Gumi, who said this in an interview with Daily Trust, also stated that the ‘bribe’ was started by former president, Olusegun Obasanjo and was continued by Umar Musa Yar’adua. He said: “I saw this re-emergence of Niger Delta militancy coming. This is political. I once said it about a year ago that this problem would come up.
“Because of the fact that the lifeline of Nigeria’s economy depends on oil, the previous governments were made to be bribing these people for them to allow the oil production to flow. It went to the level as if Nigeria was sharing the oil with them. Obasanjo started that and Yar’adua officialised it.
“The coming of Jonathan into the centre of power was part of that bribe; otherwise it wouldn’t have been possible for him to become vice president and subsequently president of Nigeria.
“These are parts of the price which we have to pay to get the oil. If you know that you don’t have enough power to check these people, don’t incite them, because they can cripple your government.
“What the previous governments did was to pacify these people, not because that was the right thing to do. But if Nigeria is sure that it can crush these people, then the steps the government have taken were right.
“However, we know that Nigeria is fragile and taking these stern measures may destabilise the government.”
