NIGERIA ECON

Niger Delta Issue: Not that Enigmatic

 Hadiza Wada, DBA ...March 20, 2010

This is a special presentation because no analysis of Nigerian issues is complete without a thorough look at Niger Delta issues.  We have not dealt with it comprehensively in our publication, but have just touched on some of its aspects in isolation.  It has resurfaced recently however, as one of the most important projects the ‘Yar Adua Administration set out to boldly confront, after successive administrations have avoided it completely owing to its complexities.  To be candid, it was more than a bold move by the administration to make such a decision.  Either the Yar Adua Administration was ignorant of the complexities of the issue and the invisible hands involved, or else it knowingly decided to take the bull by the horn and might have been suffering the consequence.  In any case, we commend tackling the issue as a bold move needed to be taken.  It is essential to highlight major issues surrounding the Niger Delta crisis to enlighten the general public, as we set out to do generally in this project.

General Introduction

The states that make up the Niger Delta region of Nigeria include Akwa-Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Edo, and Rivers. These are the states that were carved out of the delta region and its immediate surrounding.  The Nigerian delta is where the second longest river of the African continent (Niger) branches into smaller rivers and pours out from the West African Coast into the Atlantic Ocean. Some of the major ethnic and linguistic groups that reside in the region long before oil was discovered during the final years of colonial administration in Nigeria include the Ijaw, Ilaje, Itsekiri and Urhobo.

One of the major challenges the communities were undergoing even before the colonial influence was the communities were dissected and living in smaller units with no bigger more complex administrative entities like those in other sections of the country.  For that fact, the communities were not culturally acclimated with larger and more complex political control, traditional or modern administrative ones.  For that reason, when a system of administration was introduced to them, these communities had to learn how to view and consequently adapt them into their cultural leadership dimensions. It was not easy as credibly recorded for years by many objective studies of the phenomena.

Challenges Encountered in the Region

One of the bottlenecks identified is that the educated elites among most groups, do not exhibit much concern for the population beyond mostly individual self enriching ones.  The state governments down to the local governments are very corrupt so that (a) the regular state allocation that gets disbursed to every state of the federation from federal treasury; (b) and the special allocation calculated from the revenue derivation formula that allocates extra percentage amounts to oil producing states; mostly find their way into the pockets of the state government leadership, and its corresponding local government councils.  A recent study published by the Journal Africa Today, (Akinola, 2008) titled “Coping with social Deprivation through Self-Governing Institutions in Oil Communities of Nigeria" concluded thus:

“Most people in the oil producing region are not benefiting from funds allocated to the local governments – indicating that the problem of corruption and low public morality among the government officials still remain.”

 

The phrase “still remains” from the Akinola paper tells you it has been a persistent problem. Though inexcusable, one of the problems as enumerated by many sources that study Niger Delta is the lack of strong moral bearing within the cultural background that will for example mandate holding people accountable for violation of public trust in matters of public accountability.  Rule of the jungle is more prevalent i.e. survival of the fittest.  Akinola calls it “low public morality.” 

Other writers such as Meagher, K (2006) in her research published by the Journal of Modern African Studies describes how it finally took the public themselves to enforce law and order in their own midst to ensure peace, in neighboring Abia, owing to the government’s inability to control incessant crime, and broad day light robbery and acquisition by force within the community without recourse to law.

Another problem tendered, which is not uncommon in an ethnically sensitive nation like Nigeria, is the fact that those minor ethnic groups native to the area feel they have another problem.  They feel and complain of the pressure of being marginalized on their own land by a regional ethnic force. At the inception of self-government, Nigeria started out with regional governments under an umbrella federal authority.  Eastern Nigeria, comprises of one of the three major regional languages, the Igbo, who were merged with ethnic groups of the Niger Delta.  That was also cited by many analysts, as one of the major reasons for the attempt to secede from Nigeria by the Igbo of the East, which led to civil war.  It was alleged that the Eastern Region wanted to carve itself out as a full country, with the oil rich region within its midst.  

More recently, a Niger Delta activist, Chief Edwin Clerk at an event organized by the Arewa Consultative Forum disclosed similar remarks when he said “the big majority groups, particularly the Yoruba and the Igbo, have taken over our place, they have colonized us.”  This apparently was done in connivance with the oil companies, according to his explanations.  He gave an example thus: “In 2007 after Shell Producing Company trained 133 Nigerians, it employed 39. Out of these 13, he said, were Yoruba, 12 Igbo, one Hausa and none was from Delta.”

