Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has described the situation in the Niger Delta as criminal and not political. Obasanjo said this during an interview by Aljazeera‘s Sir David Frost on Friday.
”The situation in the Niger Delta is not a situation… it‘s not really a political situation like Northern Ireland, for instance. No, it‘s a criminal situation. People have got used to an easy way of making money, financing by stealing crude oil or refined product, they call it bunkering, and then when they are prevented from doing that, they go into taking hostages. It‘s more of a criminal situation, which of course started with a bit of agitation,” he said.
Obasanjo said although some leaders in the Delta supported the militants, the ‘responsible leadership‘ did not. ”The leadership, most of the responsible leadership in the Niger Delta, don‘t go with what these boys are doing, most of them. I won‘t say that all of them because some, for whatever reason, covertly support them,” he said.
Obasanjo, who said all Nigerians must join hands to solve the problems of the Delta, expressed optimism about the future of Nigeria. He said, ”I am highly optimistic. I always see the glass as half full because like I‘ve said, certain things have been done. Institutions have been built, they may be weak but leave them there and strengthen them, don‘t remove them. Some of them will correct themselves, while some will be corrected. We are better than situations in other countries where institutions are either non-existent or extremely weak. We have one good thing for Nigeria, we have very high calibre of men and women, most of them very good men and women, some of them very bad, so bad that at times we will feel ashamed to call them Nigerians. But you have that everywhere. Maybe, the fact that we talk about our own bad people is an indication that there‘s hope for us.”
On Laurent Nkunda, the Congolese rebel, who has been placed under custody by the Rwandan government, Obasanjo said he had foreseen his arrest. He said, ”People said, and there maybe some element of truth in that, that Nkunda was partly mentored by Rwanda and if you are mentored by somebody, you must be watching the voices or listening to the voices of your mentor and not only listening to the voices of your mentor, you must be reading the lips of your mentor.
”I believe that there was a time when Nkunda was not reading the lips of his mentor and probably not listening to the voices of his mentor. When the situation between Kigali, Capital of Rwanda and Kinshasa, Capital of DRC, started to change, Nkunda should have seen the handwriting on the wall. He seemed to fail to see the handwriting on the wall and so what happened after that will not surprise any discerning individual or group of individuals.”