By Ken Agala
\nIn 2008, I was working as an associate in a consultancy firm in Port
\nHacourt. A friendly consultancy firm got a contract which they were
\nwilling to let us have, since they couldn’t handle it.
\nThe job was to carry out an expedition along the Amukpe- Escravos route. A
\ncompany Pan Ocean was bidding to build the 67 kilometer pipeline within
\nthe project route and needed to get a detailed security report on the
\narea. This was at the peak of the militancy.
\nI encouraged my boss to take the job and we were given terms of reference
\nwhich included to trace the history of violent clashes within the area,
\nascertain the various militant war lords and their sphere of control
\nwithin the project zone, identify the various flash points along the
\nproject route and identify reliable militant groups to work with amongst
\nothers.
\nAs a way of making sure we don’t sit in a hotel and write our reports like
\nDr. Stephen Davies,we were given hand held GPRS gadgets so we could take
\nreadings of the various points where we visited.
\nI was young, adventurous and I needed the money since the pay was mouth
\nwatering.
\nWe took the contract and I made contacts through my ‘bosom’ friends in
\nWarri who hooked me up with a local guide that knows the area, familiar
\nwith the route and can give us a bit of history about the zone.
\nAfter meeting with our local guide in a hotel in warri the night before we
\ncommenced, one of my co-researchers packed his bag and went back to
\nPorthatcourt. He wasn’t interested anymore. He almost scared me, but I was
\ndetermined to get the job done.
\nOur trip included going my road to Sapele and then taking a boat all the
\nway to Escravos, through the scary Benin River. According to our guide,
\nthe area was littered with different very hostile militant camps and the
\nItshekiri and Ijaw hostility was still fresh. The guide clearly told us
\nthat there is an extent he will get to and return back, leaving us to go
\non our own with another guide whom he has contacted.
\nWe were supposed to transferred into another boat in the middle of the
\nBenin River. Armed with my GPRS ,some cash and a determined spirit, we got
\nto Sapele, took my GPRS reading and headed to Escravos by boat.
\nIt was the most dangerous journey of my life. At every five kilometers, a
\ngang of gang of armed youths in a turbo charged speed boats will intercept
\nus. They’d first rain bullets into the air, then move towards us with
\ntheir double engine boats allowing our boat to tumble around to the
\ndictate of the enormous wave they made at the sea.
\nI was searched to my pants half a dozen times by apparently highly drugged
\nyouths,made to close my eyes while AK47 rifles pumped hot lead around. At
\none point even my GPRS, the only evidence to collect my pay, was seized.
\nAt the point of trans-loading at mid sea, my remaining partner insisted he
\nwas going back with the first local guide. This seemed like the opening I
\nwas looking for. Scared shitless by now, we apologized to the second boat
\nand the guide, of course they have been paid in advance.. We had to head
\nback to land as fast as possible . It was a horror trip and I promised
\nmyself a very hot slap if I made it back to Portharcourt safely .
\nI refused to tell my wife the true story, cos this might be one of those
\nstories you’d tell your wife thinking she’d applaud your efforts and you
\nmight just receive the hot slap in return.
\nHeading back to Warri, I contacted my office and told them what
\nhappened.The sea was very rough, some army officers had just been killed (
\nwhich was true) and the militants were suspicious of everybody . I
\narranged to meet with two militants at the hotel and took their oral
\ninterviews.
\nI did my report based on that , attached some pictures I got and headed
\nback to Port harcourt. When the clients read my story and saw the look ok
\nmy face, they knew they had to pay me complete GPRS or no GPRS.
\nA few months later, worried by the decline in oil production, wanton
\nransom kidnappings , killing of military personnel , the Federal
\ngovernment decided to carry out a huge military expedition of the military
\ncamps in the Niger Delta. Major-General Sarkin Yarki Bello, a no nonsense
\nKebbi born General has been commissioned to head the massive operation.
