by Eze Eluchie,
Is the
present belligerent posture of the Nigerian ruler towards the Niger Delta issue
in any way traceable to the recent visit of US Secretary of State, John Kerry?
Were there
any assurances given to Nigeria’s rulers by their august visitor that when
Nigeria’s military starts killing Nigerian citizens with US supplied weapons
that the US will simply look the other side?
The above
twin questions becomes pertinent when one contrasts the dispositions and
mannerisms of the ruling junta in Nigeria to activists in Nigeria’s restive
Niger Delta region prior to and subsequent to Mr. John
Kerry’s visit.
Prior to the
visit, the Nigerian government had been appealing to all quarters for dialogue,
sending all manners of emissaries to try and reach out to the various
leadership of myriad activist elements and organizations in the Niger Delta region. As the
date of the visit approached and thereafter, all such efforts at dialogue evaporated
and was replaced with expedited and ferocious military build-up, militarization
of the Delta region and a sudden fatalistic and threatening disposition and a military
operation code-named ‘Operation Crocodile Smile’ – a crocodile, supposedly,
only smiles when it has made a kill.
The Nigerian
military has laid siege on the Niger Delta region. There is apprehension that buoyed by the visit
of the US Secretary of State, a repeat of previous acts of mass atrocities
carried out by the Nigerian State against its citizens in the Niger delta
region (particularly the genocidal attacks on Odi, Bayelsa State in 1999 and
Gbaramatu in Delta State in 2009), might, once again, be in the offing.
An inkling
as to how much tension the visit of Mr. Kerry has generated amongst divergent
interest groups in Nigeria can be gleaned at from the fact that, in a most
unusual development, the umbrella organization of Christians in Nigeria, the
Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), issued a stringent Press Release expressing
dismay at the skewed ethno-religious slant of the US Secretary of State’s
itinerary and dispositions during his recent visit. Some Nigerians who feel
threatened with the probably outcome of the Kerry visit have taken the added
option of petitioning authorities in the US who they feel will have powers to
prevent or forestall what appears to be a pending doom resulting from
interferences from Mr. Kerry.
In the 15
months it has thus far been in power, the Nigerian government led by Muhammadu Buhari
has shown an appetite to use excessive military force against its own citizens
for merely expressing constitutionally guaranteed right to protest and express contrary
opinion such as with the massacre of members of the Independent Peoples of the
Sovereign State of Biafra (IPOB) in Aba (Abia State, South-east Nigeria), and the mass killings of Shi’a adherents in
Zaria (Kaduna State, North-central Nigeria) both in December 2015.
It is thus
with a view to avoiding an imminent mass wastage of lifes to suppress agitators
for equity, regionalism and restructuring of Nigeria, following the amassing of
military personnel and firepower in Nigeria’s Niger Delta region by the Nigerian Government, that FREEMIND
joins other people and organizations of goodwill, including the Chairman of the
United States House of Representatives Sub-Committee on Judiciary, Congressman
Tom Marino, to urge the Government of the United States, considering its obvious
influence over the Buhari regime, to use its immense reach to ensure that the
recent visit of US Secretary of State, John Kerry, does not get turned into a
vague acquiescence for plans to commit mass atrocities against Nigerian citizens.
Picture: US Secretary
of State and Nigeria’s ruler, Muhammadu Buhari during tgeh formers visit to
Abuja September 2016.
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