RUMBLINGS FROM THE CREEK…and gentle whispers of true leaders By Ena Ofugara

Only a fool will ask a man to drop his gun and not guarantee he gets his meals regularly. Except you plan on killing that man, or you have built a cell to keep all like him, including children born that will be like him, then you must ensure he…or majority like him have food. Anything short of this is to ask him….force him to pick up a gun again.Those who follow this page will never see me criticize amnesty for Boko Haram. Much as I detest those bloodsuckers, I am realistic enough to know that a lion that has tasted human flesh is never allowed to be a circus lion. I know the power the Boko Haram leaders and youths have, being able to plunder and rape and blackmail and rule. Expecting them to put down their arms and go back to being shoemakers and cattle rearers without some sort of supplementary moneys, is wishful thinking. It is in this regard I watch closely Buhari’s moves to offer amnesty to Boko Haram.

Yes Buhari in his that campaign of APC where they promised to chop the sun up and give each Nigerian its energy on a plate, had criticized GEJ for attempting to negotiate with Boko Haram. In his now famous tough talks, he said “Boko Haram do not want peace, else they wil not kill 13000 (thirteen thousand) people”. That statement however is the closest to the truth from my standpoint. Goodluck Jonathan would have handed them whatever if only they would stop killing. However, when people claim to kill for God, what can man offer them in exchange? Therein lies the major difference with the Niger Delta militants.

The Niger Delta militants do not do what they do claiming a call from God. It is purely a fight for fairness. Yes people have become tone deaf to their plight. I hear the thoughts of many Nigerians not from ther, totally believing that they are the aggressors. That is sad sad sad. Comparing a people who cannot till their soil because the soil is dead for one thousand years, who cannot fish because the waters are forever polluted, who cannot breathe clean air as asthma and OCPD and wheezing breath is their lot as the air is filled with all kinds of chemicals…and still they cannot find jobs even in these companies,…companies dominated by Yorubas and Hausas and some Igbos, wealth spirited away to build ABuja, Lagos, Kano, Kaduna and the rest of Nigeria…yet people would call actions by these people “militancy, terrorism, treason, etc etc” . I even called it “militancy”.

I have asked people what Boko Haram wants. I Ena Ofugara as a Niger Deltan can answer for my brother Mujahid Dokubo-Asari and say FOOD. They want FOOD. They want their homeland repaired. They want hospitals. They want Oloibiri where oil was found and which till date has no good hospital or road or water to drink, they want what you have in Lagos and Kano. However they can never get Oloibiri back because there is no more oil in that dead city in Bayelsa. It is dead forever.A thousand years must pass before the spilled oil can decay and form soil once again.

So I have answered what my people want. What does Boko Haram want?
While what my people want removes nothing that is yours from you, Boko Haram asks that I accept Allah? And that the Allah I accept must be a particular teaching? Is that what a people should desire and fight and murder over in this century?

I STAND PROUDLY TO DEFEND THE NIGER DELTA STRUGGLE, CAN YOU PLEASE DEFEND BOKO HARAM’S? What gargantuan idiocy leads men to equate both?

God bless Yar”Adua. Maybe like you, he had become tone-deaf and apathetic to the cries of the Niger Delta, cries first made by Adaka Boro which made Adekunle the scorpion to murder him; cries echoed by Saro Wiwa and the murdered Ogoni nine…murdered by Abacha, Yet the intellect of this consummate academic and pride to Fulani, He was smart enough to know these words rang true
“If you think peace is expensive, try war”

It takes some kind of a lack of true intelligence not to realize that whatever Tompolo and co are getting is inconsequential when juxtaposed with the destruction of all tank farms and oil facilities and human life….Hausa Igbo Yoruba, Oyibo, Niger Delta. He knows that amnesty represented the singular most brilliant move by any Nigerian leader. He knows that these militants are actually not the people stealing Nigerian crude. He knows Asari and Ayiri and all these Niger Delta warlords are Muslims because 99 percent of oil thieves are Hausa-Fulani and the army boys who took coups…Northerners and some allies in Yorubaland and Middlebelt/North Central. He from his grave would have seen that AL Mustapha went to visit Asari Dokuboh even before he went home or maybe soon after. WHY????

The Niger Delta militants are but boyboy to some true billionaires who have the contact to speak with countries to buy stolen crude. What president has Boyloaf spoken to? Is it not recently if ever he has come to the US? Who will teach him the French to sell to French refineries?

However, Buhari in his usual lack of intellect and strategy, same lack of strategy that cost him his Presidency in 1983, has again decided to absolve his Northern people of complicity in oil theft. It is the boyboy ship followers and miners that he has decided to show military might with. He has sent the planes up and killed once. WHAT STRUGGLE HAS BEEN ENDED BY KILLING ALL ADVERSARIES? Even the great Roman Empire negotiates and allows for Barbarians to have a few lands to themselves.

