By Adekoya Boladale
Fourteen months ago the country went wild when the president removed subsidy on petroleum motor spirit (PMS). It was an action that received outright condemnation and rebuke from most Nigerians.
Ever since, political scholars and social critics have come to agree that President Goodluck Jonathan was better as a zoologist than a policy maker.
In concretizing this assumption, the president after various consultations with stakeholders and political allies decided that amnesty is the best way to solve the insurgency in the North. I won’t agree less, the north need to experience calm and peace. The foremost duty of the president before any other is to ensure the safety of lives and properties of the people he presides over. Amnesty is a common tool around the world; In Nigeria it is a well known tactics brought to life by the late president Yar’adua.
However, the dimension in which amnesty is taking calls for concern. In Nigeria amnesty means different things to different people depending on the situation at the point in time. To the Presidency it is an opportunity to payback political favours through constitution of ministry, committee, sub-committee and placing loyalist in such position to have a fair share of the national cake. To the Niger Deltans it is a means of receiving monthly salary from the government, enjoying an all expense paid trip anywhere in the world coupled with juicy contract worth billions of naira monthly to police oil pipelines.
Obviously this same treatment would be extended to the North under the proposed deal. Then we are forced to ask, what now becomes the fate of the West and East? The implication of this action is nothing but an open invitation to chaos. The Southwest which serves as host to the economy nucleus of the nation and the Southeast which has contributed immensely to the economy of the nation and played host to most of the country’s emerging industries are purely being left out of the ‘bonanza’. Every region has its own problems. Development and social amenities are also scarce in these regions, in fact people feed from hand to mouth and their nonviolent posture is not cowardice but rather patriotism.
The ‘body language’ of this action creates the notion that only Nigerians who take up arms against the government and the society will enjoy the ‘goodies’ of democracy. It is now a fact that Nigerians who painstakingly worked hard to go through school all in pursuit of happiness have only succeeded in wasting their time. While they continue to live and lavish in abject poverty, others who easily take up arms will end up in private jets and have the most beautiful of ladies as wives.
The government has succeeded in welcoming terrorism with open arms which is not just a stain to the garment of democracy but a public rape on peace and tranquility. How do we now convince the youth that the wages of sin is death when obviously it is a passport to eternal and blissful life? Why should we waste time working tirelessly in the scorching sun to make ends meet when we all could just form a group and blow up Air and Sea Ports.
This is the height of maladministration and a circus show of cluelessness.
To those who are yet to notice, Nigeria is currently on its final laps.
The continuous existence of this nation will be determined by the president’s decisions in the next few weeks. The issue at hand has gone beyond giving some set of loyal political touts and miscreants in the west 2.4billion naira monthly to police pipelines, this is a cheap blackmail which will never stand the test of time.
The situation at hand is far beyond ethnic security groups. If the South South has their children all over the world because they pick up arms and same treatment is being proposed to the North then it would be morally unconscionable to advice the East and West to embrace peace.
It is logical that every critic brings up solutions, in this situation the solution is just one. The president should spread the charity service across to the west and east before they pick up arms too. Let’s stop rubbishing the term ‘amnesty’, there are other acronyms and names we can adopt say maybe National Development Scheme (NADES). The president has proven to us all beyond reasonable doubt that Nigeria has excessive wealth in cash with the 2.4billion naira gift to Dr. Fredrick Fasheun. It won’t therefore be a problem to send every willing individual abroad for skill acquisition training and place us all on monthly salary.
A failure to share this ‘gift’ evenly may bring doom upon the country, one which I strongly doubt the combined forces of French and US Marines can guarantee its peace and security.
Adekoya Boladale is a political scientist and wrote via adekoyaboladale@gmail.com
Twitter: @adekoyabee