Kalagenesis:We should have known all along that money talks.It seems Nigeria is destined to be a White man's land.A country where flunky businessmen and engineers from Europe and America can come and still prosper.A country where people live on a dollar a day and still has to import most of its food,fuel,clothing and even energy.Although there is some good it is not enough.The problem is corrupt leaders and loudmouths who are looking out for themselves.The US government should be investigated by the UN for war crimes for the destruction of the Delta region in Nigeria,and the backing of the oil companies.Recently the US Pentagon has been using scenarios in which the US military would go in and occupy Nigerian oil fields.The following is an article about the recent development between MEND and the Nigerian Government.
By Austin Ekeinde
YENAGOA, Nigeria (Reuters) - Nigeria's main rebel group said on Saturday it would resume attacks against Africa's biggest energy industry next month, overshadowing the surrender of hundreds of arms by rebels in a federal amnesty program.
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), responsible for attacks that have wrought havoc on the OPEC member's oil operations, said it would resume its campaign of violence on September 15.
MEND, a loose coalition of militant groups, denounced the hundreds of rebels that have participated in President Umaru Yar'Adua's 60-day amnesty program, which aims to stem unrest in the Niger Delta.
"The ongoing amnesty program by the government of Nigeria seems to have achieved separating those who still have the zeal to fight for our freedom from those who were in it for the money," the group said in a statement.
MEND, which declared a 60-day ceasefire in July to allow for peace talks, said it has suspended negotiations with the government.
Hundreds of Nigerian militants earlier on Saturday surrendered their weapons, mortar bombs and gunboats during a public ceremony in the Bayelsa state capital Yenagoa.
The handover by dozens of militant groups was the largest collection of weapons and ammunition since President Umaru Yar'Adua's 60-day amnesty program began two weeks ago.
A CHANCE FOR PEACE
"We give up our weapons so that we give peace a chance and for all oil companies and other multinationals to come into our region to develop the place," said Erepamutei Olotu, known as General Ogunbos, during a public handing-over ceremony.
Attacks on pipelines and industry facilities along with the kidnapping of oil workers since early 2006 have cost the world's eighth-biggest oil exporter billions of dollars a year in lost revenues and added to volatility in global energy prices.
At the ceremony, former militant leader Ebikabowei Victor Ben, known as Boyloaf, gave a senior government official his flak jacket emblazoned with the logo of Nigeria's most prominent militant group -- the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND).
"As chairman of MEND in Bayelsa state, I hand over this jacket as a proclamation that we have disarmed and stand by our word. We expect the president to stand by his word and develop the Niger Delta," Ben told a crowd of hundreds that included former militants, government officials and security officers.
Ben was among 25 former militant leaders that surrendered more than 500 weapons, dozens of rocket launchers and mortar bombs and 14 gunboats, which were on display at the ceremony.
Ben, whose group handed over the bulk of the weapons collected on Saturday, has warned that failure to develop the Niger Delta would lead to a resumption of violence.
Skeptics question whether the amnesty scheme will buy anything more than a short-term lull in the violence, saying the government has done little to create employment or training opportunities for those who do hand over their guns. Continued...
2 comments:
What's good Black man ?
Your post just re-iterated fears I've had about Nigeria for quite some time. It has the potential of South Africa and Kenya to rise up as a sub-Saharan super power.
However, it's always bothered me that, the farther you climb up the heirarchy in Nigeria, economic, educational, political, the more whitewashed things get. The Black people begin to look like me (a BAD sign in Nigeria), and the 1% ruling class is mostly Asian, White (what a shocker), and Arab. Saddest of all is how entrenched the powerful Uncle Toms are in Nigerian affairs. Revolutionary Nigerians have to steal petroleum from pipeline, and sell it on the Black market, because the Uncle Toms are backed by the European and Jewish controlled International Monetary Fund, World Bank, and various other entities. I never amazes me how, of all the World's people, the Black man in Africa allows himself to be tricked and exploited by phony do-gooders with white faces. They'll sell their child for a quick buck. Not everyone, of course, but this is FAR, FAR, FAR too often the way things are done in African affairs. Why does the Black man in Africa think he owes Europeans anything? Why doesn't he take a BIG loan, then default on it. It would be politically incorrect for the Europeans to use military force, so they'd do what they did to Robert Mugabe; sanctions, sanctions, and more sanctions, designed to make inflation rise 1000%, and to put the agricultural economies to the mercy of the World Food Bank (which further undercuts Black farmers).....I know you may disagree, but Robert Mugabe is NOT what the European press has made him to be....what I described happened to him when he threw the white farmers off of African land. The Europeans across the World dogged him in the press successfully, and they literally KILLED the Zimbabwean economy. This emphasizes how we need, more than ever, to establish trade with African farmers. The farmers should be able to sell their goods in Black owned stores in America, along with traditional clothing, etc., etc., etc.
I thank you brother for the fellowship.We see eye to eye on most things it seems,but Mugabe was a revolutionary but now an old man who does not know when his time is up.The same is has happened in Nigeria and even the African American struggle.We have men who are looking out first and foremost for themselves and their bank accounts.Their mistresses,their lackeys ect.This is what keeps Mugabe and the dinosaurs around.Nigeria is a country I love and dream about but it has broken my heart so many times.I hope MEND will bring a revolution to Africa's Empire State.
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