Musa Yar Research Articles

Repositioning Nigeria’s Amnesty Programme for Conflict Transformation and Post-Conflict Peace-Building in the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria

One of the latest attempts to effectively manage the crisis in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria was the declaration of amnesty for all militants in the region by the late President of Nigeria, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, on the 25 th of June, 2009. The death of the President did not bring an end to the amnesty programme as a core Niger Delta man, Goodluck Jonathan, became Nigeria’s president and has continued with the amnesty programme. This study seeks to examine the contexts, contents and challenges of the amnesty programme with a view to establishing the nature of peace it has achieved in the region, the nexus between the performance of the amnesty programme and the structure of the Nigerian state, and how the amnesty programme can be used for conflict transformation and postconflict peace-building in the Niger Delta region. Primary and secondary sources of data collection were used for this work. The primary sources were In-depth Interviews (IDIs) with some ex-militants and some members of the ex-militants’ communities and Camp Officials. Key Informant Interview (KII) was also used. Secondary sources include relevant books, journals, and other publications on Niger Delta. Qualitative method was used for data analysis. The study argues that a mere declaration of an amnesty, without correspondent actions by the state to remove structural forms of violence that have sustained the crisis in the region, as well as embarking on a radical infrastructural and socioeconomic development of the region, will lead to the collapse of the relative peace in the region. It further posits that Nigeria’s amnesty programme is capable of bringing lasting peace to the region and the nation as a whole if, and only if, a holistic approach that will take the structure of the Nigerian federalism is taken into consideration. That is, the evolvement of true federalism and the abrogation of all laws that are used to subdue, oppress, and deprive the people of the region from benefiting maximally from the Nigerian commonwealth. It is only when these are done that a genuine transformation of the actors, issues, rules, and structures in the crisis will be achieved in the Niger Delta of Nigeria.

The Amnesty Question in Post Conflict Niger Delta and Peace-Building

The Niger Delta is the “honey land” of Nigeria where the honey has continually been milked and the bees left to sting the indigenes. The Niger Delta issue has become a perennial crisis, first because of the different positional views of involved stakeholders, the lack of political will on the part of the state to curb it and the non-recognition of the issue as a national problem leading to national insecurity. The thrust of this paper is to ascertain how far the amnesty initiative of late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua has contributed in peace building within the post conflict Niger Delta region. It discusses the challenges of the amnesty programme with the view that amnesty is only a means to achieving durable peace and not an end in itself. The skepticisms of the amnesty programme are vividly discussed with the opinion that the programme may fail thus with great consequences for Nigeria. Recommendations are made for the amnesty to achieve its goals and by implication putting an end to the bitter lingering squabbles in the Niger Delta region which constitutes national insecurity for Nigeria.

Press Reportage of President Yar’Adua’s Ill-health: A Study

This study was carried out with a view to examining the frequency and prominence of coverage given to President Musa Yar’Adua’s ill-health by Nigerian newspapers. The major concern of this study was to find out whether there was any relationship between the newspaper coverage of this issue and public perception of it. The study found that the Nigerian press demanded a handing over of government from President Yar’Adua, as news about a demand for his handing over dominated the agenda of the newspapers during the period. It was also inferred that the newspapers coverage of the issue with their use of banner headlines and image frame through the use of pale-looking photographs, was proportional to the perception held by the public about it. Key words : Press, Reportage, Agenda-setting, Framing, Ill-health.

The Enemy Within: Oil in the Niger Delta

The Enemy Within: Oil in the Niger Delta

Federalism, Power Sharing and the 2011 Presidential Election in Nigeria

Power sharing has become a prominent feature of post-election conflict management practice in Africa in recent times. A study of the Nigerian experience provides useful lessons about the theory and practice of power sharing in a divided society with a federal system. Nigeria instituted the 'zoning with rotation' principle to shore up the affirmative action/federal character principle earlier devised to manage the inter-ethnic tensions that followed the crisis thrown up by the annulment of the presidential elections of 12 June 1993. This article examines the challenges and debates over power sharing in the build-up to the 2011 elections as a result of the entrance of Goodluck Jonathan (a southerner) into the presidential race, made possible by the death of President Umar Musa Yar'Adua (a northerner) in a clear upset of the power-sharing arrangement. It argues that while the 'zoning with rotation' principle remains useful for stability and representation in Nigeria its sustenance depends on its flexible application and the creativity of the elites as they negotiate and manage the power disequilibrium that results from perceived access or lack of access of segments of Nigerian society to top political office. The Nigerian case shows that the 'zoning with rotation' principle is problematic as a long-term solution because it constrains the notion of free political competition and the uncertain outcomes that are central to democracy.

A Pragmatic Analysis of Victory and Inaugural Speeches of President Umaru Musa Yar‟Adua

The study was conducted to identify the speech acts features of President Umaru Yar’Adua’s Victory and Inaugural Speeches. Hence, the study focused on the pragmatic functions of locution, illocutionary and perlocutionary acts of the speeches. This was done with a view to determine the global pattern of pragmatic moves of the selected political speeches. The data were drawn from the Victory speech and Inaugural Speech and analyzed following the Speech Act theory of Austin (1962) and Searle (1969). The tabular presentations of the analysis were drawn showing the relative frequencies of the speech acts and percentages. Twenty (20) sentences were obtained from the speeches, from which forty(40) speech acts (direct and indirect illocutionary acts) were obtained. The findings showed that the Overall Relative Frequency Percentages (ORFPs) for the selected speeches of Umaru Musa Yar’Adua were: assertive-60%, directive-35%, expressive-15%, verdictive-40%, commisive-30%, and declarative-20%. These ORFPs results showed that Umaru Musa Yar’Adua relied more on sentences that performed assertive acts than other speech acts. He used the sentences that were vindictive and directive to assert his authority and exercise his power as the President. Sentences that were expressive had the least ORFP; hence, it was observed that the President exploited less of sentences which were meant for indicating the sincerity of his intentions. The Speech Act analysis of the political discourses of Umaru Musa Yar’Adua provided the understanding that political leaders in Nigeria perform various acts through their speeches. These speech acts assist in the understanding and interpretation of the messages in their speeches.

