Analysis… How greed fuels the never-ending Niger Delta crisis

On November 1, President Muhammadu Buhari met with the Pan Niger Delta Elders Forum (PANDEF) after several delay and postponements. At the meeting held at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, the Chief Edwin Clark led PANDEF, gave the President a shopping list containing 16 conditions that would, in their reckoning, guarantee the largely elusive peace in the Niger Delta region. However, less than 24 hours after the meeting, militants in the region struck, blowing up yet again important oil facilities in the area. The first, claimed by the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, MEND, though it said was unauthorized, had been followed by attacks from the notorious Niger Delta Avengers, NDA and the Greenland Justice Mandate.

These attacks, according to the militants, were carried out to register their displeasure with the meeting their elders and leaders held with President Buhari, as the meeting did not address some of their grievances.

Also, shortly after the meeting, an association of oil and gas host communities, HOSTCOM, reeled out another set of five demands from the Federal Government, claiming also that meeting the conditions would guarantee peace in the region and allow for unfettered exploration activities and continued exploitation of the environment.

The different versions of conditions being reeled out by the different groups showed that the underlying factor in the protracted crisis in the Niger Delta is about the economics of oil and gas deposits in the region and not truly about the environment or development. A close look at the conditions reeled out by PANDEF showed that the ownership of oil blocks and the award of pipeline security surveillance contracts topped. Also the conditions given by HOSTCOM have the pipeline surveillance contract, payment of the 13% derivation fund from the Federal Account directly to host communities and the payment of the gas flaring fines to the communities as central.

A quick recap of the Niger Delta  agitations shows that it has produced more of individual multimillionaires and billionaires than addressing the issues they claim to fight for, given, that over the years, ordinary people in the creeks and streets of the Niger Delta seem to be worse off. The militancy in the region seems to have only produced super rich individuals that have become a reference point in how to make big money by becoming an agitator, or taking up arms under the guise of fighting for the sustainable development of the region. The likes of Mujaheed Asari-Dokubo, Henry Okah, Boyloaf, Emami Ayıri, Government Ekpemupolo, alias Tompolo and Ateke Tom all made big money and even became larger than life, commanding respect and attracting enormous patronage for becoming economic militants instead of the misleading toga of freedom fighters or resource control champions. Aside the obvious insincerity of purpose by the militants and Niger Delta elders and leaders who see the militancy in the area as an avenue to attract some relevance and patronage, the Nigerian government, its leaders and patrons have also acted as economic predators over the years.

Government has acted in ways that suggest that it is more concerned about the economic benefits that accrue to purse from the region than the plight of the people there. The current economic crisis in the country has been blamed largely on the crisis in the Niger Delta, leading to deployment of soldiers to curb the activities of militants, not because the government is concerned for the region but to protect oil facilities and keep the money flowing. Analysts are of the view that if the crisis in the Niger Delta is to be resolved, government must begin to engage genuine leaders of the people, understand their core grievances and take wholehearted steps to address the poverty, underdevelopment and devastated environment in the region. They contend that government’s approach to the crisis only provides temporary succor, creating super rich individuals in the guise of negotiating peace so as to retrieve its desired black gold.

As it stands, pictures in  the horizon suggest that government is only saving up trouble for a later date, as it would only lead to another round of crisis when other agitators come up claiming to be champions of the people, in order to get their own share of the proverbial national cake.

By Timothy Enietan-Matthews….RipplesNigeria ….without borders, without fears