Buhari: what to do with the South-South

Jonathan appears to have conceded defeat simply because INEC said he had lost the election and not because he was convinced that he had been trounced. …I laugh when people draw some of their analyses, but by my privileged position, I knew a little more about the elections”, Jonathan crookedly told them. Few days from […]

Jonathan appears to have conceded defeat simply because INEC said he had lost the election and not because he was convinced that he had been trounced.
…I laugh when people draw some of their analyses, but by my privileged position, I knew a little more about the elections”, Jonathan crookedly told them. Few days from now, Dr Jonathan will discover additional privileged information borne by the voters: there would have been a massive insurrection if he had stolen this election.
Notwithstanding President Jonathan’s clumsy reversal of himself regarding the 2015 elections, the fact is that the All Progressives Congress (APC) and General Muhammadu Buhari are in power and poised to reset our democracy. By the time Buhari assembles competent men and women and they begin to “efficiently manage Nigeria”, people will start asking “so these things can be done like this?”
For a start, Buhari should fulfil his promise to publish the oil revenues. Many people in and out of Nigeria believe that the struggle for the presidency is all about gaining access to the petro-dollars. By publicising what accrues from oil export, Buhari will have demystified the notion that the desire of every Nigerian leader is to steal the country’s oil money. It shall also be clear to the people of South-South and all other Nigerians that his is an accountable and transparent government whose revenues and expenditures traceable.
The so-called Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) will have to be reworked. Its aim should be to get maximum value from oil business not only for Nigeria but also for the oil producing communities. There should be something for everyone in the PIB: the oil producing communities, the oil majors, the government and the rest of Nigerians.
Buhari should also undertake to clean the environment whenever and wherever it is polluted in the Niger Delta, beginning with Ogoniland. During the election campaigns, he had promised the Ogoni people that he would sanitise their land fouled by Shell. This aspect of Niger Delta struggle, the fight against land degradation and air pollution, championed by civil society organisations has been abandoned and self-s eeking characters like Annkio Briggs and other busy bodies found something more lucrative working with Jonathan.
Buhari should also crack the NNPC and clean the mess. In 2010, Diezani Alison-Madueke, the record breaking oil Minister called a world press conference and announced that the Jonathan administration would build new refineries in Lagos, Lokoja and Yenagoa.  All of her claptrap of reforms left us as a massive importer of petroleum products, our oil privilege notwithstanding. Buhari must find out from this oil reformer and transformer what happened to money voted for the repair of Nigeria’s refineries all these years.
There is something else that Buhari needs to do: he should endeavour to cause to be constructed a 200bpd refinery in Bayelsa in order to demonstrate to the people that their kinsman was only interested in chuwa chuwa inside Aso Villa but not their development.
Buhari should also consider appointing Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi as Nigeria’s next Minister of Defence. Like Buhari, Amaechi has shown tremendous bravery in the face of intimidation from Jonathan, Patience Jonathan, Police and Nigerian Army and it will be apt to let him lead their re-professionalization and subordination to civilian authorities.  As Defence Minister, Amaechi could also help neutralise such miserable characters like Asari Dokubo, Tompolo, Tom Ateke and other trouble makers.
Buhari also needs to take a close look at the unfinished East-West Road that has rather become a bottomless pit. Anyone from the South-South who thinks that kinsman Jonathan is interested in developing their region or Nigeria should consider what the outgoing President has made of the East-West Road. This road has been under construction for nearly ten years and has gulped about one billion dollars but has remained uncompleted. For Peoples Democratic Party, every project is a conduit for stealing from the treasury and the longer it takes to complete the better.
Buhari should also pay attention to the so called amnesty programme superintended by Kingsley Kuku. Kuku was the first to attempt misleading the Americans to support Jonathan’s second term; otherwise he said there would be no peace in the Niger Delta. Kuku was also beside Governor Seriake Dickson and some other troublemakers at Bayelsa Government House, where they threatened the country over Jonathan’s presidency. Has the amnesty programme succeeded? Should it be sustained or not and what are the problems with it? How much has been spent on amnesty? How have the funds been managed?
Lest I forget, President Buhari also needs to examine the forceful seizure of Rivers state oil wells which Jonathan handed his home state. From all indications, the process of transfer of those oil wells to Jonathan’s Bayelsa is untidy.
President Buhari will do well to get to the bottom of the so called pipeline protection contracts and also investigate the purchase by Government Ekpemupulo, alias Tompolo, of six fast-speed naval battleships from Norway. What is a militant doing with warships? There is an awful explanation making the round that the ships are Tompolo’s, but that the weapons fitted on them are owned and controlled by the Nigerian Navy. So Nigerian naval duties have been outsourced to Tompolo! I think the top brass in the NN should be ashamed of themselves. We must never allow Tompolo to substitute the Navy.
In case you forgot, twice Tompolo refused to guarantee Jonathan’s security and twice the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, due to this refusal, failed a scheduled inauguration of a gas plant in Delta State!