I write to concur with Dr. Nosa Egiebor in response to the open letter to President Obasanjo by Prof. Ekeh. I, too, see the need for our young and fragile democracy to maintain control of the current ethnonationalist conflicts that have become a very serious threat to its survival. In the name of economic justice, some misguided youths led by a handful of "tugs" are taking advantage of the current state of affairs in the country to disrupt the entire nation and violate the law.

No matter how some of us feel about past injustices and economic neglect of the people of the Niger-Delta region, is the resort to vandalizing, mayhem, and murder the best way to solve this? What will anyone do, if you were in the position of President Obasanjo? What will it take to make things right : the allocation of the lion share of the national budget to the Niger-Delta region or the decentralization of control of the national resources?

As long as Nigeria remains one nation, the natural resources within its borders belong to all Nigerians, no matter where they are located. True, there is a need to be fair in the distribution of the wealth generated from oil and other resources within the country, but then, fairness is relative and always will be in a state of flux.

And we blame the military for taking over? These are the kinds of things that the military have played on to impose their will on us in the past. I am afraid that if the country continues to drift towards these types of conflict to the point where we, for the sake of democracy, take away the ability of our government to respond properly, our future will be a mirror image of our past. If we are so interested in reversing this trend, then we must be willing to subjugate our narrow ethnonationalist, religious, economic, political interests for the interests of all Nigerians.

Dr. Edo-Aikhionbare.