Niger Delta: In spite of all the money

It is truly dehumanising for the kind of rot and penury that subsist in the delta of Nigeria. Coming from agitation and armed struggle, which led to various interventions, it is heart wrenching to still see most of the states that make up the Niger Delta in complete squalor and without hope for any improvements except something happens during the course of this administration. The more painful part is that this bleak reality is caused mostly and sustained by the elite of this region in connivance with oil majors, brigands and even the country’s political elite. Lip service is the order of the day; on the other hand, propaganda is a serious machine used to divide the people and ensure everyday people don’t get the gist about how their elite eat from their misery. We will explain later.

Former president Olusegun Obasanjo in a bid to improve the economic and social situation in that region created the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, as an interventionist agency that will help to ameliorate the dire realities after he took office in 1999. He was applauded but the people waited in baited breath. Prior to this time, military ruler, Gen. Sani Abacha it was, who by fiat created a 13 percent special allocation to oil mineral producing states. This was to bolster the basket of funds made available to the nine oil producing states, which they share according to the quantity of crude oil produced in their lands and waters. Fact point to a bleak reality: this 13 percent, which “activists” from that region say is not enough cannot be reflected in the quality of life of the people. Most of that extra is stolen!

By the time Umaru Musa Yar’Adua of blessed memory was taking over office as president in 2007, militancy in the Niger Delta had reached disproportionate levels. Kidnappings, mugging, sabotage of oil installations, killings, arson, despoliation of the environment had reached alarming levels. To put it mildly, there was war on the delta, especially within the four biggest oil producing states of Delta, Rivers, Bayelsa and Akwa-Ibom. This war attracted the attention of the international community and folks precipitating the war claimed they were “freedom fighters”. But we knew better because the militancy of the mid-1990s to the turn of the new millennium was fallout of political hooliganism masterminded by former Rivers State governor, Dr. Peter Odili and those before him. Most of the early recruits to what was misjudged by the rest of the country as freedom fighting were in reality touts and cultists, who were deployed by Odili to fight off competition from his angry political opponents that were determined to wrest power from him since it appeared Odili had cornered the state’s booty for himself alone. Although before this time, the Ogoni killings had awakened the spirit of rebellion within the region.

So confronted by the sabotage of Nigeria’s revenue base, which cut by half our daily oil production, former president Yar’Adua created a ministry of Niger Delta to work in concert with the already existing NDDC. He also created the Amnesty Office, which operated directly under the president. The Amnesty Office was to cater for militants, who accepted amnesty at the time. And they came in their thousands. These so called militants negotiated generous allowances, training and setting up of small businesses for themselves. Their senior leaders and masterminds were rewarded with several contracts and even influenced the appointment of their preferred candidates to high political offices. Again, it is clear the militants rebelled only because of their personal pockets. And they got rewarded handsomely. Interventions in the delta did not start with Abacha, it must be pointed out. It dates back to pre-independence Nigeria, and for me, nothing much has been achieved and it is time to try something new.

The quantum of money so far pumped into the Niger Delta since 1999 till date runs into several trillions of naira but you will need a microscope to see the impact viewed side by side with other states that have no such luxury. Yes, it is true that Nigerian leaders may not have done much for the goose that laid the golden egg but that is partly as a result of the poor governance the rest of the country has experienced. However, by the humanitarian agitation in that region, I had hoped that leaders of those agitation on their own should have insisted on good governance that will impact on the people and not their pockets. For example, it is ridiculous that the East-West road which reconstruction began during the Obasanjo years is yet to be completed even during the near-six years of the Jonathan presidency!

What I have noticed in the delta generally is a region that is governed by propaganda. These protagonists are fuelled by hatred for the very people they claim to fight on their behalf, although they find it convenient to blame other peoples of Nigeria. With renewed Navy onslaught in the creeks of the region, tens if not hundreds of locally fabricated refineries have been discovered and destroyed. It is an eyesore to see what these deviant have done to their own environment. It is common knowledge to find young people burst pipelines and crude platforms in order to paint oil companies black but don’t mind despoiling their own environments and depriving their kith and kin the use of the lands and waters of that region. I am not excusing oil companies from the rot in the region. Projects like roads, schools and hospitals are over priced by the elite corps, which includes politicians, the clergy, youth leaders, traditional leaders, professionals, etc so that they could be “settled”. By the time such projects start there won’t be enough money to make any progress that’s why you see a litany of abandoned projects in the region. The elite shared the money among themselves.

The only thriving industry in the region apart from the oil companies is hotel business and allied subs like prostitution, re-christened “runs”. With the appointment of Gen. Boro, who is not a politician by President Buhari to drive the Amnesty programme, I hope the region will begin to witness a better coordinated intervention both in human and material well-being. The same way I hope the NDDC will find its strength in the life of this new administration so that all the billions appropriated to that commission will be used for the lands and people that have been deprived for too long rather than be shared as usual by the irresponsible elites. The Ogoni clean-up order is a turning point. The delta must be separated from the vice grip of a thieving and greedy elite, now!

#uppercrust