second term ambition will not receive the
backing of former lords of the creeks across
the Niger Delta who have threatened to
frustrate his bid should he eventually decided
to run for President in 2015.
The ex-militants are particularly piqued at the
way the Presidential Amnesty Programme has
been executed and have vowed to return to
the creeks to eke a living if their grievances
are not met in a few weeks time.
The position was made known in a statement
issued in Warri, Delta State, on Wednesday,
by a former lord of the creeks, General
Godday Smith (aka Bounanawei – gods of the
Niger Delta).
Bounanawei slammed the Special Adviser to
the President on Niger Delta and Chairman,
Presidential Amnesty Programme, Honourable
Kinsgley Kuku, whom he accused of
consistently deceiving and breaking
agreements reached between him and his
boys, who he said are now under the throes
of biting hunger and deprivation, despite the
façade of a successful amnesty programme
being touted by the Federal Government.
In his words: "Mr President, do not allow
anybody to deceive you, you must know that
lasting peace cannot be guaranteed in Niger
Delta region until all ex-militants and youths
across the Niger Delta region which
embraced the amnesty and surrendered their
arms are carried along and empowered to
directly benefit from the amnesty
programme".
Continuing, the ex-militant said: "I am afraid
Mr President, it will surprise you to know that
80 per cent of the ex-militants that have not
benefitted in the amnesty programme are
not happy with your administration, because
they cannot have you from the Niger Delta as
president and yet not benefit from a
programme initiated and left behind for you
by late Alhaji Umaru Yar'Adua, who
wholeheartedly meant well for all the Niger
Delta youths."
Alleging that the programme was a
deceptivewool, he added: "Mr President, the
continued deceit in the President Amnesty
Committee, if not quickly addressed, may
hinder your perceived presidential ambition
come 2015, as aggrieved ex-militants are
already mobilising to frustrate your re-
election bid, the truth is bitter, but must be
said."
Bounanawei recalled that on June 25, 2009,
when late President Yar'Adua granted
unconditional amnesty to the then militants
in Niger Delta, the laudable initiative was to
ensure that all youths involved in the act of
militancy and related offences in the region
were transformed, made self-reliant and
useful to themselves and society at large.
But he lamented that instead of empowering
restive youths and ex-militants from the
quagmire of untold hardship, the programme
had derailed from its initial purpose insisting
that "what is happening in the amnesty
programme today is completely out of place,
because we, who are the genuine agitators
and ex-militants leaders, have been
abandoned and shortchanged with fake ex-
militants leaders."
Bounanawei, who alleged that Honourable
Kuku and others handling the programme
had turned it into a personal company and
are now running it as their estate, warned
that if returning to the creeks is what would
guarantee his sustenance and that of his
boys, they would not hesitate to do so since
the only language government understand
was violence.
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