YOUTH RESTIVENESS IN THE NIGER DELTA:
AREF Remarks at Bayelsa State Launch of Mamuzees’ Aristo-Project,
At The State Cultural Centre, Yenagoa, Bayelsa, on Thursday April 27, 2006 on
YOUTH RESTIVENESS IN THE NIGER DELTA:
AN AREF PERSPECTIVE
(All Protocols observed)
Wars start in the minds of men, and it is indeed in the minds of men that the defenses for peace must be built…the real need is now perceived as being preparing for peace in other to avoid wars.
....Ambassador Segun Olusola, Founder/Patron, AREF, C.O.M.P.A.C.T., Lagos 2001
The African Refugees Foundation (AREF) is a non-profit non-governmental organization in special consultative status with the United Nation’s ECOSOC in Africa, with focus on the continent-wide prevention of conflict-causes that create refugees and internally-displaced persons and in helping resolve those conflicts that do break out, by Anticipating disasters, Rehabilitating victims, Encouraging peace, and Facilitating development through its numerous programmes, projects and interventions, even including such a futuristic sociocultural campaign as we are gathered here today to launch … namely the timely MAMUZEES’ ARISTO-Project in Bayelsa State, under the generous patronage of the state’s helmsman, Governor Goodluck Jonathan.
The recent hostage crises brought, once again, to the fore the need for urgent attention to be paid to the problems of youth restiveness in the Niger Delta and the need to better prepare for peace in order to avoid war, especially in light of the then warning of the USA National Security Adviser, given before the US Senate, to the effect that the Niger Delta crises, if not speedily resolved, could trigger off a chain of events culminating in a civil war and an unprecedented massive outflow of tens of millions of Nigerian refugees, and that this could possibly lead to the destabilization of Africa, impact Europe very negatively, and gravely damage current UN’s crisis-management mechanisms.
By the way, let it go on record that AREF was very actively, though quietly, involved in intimate mediation processes during those trying days of the hostage-taking crises, the only public of which interventions was the issuing of a public appeal, via releasing to the world’s press a missive calling on the young men in the creeks to release their captives or at least grant the latter phone-access to their families, whilst readily admitting that there was urgent need for the needs and legitimate requests of these youths to be sincerely addressed by all relevant parties, especially governments, oil multinationals, and other concerned stakeholders in a peaceful Niger Delta and Nigeria.
Whilst we all give God thanks for His having employed many mediators, including our good host today, Bayelsa State’s Governor Goodluck Jonathan, to resolve that crisis-situation, nobody can deny that the ominous youth restiveness in the Niger Delta that threatens not only the whole of Nigeria, but the global energy system, is far from being resolved to date.
The kidnappings, bombings, threats and warnings being dished out by these youths are too self-evident for us to begin deliberating on whether evidence exists that there is youth restiveness in the Niger Delta; just as there is no gainsaying the fact that the Niger Delta is the most underdeveloped region of Nigeria, especially considering the fact that over 90% of this oil-rich nation’s wealth is derived from this self-same impoverished region’s natural resources, and that the primary reason adduced by these restive youths of the Niger Delta for their restiveness is that they have been shortchanged along with the region for too long.
So what can we do to resolve the issue of youth restiveness in the Niger Delta? This is the question every true friend of Nigeria must be considering today, and it is to assist in finding answers to this question that we humbly present this not-so-simplistic AREF-perspective to this august gathering which has both national and foreign leaders in attendance. Of course we are all aware of the most recent and promising initiative launched by President Obasanjo, just as we are aware of the earlier more all-encompassing summit that was brokered here in Yenagoa by our host, Governor Jonathan, and that had representatives of all youths’/elders’ groups, major oil/gas multinationals, five foreign governments, Federal/Niger Delta-States Governments et al…in attendance. Again let it be mentioned that in the earlier-mentioned interventionist public statement, AREF did aver that it believes the Yenagoa Accord is speedily actualisable given the caliber of parties present and represented at that auspicious Special Niger Delta Forum. AREF’s position is still the same, even whilst AREF welcomes every programme aiming to improve the lives of all our brethren in the Niger Delta, including the youths of course.
