•The biggest challenge is to develop the region Former Military Head of State General Abdulsalam Abubakar has lent his weight to the need for the Federal Government to negotiate with the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) and other aggrieved groups in the country, in order to enhance lasting peace in the country. The former head of state made this known while receiving members of the Niger State House of Assembly who visited him to congratulate him on his 74th birthday in Minna, Niger State. He similarly urged all the aggrieved groups to come together and sit down in a round table “to discuss their grievances and find a lasting solution to whatever could be bordering them so that peace will reign in Nigeria”. For quite a while, the new militant group (NDA) has been destroying oil installations and pipelines and this has adversely affected the level of oil output in that region and also caused untold problems for its environment. The former head of state pointed out that there was need for the NDA to understand that “they were destroying their land by blowing up oil pipes, leading to oil spillage” apart from the fact that their action “had brought crude oil production to the lowest level in decades”. It is important to note that Gen Abubakar’s call came the day after the Federal Government said it was ready to dialogue with the Avengers. Minister of Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu, at the South-south Town Hall Meeting held at the Le Meridien Ibom Hotels and Golf Resort in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, said that “there is nowhere in the world where conflicts have been resolved through a battle”. He said his mandate as Minister of State for Petroleum is to protect oil production as well as generate more revenue for the government. As Kachikwu observed, negotiating with the militant group is not an evidence of weakness on the part of the Federal Government but that massive bombing of oil installations and pipelines in the territory “would not articulate a solution to the already existing problems” in the region. Whether the militant group is ready for genuine dialogue is however the issue. This is evident in the conditions it gave, which are totally at variance with the spirit of peaceful negotiation. For instance, it warned that “it might resort to shedding of blood and more damaging attacks if the Federal Government, oil multinationals and international oil merchants fail to heed its warning against repairing the facilities it destroyed and crude sales”. As a follow-up, the group resolved not only to attack the interest of any of the multinational oil companies that attempts to repair its attacked facilities, but also that any company that continues to buy Nigeria’s oil would lose its investment, as “it would sink two vessels of any defying company”. The NDA said it had no new demands to negotiate with the Federal Government but only wants an atmosphere that would make it to be willing to take part in any talks “in which independent mediators will participate”. There can be no doubt that the conditions given by the NDA and its previous pronouncements such as asking the government to “leave Tompolo alone” and “don’t repair damaged pipelines”, “no ship should come to lift Nigerian oil “ and that “it would sink vessels of companies not heeding their advice”, are absurd and impracticable. It is even laughable, sometimes bordering on the subversive, to be asking that Sambo Dasuki “who is in for serious financial crimes” should be freed as a condition for dialogue. Where in the world is such done? Are these not indications that the Avengers are not ready for dialogue with the Federal Government? Unfortunately, it is the leaders in the region that are not helping matters by not using the resources allocated for the development of the area in a transparent manner. Nonetheless, the Federal Government should not mind to dialogue with the militants, but certainly not on the terms they have given. Rather, the only commitment of the government should be finding ways of how development could be fast-tracked in the Niger Delta region for, when all is said, it is this development that should remain the bottom line. Yet, this is possible only when money earned by the Niger Delta states from the 13% derivation and the huge money specially allocated to them through the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) and the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs by the Federal Government do not end up in private pockets at the expense of the average man on the streets and the Avengers who are unwittingly fighting a wrong and perhaps unnecessary battle.]]>