If you rely on the southern press though, controlled by the two major southern ethnic groups Ibo and Yoruba, you have no recourse but to keep badgering northern leadership of being responsible for Niger Delta problems, its mismanagement and taking away from it.  But the following argument rests it. It was an argument between Newswatch magazine (printed in Yoruba Lagos) which presented a premise that Northerners have no business participating in managing Nigerian National Petroleum Company, locking horns with Mohammed Haruna (Former Editor, New Nigerian Newspaper, printed in Kaduna up North) who provided this figures to debug that claim:

“Figures from NNPC (at the time of the argument) showed that out of its top 319 managers, the entire North had 59. Out of the remaining 260 from the South, three states alone, Anambra (Ibo), Ogun and Oyo (Yoruba), had 41, 28 and 27 respectively, making a total of 96. Yet like the North, none of the three produced oil. Clearly, this was a case of double standards on the part of the newsmagazine.” (People and Politics, Haruna)

It is also true that the more resourceful regional ethnic group, the Igbo, who neighbor the other minor ethnic groups of the Delta, have moved into the inner delta area in large numbers, many decades ago after the discovery of oil to also gain from the resource.  As provided by the Nigerian Constitution, every Nigerian has a right to move to an area of the country where his skills will be most useful, or get him a better life, so that was not necessarily the problem.  The Igbo they felt brought along a problem that has plagued them back in their own states, lawlessness.

Being indisputably one of the most resourceful and commercially enterprising group in Nigeria today, the Ibo seized every commercial opportunity they could see.  But they share one major weakness with the ethnic groups of the Delta, and that problem is lack of strong political skills to govern their people.  The economic interest far outweighs the willingness to play within a set of rules that govern other facets of life for every other Nigerian.  But then, these are the laws that make every community peaceful enough to conduct social and economic endeavors in relative peace. Abiding by the law is also what allows one the relative peace needed to enjoy the fruits of one’s labor.

The assertion that the Igbo as a group also share the trait of lack of political skills and sacrifice needed by their leadership to build a peaceful and manageable society is all too apparent up till today.   The Eastern states of the nation occupied by the ethnic group, have been experiencing leadership upheavals and replacements since 1999, when civilian system of government returned to the country.  It had been either governorship tussle, re-election, or else court cases over issues of governance.

The lack of credible and accountable leadership necessitated the intervention that later emerged from various groups. Meagher gives a more vivid account of efforts by the enterprising Igbo community of Abia State, to provide protection for their shoe trade that was so lucrative it attracts customers not only internally from other Nigerian states, but regionally to other West and even East African countries like Zaire and others.  After holding on to a fierce fight between local shoe manufacturing traders and local armed robbery groups, they were able within four months to win over and establish a vigilante group called the "Bakassi Boys."

Akinola, in his conclusion, also seem to have lost hope in the local leadership’s ability to provide the needed security and public trust away from intense corruption. He alludes to that by saying “… self-governing arrangements in the region, where leaders of such groups monitor financial allocations from the government and come together to solve the problems may be able to provide a solution to self deprivation of the Niger Delta or oil producing communities.”

Another problem articulated is the invisible hands of the state governments in incidents of attacks, and economic sabotage that occur in the Niger Delta region. For years they have also been rumored to be used in the price manipulations in the world oil market. Most recently by market speculators that made billions on wall street and other stock markets across the world. By causing trouble and keeping the output from Nigeria low, the nations loses the revenue, while such shortage pushes up crude prices for stock holders.  Oil bunkering is another issue attributed to some of the governors.

Recent Federal Government Interventions

Most recently, reports of a raid by the Nigerian military uncovered records implicating some state authorities in such criminal activities in the oil region. Leadership, a news publication for example reported that “names of some of the militants' sponsors’ minutes of meetings held and account details of the bunkering money paid to prominent chiefs and politicians were recently scrutinized by security chiefs.”  The incident prompted the Nigerian President Yar Adua to call a special meeting to discuss the issue.

"The meeting held early June, 2009 was reported to be mainly concerned with reviewing the activities of the Joint Task Force (JTF), the militants, the role of the top politicians and the best possible ways of finally resolving the issues that surrounds their differing activities.  The meeting occurred well before the amnesty was finally hammered.  Whether the details of such discussions which reportedly involved all high stake holders in the executive, defense and national security, was instrumental in reaching a way to resolve the issue and signing a deal to end the Delta militancy, only time will tell as situations unfold.

