By Inemo Samiama
The information I am receiving from my homeland fills me with hope and despair. Hope because I am aware that a summit on the Niger Delta is scheduled to take place in the near future, and I am hoping that the ongoing and enduring conflict in the Niger Delta will be finally and peacefully resolved. And despair, because I’m also aware that there is more and more military build up in the Niger Delta region, and we know that the theatre of any future conflict will be in our homeland, and my people will be most affected by any military operations carried out in the region. Examples of past military excesses and atrocities are many in the region.
So I would like to take this opportunity to strongly condemn and state my grave concern about a statement made in Japan by the British Prime Minister Mr. Gordon Brown to the Nigerian President Yar’adua on Wednesday July 9 2008. Mr. Gordon Brown was reported to have made the following statement, as reported by the Independent newspaper Friday 11 2008.
"We stand ready to give help to the Nigerians to deal with lawlessness that exists in this area and to achieve the levels of production that Nigeria is capable of, but because of the law and order problems has not been able to achieve."
Let me state categorically that the Niger Delta conflict is not about lawlessness and criminals, but about injustice, resource control and environmental degradation. It is about social justice and giving to the people of the Niger Delta what is due to them.
We are aware that Mr Brown is under immense pressure on the domestic front to ease the soaring fuel costs, driven by the global spike in oil prices. But seeking a military solution to such a complex human, social and development problem is ill informed and morally wrong.
