#SoundOff: It’s Clear That Nigerian Lives Don’t Matter To Buhari, Crude Oil Does

Most times, I tell myself that I would ignore some infractions of President Muhammadu Buhari and just let it ride. But sometimes he really does take the biscuit!

Fulani herdsmen have been killing people all over the country and he was indifferent or nonchalant about responding. Just a placid directive after pressure from the last killings to the security agencies to apprehend the culprits.

Lives didn’t matter to the president. But, money does.

Immediately the new militant group, the Niger Delta Avengers, blew up the pipelines on Friday, the president directed the military to hunt the militants. Swift response.

Because about 400,000 barrels per day of crude oil are affected from our daily output by those explosions. It’s all about money.

I do hope Buhari will continue these swift reactions to national crisis in future.

And I did write months ago when the warrant for Tompolo’s arrest was being sought for by EFCC and Festus Keyamo that Buhari was being wrongly advised over that matter and that he should turn a blind eye and ignore Tompolo. Some silly people screamed that ‘no one is above the law’ and Tompolo should be arrested.

‘No one is above the law’ and Fulani herdsmen go about killing innocent citizens and not one has been caught or publicly paraded despite the killings. Yet, ‘no one is above the law’, Tompolo is sought by tens of soldiers and hardware to answer to allegations of less than a billion naira. Is money more important than the lives of citizens?

I am not in support of this present militancy in the creeks and condemn it. But I guess by now, it’s becoming clear to everyone that these guys mean business despite the soldiers and navy patrolling the pipelines. This is an economic war. The government may keep lying to itself that we are diversifying the economy from oil but the whole budget is predicated on $38 per barrel. If these militants keep blowing up pipelines, we are sunk. Really sunk.

Of course, just for the records, Tompolo has distanced himself from these new militants. But it’s noteworthy that they sprang up as soon as Keyamo and EFCC started the manhunt for him.

The country cannot win a guerilla war. It will set us back. At the end of the day, everyone would come to the roundtable to dialogue as Yar’Adua did.

Those egging PMB on to go to the creeks and fight the guerillas should also tell him to try the dialogue option. He’s already demystified his halo these past few months by his slow poke governance. All the creeks would give him is a bloody nose, if wisdom is not applied.

Charles Novia is an award-winning filmmaker. He is founder of November Productions and November Records. Connect with him on Facebook.