OPC: A CONFUSED INTEREST

I have at a certain point poured out my mind on the Niger Delta siege. Probably for the sake of emphasis, the only thing that has sustained this crisis is the irresponsibility of the Nigerian government.
Having said that, i want to quickly excuse myself from the rank of any Yoruba race the OPC may be arguing to represent.

For whatever reasons known to MEND and every allied group, Atlas Cove became their target and they struck. This attack is a further reflection the government's laxity and non-responsive nature to crisis management. They (MEND) went beyond the limits of their zone, abandoning our raging and overworked Military and her over_praised capability to deal with the crisis in Niger Delta, to torch the installations in Lagos.

The essence of this write-up is to look into the concern of OPC in this attack. I would not bother my patient readers with the nasty history of waywardness known with OPC during the military regime and afterwards, but little can be said of a nation whose instinct has been limited to immediate survival and friend-of-the moment syndrome. During the turbulence of the military junta, Nigerians in their usual deafening silence endorsed the violent resistance of this militia outfit and made popular the likes of Dr.Federick Fasheun and Mr. Gani Adams.

Without intentions to be rude, Fasheun wasn't as popular as a Medical Doctor while Gani Adams as a carpentar or whatever occupation he then had to deal with. There is therefore no striking difference beyond physique and tribal orientation between Henry Okah, Asari Dokubo, Jomo Gbomo and our very own Fasheun and Adams, they are all the same thing. As a matter of fact and i beg to be corrected, MEND carries a far more meaningful mandate than the moribund gathering of confused thugs and drop-out with a taint of unemployed minds called OPC.

No doubt, i condemn in clear terms the attack on Atlas Cove. It was just one of so many moves made by MEND, who have claimed responsibility, to rubbish the initial principle that informed the agitation of a neglected region.
This however does not endorse the insult passed on Yorubas by OPC who are now posing as a mouth piece for the Yoruba people.

To start with, Atlas Cove is not an Oodua group asset or Investment neither is it a core Yoruba corporation. Should it even be, the duty of redress doesn't lie on the shoulders of the various OPC factions. Where was OPC when three Youth Corp members who incidentally were Yorubas were gruesomely murdered in Jos? What role did they play in Owo during the Olateru Olagbegi Obaship tussle, what were the roles of OPC in the Iwo road mayhem in Ibadan and many more? OPC can't become so responsible over night, so,whats the noise about protecting the Yoruba race?

The utterances of OPC is myopic, selfish and stupid. Myopic because they don't seem to see the larger picture of ethnic crisis we would eventually be plunged into, selfish because they are not in any way representing anybody and stupid simply because of who they are.

We would be doing our collective bond as Nigerians a great injustice should we begin to view the attack from an ethnic perspective.

We would have long tackled these problems if everybody had sang the melody of our brothers in the Niger-Delta region before it degenerated into arms running and pure commercialisation of human conscience.
We wouldn't have had reasons to engage the military against our very own people and then patronize them with Amnesty. We cannot afford to close our eyes to the odious fact that our government is our number one enemy, why then should we turn against ourselves? We now parade locally manufactured warlords as candidates of sudden Amnesty. This is what our country is.

If anybody under whatever guise initiates any attack or incites crisis, let the law take its due course. The parting question is, is the law fair or potent?

For me and my household, we are Nigerians and an injustice to a Nigerian is an injustice to all Nigerians.

God Bless Nigeria.