The demand of MEND is now clear enough. It is not the presidency, it is nothing to do with the center. It is resource control. As it was at Independence in 1960. The main backers of MEnd are Ijaw and the PResident of Nigeria is Ijaw and this makes no difference to them. They still went ahead to blow up people at the Eagles’ square on Independence day! To them the President represents the institution that relishes the abuse of the Niger Delta.
I join Nigerians and the whole world in commiserating with the families of those who lost their lives. They are martyrs. Like all our fallen heroes.The problem of militancy requires an urgent solution.
It is clear that oil will not be as valuable in ten years as it is today, maybe not a tenth as valuable.. Why can not Nigeriareturn to normalcy by allowing resource control? Why can Nigeria not return to the old system of states funding the center?. There is absolutely no reason, because the oil money being shared is only making life worse for Nigerians. It makes sure we have no electricity, no good roads and etc. It is also a major cause of naira inflation which all Nigerians suffer from. A chief cause of naira inflation is that government revenue is chiefly in US dollars.
It is now clear enough that any Nigerian state that will make any headway at all will first have to break loose from dependence on federal allocations sourced from oil money as Lagos have done.. if any state in Nigeria will start to approach the status/standard of Ghana, then the money for the development will have to come majorly from the citizens, from their pockets as it is in Ghana and Lagos.