FG's Amnesty To Niger-Delta Militants, A Phoney -Iloh

Dr. Moses Iloh, is the President of Ecclectic Network Lagos. In this interview with AYO ESAN, he describes the amnesty being proposed to the Niger-Delta Militants as a waste of time and a phoney. He also speaks on the anti-corruption war in the country as well as lopsidedness in Yar'Adua's government's appointments. Excerpt:

THERE is a call by some sections of the society that the anit-corruption war under Yar'Adua is nothing to write home about. They are therefore calling for the sack of Mrs. Farida Waziri. Do you think she is the problem?
For me, Waziri is not the problem. The truth is that corruption has never been fought by any government in Nigeria.
Ribadu was not fighting corruption, he was fighting those who are corrupt and were unacceptable to Obasanjo and his team.
Mrs. Waziri is there and as far as I am concerned she don't even know what to do because she is neither here nor there, she wants to treat corruption with kids gloves.
Remember  I say she is not the problem, I am saying this because I think she has not been sufficiently empowered to fight corruption. Corruption cannot be fought by government alone but by the whole citizens in the country.
Corruption and fraud have been seen by most Nigerians now as viable industry, so everybody is investing in fraud, investing in corruption and nobody is willing to fight corruption.
And this government is not the one that can fight corruption because the government itself is investing and reaping from corruption. So if you remove Waziri today and put another person, the situation will remain the same.
Then you said every Nigerian must rise to fight corruption. How do we go about this?
The way to fight corruption is that Nigerians must be convinced that corrupt people can be punished, or are being punished through practical demonstrations. Nigeria as a nation has not punished corrupt people for ordinary citizens to see that corruption is not good. The governmen,t if it wants people to shun corruption must put corrupt people in jail, put prison uniform on them with their numbers on it and publish their photograph to the public. Punish corruption for Nigerians to see.
Then all they have stolen including properties should be confiscated by government.
You can see all over the place people building different houses, big cars  and nobody ask how did they come about their money. Because we love to praise and worship richness and we don't bother to ask the source of these riches, until this is done we are just deceiving ourselves on anti-corruption war.
In advanced countries, you can't just wake up one day and become a millionaire, the security agencies will ask you questions. Here nobody bothers to ask you, rather you become an instant celebrity.
Number two, to fight corruption, Nigerian youth who have got no jobs should get annoyed. They should tell the government in their annoyance that we don't have electricity because of corruption, industries are dead because of corruption and so government must stand up. You know I said this country is practicing corruptocracy.
So the youths should be angry and say this country has been disgraced abroad because of corruption and things must change.
Look at Lagos now, there are changes because Fashola is angry. He doesn't want to see dirt, he doesn't want to see disorderliness, he doesn't want to see irresponsible trafficking and determined to remove those things.
If we can therefore get our youths and our country men to be angry against corruption, then the fight against corruption will have meaning. Every Nigerian will therefore be involved in anti-corruption fight and it will not be a government business, or EFCC or ICPC  business any longer.
Everybody need to rise up and fight this monster called corruption. And of course, my personal constituency is the churches in Nigeria. But I don't even want to call them churches now, rather the Christian congregations. The Christian congregations should rise up and fight corruption within its body. If we have 75million people who go to church on Sundays and the churches fight corruption within itself, corruption will be dead. Everybody must be involved in the war against corrupt.
For the past weeks the Federal Government has unleashed military action against the militants in the Niger Delta. How do you see the military option?
I think the federal government is hypocritical. I don't believe that the government does not know the solution to Niger-Delta problems. I don't also believes that people in governments are not involved in what the militants are doing.
But I think the whole thing is mumble-jumble, we are just deceiving ourselves. How many militants have the soldiers been able to kill? They have just been bombing innocent kids, old men and women who were in the creeks. A government who is destroying its own defenseless people is planting a seed and the fruit is disaster. I think the government is not doing well. The military said they got a list of those who are supporting the militants, why is it that the government has not published the list? I think the federal government knows what to do but it is refusing to do it.
One solid conference that will so last one or two months will solve Niger-Delta problems without a single  soul  lost.
The federal government has also listed conditions of amnesty for militants who are ready to surrender their weapons.......?
The militants will not drop their weapons. The kidnaping is going round now, it is not only in the Niger-Delta. The federal government is dragging its feet too long. President Yar'Adua should better wake up.
Militancy is an aftermath effect of long  neglects of the region. Granting amnesty to militants is a waste of time, government needs to develop the region like Abuja. You do amnesty today tomorrow you will hit them again; we need a conference of youth and the elders there and find a solution to the problem. The amnesty to me is a phoney.
Some ethnic organization like the Afenifere and Eze-Ndigbo are beginning to accuse President Yar'Adua over his appointments. They said his appointments favour the North, citing the replacement of Dr. Soludo with a Northerner. What is your view on this?
I don't want to limit it to Soludo's successor alone but the appointments are of lopsidedness. I think Yar'Adua should be a bit careful. If you look at the federal ministry of health, since he removed Mrs. Grange, everybody there have been from the same tribe and grouping. It is not right. The president should still give the impression that he still honors the federal character. I know he should put people with good qualification in official position. But I think every tribe in the country have qualified people.He should please try and ensure balance and lets peace reign in this country.