Niger Delta Militancy: FG’s Options For Dialogue Wane

President Muhammadu Buhari

The Federal Government’s patience with the Niger Delta Avengers over the continuing destruction of oil and other economic assets in the delta region is wearing thin, multiple security sources have revealed.

Daily Trust report continues:

The sources, who pleaded anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said government’s frustration was rising as options for dialogue wanes.

The emergence of the avengers at a time the Buhari administration is engaged in fierce war against the Boko Haram terrorists is another complication to Nigeria’s security challenges, our sources said.

“Even though the terrorists have been significantly crippled militarily the government still perceives them a security nuisance to be taken seriously,” the sources said.
One of the sources explained that the emergence of the Avengers in the Niger Delta has, therefore, widened Nigeria’s security problems.

“With no clearly defined goals, or an identifiable leadership to whom they can listen, the Avengers have been carrying out wanton attacks and destruction on Nigeria’s oil installations and other economic assets non-stop.

“Despite the government’s overtures for dialogue, the Avengers have refused to take advantage of the government’s offer for dialogue in order to bring the problem to a peaceful end without disrupting the lives of innocent people in the Niger Delta.”
Government sources said the Buhari administration had reached out to more than sixty groups in the Niger Delta as part of the efforts to find a peaceful solution without military intervention.

Security sources told Daily Trust that all the groups contacted by government have conflicting agendas and interests, while others wanted monetary rewards for peace.
“Even as these efforts were going on, the Avengers didn’t demonstrate the slightest gesture of goodwill by halting their violent attacks on the nation’s economic assets.

“Instead, they perceived the government’s offer of peaceful and political solutions as a sign of weakness or a lack of will to act,” the source said.

As a democratic government, sources in the Buhari administration said priority is being given to peaceful and political solutions. The government sources however expressed frustrations that, instead of giving peace a chance, the Avengers have intensified their attacks on the nation’s economic assets.

Another security source noted that “with the Avengers treating peaceful dialogue with contempt, the government’s patience is being severely stretched and its options becoming increasingly narrower in the face of the intransigence of the violent Niger Delta group.”

Government sources also explained that biggest modern democracy, the United States, the leader cannot fold his arms to allow any armed group to launch attacks on national economic assets and infrastructure unchallenged.

According to these sources, democracy is not synonymous with the freedom to carry out wanton destruction of national assets without action from the government.
While the Buhari administration has made constructive offer of dialogue to avoid military confrontation, a government source said the Avengers have not shown any commitment to peaceful solution.

The source also said the utterances of the Niger Delta leaders were not helping matters as they are encouraging the Avengers instead.

He recalled the statement by Chief Edwin Clark who said they would not fold their arms to allow the government to attack the Avengers because they are their children.

The government source said Clark should have explained to Nigerians why the Niger Delta politicians and elders folded their arms while the Avengers were destroying the nation’s economic assets.

According to the sources, “security is everybody’s responsibility, and, therefore, leaders at all levels must demonstrate sincerity instead of playing to the gallery while misguided young men are systematically undermining the nation’s economy in the name of a nebulously defined cause.”

He noted that leaders cannot show indifference to criminality without undermining their own credibility and public perception, adding that Clark’s utterances were unhelpful and un-statesman-like.”

Another anonymous security source disclosed that, while dialogue is desirable, allowing the Avengers to continue their sabotage activities against the country’s economy is not an option, warning that playing politics with national security is harmful to the country’s collective interest.

The Buhari administration complains that it has exhausted all options for peaceful and political solutions, and that these efforts are being wilfully frustrated by the Avengers.

It added that no government anywhere in the world would adopt a-do-nothing posture when an armed group continues to carry out economic sabotage activities almost daily.
The government advised the Avengers to lay down their arms and embrace dialogue as the former militants did during Yar’Adua’s administration, adding however, that if the attacks persisted, the government would ultimately respond decisively.
The Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen Tukur Buratai, recently warned the Niger Delta militants that the government would resort to the use of force if current efforts at dialogue failed.

Represented by the General Officer Commanding 82 Division, Enugu, Maj.-Gen. Ibrahim Attahiru, at an Army event in Port Harcourt, Buratai advised militants to accept the government’s offer of dialogue as a mean to end agitation in the region rather than resorting to violence.

He said:  “Government is still committed to dialogue and whereby this cannot go on – then there could be resort to other means.

“The non-kinetic (force) means has always been the first choice before government can recourse to the kinetic means. So, there is need for the Niger Delta Avengers to see reason and dialogue with government.”