EDITORIAL: STOP SELLING A FALSE NARRATIVE TO PARLIAMENT — THE NIGER DELTA IS NOT BACK IN THE CREEKS
By Tarakirivoice Editorial Team
There comes a moment when truth must rise above convenience, when emotion must give way to honesty, and when the fragile peace of a wounded region must not be gambled away for excuses. That moment is now.
This editorial is a direct, passionate, and heartfelt message to the House of Representatives Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and to the conscience of the Nigerian state: it is not true that the Administrator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP), Dr. Dennis Otuaro, spends his time going “into the creeks” to engage ex-agitators as he claimed.
That narrative is misleading, dangerous, and deeply insulting to the reality of today’s Niger Delta.
THE TRUTH: THE EX-AGITATORS ARE NO LONGER IN THE CREEKS
The ex-agitators left the creeks years ago.They disarmed.
They embraced peace.
They returned to society with hope — fragile hope — that the Nigerian state would keep its word.Today, these men are students, artisans, businessmen, fathers, community leaders, and citizens struggling to find their rightful place in society. They are not hiding in the mangroves. They are not bearing arms. They are not waiting for secret meetings in the swamps.
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To repeatedly tell parliament that you are “in the creeks engaging ex-agitators” is to drag them backward into a past they have painfully outgrown.
If Dr. Otuaro goes anywhere near the creeks at all, let us be honest: it is largely within Gbaramatu Kingdom, his ancestral home. That is not a crime. But it is not the same thing as a broad, inclusive engagement with ex-agitators across the Niger Delta.
A DANGEROUS REVERSAL OF PURPOSE
The Amnesty Programme was created to take the Niger Delta out of the creeks — not to psychologically, politically, or administratively push people back into them.
Yet today, many ex-agitators feel something frightening:
That the programme meant to reintegrate them is slowly re-radicalising them.
Instead of healing divisions, the programme under the current leadership has deepened suspicion.
Instead of uniting beneficiaries, it has sown hatred among them.Instead of dialogue, there is intimidation.
Amnesty funds — meant for rehabilitation and empowerment — are allegedly being used as tools of coercion, silencing those who dare to hold different views or ask uncomfortable questions.
This is not peacebuilding.
This is not leadership.
This is how crises are manufactured.
ANGER IS GROWING — QUIETLY, DANGEROUSLY
The most frightening anger is not the loud one.It is the silent one.
Across the Niger Delta, ex-agitators are watching.They are whispering.
They are withdrawing.
Many feel betrayed — not by the government alone, but by a system that now treats them as threats instead of partners in peace.History has taught us a bitter lesson: when legitimate grievances are ignored, explosions follow.
When that day comes — and God forbid it should — those who toyed with the programme will not be the ones to bear the pain. Innocent communities will. The nation will. And history will record the failure.
PAC, DO NOT BE MISLED BY SENTIMENTAL EXCUSES
The House of Representatives PAC must look beyond emotional explanations and carefully examine facts.
Absence from parliamentary summons cannot be excused by a fictional picture of constant creek engagements.
₦26 billion in audit queries cannot be washed away with pleas for “understanding.”National security cannot be protected by administrative opacity and selective presence.Oversight is not persecution.
Accountability is not hostility.
The Amnesty Programme is not a personal estate. It is a national trust.
A DIRECT APPEAL TO PRESIDENT BOLA AHMED TINUBU
Mr. President, this programme is too sensitive to be mishandled.
On his short and controversial stay in office, Dr. Otuaro has managed to:
Create deep divisions among ex-agitatorsPoliticise a peace initiativeErode trust
Attract one of the biggest financial scrutiny scandals in the programme’s historyThis is not a minor administrative issue. This is a potential security time bomb.
We appeal to you, not as critics but as patriots: look closely at the Amnesty Programme. Intervene now — not after damage has been done. Do the needful before frustration turns into fire.
THE FINAL WARNING
The Niger Delta does not need propaganda.It needs sincerity.
It needs justice.
It needs leadership that understands that peace is not enforced by fear, nor sustained by lies.Pushing ex-agitators back into the psychological “creeks” they escaped from is reckless.
If this programme collapses, history will not forgive those who turned peace into provocation.The nation is watching.
The Niger Delta is watching.
And silence, this time, will not save anyone.