\nThe whole world stood still. The oil rich Niger Delta is set to be strafed
\nby bombs. The collateral damage will be enormous. The outcry will be loud.
\nThe response of the militants will be equally as deadly. Oil facilities
\nwill be bombed out and the decline in the country revenue will grow to an
\nall time low. Austerity is set to bite harder and harder.(apologies to Gen
\nBuhari)
\nVice President Goodluck Jonathan asked his boss for one more opportunity .
\nHe wanted to visit the militant camps himself. He was prepared to stake
\nhis life for peace to reign.
\nPresident Yardua refused, such a high profile VIP kidnapped or killed will
\ncreate chaos in the country. Jonathan insisted on making the trip, bearing
\nin mind what he saw after the Odi massacre, he never wanted another of
\nsuch in a larger proportion over the Niger Delta.
\nAgainst military advise , Vice President Jonathan flew from Abuja to
\nWarri, took a chopper to Escravos and headed by sea to Okerenkoko where
\nthe notorious Camp Five was sited. All the major militants head of the
\nNiger a Delta had gathered to wait for him . He was not to come with any
\nsingle military or security personnel . The Vice President was accompanied
\nby only Kingley Kuku, an Ijaw activist and two others.
\nThis was the first time in global history where this sort of high profile
\nexecutive will risk his life by appearing personally in the camp of
\ninsurgents.
\nArriving the venue of the meeting, the Vice President was incommunicado
\nfor almost seven hours. The country stood still and waited patiently. Many
\nthought he will be kidnapped and used as a bargaining tool or even
\npossibly killed.
\nBut he returned after several hours of the meetings, with a commitment and
\nthe amnesty program was borne. Earlier on, he had travelled to South
\nAfrica to hold a meeting with Henry Okar also on the need to accept the
\namnesty and stop the killings.
\nWhile I give kudos to Umaru Musa Yardua for the amnesty, but it took a man
\nwith a ball of steel to extract that commitment from the militants.
\nGoodluck Jonathan might not sound like a roaring lion, might not be an ex
\nmilitary General , but beneath that humble and gentle smile, lies a steely
\ndetermination to remain resolute towards any mark he has set for himself.
\nIf the thinking is that he will be frightened away from the Presidency due
\nto terror attacks, that plan has failed. No amount of terror can make a
\ntrue leader abandon his subjects in the middle of the battle.
\nJonathan has actually done this country a great good by putting himself up
\nfor re-election despite the insurgency . If he had buckled under pressure,
\nhe would have set a precedence that a Nigerian President can be forced
\naway from his constitutional entitlement due to a certain level of
\nviolence.
\nThe day Nigeria accepts that, is actually the beginning of the end of this
\ncountry.
\nThe insurgency has been going on for almost three years and people can
\nstill ask the President what he has done.
\nWhy? Because budgets are still being drawn up and implemented. But look at
\nordinary falling of oil prices, and we are tightening our belts already.
\nIf this manner of insurgency goes on in the Niger Delta, first, eastern
\nbloc countries will fuel it by supplying arms to militants cos it will
\nserve their purpose and stabilize global oil price since Nigeria
\nproduction will reduce to the barest minimal.
\nAfter one year of such insurgency in the Niger Delta, Nigeria will start
\nhemorrhaging and bleeding from all corners like an Ebola patient . By the
\nnext year, the federal and state governments won’t even be able to pay
\nsalaries again and this is when the real katakata will burst.
\nYesterday, a certain senator called for President Jonathan’s impeachment
\nas the only solution to stop the insurgency. This is a senator from Yobe
\nstate. Perhaps he should have asked Senator James Manager and others how
\nthey responded in the senate when the Niger delta insurgency took place.
\nAnybody who is thinking that he has to be in government before he could
\ncontribute to stopping the insurgency, is the biggest enemy of Nigeria.
\nWe stand with our amiable President in this very trying times .
\nTogether we shall surely overcome this menace.
\nGod bless Nigeria.<\/p>\n
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