Force Cannot Solve Niger Delta Crisis, Former House Member Says

Force Cannot Solve Niger Delta Crisis, Former House Member Says

The federal government has been advised that adopting force to resolve the ongoing Niger Delta hostility will not yield the required result.

A former member of the House of Representatives, Alhaji Bala Adamu Kuta, who gave the advice in Minna, Niger State, today while fielding questions from journalists, said using military force to quell the militancy in the region would only aggravate the problem and throw the country into more problems.

Kuta, who represented Shiroro Munya and Rafi federal constituency in the National Assembly between 2007 and 2011, urged President Muhammadu Buhari to reconsider the current policy and settle for dialogue.

In the same vein, Kuta said the Niger Delta militants should lay down their arms and meet the government on the conference table where the issues militating against the development of the area would be discussed and amicable solution found.

“What peace and dialogue cannot solve, taking up of arms and ammunition cannot be the solution,” he declared.

According to Kuta, “The way out of this problem is not the use of force but dialogue. Both parties should come to the negotiating table and understand each other,” adding that the federal government should appreciate that ‘there is problem in the Niger Delta region and give firm assurances that these problems would be looked into immediately.”

On the part of the militants, the former legislator said they should also realise that continued bombing of oil installations would not be in the interest of the region and the country because the area would be exposed to more pollution and other dangers that would affect the lives of the people they are trying to defend.

He said the commencement of the cleanup of the Ogoni land last week by the federal government should be an assurance to the militants that the federal government was determined to correct the wrongs of the past in the area.