NOW THAT TALKS OF NEGOTIATION IS SOUNDING MELODIOUS TO AVENGERS' EARS
Perhaps you're Itsekiri, Bini, Ijaw, Urhobo, Isoko, Ibibio, Efik, or any of the other unique ethnic nationalities of the Niger Delta reading my two kobo on this trending Niger Delta issue, you would first agree with me that our region needs to get it right this time.

I am young, talented, rich, humorous, cheated, virile, raped, intelligent, poor, outspoken, exploited,hardworking, broken. I am the kaleidoscopic fortunes so described. I am Niger Delta. I decided to speak via this medium since my arranged interview with a leading TV station could not pull through. Calls have been coerced to lend voice to the "Niger Delta struggle" and the complicit silence from most illustrious sons of the region have either sent mixed feelers to the boys wielding dynamites in our creeks that they enjoy the support of the region or has further pitch us against other Nigerians who might be seeing us as Oliver Twists. For the records, I am not party to violence and criminality as a method of expressing one's self in this age and time. I believe same for other right thinking Niger Deltans.

In each of the statements issued by our brothers wielding heavy weapons in the creeks, they never fail to announce that no human soul is lost in their strikes. Fair enough! They also solicit support for their crusade. I wish I can talk with my brothers directly, I would love to remind them that the clean up of Ogoniland has been projected to span twenty years, according to the UNEP report. If they keep blowing up oil installations in Warri and Bayelsa, when the dust settles, where and when are we going to start another politics of clean up from? Have they considered the implications of this monumental damage to us -inhabitants of the region?

Now, that negotiations are imminent, how will the creeks look like when repairs begin? You see, one does not lacerate himself with deep cuts in a bid to punish his enemy because after healing, the ugly scars will haunt you forever. Wherever the negotiations swing, one fact is clear, we have not done our region justice by adding salt to the injuries oil companies and some of our leaders have been meting out on us with this incessant blowing of facilities in our domain.

Let me remind my brothers that in 2009 when this exact approach yielded fruits for older gun boys, it came in the shape of amnesty and juicy contracts for a select few. The generality of our region didn't feel the impact of the struggle. All the interventionist agencies from NDDC to Niger Delta Ministry arising from collective struggles, contributed by all the ethnics of the region at different points in time, are a far cry from impacting the lives of the ordinary people of the Delta. Rather internal wragglings, separatism, nepotism, ethnophobia ensured that the agencies do not get out of scandalous waters.

How do the Avengers and other strike groups want us to trust that they mean well for us when the old "fat" negotiators and new hopefuls are falling over themselves to grab a slot on the negotiators team? Is this what Niger Delta Struggle is about? I pledge to be a general in your struggle if other ethnic nationalities in the region are carried along. I'll be a Commando if this struggle dwells on: Implementing the resolutions of the National Conference; The oil companies are prevailed upon to build their headquarters and training facilities in the region that they have helped disfigured.

The Delta Gas City project that will benefit not just Itsekiris and Ijaws but all of Nigeria is one of the core of the struggle. The Federal Government is prevailed upon to disband the principalities and polititricks that cloud the resuscitation of the Warri, Sapele, Calabar, Onne and Port-Harcourt Sea Ports. Lagos is congested, Lagos is
congested, yet other ports are suffering -is Lagos the only port city in Nigeria?
The Federal Government is prevailed upon to site more of her institutions and agencies in the Delta as is the case in the South-West and entire North.

Companies sited in our region employ our teeming youth instead of collaborating with some of our leaders to bypass honouring the spirit of the local content law as it concerns employment quota. Our leaders are held accountable for the much that has been accruing to the region in the last 18 years. This is my opinion. These are the items that should be on the table for negotiations if truly they want to bear the responsibility of becoming the mouthpiece of all the peoples of the region. Otherwise all the bombardment, threats, destabilisation leave people
like me with no doubt that the struggle is nothing but an honey-licking campaign by a select few, much to further impoverishment of the Niger Delta.
MONOYO EDON is a social pundit and a stakeholder in the struggle for genuine development of the Niger Delta.

nice one, but i belive the NDA knows what they are doing.

Nice one @op..

But as long as this is NIGERIA, the same Nigeria!
Guy we ll still be singing this same song in 20yrs from now.. Nothing, I repeat, Zilch is going to happen..

Siddon dey roast

A few people will get caught

others will get rich

and even if there's talks , i am sure it's surrounded with money for personal interests

Who NDA epp ?