By Oye Chukwujekwu
There is the need for Delta State government to foster peace in the oil-producing communities. It must also find solution to the menace of Niger Delta Avengers otherwise the formerly bubbling Gbaramatu kingdom will become a forsaken community in the state.
A first-time visitor to the community will be shocked to see it almost a ghostly city. Residents including students, women and the aged, have fled to safer havens, not necessarily because of there surgence of the new militant sect, the Niger Delta Avengers, but for the heavy military presence and the fearful jet fighters deployed to the area by the Federal Government of Nigeria. The military personnel are in the kingdom under strict instructions from the Presidency to search for the dreaded Niger Delta Avengers and take them to the Nigerian army headquarters for prosecution. Gbaramatu kingdom comprising communities like Okporoza, Kokodiagbene, Okerenkoko, Kurutie and many others host most of the oil firms in Delta State. Chevron, Shell, Agip and other oil prospecting firms have pipeline installations that criss-cross the area. Besides crisis crossing the area, they have their base in the Ijaw communities. It is therefore the major area of oil production in the state. Besides Gbaramatu, Escravos and Burutu are also oil-bearing communities in Delta. Essentially, Delta is one of the major oil states in the Niger Delta region of the country. In discussing issues affecting the region, Delta is therefore a major stakeholder which cannot be wished away by a wave of the hand. However, undermining the quantum of oil being produced in the region, the Niger Delta is a shadow of itself. In the matter of social amenities and the good things of life, the region has no visible sign of being the reservoir of funds feeding the entire country with its oil wealth. It can therefore be likened to a paradox of plenty, a region with so much wealth but the people live in poverty, want and penury. Even basic necessities of life including potable water, electricity, good roads, schools, hospitals and others to show the wealth in the area are passionately lacking while the people groan in pains with no solution on sight. Also, the environment is degraded as the oil firms have destroyed the ecosystem and the environment polluted. Hence, a former information commissioner in the Defunct Bendel State, Mrs. Veronica Bamuza, accused the Nigerian government of marginalizing the region. “Any time I visit my country home in the Ijaw area of Delta State, I always weep because there are neither facilities nor social amenities in the area, especially in the Ijaw speaking area of the Niger Delta region.
“The successive governments in the country lack conscience, if not they wouldn’t have treated the Ijaws the way they did. The very few schools we have in the riverine areas lack teachers to teach the few students in the schools. The children, especially the girls, are always seen roaming the streets, hence they become easy prey to young boys who make them mothers at very early age of their lives”, Bamuza, an octogenarian, said.The foregoing is therefore the ultimate reason for the struggle for the emancipation of the Niger Delta region. Besides the political leaders’ quest for a regionalized government, the13 percent derivation and the call for resource control, militant groups in the hey days of High Chief Government Ekpemukpolo, took over the struggle from the political leaders and felt the best approach to bring government’s attention to their plight was to blow oil pipelines, kidnap expatriates and call for ransom payment. That reigned in the days of the late President Umaru Yar’Adua who organized amnesty for the militants. His government could not complete the programme before he gave up the ghost. His vice, former President Goodluck Jonathan, took over and the amnesty was fully implemented. That action led to over 30,000 youths surrendering their guns and giving peace a chance in the fragmented Niger Delta region of Nigeria. But one thing Jonathan did to totally quell the uprising and silenced the militants was awarding pipeline surveillance contracts to many of the repentant warlords in the region. This action fetched many of the militants millions of naira, even making some like Tompolo, billionaires in the region. And while Jonathan remained in the presidency, the youths reigned and made billions from pipeline surveillance contracts. However, peace reigned and the youths were subdued. But the emergence of President Muhammadu Buhari, a Fulani of northern extraction, brought an end to the pipeline surveillance contracts. Buhari viewed it as uncalled for and described it as corruption. The youths viewed the development as a systematic plot to stop their source of funding and an action in the wrong direction. Although Tompolo, who is believed to be the leader of the repentant militants, has consistently pledged to be law-abiding and would align with the programme of President Muhammadu Buhari. But,in the process of Buhari’s prosecution of his anti-corruption war, the sledge hammer of the president fell on him in the sale and purchase of the property where the Maritime University is built at Okerenkoko in Delta State.The land, on which the university is built, it was learnt, belonged to Tompolo but in a bid to establish the university in the community, he sold the property to the federal government through the Nigeria Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA). But as the corruption search light of Buhari beamed on him, he became a wanted person on the list of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). This was the beginning of Tompolo’s travails in the hands of the federal government. And in a bid to evade arrest and prosecution, he ran a ground, communicating to the world through his media adviser, one Paul Bebenimibo. While in hiding, he has consistently pledged his allegiance to the federal government, vowing to remain law-abiding and never having any plan to return to militancy, even preaching to others to down weapons and let the region be developed. To him, his repentant spirit would melt Buhari and make him turn from chasing the youths of that area with military power.
However as Delta State approaches its 25th year, it may gladden the heart of Nigerians to take stock of the journey so far, achievements recorded and plot further and better approaches at peaceful co-existence among the various ethnic groups especially the militant area of the state, considering the havoc caused by militants on the state economy and that of the nation to avert the threat of disturbing the peace which the state is known for and for the federal government to reach a compromise in attending the local content that will provide development in these communities that produces oil.