The present administration is not the only one that knew about such involvement of local authorities, but most past administrations, military and civilian alike, played ball with the issue.  In fact the immediate past administration which withheld the oil portfolio was in place when governors such as James Ibori were openly engaged in such games, deceiving the local population with patriotic rhetoric while laundering state treasury, and other illegally acquired funds from bunkering and sabotage, and  stashing riches in foreign banks for personal use.  The Obasanjo government did try for the first time to make such governors accountable for their actions, owing to the importance of security in the region.  The result was the James Ibori (Delta) and Diepreye Alamieyeseigha (Bayelsa) cases. But a comprehensive solution was not sought.

The present trend to tackle the Niger Delta issue squarely by recent civilian administrations for uplifting the general welfare of its local inhabitants and the nation may be commendable, as long as the genuine issues are sincerely pursued free of political correctness, and devoid of appeasing the wrong set of people to the detriment of the country, region and its people.  Only time will tell the effectiveness or true credibility of such efforts. 

Already the step has gotten its good share of critics. The critics argue that for years, criminal gangs, under the guise of emancipating the Niger Delta, and of exacting the maximum royalties through extortion from multinational oil companies, have wreaked destruction on oil installations to press their cause criminally.  To date no one has seen concrete manifestation of any works they have performed with what they have received.  Their activities, they contend, has unfortunately overshadowed and clouded the work of genuine human and environmental rights groups involved in highlighting peculiar problems of the region and its people. They described the government’s steps as appeasement that has the tendency to only emboldened the perpetrators.

Whatever becomes of it finally, one undisputable fact is, any nation that is endowed with oil has to take seriously, issues of security around its oil resources and its corresponding installations.  This is not just necessary for guaranteeing internal accountability, it is also necessary because as a competitive stock worldwide, lackadaisical attitude will easily bring in the international commercial vultures. It has been demonstrated in many countries, especially in Africa.

Lesson for Militants and the Nation

Whenever a precious resource is reported, international vultures start arriving, and the main aim is to destabilize the area and make it ungovernable.  Once that happens, while people are busy killing each other, the vultures pounce in and sneak out with the precious resource.  This is what has happened and is still happening in Sierra Leone and its diamond mines. It is also happening in Congo because of many solid minerals such as diamond, copper, tantalite, cobalt etc

If you need examples involving crude, then you need to look at Sudan whose oil has not long been discovered but its problem has instantly become multiplied.  Suddenly after decades of civil war, it is just recently that the government has discovered that government actions are genocidal, true or not. Others say its closeness to China as an investor in its oil sector, is another reason it is being recently blacklisted by Western countries.  The war between Iraq and Iran that lasted a few years benefited many developed countries, but when Saddam was not willing to play ball anymore the result is what has become of Iraq today. 

We have already presented a write-up on corporatocracy and how far such multinational corporations can go with the support of their governments to get the resources they want, and ensnare the countries they choose.  The write-up quoting from many sources including a book (Perkins, 2005) titled “Confessions of an Economic Hitman” was published online by “The Optimist Voice” in August 2009.  In short, in the pursuit of individual greed, everyone including the agents of sabotage will end up losers, enslaved and abused and literally sacked by such vultures. The evidence is there from other countries, for all to see.

Recommendation

One obvious problem though that the government has to address sooner rather than later is the issue of harnessing Nigeria’s natural gas. One evident reason to convince Nigerians that most foreign nations that invest in Nigerian Oil Sector are more interested in getting the resource for their own national needs than reciprocating by helping the country supplying them help itself, is the fact that for all these years, foreign companies operating in the regions (with all the technologies they have and have been using elsewhere for years) have not taken the issue of harnessing the Nigerian natural gas burned every single day.  All this continues to happen while Europe and even neighboring African countries are in dire need of such gas.  The proceeds from that would have provided extra billions a year in revenue for Nigeria, and would have saved the environment from pollution, and the local residents from fighting to live in a polluted environment. 

Just Mid last year (2009), Nigeria was reported to have signed a $13 billion gas pipeline deal with Gazprom a Russian Gas Agency, to build a gas pipeline from Nigeria to Europe through the Mediterranean.  It was named Tran-Saharan Gas Pipeline Project.  The project, though reported as cash strapped, is planned for completion in 2015. The nations involved in the Project ratification (because the pipelines are planned to run through those countries) include Niger and Algeria.  We opine that Nigeria could use the present anxiety over greenhouse gas and climate change to its advantage, to push forward and make a case for assistance in harnessing its vast gas resources.

 (c) The Optimist Voice.  All Rights Reserved.