AREF posits that the primary step towards a sustainable resolution of the harrowing crisis of youth restiveness in the Niger Delta is THE POLITICAL WILL to carry out any positive action that stakeholders, especially governments and corporate players, know will move the process of peace and development along smoothly.
And there is need to URGENTLY contend with issues associated with environmental degradation, lack of opportunities to fully participate in the oil industry as workers and investors, visible developmental efforts as guided by the people’s expressed will alone, urgently reviewing all laws and regulations that may have been overtaken by the realities of today’s nation-state, the tackling of fundamental political, social, economic issues at the core of the youths/elders’ agitation; and, even more importantly, creating and sustaining mechanisms to prevent, better manage and more speedily resolve any crises that exist openly, that may surface, or even those that fester less visibly, whilst we cannot overemphasise the need for there to be a fully representative interactive jaw-jaw between The Federal Government and these youths’ true leaders without any attempts by either party to deceive or vanquish the other.
Nigeria’s prolonged slow growth and imbalances that are so easily abused by our leaders, with the resultant widespread social disharmony and economic environment of high uncertainties plus gross abuse of the people of the Niger Delta have derived in the main from the weak institutions that dot our political and economic landscape like windmills set up merely for quixotic jousting by knaves of all age-ranges. Strong institutions of good governance, impartial anti-corruption, fiscal prudence, people-targeted programmes, and positive behavioural change mechanisms must needs be developed and efficiently-transferred to the youths and all other relevant parties targeted for growth and peace. We must emphasise that there may be initial opposition to even the best-willed plans or action, at least at the beginning before good intentions are proved as being exclusively so.
AREF reminds all of us that the Nigerian nation is not as seamlessly united as it was a decade or two ago, and so we all must tread carefully. The sentiments of all the groups making up the federation MUST BE RESPECTED AND NOT BRUSHED ASIDE. And we must rapidly and consciously develop and deploy mediators, conflict-resolution peacemakers and peacekeepers onto every theatre where they are currently urgently demanded, and AREF believes that the Niger Delta’s restive youths qualify right now for such urgent positive action.
In this last respect, AREF has been honing an already globally-tested and approved Mediation Process called PROJECT C.O.M.P.A.C.T. for impacting the youth in the Niger Delta positively and urgently. CO.M.P.A.C.T. is the acronym for Corps Of Mediators, Peacemakers And promoters of the Culture of Peace Training Project, a holistic project designed to foster peace, encourage reconciliation, and prevent conflicts within and between nation-states. The project, draws on situation-relevant cultural strengths and value-systems to devise solutions to real conflicts, is approved by the UN and the African Union, even as the latter body, collaborating with the Japanese government, has sponsored it for continental execution in Lagos-Nigeria, Addis Ababa-Ethiopia, and Cape Town-South Africa between 2001 and 2003. It is the considered belief of AREF that ongoing events in the Niger Delta urge us to rapidly deploy this proactive conflict-avoidance/resolution mechanism in this region NOW!
We are happy to report that soon after the Trustees and Patrons of AREF, led by Founder/Patron Ambassador Segun Olusola and Hon President Chief (Mrs.) Opral Benson, took the decision to positively impact the Niger Delta with PROJECT C.O.M.P.A.C.T the Akwa Ibom government embraced it warmly, just as the project has been approved and facilitated for execution in Cross River State in May 2006. We are hopefully confident that the forward-looking Government of our host state, Bayelsa, will soon follow suit to ensure that this key Niger Delta state benefits from this unique and positively proactive PROJECT C.O.M.P.A.C.T. in Yenagoa before the second quarter of 2006 ends.
Once again, AREF congratulates the MAMUZEES and felicitates with the government and people of Bayelsa State on this epochal Aristos-campaign that is commencing even as the world comes to Bayelsa to celebrate Africa’s cinematic development and its movie-stars at the AMAA.
Aristos leave the young girls alone to become all that God has destined them to be … STOP CORRUPTING TOMORROW’s MOTHERS OF NIGERIA.
