LAST week, it was widely reported that President Muhammadu Buhari begged the Niger Delta militants ‘in the name of God’ to cease all hostilities. With this, the president has shown a human side to his person, and I want the militants, particularly the Niger Delta Avengers, to take the president’s ‘hand of friendship.’
The president is the Commander-in-Chief of the military, and he has the power and right to use force in the Niger Delta region against the militants, but he knows that such will add to the suffering of the people.
It is a great opportunity now for the militants to start a dialogue with the president.
The people of the region have suffered for so long, and it won’t be fair again to have them hiding at the sight of military warplanes.
I am, therefore, calling on the region’s elders to speak to youths who are causing trouble in the region. The leaders must let the youths know that one cannot really achieve anything with violence.
- Philip Osakwe,
and then