Niger Delta Avengers, NDA, for short. A bizarre name for a bizarre group with bizarre intentions and strategies? By its self description, the group which went public early this year is made up of “educated and well-travelled individuals that are poised to take the Niger Delta struggle to new heights.” The group claims to have the capacity to ground oil production to zero and widespread support within the region and other parts of Nigeria.
It threatens to display its own “currency, flag, passport, our ruling council and our territory to the world” by October 2016. So far, its bombings of oil installations within the region have reduced Nigeria’s projected oil export of 2.2 million barrels per day in the 2016 budget by over 40 per cent. The group seems poised to cause more damage despite the heavy military presence in the region for much of May and first week of June.
Thankfully, there are new hopes for dialogue with the reduction of military presence in the Niger Delta communities suspected to be harbouring the militants. The heavy military presence and alleged large scale brutality and intimidation of natives by soldiers had been a major impediment to dialogue. Though the NDA has initially rebuffed the call for a ceasefire and dialogue, a re-think on their part is inspired if they are convinced on the genuineness of the proposed dialogue. Educated and well-travelled agitators or freedom fighters – a description they would certainly prefer to their characterisation as “criminals and economic saboteurs” by the authorities – should be open to dialogue.
The question that has lingered is mostly NDA’s motives. Apart from President Muhammadu Buhari who has dismissed all ethnic and regional agitations as non-issues, other leaders, politicians and public commentators have variously posed the question: “What are they avenging?” In a recent state of the nation interview, Jigawa State Governor Badaru Abubakar, posed that question rather rhetorically and dismissively while alluding to the militants as “unpatriotic elements who have lost the chance to continue their brigandage.” The governor may very well have spoken for the mainstream northern elite.
But, what does it mean to avenge and does the NDA have cause to seek vengeance? What of the strategies? Simply put, to avenge is “to inflict a punishment in retaliation for (harm done) or on behalf of (the person harmed).” Like some of the militant groups before it, NDA has cited resource control, environmental degradation, marginalisation and skewed federal structure as some of the reasons for its struggle. But unlike its predecessors, NDA has raised the bar by agitating for secession and a sovereign state for the region.
On resource control, NDA has little new to add to the positions previously canvassed by other militants, politicians and leaders from the region. The pre-1999 agitations led to the 13 per cent derivation formula as against the 50 per cent sought by the region. The present and past agitators seek parity with the First Republic era where the various regions enjoyed near exclusive use of the revenues derived from exports of palm produce, cocoa and groundnuts.
Some agitators insist that the Niger Delta should be allowed to exploit the hydrocarbons in its region and pay royalties to the Federal Government. This group further contends that while the oil resources in the Niger Delta are up for grabs by the government at the centre, state governors in other regions are at liberty to exploit the natural resources domiciled in their own domains as they deem fit.
The recent launch of the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) clean-up scheme for Ogoniland may have doused the persistent agitation for the restoration of the environment whose aquaculture has been destroyed by decades-long oil exploitation and pollution. But concerns remain over the scope and sustainability of the programme being a foreign-inspired rather than a local initiative. How much of the region can be cleaned up and restored over the projected 30-year life of the programme? Do the communities trust the present and succeeding governments to be committed to the programme? They fear that it might be a gimmick to shore up credibility and that it is not borne out of a genuine desire to redress the devastation of many decades.
The pro-true federalist groups have called for an implementation of the recommendations of the 2014 Confab seen as a blueprint for lasting peace, equity and justice. But President Buhari, one of the architects and beneficiaries of the unitary system, would rather have the Confab report consigned to the archives.
The marginalisation of the Niger Delta and the rest of Southern Nigeria has never been as glaring as it is today at the end of Buhari’s one year in office. According to a breakdown of 60 key appointments made by President Buhari and released by the Yoruba Unity Forum on June 7, 2016, 26 positions or 44 per cent are from the President’s home North West zone. The North East has nine positions or 15 per cent while the North Central has six positions or 10 per cent. The total per centage of all appointments for the North is 69.5 per cent compared to 30.5 per cent for the three zones in the South.
The 20 key positions in the South are distributed as follows: South West, seven or 11.8 per cent ; South South eight or 13.56 per cent; South East, three or five per cent. This apparent injustice is compounded by appointments made by some ministers from the North. Erstwhile Chief of Army Staff and current minister of Internal Affairs, Lt. General Abdulrahman Bello Dambazau, has filled all the top positions in that ministry with people from his part of the country over and above their more qualified and senior colleagues.
Apart from the general issues of skewed federalism and marginalisation, NDA is also concerned about the present government’s plan to relocate the Maritime University proposed for Bayelsa State, the disproportionate allocation of oil blocks to Northerners, the ambivalence over the Presidential Amnesty Programme of the Yar’Adua-Jonathan administration and the infrastructure deficit in the region.
But while some of the NDA’s grouses may be considered legitimate, its strategies for the advancement of the Niger Delta cause appear questionable. Its targets are obviously the establishment and the conspiratorial elite whose only interest in the region is a continuous flow of the block gold at whatever cost to the producing communities. These targets may be hurt in the long run and be compelled to show a greater concern for the well being of the region. But in the short and medium run, the communities and ordinary Nigerians – some of whom identify with the NDA struggle – will suffer the most in the short run. For this singular consideration, NDA should therefore allow dialogue. The region may lose more in the long run in the event of a full blown war if dialogue fails.
On its part, the Buhari government and his apologists should acknowledge the injustices and offer a genuine pledge to redress them through verifiable programmes and projects. The ex-military elite especially of Northern extraction should shirk the “we-fought-to-keep-Nigeria-together” arrogance which has been the main justification for the unitary system and heed the popular voice for true federalism. Rather than dismiss the 2014 Confab recommendations in a most un-presidential manner, Buhari should set up an implementation committee with a firm time table for the actualisation of the milestones of the report.
By his actions and inactions in the last one year, he has lost the confidence and trust of most Niger Deltans and the entire South. If and when he demonstrates the sincerity and seriousness to win that trust and confidence, the NDA will sheathe its sword and settle for a meaningful dialogue. And that would be good for Nigeria.
(Today.ng)