Thank you.
At The State Cultural Centre, Yenagoa, Bayelsa, on Thursday April 27, 2006 on
YOUTH RESTIVENESS IN THE NIGER DELTA:
AN AREF PERSPECTIVE
(All Protocols observed)
Wars start in the minds of men, and it is indeed in the minds of men that the defenses for peace must be built…the real need is now perceived as being preparing for peace in other to avoid wars.
....Ambassador Segun Olusola, Founder/Patron, AREF, C.O.M.P.A.C.T., Lagos 2001
The African Refugees Foundation (AREF) is a non-profit non-governmental organization in special consultative status with the United Nation’s ECOSOC in Africa, with focus on the continent-wide prevention of conflict-causes that create refugees and internally-displaced persons and in helping resolve those conflicts that do break out, by Anticipating disasters, Rehabilitating victims, Encouraging peace, and Facilitating development through its numerous programmes, projects and interventions, even including such a futuristic sociocultural campaign as we are gathered here today to launch … namely the timely MAMUZEES’ ARISTO-Project in Bayelsa State, under the generous patronage of the state’s helmsman, Governor Goodluck Jonathan.
The recent hostage crises brought, once again, to the fore the need for urgent attention to be paid to the problems of youth restiveness in the Niger Delta and the need to better prepare for peace in order to avoid war, especially in light of the then warning of the USA National Security Adviser, given before the US Senate, to the effect that the Niger Delta crises, if not speedily resolved, could trigger off a chain of events culminating in a civil war and an unprecedented massive outflow of tens of millions of Nigerian refugees, and that this could possibly lead to the destabilization of Africa, impact Europe very negatively, and gravely damage current UN’s crisis-management mechanisms.
By the way, let it go on record that AREF was very actively, though quietly, involved in intimate mediation processes during those trying days of the hostage-taking crises, the only public of which interventions was the issuing of a public appeal, via releasing to the world’s press a missive calling on the young men in the creeks to release their captives or at least grant the latter phone-access to their families, whilst readily admitting that there was urgent need for the needs and legitimate requests of these youths to be sincerely addressed by all relevant parties, especially governments, oil multinationals, and other concerned stakeholders in a peaceful Niger Delta and Nigeria.
Whilst we all give God thanks for His having employed many mediators, including our good host today, Bayelsa State’s Governor Goodluck Jonathan, to resolve that crisis-situation, nobody can deny that the ominous youth restiveness in the Niger Delta that threatens not only the whole of Nigeria, but the global energy system, is far from being resolved to date.
The kidnappings, bombings, threats and warnings being dished out by these youths are too self-evident for us to begin deliberating on whether evidence exists that there is youth restiveness in the Niger Delta; just as there is no gainsaying the fact that the Niger Delta is the most underdeveloped region of Nigeria, especially considering the fact that over 90% of this oil-rich nation’s wealth is derived from this self-same impoverished region’s natural resources, and that the primary reason adduced by these restive youths of the Niger Delta for their restiveness is that they have been shortchanged along with the region for too long.
So what can we do to resolve the issue of youth restiveness in the Niger Delta? This is the question every true friend of Nigeria must be considering today, and it is to assist in finding answers to this question that we humbly present this not-so-simplistic AREF-perspective to this august gathering which has both national and foreign leaders in attendance. Of course we are all aware of the most recent and promising initiative launched by President Obasanjo, just as we are aware of the earlier more all-encompassing summit that was brokered here in Yenagoa by our host, Governor Jonathan, and that had representatives of all youths’/elders’ groups, major oil/gas multinationals, five foreign governments, Federal/Niger Delta-States Governments et al…in attendance. Again let it be mentioned that in the earlier-mentioned interventionist public statement, AREF did aver that it believes the Yenagoa Accord is speedily actualisable given the caliber of parties present and represented at that auspicious Special Niger Delta Forum. AREF’s position is still the same, even whilst AREF welcomes every programme aiming to improve the lives of all our brethren in the Niger Delta, including the youths of course.
