledge so far, less than fifty or about fifty so called militants have given up themselves so far, and far less than a hundred guns have been collected. This cannot in any way have been worth a trip from Nigeria, all the way to South Africa, by the minister to sell the government image as having been successful in the area of the amnesty programme.”

Uranta went on to say that the real reason why the militants were not coming out to embrace the amnesty was because they do not fully trust the president and his administration. “They do not trust the process because the process has not unveiled what post amnesty plans this administration has either for the region or even for the young men and women coming out from the creeks. It would be sad if Yar’ Adua ends up throwing tens of thousand  of young men and women trained in the art of wielding arms (which they may still have access to) into shanties that look like concentration camps and expect that they will blend into the whole process of nation building and peace making. Many fear that it may end up being exactly like the case of what happened when the South Eastern States summarily dismantled the ‘Bakassi boys’. That created the level of armed robbery and high armed incidents of crime in the region“ he said.

As far as he is concerned, the few that had come out so far to surrender their arms and submit themselves to the amnesty process, did so mainly because of the trust they
reposed on Timi Alaibe, the President’s Special Adviser on Niger Delta matters. “They have done so mainly because they have wanted to show a belief in him. MEND has said it will trust only Alaibe, and hold him responsible if anything goes wrong.”

According to him, “We of UNDEDSS believe that president Yar Adua did not really approached this from the right angle right from the start. He has put the cart before the horse, but even with that, we all in the Niger Delta have accepted that we will embrace the amnesty process cautiously, while we call the president to retrace his step, and do the right thing by publishing the White Paper on the Niger Delta Technical Committee report, which will hopefully let us see what is his holistic intent towards the region.” 

Uranta also alluded to USA Secretary of State, Mrs. Hillary Clinton's pointer during her Nigerian visit, that trust is the basis of every democracy, as he reminded that, “we have said repeatedly that the success or otherwise of a true search for peace must be based on trust and when the amnesty was proclaimed by the president, initially there was rejection all through the region. We (elders, leaders women and so on), only decided to cautiously embrace it because we must engage every window of opportunity. But recently, as in six days ago, you must have heard that the Niger Delta women held a consultative forum in Warri and resolved not to accept this amnesty as it is being offered and they have predicted that it will fail unless the president announces post amnesty plans which are the only things that will build trust. This is in line with the demands by the Niger Delta Elders and Leaders Forum that credible and viable Post amnesty plans be made public that will address the fundamental issues that brought about agitation in the first place. So far the President has chosen not to be responsive to these rational calls that may avert distress in the near future; but we hope and expect that sooner than later, the he will come to realise that it is in his  best interest to do so.