Comments on: Tompolo and the Amnesty Deal

By: Mystic mallam

Mystic mallam — Thu, 01 Dec 2022 07:09:16 +0000

Seizure by the Federal Government of the fossil energy resources of the Niger Delta, was a unilateral act, no consultations, no agreements, no consensus, just like Lord Lugard’s amalgamation of 1914. The remedy to that initial breach of trust and ownership was not amnesty, it had to be restoration and compensation. Ultimately, amnesty will fail, if it hasn’t already failed to resolve the struggle for resource control. Well, with oil discovery in the North, a huge window of opportunity has opened to do the right thing – let each federating unit own and control its resources and pay to the central government rents and taxes as may be negotiated and agreed. That is where the remedy lies.

By: Interessant

Interessant — Thu, 01 Dec 2022 03:10:01 +0000

The idea of amnesty runs against the grain of common sense if Tompolo was not offered the job of minister of petroleum immediately after. He saw injustice in the wealth distribution coming from oil and became a militant. Tompolo would have done better than all the so-called educated people who have managed our oil till date. It is not a surprise that he has been able to burst all kinds of criminal diversion of oil wealth through illegal pipelines. Those so-called educated ministers and the managing directors heard no evil and saw no evil.

The Niger Delta oil is for Niger Delta people. They are free to let other Nigerians have a share of it. Not the other way round. What he have seen as a result of the illogicality in the distribution of oil wealth is that a few Niger Deltans genuinely benefited. Such people must have been patting themselves on the back, thinking about their little success. They should imagine what the Niger Delta would have been like-a haven of abundance.

Better still, the Niger Delta will be willing to part with some percentage of oil wealth for other Nigerians. If that had happened since 1960, poverty would have been a thing of the past by 2022. Legislations in the National Assembly would have been focussed on letting the wealth of the Niger Delta trickle down to the rest of us. Politicising oil wealth is almost an unpardonable error. If properly managed, everybody benefits and development processes are triggered accordingly.

By: RumuPHC

RumuPHC — Thu, 01 Dec 2022 02:58:02 +0000

Dear Segun Adeniyi ,

The Amnesty offered by late President Yar Adua to agitators ex Niger Delta militants was indeed the best deal for peace in the oil rich region . Yar Adua was indeed a humble and realistic leader to have agreed to the peaceful overture to end the raging insurgency against the state and siege on oil production in the creeks.

Regrettably, the consequential Presidential Amnesty Programme unveiled by the ailing president was poorly conceived and has since being incompetent executed as well as corruptly managed by all and sundry .

The Amnesty bought peace but has failed to restore the Niger Delta to the path of sustainable development. The existing arrangement in the region is still fraught with uncertainties and quite precarious for large scale oil and gas projects with high FDI requirements. While the PAP on one
hand successfully ended the era of armed insurrection in the Niger Delta by starving any would-be-warlord of further recruiting unemployed hungry and angry youths in the creek now provided with stipend and rehabilitation by FG, the downside of PAP , however, is the creation of a new hybrid bureaucracy steeped very much in
corruption and an environment of blackmail of the oil industry by the ex warlords and their contractor partners .

What currently prevails in the Niger Delta is actual an Armistice. A subtle form of armed aggression still exist while a potential for full scale insurrection dangles . The former developed a deadly embrace between politicians and ex warlords to procured ‘ghost’ militants ; huge contracts that were shoddily executed ; massive oil theft ; and
now , anti-oil theft contractors . The latter is only kept at bay by the current rewards accruing to the militants from the former . The Niger Delta is in a pseudo peaceful state funded by a booming criminal enterprise.