This is not an indictment of late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua. No. Far from it. The man sincerely wanted to stop Niger Delta militancy. However about 8 years after, Nigeria seems to be suffering some unintended consequences of that action.
Our leader, late Uncle Bola Ige said circa 1982, that you do not reward violence; for rewarded violence often begets more violence.
This was his reaction to the Ife/Modakeke crisis of 1982 which was so bloody that Ige himself almost lost his life in the melee. However, the Honourable Gentleman who represented Modakeke Constituency in the old Oyo State House of Assembly, Hon Wole Odelola was not that lucky. He died in the riots.
One demand that the Modakekes made of the Oyo State Governor then, Chief Bola Ige, was that he gave them a separate Local Government away from the fiefdom of Ile Ife.
Bola Ige said no. His government would not grant the request of the Modakekes. To do that would mean an encouragement of more communities to go violent in the pursuit of their aspirations – no matter how legitimate.
Fast forward 26 years to 2008. President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua’s government came out with a series of concessions to the Niger Delta militants who were busy sabotaging Nigeria’s oil production. He called it Amnesty program. As at then, Nigeria was not producing crude at its full installed capacity. This had a telling effect on our oil earnings which contribute almost 80% of our GDP.
That was the first time a Nigerian President entertained barely-literatewarlords at the Aso Rock Villa.
Even though Yar’Adua passed on about a year later, his successor, President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, who hails from the Niger Delta state of Bayelsa, continued the well-applauded Amnesty Program.
With it, many ex-militants were put on a payroll and a number of them went on trainings abroad to acquire skills with which they could live a decent lifestyle.
Now we hear of another group, Niger Delta Avengers.
Many people believe that the NDAs are a set of people who just want to hold Nigeria to ransom. They maintain that if Yar’Adua had not sharpened their teeth with the Amnesty program thereby making violence profitable (unlike Ige’s belief in 1982), a new group would not have the audacity to come up again.
They have blown up oil pipelines. This has severely undermined our crude production capacities again. They have equally sabotaged gas pipelines and this has undermined our power generation efforts.
They have hit Nigeria where it hurts!
President Muhammadu Buhari has responded.
With force.
Troops have reportedly invaded Gbaramatu LG area of Delta State looking for these scavengers who pose as avengers.
I do not think any right-thinking Nigerian should object to this.
There is a clarion call on our youths not to be involved in any action that will undermine the Nigerian state.
I do not claim any authority or right to mentor all Nigerian youths but as an elderly Yoruba man our culture mandates me to correct our youths as ‘agba kii wa l’oja ki ori omo tuntun o wo’ (The elder in the marketplace, should ensure a baby is well-backed).
I shall, in the next few days, be engaging our youths on my page here on the issue of peace, first in Yorubaland and of course in Nigeria generally.
May God please bring peace to Nigeria by judging this nation quickly.

Just like when corruption was so encourage by the past administration so much so that an average Nigerian thinks that the only way to get to the top is through dubious means

Amnesty? One of them even floated a private University and got an approval through Jonathan Administration,the one that single handedly promised to bring Nigeria down if Jonathan is not made the president,,, can you just imagine the level of insult ",,,,,,,,ni ilu ti o ni Oba ti o ni ljoye? Aye GBA KINNI KAN tan,o fe ko ile lgunnu,,,,," Ki omi tuntun yara Ru ni o!!!