Militants operating under the aegis of the Niger Delta Avengers have warned of the scary possibility of a resumption of hostilities against the Nigerian state this year. Their grouse, encapsulated in a recent statement, is that the Federal Government is purportedly not committed to the much-anticipated dialogue with people of the region over a 16-point charter of demands they have forwarded, which they reason will be a game-changer if implemented.
Agitation for the control of oil and gas resources in the region by the people has spanned over three decades, arising from half a century of exploration and exploitation of crude oil, environmental degradation and criminal neglect of the area in terms of development.
Ordinarily, there is nothing fundamentally wrong with a communal quest for the reversal of this scenario, or demanding control of its wealth, as the country is a federation, according to the 1999 Constitution. It is a campaign, which the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People, led by the late Ken Saro-Wiwa, put on the centre stage before his state execution in 1995.
Indeed, Nigeria’s political arrangement as espoused in the present constitution is a farce without fiscal federalism. The founding fathers of our 56-year old republic fittingly saw it that way. As a result, they ensured that each region controlled largely its own resources: 50 per cent derivation; 30 per cent shared among the four regions and 20 per cent given to the centre, as encapsulated in the 1963 Constitution. However, intrusion of the military into the political space in 1966 changed all that.
How to return to the status quo ante is, therefore, the crux of the Niger Delta conundrum. Sadly, the struggle has, since 1999, when the Fourth Republic began, taken a most violent turn, with criminals hijacking the cause. Rag-tag armies have been mushrooming in the zone, comprising mostly youths, armed to the hilt, with obsession for bombing and rupturing oil facilities; kidnapping of oil workers and other civilians for ransoms; trafficking in illegal oil bunkering and engaging the military in all-out war.
Nothing could have justified the killing of 12 police officers in 1999 by militants, for which soldiers’ invaded Odi town in Bayelsa State; the bombing of the independence anniversary event in Abuja, 2010, by the Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta militant group, which claimed eight lives; or the abduction of 14 workers of Nestoil company in September, 2016, as they were returning from work in Ogba-Egbema in Rivers State.
The economy, which is about 90 per cent dependent on oil revenue, bears the brunt. The state oil behemoth – the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation – said last year that from January to October 2016, the country lost $7 billion, the equivalent of N2.1 trillion, to pipeline vandalism by militants. The NNPC Group Managing Director, Maikanti Baru, in reducing the loss to practical terms, said, “This loss is equivalent to a new 7,000 MW power plant; new 350kpd refinery; over 30 per cent of national budget; and a new 1,700 kilometre pipeline.” Yet, such large-scale destruction has been going on for about 20 years now.
All appeasement polices – like the setting up of the Niger Delta Development Commission and the amnesty programme – have failed to assuage the deep feeling of marginalisation. The deployment of a 20,000-strong military Joint Task Force to the area has not brought the militants to their knees either. This seeming deadlock suggests that the Federal Government should explore other alternatives; first by identifying, and quickly too, the genuine leaders of the zone for constructive engagement.
Both parties have to show absolute commitment or sincerity to push the dialogue to a new level. But government evinces deficit of this by still clinging to old strategies that have not worked and dithering in taking decisive steps. The Niger Delta agitators have also not helped matters with their duplicitous positions.
For instance, a week after the Pan-Niger Delta Forum led by Edwin Clark presented its 16-point agenda to President Muhammadu Buhari, at an elaborate meeting in Abuja, with five governors from the region, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources , Ibe Kachikwu, Alfred Diete-Spiff, among others, in attendance, a militant group, Niger Delta Defence Corps, blew up the Trans-Forcados Export Trunk Line in Warri, Delta State. It claimed not to be part of PANDEF. This is partly why government doubts PANDEF as a platform truly representative of the militants.
Criminals have, undoubtedly, hijacked what, otherwise, is a Niger Delta struggle for equity and justice. They should be stopped from making the peace process more difficult. That is what their demand for government to withdraw alleged corruption cases against all former public officers and indigenes from the zone represents. This is criminal; and no government that is worth its salt can acquiesce to it.
How can the withdrawal of military personnel from a region where police personnel are frequently attacked and beheaded, and occurrence of 15, 685 cases of pipeline vandalism advance the cause of peace? Equally suspect is the demand for pipeline surveillance contracts. The Goodluck Jonathan administration used this charade to bribe the militants, waddle through, and ignore the issues at the core of the Niger Delta struggle for the five years of his Presidency. This demand is self-serving.
The challenges posed in cleaning up Ogoniland as contained in the United Nations Environmental Programme report submitted in 2011, underscore the danger inherent in militants’ continual blowing up of oil pipelines, thereby worsening the oil spills in the region. According to UNEP, $1 billion is required for the project, which will last for 30 years. If the task is so daunting for the government in the Ogoni land project alone, it smacks of shortsightedness for those who choose vandalism as the best form to express their grievance not to see the harm they are inflicting on the very people they purportedly fight for.
Oil spills and air pollution agents such as benzene – a known carcinogen or cancer-causing agent is found 900 times more than World Health Organisation’s normal level – have contaminated sources of drinking water. This is a huge public health hazard. Aquatic life is lost, just as farmland is destroyed.
In effect, the region bears more of the consequences of the riotous criminality there than the entire country, under the guise of agitation for a fair deal. Time has come to apply the brakes and for all hands to be on deck for constructive dialogue.
