RESURGENCE of ethnic militia activities in the Niger Delta has been viewed as an economic and humanitarian tragedy. A research fellow of the Centre for Advance Social Studies, Dr Sofiri Peterside who spoke weekend at a seminar organised by the centre on �Militarisation of Nigeria�s Niger Delta: The Genesis of Ethnic Militia in Rivers State� said though agitations were not strange in the region but it was sad that they had assumed this frightening dimension.
The scholar and Ijaw activist who recalled protestations by the likes of King Nana of Itsekiri, King Jaja of Opobo etc over matters of economic rights to strengthen the view that agitations were not new in the region regretted that it had now taken the shape of militancy.
Blaming government for this sad development he explained that if it had implemented its own portion of the social contract that culminated in the state there would not have been need for youths in the region to indulge in any form of protest. The youths according to him had no other choice in the face of the failure than to vent their anger in very mild form on the oil companies they see as representing government in their communities.
�Initially the people of the region demonstrated their resentment to the rapacious tendencies of the state, inadequacy of infrastructure, preponderance of unskilled youths, high unemployment and perception of past marginalisation through non violent methods that yielded little fruits�, he said
Government, he said made matters worst when it over reacted to their actions by inviting the military. Though very sad to say he noted that this action of the state triggered off militancy in the region which some tend to label terrorism. The danger he argued in interpreting militancy in the region as acts of terrorism was that government would miss out in the solution to the problem. And then begin to strengthen its military might in the region with a view to quelling the imaginary terrorism.