Avengers to Buhari: Embrace dialogue, you can’t win oil war

Obviously reacting to his Nairobi threat to give militants the Boko Haram treatment, the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) has told President Muhammadu Buhari that Nigeria is not his personal property and must welcome dialogue oftentimes if the country must stay united.

The group, which announced a ceasefire of hostilities over a week ago now, also reminded the President that he might win the oil battle, but not the oil war.

The group made the reaction late Monday in a statement signed by its spokesperson, Brig Gen Mudoch Agbinibo and published in the group’s website.

In the statement laced with the tone of disenchantment, angst and seeming frustration, Avengers lashed out at the Nigerian former military leader for his penchant for talking tough like an imperialist while in the midst of foreign leaders.

The group expressed shock that instead of relishing it’s offer of olive branch and cessation of hostilities in the region, only sincere and genuine disposition to its demands were expected from the President and not further tough talk. “We call on President Muhammadu Buhari to put away the garb of a stooge to the imperialists, whenever he speaks outside Nigeria.

“We have listened carefully and halted hostilities in the Niger Delta; we expect a genuine and positive attitude to restructuring and self-determination for every component unit of Nigeria.

“Dear president, what makes those countries (Japan, Germany, France, USA, Britain etc.) great is the ability of their governments to accommodate internal protestations and conflicts for the greater good of their nations over the years.

“Please, stop presenting your government as pawn to the web of military industrialists complex, whenever you leave the shores of Nigeria. “Nigeria is not a one-man personal property we must have these talks every time if this union must continue to work as one,” the militants admonished.

Being masters of the creeks from cradle and from generations to generations, the group said people of the region held the secret of the area and utmost means of conquest.

It noted that the application of force to quell the current insurgency and agitations in the region would only erase the remaining confidence the people still have in him.

“The people of the Niger Delta have been living here from time immemorial, so we have the secret of the terrain and survival of amphibious operations.

“No amount of troop surge and simulation exercises will make you win the oil war, you can only win battles.

“You cannot apply the might of the state to restore the people’s confidence in your leadership when you cannot differentiate between genuine demands and being mismanaged by disorganized characters and tribal lords around you in your government that are playing the court jesters role as well as counting the days that is left in your four years term.

“You can deceive the whole world but We cannot be deceived by the so glamorized ongoing military operations in the creeks Of Ijaw communities in the Delta coded ” Operation Crocodile Smiles,” the group conjectured.

According to the militants, “The world should know that with your pronouncement in Kenya and your attitude to the military build up in the Niger Delta, it is crystal clear that the military has nothing less than a pre-determined genocide in Niger Delta and burn more already scared national resources to the pockets of those that have failed to locate the missing Chiboks School Girls.” It alleged that the military training exercise going on in the region is a surreptitious plan to commit genocide against the people in violation of extant international laws.

 “Conclusively dear President Muhammadu Buhari, please also tell those foreign nations that you are always at ease talking to, while refusing to listen to Nigerians that your troops are about to carry out extra judicial killings in the Niger Delta in violation of article four of the Geneva Convention with “Operation Crocodile Smiles.”

“The whole world will surely applaud you in The Hague when you leave office!

“This is not the Nigeria and the world of the 1980s and 1990s under General Sani Abacha and your watch,” the group warned