AREF posits that the primary step towards a sustainable resolution of the harrowing crisis of youth restiveness in the Niger Delta is THE POLITICAL WILL to carry out any positive action that stakeholders, especially governments and corporate players, know will move the process of peace and development along smoothly.
And there is need to URGENTLY contend with issues associated with environmental degradation, lack of opportunities to fully participate in the oil industry as workers and investors, visible developmental efforts as guided by the people’s expressed will alone, urgently reviewing all laws and regulations that may have been overtaken by the realities of today’s nation-state, the tackling of fundamental political, social, economic issues at the core of the youths/elders’ agitation; and, even more importantly, creating and sustaining mechanisms to prevent, better manage and more speedily resolve any crises that exist openly, that may surface, or even those that fester less visibly, whilst we cannot overemphasise the need for there to be a fully representative interactive jaw-jaw between The Federal Government and these youths’ true leaders without any attempts by either party to deceive or vanquish the other.
Nigeria’s prolonged slow growth and imbalances that are so easily abused by our leaders, with the resultant widespread social disharmony and economic environment of high uncertainties plus gross abuse of the people of the Niger Delta have derived in the main from the weak institutions that dot our political and economic landscape like windmills set up merely for quixotic jousting by knaves of all age-ranges. Strong institutions of good governance, impartial anti-corruption, fiscal prudence, people-targeted programmes, and positive behavioural change mechanisms must needs be developed and efficiently-transferred to the youths and all other relevant parties targeted for growth and peace. We must emphasise that there may be initial opposition to even the best-willed plans or action, at least at the beginning before good intentions are proved as being exclusively so.
AREF reminds all of us that the Nigerian nation is not as seamlessly united as it was a decade or two ago, and so we all must tread carefully. The sentiments of all the groups making up the federation MUST BE RESPECTED AND NOT BRUSHED ASIDE. And we must rapidly and consciously develop and deploy mediators, conflict-resolution peacemakers and peacekeepers onto every theatre where they are currently urgently demanded, and AREF believes that the Niger Delta’s restive youths qualify right now for such urgent positive action.
In this last respect, AREF has been honing an already globally-tested and approved Mediation Process called PROJECT C.O.M.P.A.C.T. for impacting the youth in the Niger Delta positively and urgently. CO.M.P.A.C.T. is the acronym for Corps Of Mediators, Peacemakers And promoters of the Culture of Peace Training Project, a holistic project designed to foster peace, encourage reconciliation, and prevent conflicts within and between nation-states. The project, draws on situation-relevant cultural strengths and value-systems to devise solutions to real conflicts, is approved by the UN and the African Union, even as the latter body, collaborating with the Japanese government, has sponsored it for continental execution in Lagos-Nigeria, Addis Ababa-Ethiopia, and Cape Town-South Africa between 2001 and 2003. It is the considered belief of AREF that ongoing events in the Niger Delta urge us to rapidly deploy this proactive conflict-avoidance/resolution mechanism in this region NOW!
We are happy to report that soon after the Trustees and Patrons of AREF, led by Founder/Patron Ambassador Segun Olusola and Hon President Chief (Mrs.) Opral Benson, took the decision to positively impact the Niger Delta with PROJECT C.O.M.P.A.C.T the Akwa Ibom government embraced it warmly, just as the project has been approved and facilitated for execution in Cross River State in May 2006. We are hopefully confident that the forward-looking Government of our host state, Bayelsa, will soon follow suit to ensure that this key Niger Delta state benefits from this unique and positively proactive PROJECT C.O.M.P.A.C.T. in Yenagoa before the second quarter of 2006 ends.
Once again, AREF congratulates the MAMUZEES and felicitates with the government and people of Bayelsa State on this epochal Aristos-campaign that is commencing even as the world comes to Bayelsa to celebrate Africa’s cinematic development and its movie-stars at the AMAA.
Aristos leave the young girls alone to become all that God has destined them to be … STOP CORRUPTING TOMORROW’s MOTHERS OF NIGERIA.
Thank you.
posted by TIUranta at 6:59 AM
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