Atiku, Sowore Not to make Nigeria a Loughing Stocks

As I pen this, a Nigerian, Henry Okah, has spent 12 years of his life in Ebongweni Correctional Centre, in South Africa. All things beign equal, Okah has another 12 years of his life to spend, perhaps in the same prison, before the South African government will decide on whether or not to set him free. It is important to note that Okah didn’t commit any crime on South African soil in order to end up in their jail. His journey to prison began in Nigeria where, as a self-styled “freedom fighter” and leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), he felt that the Nigerian government had unfairly treated his kinsmen in the Niger Delta, where the bulk of the country’s wealth comes from. Founded in 2006, MEND had taken responsibility for attacks on oil companies operating in the Niger Delta, often resorting to sabotage, guerilla warfare or kidnapping of foreign oil workers. Using the media to great advantage, MEND at a point grabbed global headlines when it claimed it nominated a former US President, Jimmy Carter, as its mediator with the Nigerian government.