Politics and the Competitiveness of the Nigerian Economy

Through qualitative analysis of secondary data, the paper examines the current status of political legitimacy, political instability and corruption which had been implicated in failures of past efforts at economic development in Nigeria. It reveals that even if the unprecedented continuous existence of civil rule for nine years since 1999 heralds an end to military rule with its inherent problems of legitimacy and instability occasioned by unpredictable and frequent regime change, the massive electoral fraud and policy reversals associated with the country's recent democratic practice create legitimacy crises and engender an unstable policy environment with similar negative implications for the economy. It further shows that not only is the level of corruption still high in spite of efforts to curtail it, but that even the anti-corruption campaign is slowing down and that corruption's negative impact on the economy is particularly demonstrated in its effect on the provision of basic development infrastructure such as electric power. Consequently, current efforts, including the expressed desire of the Musa Yar' Adua administration to make Nigeria one of the top most 20 economies in the world by 2020 would remain a pipe dream unless these socio- political threats are surmounted.

Nigeria: Militancy, Amnesty, Power And Economic Growth (an intricate mix)

More than ninety percent (90%) of the foreign exchange earnings of the federal republic of Nigeria, comes from the Niger Delta. But the region has been embroiled in crisis because of the peoples’ fight for resource control and search for redress after many years of neglect. Several militant groups were formed and hostage taking (kidnapping),pipe line vandalisation, terrorizing of oil workers, disabling flow stations,shuting down oil rigs, disruption of infrastructural development and absolute lawlessness became the order of the day. An oil sector with a daily installed capacity of 3.2 million barrels of crude per day (mbpd) came down to 1.3 mbpd in 2008 because of the activities of the militants. With the retariliatory attacks by the militants in June 2009, production hovered between 800,000bpd and 1.2 mbpd The mantra of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua since he assumed office, has been his 7-point agenda. This paper howeversingles out two (no.1 and no.6) out of the 7 points for close examination, namely,(i).Security and (ii) Power and energy. Nigeria has been tagged the darkest nation on earth because of her very serious energy crisis. Many companies have relocated, shut down or reduced operations in Nigeria, throwing multiple thousands into the job market. Nigeria has been appropriately tagged a grave for big businesses. The manufacturers’ Association of Nigeria (M.A.N) has lamented that the greatest challenge to manufacturing in Nigeria is power. One of the campaign promises of President Yar’Adua was to produce 6,000 megawatts of electricity by the end of 2009 and 10,000 megawatts by 2011.The gas needed to achieve a major part of this dream is suppose to come from the Niger Delta. The amnesty programme put in place by President Yar’Adua, which expired on the 4th of October 2009,saw many militants laying down their arms. With relative peace in the region, gradual growth is once again being experienced in the economy. The projected 6,000 megawatts by December 2009 which hitherto looked like a mirage, is beginning to look realizable Some states in Nigeria have come out with laws addressing the very disturbing vice of kidnapping / hostage taking. Some recommend life imprisonment while others prescribe the death penalty for offendersThe success of the amnesty programme of the Nigerian federal government is commendable, but we must tell ourselves a few truths. We must ensure that sincerity is the watchword .All commitments made must be kept. Already, some of the militants are crying fowl-they suspect that the government will renege on its promises. Some of them openly confessed that they have their PLAN B, which is, returning back to the creeks and resuming militancy-this is not a good sign. We must objectively ask ourselves: ‘why did the boys in the creeks take up arms against the federal government in the first place. We cannot just sweep the issue of resource control under the carpet. Until the aggrieved party is truly assuaged and fully re-intergraded, it is not yet uhuru. The kind of sophisticated weapons surrendered by many of the ‘ex-militants’ (many of which, even the Nigerian security operatives could not handle) made me to shudder. How did the boys in the creeks amass this kind of weaponry? We know today that politicians (several of whom are still in power or in the corridors of power) recruited many of these boys in the creeks as political thugs, handing them guns with which they have continued to terrorise the citizenry. Politicians have created monsters they can no longer control. It is also common knowledge that foreign nationals are contributing to the crisisbecause they buy stolen oil from illegal bunkerers and in turn supply them with guns and other armunitions.PLEASE THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY SHOULD HELP LASTING PEACE RETURN TO THE NIGER DELTA. The Nigerian government should do all it can to shrink the huge unemployment profile in the country as unemployed youths are ever ready tools of distabilisationI see genuine peace returning to the Niger Delta. I see Nigeria rising again. I see our prostrate economy growing again. All we need is genuine sincerity and commitment from all stake holders to move Nigeria forward.

A Review of the Campaign Strategies

This paper reviews the campaign strategies used in the 2007 elections in Nigeria and their outcome. The gaps between the Nigerian and global situations are also discussed and recommendations made on how to improve the situation in accordance with the electoral reforms proposed by President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua in his inauguration address in Abuja. The paper focuses predominantly on the presidential campaigns of the three leading political parties in the country, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) and the Action Congress (AC).