I watched with rapt attention the live telecast of One Voice, the theme of the consultative South South Governor's forum, which Dr. Sam Amuka (Publisher of Vanguard newspaper) facilitated, held recently at the Presidential Hotel, Port Harcourt. Thanks to the African Independent Television (AIT) for bringing the event live to millions of Nigerians across our federal republic. However, Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) struck just after the keynote address by the Rivers state Governor Rt. Hon. Rotimi Ameachi who incidentally was the host. I wish to react to Ameachi's seemingly ill-conceived speech with a view to putting the issues in proper historical perspective.

Gov. Ameachi, unmindful of the nation's history and that of the Niger Delta region in particular which is witnessing the continued emasculation of her minority people, unilaterally lambasted every form of militancy by lumping together both the genuine militants and the criminal ones and branding them as one and the same criminals! That was where the Governor began to falter. The Governor didn't stop there, he went on to castigate the personalities of Asari Mujahid Dokunbo, grouping him together in the same criminal class he had branded the likes of Ateke Tom and Saboma George. He emphatically asked if these were not the kind of leaders the Niger Delta had representing them, saying that the newspapers were already spotlighting these ones as the voice of the region. It does appear to write that the Governor's sense of history, with due respect, is short. But he could borrow the excuse of having not written down his speech, as was his volition on similar occasions; he couldn't have immediately weighed the odious effect his unleashed bashing could spell on the Niger-Delta people's psyche.

It again appears to me that Gov. Rotimi wasn't clearly speaking the Niger-Delta people's mind. His speech on the stack tales on ground was not only careless; it quickly gave him away as a stooge trumpeting the desire of the 'al-mighty' ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) led federal government who actually want a full-scale military onslaught, supported by foreign military might, against the Niger-Delta. A fine oratory, no doubt, that was well applauded to by Vice President Goodluck Jonathan and the Governors of the five South South states, but the speech was a needless distortion of history. It lacked genuine reconciliation initiatives. It was emotively bitter. It had the capacity to divide and destroy the Niger-Delta people with its somewhat morbid tone.

This could negate fragile initiatives that are aimed at finding lasting peace to the region. A supposedly elected representative of the emasculated Niger-Delta's people, holding the high office of a Governor of one of the constituent states, canvassing for a full-scale military action against the militants as the 'only' viable way out of the region's restiveness, a restiveness which, according to Justice Karibi Whyte who chaired the forum, has nose-dives crude oil production level to its lowest ebb, denying the Nigerian state of about 8 billion naira daily, according to figures accredited to Vice President Goodluck Jonathan.

This is unbelievable! How could Gov. Rotimi Ameachi have derailed so quickly? Calling for further emasculation of the Niger-Delta by federal forces and calling that shade of opinion being frank. Hasn't history inundated us with barefaced facts and truths, which are undeniable to any discerning Nigerian? Herewith are some of those facts, which I'm sure Gov. Ameachi himself could not deny. I present them in dialectics.

The first truth is that the Niger-Delta region had suffered and is still suffering from untold environmental and ecological hardship imposed by the exploration and exploitation of its mineral wealth. This has led to and is still leading to a sharp cut down in the overall quality of live of the indigenous people. Their natural habitat and ecosystems, including their health and means of livelihood, have been adversely hampered, without any qualitative caution whatsoever or commensurate compensation. It seems vast resource in the land is being taken out by a fierce ambition backed with a strong predetermination of giving back nothing in return.

The second truth is "the Niger-Delta peoples have been the most persevering and tolerant in the face of grave injustices that have lasted for upwards of four decades. They had folded their hands akimbo, watching helplessly as the Federal Government in collusion with the foreign multinational oil companies' suck them dry like a vampire on vicious rampage. The so-called 'Boys' that Gov. Rotimi called `criminals' hadn't taken up arms then, had they? They were lukewarm if not indifferent at the time. They had let their Traditional Rulers and Chiefs mediate with the Federal authorities and oil conglomerates for the 'common good' of their rural communities, only to find out later to their utmost chagrin, that those Traditional Rulers and Chiefs took a fat chunk of the 'peanuts' they got for their own personal aggrandisement and those of their immediate families, leaving the masses to languish in squalor and impoverishment.

