Oil and water

Oil and water


When the government led by the late President Yaradua first floated the idea of amnesty for the ‘restless youth’ of the Niger Delta, I did a piece questioning the rationale because my interpretation of the the Amnesty International charter did not include welfare packages and luxury trips (thinly disguised as training programs) for people who in plain speak have done nothing but take innocent lives and wreak wanton destruction albeit in the name of ‘fight for rights’; yeah! But that’s just me sitting here tapping away.

Who knows the circumstances or backroom politics that will cause a sovereign nation to not only negotiate but bribe and appease —putting all euphuisms aside — terrorists.

The thing with precedents is that once one has been set, it will certainly happen again; and why not? What is good for Sekibo is also good for Hussein. So when the ‘restless youth’ in the North began to shoot and burn every thing in sight, it was only a matter of time before they too, would be invited, nay begged to come to the negotiation table. Agenda? Amnesty of course!

From what I gather a lot of these boys have been taken to far-flung places for all kinds of training, and receive a monthly allowance far above the minimum wage, but that is not the point here.

Until recently, the impression I got was that their rehabilitation was being done in far flung places till I came upon this news story. According to the report, students of the Federal College of Education, Akoka Lagos and 80 Niger Delta militants running a one-year programme at the institution clashed. Trouble was said to have started after an ex-militant allegedly slapped a female student. It also went on to say that a school official who tried to intervene also got slapped for his trouble and from there it degenerated into a free for all with many people sustaining injuries…

Now, my question is, who came up with the brilliant idea of putting a training center for ex-militants on a school campus? What’s wrong with it you ask? After all its a school with existing structures abi? What’s the big deal, shebi they are learning abi? And everybody will mind their own business. Yeah right. What is wrong with it is what has happened right here! Didn’t it occur to anyone on the planning committee that placing these two similar yet diametrically opposed social groups in such close proximity could lead to a potentially dangerous situation?

Lets take a close look at both of them. These ex-militants are young virile men (and women I suppose, where they exist) who have lived most if not all of their lives in a particular way according to particular creed. I doubt if the niceties of social protocol and etiquette is their strong suit. These are people who have lived under some very harsh conditions that they have been told is as a result of the marginalization as perpetuated by the federal government. Then on the other hand you have the urbane youth, upbeat and confident, walking around like they own the plantation ( which in some ways they do) who may have seen some suffering of their own, but very little I would want to believe, that could compare to the aforementioned.

Now you place these two side by side, within close proximity, where they can observe each other at close range; one with a sense of superiority and thinly veiled disdain, the other with latent resentment at what must be to them the personification of all that they had been denied.

Its not rocket science; one only has to understand basic human nature. Of course it was only a matter of time for there to be a clash. And to support my point this was not the first one. Earlier there was a scuffle between the two groups over stolen money that was ‘settled’. Then last week a lady got slapped cause she was told to move by an ex- militant and maybe didn’t do it quickly enough or had the temerity to ask him why. And this time according to the report, ‘there was bloodshed.’

This is not about discriminating or apportioning blame. This is about acknowledging the fact some people who have lived a certain way, may have developed a certain code of conduct and therefore may not be able to exist in our midst ‘as is’. If we truly desire to integrate them back into main stream society, it will be a gradual long term and sustained process which can not be accomplished over a period of 6-24 months at a skills acquisition center anywhere in the world.