Hours after elders from the Niger Delta submitted to the federal government a 16-point demand for lasting peace, militants blew up another oil pipeline in the region, raising questions on the prospects of peace in the area. Assistant Editor, CHUKWUDI NWEJE, writes
The Tuesday, November 1, 2016 parley between elders under the aegis of Pan-Niger Delta Forum and the federal government, aimed at finding lasting peace in the troubled Niger Delta, may not hold the magic wand, after all.
Elders of the region submitted a 16-point condition to President Muhammadu Buhari, which the federal government must meet to ensure peace in the oil-rich region.
The Amanayabo of Brass and Chairman of the Traditional Rulers Council in Bayelsa State, King Alfred Diete-Spiff, who presented the demands at the Niger Delta stakeholders’ meeting with President Buhari at the State House, told journalists that although the people of Niger Delta were going about their businesses with smiles, there was deep-seated anger behind the smiles.
Diete-Spiff said the new set of demands became necessary because past bodies created by the federal government to ensure that the Niger Delta benefitted from its huge resources had failed to deliver.
Another elder, Edwin Clark, who was part of the delegation, added that they had the mandate of the whole Niger Delta people, including the militants and other agitators to discuss with the President.
The 16-point demand
The Pan-Niger Delta Forum said their new set of demands followed the failure of past bodies put in place by the federal government to address their grouse.
Top on the list is the need to review the presidential amnesty programme. The programme initiated in 2009 by the late President UmaruYar’Adua administration is supposed to entail disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration (DDR).
However,the elders noted that the government was only implementing the disarmament and retrieval of weapons from the ex-militants. Their demand is that the programme should be reappraised to provide a robust exit strategy that would focus on providing employment for the ex-militants rather than just paying them stipends.
Other issues the elders want Aso Rock to address are the pending issues of law and justice; the military presence in the Niger Delta; plight of internally-displaced persons (IDPs); and the Ogoni clean-up and environmental remediation.
The rest include the maritime university; regional critical infrastructure; security surveillance and protection of oil and gas infrastructure; relocation of the administrative and operational headquarters of the international oil companies (IOCs); power supply; economic development and empowerment; inclusive participation in oil industry and ownership of oil blocks; restructuring and funding of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC); strengthening the Niger Delta Ministry: the Bakassi Question; and fiscal federalism.
According to them, these demands are quick wins that could be achieved and would restore hope and confidence in a region that has grown sceptical of dialogue and engagements that have hardly produced tangible results.
New militants
It is unlikely whether the Niger Delta elders had the backing of the new militants in the Niger Delta in their parley with the Federal Government.
A pipeline belonging to the Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), a subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), was blown up while the elders were still celebrating their meeting with the government.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack on the facility located at Batan community in Warri South-West Local Government Area of Delta State.The attack forced some oil companies in the western Niger Delta to suspend operations.
Several militant groups have emerged in the Niger Delta since Buhari assumed office in 2015.They include Niger Delta Avengers (NDA),Asawana Deadly Force (ADF), Joint Niger Delta Liberation Force (JNDLF), Ultimate Warriors of Niger Delta (UWND), and AdakaBoro Avengers (ABA). They have different demands but are only united on the threat to bring the economy of the country to “zero” unless the federal government negotiated with them. They also threatened oil companies that any attempt to repair damaged pipelines before the negotiations would attract more severe attacks.
Niger Delta agitation
The Niger Delta originally consists of present-day Bayelsa, Delta and Rivers states. It produces over 95 per cent of the crude oil that sustains Nigeria’s economy.
The region, however, has remained neglected and lacks basic infrastructure, a development that generated restiveness among the youths.
The agitations date back to when crude oil was discovered in Oloibiri in present-day Bayelsa State in 1958 and the fear of marginalisation expressed by the minority ethnic groups in the oil-bearing communities.
Although the British colonial administration attempted, through a commission headed by Henry Willink in 1957, to address the fears, the oil communities have remained neglected and lacking in basic infrastructure despite their contributions to the national economy.
The militants’ activities have caused a drop in crude oil production and consequently a decline in revenue earnings of the federal government. Production began sliding in February 2016 when the NDA claimed an attack on an underwater pipeline that forced Royal Dutch Shell to shut down its Forcados export terminal. That singular action knocked off at least 250,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil. By May 2016, Nigeria’s oil production had dropped to 1.65million barrels a day, the lowest output in 22 years.