The little moneys given Kuku to train ex militants…NIGERIANS is what is the PAIN of very evil people now.
SO THEY ADVISE BUHARI TO GO KILLING. Now let us assume that our army is so equipped and trained and invincible. Let us assume the creeks are mapped and easy to navigate. IS IT THE RIGHT THING TO KILL THESE PEOPLE WHO DO NOT KILL YOU? Is it not better to readdress the AMnesty Program, remove thieving hands and ensure it gets to the youths and women and children of that area? Is it to throw away the child and the bathwater?
“KILL KILL KILL” they tell Buhari. But they forget that our army is not exactly that of GENERAL PATON. They forget that this time it will not be warning shots but actual total destruction of the oil facilities and killing of expatriates. They forget that the army cannot guard the facilities from five people with the type of rocket launchers we saw being returned during amnesty. They do not calculate the costs. The army that could not protect Nigerians where trees are low and land dessert, is expected to protect amidst thick vegetation and rivulets and streams where navy boats can run into sand from not knowing the water.

Growing up in Sapele, I have stood and watched teachers like @Leleji of Okotie Eboh allow to students to fight till one dies. One thing I have noticed in all of these fights, even when you punch a mans teeth in, the teeth injures your knuckles. Very silly…usually Yoruba boys online come and make such pseudo-intellectual comments calling for the fight against militants. These people are the type that do not think things through.

Again I ask, why is Buhari’s approach to militant payment and the Niger Delta not one of vetting the program and payments and making it better? HOW CAN HE BE OFFERING BOKO HARAM AMNESTY AND TAKING AWAY THE ONE OF THE NIGER DELTA WHOSE LANDS HAVE THE OIL? Is it because Niger Delta is part of the 5 percenters and Boko Haram 97 percenters?

Quote me on this NIGERIA WILL REGRET ANY ACTION THAT MAKES VIOLENCE AND WAR THE LEADING WAY TO DEAL WITH THE NIGER DELTA.
I say this again “Aside that it is evil and unfair, aside that the Nigerian army cannot protect the oil facilities and the damage will ruin the economy FINALLY, aside that Chevron Schlumberger and all will go home easily this time, as they will be blamed for every death and their corporate image cannot stand it in this age of social media, (SHell has already sold of all it owns on land) AMERICA AND RUSSIA WILL GLADLY BAN NIGERIAN OIL AS NOW NIGERIA IS COMPETITION TO THEM SINCE THEY HAVE BECOME OIL SELLERS TOO.
Those who follow this page and who disagree with me often like Chuks Dickson Uwagboi will remember when I said the price of oil will plunge and America will become sellers. That was four years ago and he Dickson asked for the article at the beginning of the oil price crash. Buhari in contras says the fall of oil price was “UNEXPECTED”. Truth is that at this point, a lot of us younger men stand to know a lot more than these old men who lead. We follow events more closely and the books we read now is different from the books they read. So when we settle down to write, despite our bias, people should pause and say “there is sense even in nonsense”. Here I repeat NIGERIA WILL REGRET AN ARMED CONFRONTATION WITH A UNITED NIGER DELTA.
Here is another plausible scenario. Boko Haram continues battling the Nigerian army from the North. Niger Delta Militants begin serious bombing from the south south. Biafra and their very ready youths see a weakened Nigerian army and take full advantage. WHAT HAPPENS? Is this possibility too far fetched? Boko Haram is already fighting. Tompolo is already calling for meetings of ex warlords, 70 percent of Igbos are tired of this contraption called Nigeria. SO IS THE ABOVE SCENARIO SO FAR-FETCHED?

But there exists calm voices of reasons, ALL COMING FROM PDP who have successfully held the country together for 16 years. Many people tink the Federal Government blocking a venue is the same thing as stopping a meeting. The stupidity astounds. Generals who own boats and can meet in the high seas or in the middle of Bayelsa unanounced, some people think barricading a building is problem solved. These calm voices have come from Goodluck Jonathan. It has come from Okowa, I am sure having made a call to Ibori intimating him of the needless eggshell situation brought on by a leader unaware of present-day reality. A leader still caught up in the idiosyncrasy of the 80’s and early 90’s. The Seriake Dickson and Alamieseighas and all Niger Deltans including Udom Emmanuel and Godswill Akapabio have all come to these boys to take it easy. They have said they will update the old man president and show him the folly of his actions and plans.

YES Unlike the Northern leaders who encouraged Boko Haram with words like “boko haram will never end until Jonathan leaves” and “Boko Haram are freedom fighters”, these excellent statesmen from the Niger Delta, men well schooled academically and who can see clearand present danger to all concerned, these men have said they will talk to Buhari.

If you think peace is expensive, try war.

May God save us all.