THE recent attempted march on Abuja by some ex-militants from theNiger Delta, ostensibly to press their case for the payment of outstanding allowances has shown, on the one hand, the extent of lawlessness in the land; and on the other hand, the lethargy and lack of preparedness of our law enforcement agencies. More than these perhaps, the incident is a manifestation of the less than satisfactory measures to resolve the problems of the Niger delta. All the issues are alarming and ought not to be allowed to repeat themselves.The protest, in so far as it was organised without reasonable regard for the convenience of other Nigerians and their rights, amounts to gross misbehaviour.And on the part of the self-styled 'General' Ramsey and the leaders of the 1,600 strong group, it is utter irresponsibility tohave led a band that disrupted vehicular traffic for hours and inflicted so much inconvenience on citizens going about their honest business.The complaint, asarticulated by Ramsey was thattheamnesty programme isbeing poorly implemented because'while wehave fully embraced (it),the Federal Governmenthas been frustrating it byrefusing to pay us.' He continued, ''till date,they have neitherpaid us nor settled us topractisewhat we were trainedfor, and each timewemeet with the government, they keep promising us, telling us to come backtomorrow.' If this is true, it will be a sad comment on the sincerity of, and commitment of government to the amnesty programme.In every respect, the lawless act of the ex-militants and seeming impotence of law enforcement and security officials are unacceptable.Firstly, grantedthat theamnesty programme iscoordinated from the Presidency,does it make any sense to deployabout two thousand men inhundreds of vehicles on a risky night journey (they were reportedly intercepted at 4 a.m. on the Niger bridge) to distant Abujatostatetheir case, when a fewresponsible and articulate representativeswould do' How come that a convoy of three hundred vehicles full of so-called 'ex-militants' would traverse hundreds of kilometres of the land without interception' Obviously the protesting band assumed the failings of the nation's security system. And they were almost proved right but for the action of the Kogi Police command. We shudder to imagine what could happen if the Boko Haram people were to embark on a similar adventure and be stopped at so sensitive a point as the Niger bridge. The question arises: why did the police choose to stop the group on the bridge instead ofa location to where they could more easily be diverted off the highway, and camped on an adjoining piece of land' It was a poor tactic to manage the crisis and for which thousands of travellers along the Abuja-Lokoja road suffered.Besides the security implication of this incident, the point must be made that it hints that somehow, nearly three years down the road, the implementing agents of the amnesty programme have not quite got it right and the project needs to be fine-tuned; it should also be monitored at the highest level in view of the larger issues at stake.About two years ago, we had observed in an editorial some tardiness in the way the programme was being executed and which had caused some of the demobilised militants to stage riotous protests in Yenagoa, Port Harcourt and Benin over non-payment of allowances. It seems that this is one problem yet to be overcome. In his response to the Lokoja incident, Dr. Jonathan's Special Adviser on Niger Delta Matters, Hon. Kingsley Kuku failed to address the complaints of non-payment of allowances and whatRamsey said was settlement to practise the trade for which they were trained. If the claim is true, dancing around it will not do. Government should pay the militants their entitlements, if only to fully and finally douse the lingering tension in that region.While Government must neither yield to blackmail nor condone criminality, itremains imperative thatit fulfils itscommitments in the deal; and, in the interest of the country,notallow a returnto thebad days of Niger Delta militancy. Nigerians certainly do not want a repeat of the Niger bridge act of lawlessness, for whatever reason offered by whomsoever.
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