Addressing the agitations
Efforts at addressing the Niger Delta question dates back to September 1957 when the British colonial administration set up a commission headed by Willink and assisted by director of the Race Relations Institute, Phil Mason; Deputy Governor of the Gold Coast, Gordon Hadow; and J.B. Shearer, to look into the fears of the minority groups.
The minority groups in the then Eastern Region had expressed fears of possible future domination by the majority in the then three (Eastern, Western and Northern) regions of the federation, in a post-Independence scenario.
Among other recommendations, the commission recognised the Niger Delta as a Special Area of Development. The Nigerian government was to commence development of the area when the country gained Independence in October 1960.
From the WillinkCommission to date, successive governments have taken many intervention measures aimed at bringing the Niger Delta into the mainstream. These include the establishment of Niger Delta Development Board (NDDB) in 1960; the Presidential Task Force on 1.5 per cent Derivation, which was set up between 1979 and 1983; the Oil Mineral Producing Areas Development Commission (OMPADEC) of 1992; and the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) created in 2000 by an Act of Parliament.
Enter the Niger Delta Ministry
On September 10, 2008, then President Yar’Adua took the efforts a step further when he created the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs. The ministry is to: oversee the implementation of government policies on the development and security of the Niger Delta Region; cordinate the formulation of the Development Plan for the Region; formulate policies and programmes for youth mobilisation and empowerment in the Niger Delta Region; as well as advise government on security issues concerning the region.
The ministry is also charged with the duty to: liaise with relevant government, non-governmental and private organisations; formulate and coordinate policies for environmental management in the region; liaise with host communities for the enhancement of the welfare of the people and the development of the region; and facilitate private sector involvement in the development of the region.
Other functions of the ministry include to: plan and supervise public education/enlightenment programmes; liaise with oil companies operating in the region to ensure environmental protection and pollution control; organise human capacity development as well as skills acquisition programmes for youths and women; and take adequate measures to ensure peace, stability and security with a view to enhancing the economic potentials of the region.
In August 2009, Yar’Adua further granted amnesty to militants that renounced insurgency.
Amnesty programme to the rescue
The Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) included unconditional pardon and cash payments to Niger Delta militants who agree to lay down their arms in a deal aimed at reducing unrest in the oil-rich region.
Before the deal, the government had launched major ground, air and sea offensive to flush militants out of their camps in the Niger Delta. Leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND),Henry Okah,accepted the amnesty offer after the federal government dropped the treason and gun-running charges against him.
The government later presented a bill for an Act to establish the Presidential Programme on Rehabilitation and Reintegration of the Presidential Amnesty Programme in the Niger Delta area of Nigeria to the National Assembly, to give the programme legal backing. Over 10,000 militants turned in their weapons.
New militants as opportunists
While the amnesty programme appeared to have reduced the volume of militancy by earlier activists, a new group has emerged, claiming to be championing the cause of the region.
However, former activist and leader of the Niger Delta Vigilante (NDV), Ateke Tom, said these new militant groups are criminals causing the people in the region more harm than good. He also called on the federal government to prosecute anyone found guilty of destroying oil facilities in the Niger Delta.
“Security agencies should fish out the criminals and prosecute them in line with the law if they refuse to lay down their arms and unmask themselves. The government should embrace dialogue with repentant agitators and make them state the reasons for their actions.
“Government should also use diplomacy in handling the issues of the Niger Delta, so that it will not affect the innocent. By bombing and destroying our oil installations and government property situated in the region, they (bombers) are only exposing children and unborn children to serious hardship in the near future,” Tom said in May this year.
Political scientist and public affairs analyst, Patrick Nwabunnia, agrees that the militants are opportunists.
He said that militancy in the Niger Delta has become a generational problem and doubts if there will ever be lasting solution to the menace in the region.
He blamed the militants for keeping the region restive for selfish reasons.
According to him, the likes of Government Ekpemupolo, alias Tompolo, made so much money by engaging in militancy, thus the youths see engagement in the exercise as an acceptable means of income.
“The militants have not helped matters. What have they done with all the money they collected during their agitations?
“In the next five years, the young boys there will grow up and also carry guns to make their own agitations,” he said.
Way forward
On how to address the problems in the region, Nwabunnia advised the federal government to do its best through the Ministry of the Niger Delta and other agencies like NDDC to bring development to the region.