President Umaru Yar'Adua finally unveiled the proclamation of amnesty for Niger Delta insurgents last Thursday. The offer of unconditional pardon is valid for 60 days (expiring October 4, 2009) and comes into effect upon the surrender of all equipment, weapons, arms and ammunition, and execution of specified renunciation-of-militancy forms. It also extends to "all persons presently being prosecuted for offences associated with militant activities." The President must be commended for toeing the path of peace and reconciliation rather than striving for a Pyrrhic victory. It's not as if he had any other better option anyway, because the reign of terror in the Niger Delta has taken a heavy toll of oil production and export operations. Current daily output is estimated at 1.3-1.4 million barrels, down from 1.9 million barrels at the same time last year and 1.8 million barrels in the first quarter of 2009. The implications are horrifying: drastic reduction in government revenues and a creeping perception of Nigeria as an unreliable source of crude oil, given the growing incidence of declarations of force majeure by the oil majors.

But just as the nation was primed to heave a collective sigh of relief, the most visible militant group - Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) - reportedly rejected the amnesty offer as a trap and vowed to continue its armed struggle. This isn't unexpected in view of the controversies (accusations and counter-accusations of insincerity) that dogged past amnesty programmes. The good news is that all hope isn't lost yet. MEND is simply skirmishing. It wants Henry Okah - its leader currently being tried for treason at a Jos federal high court - unconditionally released. I personally think this is asking for the moon at this stage. As a way forward, I suggest that MEND should declare a unilateral 30-day suspension of hostilities, leaving a 30-day period to wind down its activities if Abuja reciprocates its conciliatory gesture by releasing Henry Okah. I believe that despite their braggadocio, the militants themselves are equally eager to speedily resolve the crisis. The military operations by the Joint Task Force (JTF) have forced them to relocate to less-conducive environments - they need land, not water, to frolic in their exotic cars and build their opulent mansions; and riches that cannot be enjoyed are useless. The Niger Delta runs the risk of becoming a desolate, battle-scarred landscape as JTF's military operations intensify. Blowing up oil pipelines and causing oil spillages and fires only aggravate environmental degradation of the region. The biggest losers in the crisis are the youths. It is said that it takes 20 years or more of peace to make a man, but it only takes 20 seconds of war to destroy him. The Niger Delta runs the risk of losing generations of its future leaders as long as the crisis lingers on.

MEND's rejection - if indeed true - once again exposes the futility of putting all our eggs in one basket. If the conditions that fostered the insurgency are not speedily redressed, one million signed renunciations won't stop another crisis from erupting either now or sometime in the future - just as the Darfur Peace Agreement signed in Abuja with flourish in 2005 hasn't brought peace any nearer to western Sudan. Sloganeering and empty promises won't do the trick. As things stand, the only lucrative and most 'respectable' job in town is being a militant and if the question of "What's In It For Them?" (WIIFT) isn't squarely addressed right now we'll soon discover that we've been on a wild-goose chase! Checkout these equations and pick the more preferable: (1) Signed Violence Renunciation forms minus Economic Development and Welfare Improvement in the Niger Delta = Militancy and Insurgency. (2) Economic Development and Welfare Improvement minus Signed Violence Renunciation Forms = Peace. The way I perceive it, the amnesty offer if widely accepted - and I don't see why it shouldn't - should be seen as providing the much-needed respite for President Yar'Adua to deliver on his promises to the Niger Delta. In his speech, Yar'Adua acknowledged that "the challenges of the Niger Delta arose mainly from the inadequacies of previous attempts at meeting the yearnings and aspirations of the people." Now is the time to walk the talk. Acknowledging the source of the problem and the negligence of past administrations is good, but redressing it is even better. "Injustice is an open wound," said British poet Peters Bellow. "Only justice can heal it."

How do we enthrone equity and justice in the Niger Delta? First and foremost by agreeing on a new revenue sharing formula that provides for 50% on the basis of derivation on all revenue items - the figure was even higher in the 1963 Republican constitution when cocoa, cotton, groundnuts, palm oil and palm kernel were the nation's major foreign exchange earners. Secondly, it is time to finally implement the much-touted Marshall Plan for the region. Thirdly, the government should scrap the Ministry of Niger Delta. It not only unnecessarily duplicates the functions of the NDDC but it is also a bureaucracy that gobbles up monies that should've funded capital projects. If the government is bent on keeping the ministry then the Niger Delta Minister should also function as the Executive Chairman of a reformed NDDC, just like the FCT Minister. Fourthly, we must partner with Niger Deltans to bring to book those that squandered their riches without leaving any development legacy, to serve as a deterrent to others. I can understand their irritation and anger when the nation demands an account of how the statutory 13% allocation was utilized but the truth is that to whom much is given, of him is much required also. Besides, the region is too critical in the current scheme of things to justify a siddon look approach. Fifthly, in addition to the militants, the political elite and leaders of thought in the Niger Delta must also sign renunciation forms in which they pledge to never again use their hapless youths as cannon fodder to prosecute their political ambitions and illegal business ventures. Sixthly, the government should release the names on the sponsors' list the JTF reportedly retrieved from Camp 5 and similarly incorporate those over-overloaded miscreants into the amnesty program.

I've heard many folks say that what's happening in the Niger Delta is the Law of Karma - Cause and Effect - at work. Their contention is that because Niger Deltans scrambled for properties belonging to Internally Displaced Persons - instead of being their brothers' keepers - their hydrocarbons have been equally 'abandoned' to others! My take on this is that two wrongs don't make a right. Let the sinner simply apologize and learn to sin no more.

This week's award goes to Benue State Governor Gabriel Suswam, whose administration reportedly lavished a whopping sum of N7.8billion (over $60million) on local and foreign trips as well as gifts for who knows who! Revealing this sacrilege was no other personality than his own Commissioner for Finance, Omadachi Oklobia - not a "misguided" and "unpatriotic" member of an opposition party! Think of how many student bursaries that tidy sum can cover or health centres/hospitals or pension benefits or workers' salaries. The list is endless.