It is a universally practiced methodology in a bid to achieve control, to breed and provide support for previously unknown elements in an area and a region.
The USA practices it. The Russians practice it. The British in their heyday also practiced it.While this may achieve the primary objective of gaining local control for effective management and exploitation, it soon explodes in the faces of the practitioners. The downside of such an explosion is the collateral-damage which befalls all and sundry within proximity of the area or region.
When a beast that has been domesticated for our purposes becomes too problematic to control, we call in the animal authorities or if capable, terminate our relationship with the beast. More often than not, the beast has to be exterminated. We are always 'bigger' than the beast.
The Niger Delta is no exception to the analogy above. A problem created by our own, using our own to fight our own. Now we need to use our own to terminate our own else the rest of our own shall be subject to long-term damage and suffering.
If you know anything about the people of the Niger Delta region, you will quickly realise one thing. These are a people who abhor stress and fighting unless compelled to face up to it. The people much prefer the sweeter things of life. Wine, in a very different name. Women, in all shapes and sizes and lazing away under a shade while the tropical heat drifts past. Dance.
The most accommodating people of Nigeria are found in the Niger Delta region. I often say that amongst Nigerians and Nigerian tribes, it is the experience of meeting and accepting the White Man first that grew the hospitality and hospitable culture down there.
What then has driven the people of the Niger Delta to such potentially destructive positions and conditions?
Was this really about oil and exploitation by the oil majors? Was this really about the connivance of Nigerian leadership with 'friendly' individuals and organisations for their person benefit?
It may well have been in the time of Ken Saro Wiwa. It may well have been in the beginning.
I believe the collective purpose has since been lost. I believe the beast today is no longer the easily manipulated puppy we bred.
My take is that this beast emerged from what was once a justifiable cause but was grown by selfish individuals in a battle for control. Control of the political arena. Control of the bunkering business. Control of the illegal business of Kidnapping and Ransom claiming. Control.
Control which has snce been lost by those who fuelled the emergence of this threat. They no longer have the ability to control the beast they created. It served their own purposes and are no longer required by them. They walk away. The beast grows without any handlers.
The beast fends for itself. It devises ways and means to fuel its new found pot of gold. Who will or can tame the best now.
It is a joke, unfortunately, to think that you could call to a roundtable, young and determined men who have experienced the profitability of Hostage-taking and seek to convince them that ANY legal job or profession in today's Nigeria can afford them the same financial capacity as their illegal activities.
It is a bigger joke to imagine that ANY region of Nigeria shall be allowed to secede or indeed hold the entire larger Nation to ransom.
The biggest joke of all is to imagine that this crisis is still driven by a collective understanding that Oil and Exploitation is at the centre of it all. And that the problem lies in Abuja. Even a CIA operative needs a plausible cover to operate under.
The losers here will be many. The Nation will lose. The people of the Niger Delta will lose.
To listen to those who contributed to, funded, benefited from, fueled and encouraged the growth of the beast, stand on podiums to 'claim' to be speaking on behalf of the people of the Niger Delta is nothing short of disgusting.
Now the beast has grown too large for its previous masters. Now the beast threatens the larger country. Now the beast is being hunted down ruthlessly as can only be done for an overgrown beast.
I sometimes wish the protagonists in the middle of the crisis woke up to the realisation that the enemy was within. Enemies who connived with the exploiters that connived with the centre that has now come full-circle to hunt them down.
BOTH sides lay down the tools of destruction, I beg. Bring to the fore those who created the beast, if you dare. Leave our young men and women alone to go out and find work. Create work if there is none. The kidnapping and hostage taking must stop. The elders have no voice anymore. they have been fed for years by the same who fueled the beast. What moral standing does ANY of them have to speak on today's crisis?
Grandstanding and bubble-chest beating will get you no new friends. The illusion no longer persists. We have all woken to the fact that our leaders local and central have created a problem too big for them to deal with. Young men, women and children will inevitably be lost as a consequence. Who will carry that cross?
New younger moderate leaders must arise in the Niger Delta. One of their own. One of our own. Not one that shall once again be positioned for the benefit of the controllers but one with genuine desire to rescue the situation there.
I dare say that NONE today can claim such a position. None is without stain and responsibility for the crisis. None and that includes us Niger Deltans.
I feel for the people of my region. The joys of Ogogoro and nubile Maidens on the waterside have been overtaken by pollution, gunfire and death. It is time to end this and rescue what may be left of Nigeria's most beautiful people.
What do you think?
