Posted by By FEMI FOLARANMI, Yenagoa on
Against the backdrop of stiff opposition to the proposed Niger Delta Summit by elders and leaders of the region, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) has offered an insight into why Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan has not been able to gather the necessary support for the summit.
Against the backdrop of stiff opposition to the proposed Niger Delta Summit by elders and leaders of the region, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) has offered an insight into why Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan has not been able to gather the necessary support for the summit.
Jonathan, a bonafide Niger Deltan from Bayelsa State had been saddled with the job of fashioning out a summit to address the problems of the region by President Umaru Yar'Adua.
But since the idea of the summit became public knowledge, the people of the region have been up in arms rejecting the idea of summit and its proposed Chairman, Prof Ibrahim Agboola Gambari.
According to MEND, Jonathan has not been able to mobilize support for the summit because he has distanced himself from militants, especially Henry Okah, who he left to suffer in the hands of the Federal Government.
The group in a statement by Jomo Gbomo made available to Daily Sun explained that it does not believe the North is using the summit to humiliate Jonathan, adding however, that if he continues the way he is doing , the North would make fool of him as they have been doing to the minorities.
'We do not think there is any ploy to humiliate the VP. He has a choice to resign. After all this is what he told Henry Okah when he was the governor of Bayelsa State. All this is coming on him because he could not leverage on the militants, who he now refers to as criminals. Here is a man who had a gentleman's agreement with Henry Okah but turned his back on the man who would have been an important ally and drive in the peace process.
Those he relied on to provide the peace, he has painfully found out are not in the position to. Anyone who can go to Bonga is the right group he should be working with. If he continues this way, the North will make a fool of him the way they have been doing to the region before the advent of focused and uncompromising militancy like MEND," the group said.
On the insistence of Yar'Adua that the summit would hold despite opposition, MEND said it is not surprised because Yar'Adua can continue to grandstand because he never had the mandate of the people of the region.
The statement reads: 'The summit which MEND refers to as "the circus" is a face saving measure by the Yar'Adua administration that it has a plan. It is now obvious that they are like a blind folded man trying to lead people who can see. Of course he has to defend the circus even if it is opposed, after all what do you expect from a man who was not elected into office? The choice of Gambari is a clear indication that their choice of a clown for the circus is faulty from inception"
MEND pointed out that it is not afraid that Yar'Adua on his next visit to America could discuss the issue of the Niger Delta with President George Bush and Secretary General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon, stressing that 'we are determined to step-up the campaign of violence the moment America decides to involve itself in defending criminality and injustice."