The third: intellectual militancy as spearheaded by the world-acclaimed writer/environmentalist, Ken Saro-Wiwa, was nipped in the bud, whittled down completely by the coercive instrument and treachery perpetuated by the Nigerian state under the Abacha regime. A Sole Administrator (Military Governor) was in fact given the insipid task by Abacha of clamping down Ken Saro-Wiwa whose campaign for environmental and human rights for the Ogoni people and the larger Niger-Delta region were peaceful and non-violent. But he was set up on phony treason and murder charges and tried in a grotesque court with the ready-made and predestined mandate to sentence him to death. Didn't Ken Saro-Wiwa use the intellectual machinery? Yet, a man of the people who bore the traits of an altruistic leader was silenced forever. This undoubtedly was the antecedence precipitating the emergent armed struggle in the region, and of course, I mean the genuine ones as heralded and spearheaded by Asari Mujahid Dokubo himself.

The fourth truth is that the attention of the international community to the plight of the Niger-Delta was only fully drawn and captured when the so-called 'Boys' took to arms, not necessarily to kidnap foreign oil workers in the locale, but to fight a Federal Government that had repeatedly shown indifference to the region's sufferings and which, instead, had deployed ferocious `kill-and-go' troops to cow and subjugate the people to accept the incinerating fate.

I wish to remind Gov. Rotimi that Asari's NDPVF was the only challenging militant force at a point. Asari himself had agreed to down his weapons and disband the group. Wasn't he invited to Abuja for a supposed peace talk under the guise of granting him amnesty to signal a new beginning? What was the outcome? Like Ken Saro-Wiwa, he was brutally seized, lethally locked up, and could have suffered the same fate as Ken-Sato Wiwa if not for a fortunate stroke of divine intervention after spending two years or so in incarceration. This sort of `mistrust' has resurgently trailed Federal Government/Niger-Delta relations. It was at this point of Asari's incarceration that the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) and others emerged on the militant scene and not too long after the criminal gangs who took advantage of the 'cover of fighting a just cause' to make illegal monies through kidnappings, hostage-taking, while collecting heavy tolls from multinational companies handling project in their land.

This, in a nutshell, was what gave birth to these criminalities that are looking intractable in the locale today. Gov. Rotimi should have looked deeply into history before categorising Asari Dokubo's militancy as criminal. After all, Dokunbo had given up armed struggle in the creeks for intellectual militancy.

Having picked the holes in Rotimi's speech, I wish to ask His Excellency in the light of the intellectual militancy which he said he could commit Rivers State resources to by way of funding, of his reaction to the failure of leadership in the region. The Northern leaders are attributing the blames for the woes of the Niger-Delta region to its stealing leaders and not on the federal government and the oil companies operating in the land. They are asking of what you the leaders of the Niger-Delta have done to change the life of the ordinary Niger-Deltans with the monies running into billions of naira you have received so far from federation account. They say you the leaders of the Niger-Delta are corrupt, and sometimes inept, siphoning your respective state's coffers into your own personal pockets. They did not stop there; they also lambasted the proverbial hen that laid the golden egg, saying that Niger-Delta can go to hell with their oil, that they don't need it!

How many Governors of the South South have used their intellectual militancy machinery to respond to or challenge this brass and derogatory and imperious remarks? Unfortunately, I am yet to see any official response from you. Only Asari Dokunbo, the same person that Gov. Rotimi despised, had the guts to jab back in his characteristic deft ways.

Obviously, Gov. Rotimi, on the weight of public morality, will have to tender an unreserved apology to the people of the Niger-Delta whose sensibilities he has negated if not out rightly insulted. After all, the said speech wasn't carefully thought out. It sounded more of an impromptu outburst. But if he chooses to go on advocating for the bombardment of the region by the federal defence forces, he would risk being labeled a `pariah,' a 'damn leftist,' and a 'collaborator' against the general good of the Niger-Delta people. For now, that seems to be the way the Governor is headed.

The ordinary Niger-Delta people, to whom true political will and power belongs, are peace loving to a very large extent. They are desirous of peace returning to their respective lands. They want to farm; they want to fish, they want to eke out a decent living... they want good health care, portable drinking water, schools for their children, and all the goodies enjoyed by any Nigerian community. Only a true and altruistic approach with a commitment to their plight can bring these changes. Unfortunately, I am yet to see any concrete effects on ground on the part of both the Federal and state governments. Instead they want to compound the problem by the application of brute force. Let me remind us all, force has never solved any problem. In fact, force upon force will only multiply the destructiveness in the region. God will help Nigeria.