The Niger Delta militants have been issuing a slew of threats to disrupt oil production and harm the economy. A coalition of militants under the aegis of Niger Delta Creeks Warriors, on the cusp of the New Year, announced the end of its ceasefire with the Federal Government for failing to meet the demands of the region as articulated by the Pan-Nigeria Delta Elders Forum. It, therefore, issued a seven-day ultimatum to the government to address its grievances, failing which it will have no choice but to breach the Bonny, Nembe and Forcados oil trunk lines. The authorities should not allow this threat to come to pass.
In their charter of demands, the militants want the Shell Petroleum Development Company to leave the region and move its operations offshore; FG’s immediate resettlement of Bakassi communities, dislocated following the ceding of their area to Cameroon under the controversial Green Tree Agreement; clean-up of Ogoni and the entire Niger Delta of oil spills; adequate funding of Okerenkoko Maritime University; upgrading of Maritime Academy, Oron, to a university; immediate take-off of Gelegele seaport in Edo; construction of six roads; and a categorical statement on restructuring from President Muhammadu Buhari.
These are tall orders. The Niger Delta struggle, spanning over five decades, is symbolic of the dysfunction of the Nigerian state and the urgent need to make it function as a pristine federation, where powers are devolved and resources largely controlled by the constituent parts, as it was in the First Republic. Six decades of oil exploration has ruined the region and subjected its people to a life of abject privation.
As the Creeks Warriors are bristling for action, another set of militants – the Koluama Seven Bothers – reportedly blew up a crude oil pipeline belonging to ConOil in Bayelsa State early this month. These threats are evocative of Avengers’ warning shortly after Buhari assumed office. The resumption of hostilities in 2016 made oil production level to plummet to about 1.6 million barrels per day in August. Their “Operation Red Economy” threat elicited prompt government response as the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Uguru Usani, met with Edwin Clark, the leader of PANDEF, to solicit his mediatory role.
This was followed by Yemi Osinbajo’s visit to all the states in the region, as acting President. He interacted with the people directly, discussed with the governors and other leaders of thought on the urgency of rapprochement. A pact was eventually reached. From daily oil production of 1.6 million bpd, it ramped up to 2.1 million bpd in July 2018, leading to sustained oil production level, which helped to shore up the country’s external reserves. That fiscal buffer hit its highest level of $47.7 billion mid last year, in the wake of oil prices rally in 2018 after the slump began in 2014.
Osinbajo should, therefore, return to where he stopped. With the realisation that a military response to the agitation aggravates the crisis, government should always get the agitators to appreciate the fact that dialogue, rather than confrontation, is the panacea for conflict. Embracing the latter for over two decades destroyed the region’s ecosystem with oil spill and scared off local and foreign investors.
More than the economic losses, which the country would incur, are the lives that might be lost and health hazards that are inexorably linked with such confrontation. The United Nations Environment Programme 2011 report on Ogoniland, which stated that it would take between 25 and 30 years to remediate its environment with $1 billion, is a revelation that should jolt the people to realise the degree of the mess they have lived with for decades, and the necessity of averting its degeneration. Advertisements in local and foreign media were made last April for contractors to apply for the work, said Marvin Dekil, the Coordinator of Hydrocarbon Pollution and Remediated Project.
It is inexcusable that many years after the Bakassi communities were dislodged, the Federal Government has yet to re-settle them. Equally, the agitators’ call for adequate funding of the maritime university is legitimate. But it is implausible, at least for the time being, for a similar university to be established immediately at Oron, Akwa Ibom State, at a time the Academic Staff Union of Universities has been on strike for more than two months because of government’s failure to adequately fund its 43 universities in line with an agreement with the union.
Remediating the Niger Delta environment, with Ogoni as the cradle, has begun. It is a huge project that cannot be untidily done. Patience is required; but pressure from all the stakeholders should continue to mount on the government for it to keep faith with the project execution.
Dousing tension in the Niger Delta was one of the reasons for the establishment of the Niger Delta Development Commission. Unfortunately, corruption and elite conspiracy from the region have combined to undermine the agency’s objectives. This is why the commission’s 16-year-old master plan has been abandoned, its board Chairman, Victor Ndoma-Egba, has said. About N200 billion worth of projects have been cancelled in response to abuses in contract awards. No fewer than 285 contracts were abandoned in 2014, with substantial payments made.
Therefore, it is incumbent on the President to see that the NDDC as an interventionist agency is repositioned to deliver and be seen to have done so by the people it was set up to serve. It is one sure way the toxic political disquiet from the area, which is a real danger to Nigeria’s present economic survival, could be controlled.
