I am totally dazed with the figures been bandied about! According to Thisday report captioned, “N’Delta Crisis: Nigeria Losing N8.7bn Dailyâ€, the federal government has revealed that the country loses N8.7b daily as a result of the current conflict in the Niger Delta region. That means if there is peace in Niger Delta, the Nigerian Government will be making almost a double of that figure, N17.5 Billion! In a month that will translate to N522 Billion and in 12 months (1 year) it will amount to N6, 264 Trillion! Imagine, if, annually, just 40% of this money is entrusted to sincere, credible, God-fearing and selfless leaders to develop the Niger delta region .Trust me, youth restiveness in the Niger Delta region would have been an ancient history. Hard facts!
I am particularly worried with the spate of causalities. No doubt, in military operations of this kind human casualty especially innocent and hapless citizens are unavoidable. However discretion should be employed by the Nigerian army bearing in mind that it is guerrilla warfare. They are not fighting with a national army but disgruntled miscreants who can easily mill into the crowd.
