I am all for the Amnesty but on what grounds

Today a guest on the popular Channels Tv programme, Sunrise opened my eyes to the whole Boko Haram issue in a new and better light.

It is on record that the Sultan of Sokoto has said that, the Boko Haram are not true Muslims, a remark echoed by other popular Muslim figures but is this really true?.

According to the guest, even Christians don't see all Christians as true Christians. He pointed out that, Pentecostal Christians don't see Catholics as true Christians, the same views they hold for C & S believers even if we all share the same faith. The C & S believes in the Old Doctrines of the Bible; burning of candles, wearing of white garments as Elijah and Moses did. The Catholics believe in the Virgin birth and Mary, while the Pentecostals believe in Jesus as God. But all these beliefs are found no where else but in the Bible and everyone of these sect based their convictions on the Bible. They take a portion of it and based their actions on it. Same applies to the Boko Haram sect. They are indeed Muslims who just took a portion of the Koran and based their actions and convictions on it. Islamization of the Northern Nigeria and the use of Sharia law is a part of the Koran, at least, that's what they believe. Sharia Law is afterall been used in some part of the North as part of their judiciary process. However, to draw a similarity with the Niger Delta militancy situation would be a disservice to our nation's united and the people.

The situation in the Niger Delta was one of , the people who own something were not only been deprived of the joy of what they owned but also been abused for having it. The Crude Oil in the Niger Delta region belongs to the Niger Delta people, yes it belongs to the Federal Government, meaning the people of the Federal Republic of Nigeria but it belongs to the Niger Delta people first. This simple means that, if anybody is to benefit from the exploration of the natural resources endowed in their region, they should be the first. It's not possible for a farmer who has a farm flourishing to be without food or is it?, or like someone rightly put it “A butcher serving bones to his children because he doesn't have meat and yet he kills animals everyday” well that was exactly the way the Niger Deltans were been treated and not for the first time. Since the discovery of oil, no meaningful development has taken place in the Niger Delta. Their God's given resources has continually been taken away from them and the money used to develop other parts of the country. Basically, they got poorer while others got richer from what was theirs. If that was not enough, even there own livelihood were also been affected. The exploration of the cruel with little or no supervision for regulations compliance in the oil industries by the corrupt Government left their waters and land polluted, the fishes dying right before their eyes, even farming became impossible. Something these oil companies dare not do in other part of the world where they also explore for oil and if the mistakenly do it, they are punished with fines and forced to clean up the pollution, as it happened some a year ago in America with BP but in Nigeria it is never so, thanks to corrupt Government officials and politicians, who prefer to look the other way and fill up their bank accounts.

A husband, father and environmentalist Ken Saro Wiwa decided to take up the cause of his people, if they couldn't get help from within, maybe he could from outside the country but the “Abacha Junta” the worst ruler-ship Nigeria has ever experience in all her years of existence, caught him, tried him and his fellow activist in a Kangaroo court and quietly killed them while the whole world watched, the Oil company resumed their exploration as usual. In Nigeria, we call it they 'Carry go'.

And when the Niger Delta people could no longer take the rubbish been dished out to them, after having been forced to the wall with no where else to go but the grave, their youth took to arms to get that which should have been freely given to them. Dividend of their oil revenue.

The questions I would like to ask at this point is: 1. Who gave the arms to the militants in the first place? 2. Is our borders so porous that anything can be imported and brought into Nigeria?.3. Are our security forces so corrupt as to accept bribes even to allow the importations of weapons? 4. Or were they given to them by some politicians, as some columnist and people have said?.

The latter we know to be true as some of those arms came from the same politicians who when they were trying to win elections to rule these states, gave guns to hooligans to torment their rivals and scare away credible voters but after the elections were over and won, these hooligans refused to relinquish their new found power-the guns.

The Niger Delta militants only destroy oil installations, pipeline and capture oil workers to send their message across, must of these workers were eventually releases after demands for money were met, but like all bad things when not checked, escalated into kidnappings and eventually a business, where just about anyone, even children were been kidnapped for ransom. When the Federal Government could no longer bear the fact that the nations main source of revenue was been disturbed and their security forces were too corrupt to stop them, they looked for an amiable solution and this brought about the Amnesty program by the Yar'Adua Administration which was followed up by President Jonathan. The militancy stopped and oil has been pumped again.

So, its clear why the Niger Delta militants fought, they wanted their region to benefit from what was been taken out of them and leaving them worst off. Today there is some bits of development but things have definitely changed at least for many in that region.

But what the Boko Haram sect have done and are doing is quite different. These sect have bombed Churches, killings hundreds and thousands of children and adult, mostly Christians, killed passerby in sporadic shootings all in the name of trying to drive out Christians from the North and Islamize the North, at least, these are what we have heard they want.

So how do you give amnesty to this kinds of people. They are not asking for money, but for their region to be Islamize. They are Islamist. Amnesty will therefore only work if you adhere to their request or are they using the cry for Islamization as a ploy to extort money from the Federal Government? Is that whats this is really all about, the killings of innocent Nigerians just for money?. These people are Muslims who believe in the tenet of their faith. It's also been said that, majority of their sponsors are politicians in the North as many of those caught have been seen in the house of prominent members of the Upper and Lower Champers of the House of Assembly, even President Jonathan has said that, there are enemies in his cabinet.

Amnesty will therefore not be enough for these people because what they really want, amnesty won't give them as it did to the Niger Delta militants.

So what do they really want? They want to own their own states, governor ed by Islamic doctrine of which, Sharia is a part of it.

I would like the Federal Government to know that, Religious issues are far deeper than financial issues, if the Boko Haram sect are indeed fighting for what they have been saying, then no amount of money would change them, maybe for a while, the greedy ones among them will collect and wipe their mouth clean, but eventually the ones with the true convictions to what the stand for will break away and the killings will continue, except again, they have been lying all along in the name of religion.