RENEWED multiple attacks on the Nigerian Gas Company pipeline connected to the Escravos facility of Chevron, in Delta State, has once again brought to fore the Niger Delta and unresolved issues plaguing the region.

Though the region has witnessed relative tranquility occasioned by the skewed implementation of the amnesty for Niger Delta militants and its associated patronage to leaders of the warlords, however, the failure of the federal government to implement the report of the Technical Committee on the Niger Delta headed by former President of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), Ledum Mitee, has raised grave concerns that the region might soon experience resurgence of attacks on oil installations.

Other issues that seem to threaten the fragile peace in the region include the failure of former President Goodluck Jonathan who hails from the Niger Delta to secure a second term in office; the sharp drop in oil revenue, which has adversely affected cash flow to the oil producing states and the Federal Government; the irregular payment of stipends to Niger Delta ex-militants; the gross underdevelopment of the region and the perceived intimidation of ex-warlords by the military among others. All these have raised palpable fear that fresh unrest might soon erupt in the region.

Though the aforementioned attacks was limited to Delta State, the fact that it coincidentally took place shortly after a court in Lagos issued an arrest warrant for former Movement for Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND) commander, Mr. Government “Tompolo” Ekpemupolo, in connection with purported multibillion Naira fraud in NIMASA, sends very distinct perilous signs that all must thread with caution.

Though, Tompolo has since distanced himself from the attacks, the scar of the attacks is costing the country $1.98 million daily in lost power and $400,000 in gas. Repairs of the damaged oil and gas installation is anticipated to cost $600,000. The recent spate of attacks at a time of dwindling oil revenues, makes it imperative for the government to resolve underlying issues of the Niger Delta, beginning with the full implementation of the report of the Technical Committee on the Niger Delta. There is no doubt that resurgence of further coordinated attacks will leave the Nigerian economy bleeding.
When at the peak of militancy, the then Vice President, later President Goodluck Jonathan, on November 8, 2008, inaugurated the Technical Committee On the Niger Delta, many had assumed that finally government was determined to resolve the lingering issue of the Niger Delta.

Jonathan who later became President two years after, had urged the committee to collate, review and distil the various reports, suggestions and recommendations on the Niger Delta from Sir Henry Willinks Commission Report on the Fears of the Minorities (1958) to General Alexander Ogomudia’s Special Security Committee Report on Oil Producing Areas (2001) and on to the Report of the National Political Reform Conference (2005).

Jonathan had assured the committee that its recommendations will not be treated with levity by the Federal Government. He had explained that upon the receipt of the Committee’s report, the Federal Government will without undue delay put in place an all-embracing stakeholders’ framework to dialogue on the distilled recommendations raised by the Committee. Nearly eight years after, the government is yet to convoke a stakeholders meeting or even issue white paper on the recommendations of the committee.

The committee had observed that the agitation in the Niger Delta was not just about militancy. There are grounds for such agitations like level of injustice in the region, deficit in infrastructure and human capacity development, youth unemployment, and the committee did recommended and drew up a strategy of how jobs can be created.

The committee was confident that if the government could muster the much-needed political will to implement their recommendations, the report would have served as a catalyst for dousing the heightened tension generated by the underdevelopment of the Niger Delta.

It is pertinent to highlight that the Committee had recommended the establishment of a Special Niger Delta (Infrastructural) Intervention Fund to tackle the infrastructural deficit in the region. The Fund was supposed to have been derived from contributions from oil companies, Federal and state governments through the Excess crude Account, Foreign Exchange Reserve as well as international donor agencies.

The Mitee committee had also advocated for an increased allocation accruing from oil and gas revenues to the Niger Delta states to 25per cent within a framework in which the additional funds are dedicated largely to new infrastructure and sustainable development of the region.

In addition, the Federal Government was advised to complete the dualisation of the East-West Road from Calabar to Lagos, with at least one link road per state to the coastline by 2010. It also urged the government to commence both a coastal road and railway from Calabar to Lagos.

The government was urged to set up a framework that allows oil producing communities which for years have bore the brunt of environmental degradation to share in the wealth through the establishment of community Trust Funds, which will pool together resources from compensations, royalties, rents and entitlements directly accruing from relations with oil and gas companies.

The committee also recommended that power and water supplies from the oil flow stations should be extended to communities within 15 kilometres radius of such stations to ensure that the communities have requisite stakes in the continued operation of such flow stations.

In a bid to protect the fragile Niger Delta ecosystem, the committee had recommended that by 2010, appropriate regulations should be established to compel oil companies to have insurance bonds against environmental pollution, strengthen independent regulation of oil pollution and work towards an effective EIA mechanism.

The Mitee committee comprising of some seasoned Niger Delta activists and key political actors, had recommended amnesty for militants within a comprehensive demobilisation, disarmament and rehabilitation (DDR) program; an increased allocation of derivation fund to oil producing states of the Niger Delta; improvement of also non-existent infrastructure and human capacity and among others.

It turned out to be that the Federal Government was merely interested in speedy resumption of oil production, which had been adversely disrupted by the severe attacks by the militants. The Committee had recommended a DDR process that should begin with some confidence building measures on all sides, which include ceasefire on all sides, pull back of troops, credible conditions for amnesty and the setting up of a DDR Commission. Eventually, government decided to jettison the committee’s recommendation and opted to implement the amnesty without addressing the root causes of the problems that bred armed militancy in the first place.

Because the government was more interested in resumption of oil production, it failed to sufficiently mop up arms and ammunition in the creeks. No strategic plan was in place to ensure that where disarmament terminates, demobilisation begins and where demobilisation ends, reintegration commences. Amnesty programme increased Nigeria’s petroleum production and exports increased from about 700,000 barrels per day (bpd) in mid-2009 to between 2.2 and 2.4 million bpd since 2011.

Rather than implement the full recommendation of the Mitee committee’s report, the government had focused more on its own amnesty programme for ex-militants. The Executive Director of Human Rights Alliance,  Ken Atsuwete, reckoned that the reason why the Federal Government speedily commenced the implementation of the amnesty programme was because it was critical to the economic wellbeing of the country.

“That aspect that makes it possible for the Federal Government and the multinational oil companies to continue to explore, exploit and sell oil has been accelerated so that they will have money to run government. It is only when a committee’s report touches an issue that affects the earnings of this country that we will show concern. Committees are set up to buy time for the government. We have had enough of these committees. It is time for the implementation of their reports. We are not talking about partial but holistic implementations,” he said.

The chairman of the Trade Union Congress in Rivers State, Chika Onuegbu, recently argued that incessant attacks on oil installations arose out, in part, due to the alienation of the people of the Niger Delta from their resources.
“We state with responsibility that where a group of people only witness the destruction and degradation from oil production and another group somewhere else captures the development; where a group is thirsty for water but sees it pumped out of wells from their land only to be transported through pipelines that passes their backyard to quench the thirst of neighbours kilometres away; oil installations and pipelines become reminders of deprivation, alienation, disease, impoverishment, exploitation, cheating and outright wickedness”

“This is also the reason behind the Niger Delta militancy. Unfortunately the root causes of the Niger Delta agitation, which started as an intellectual and ideological struggles have been left unattended and instead only temporary appeasement is being undertaken in the name of amnesty programme. Amnesty has now suddenly become the elixir for every kind of violence against the Nigerian people, while the victims of such violence are left unattended,” he said.

Following the failure of the Federal Government to implement the committee’s report, the members after a meeting in Abuja to review the situation in the Niger Delta, had implored the government to address all root causes of the recurrent conflicts. The committee had suggested that the amnesty programme should be followed with a comprehensive package of development because it is the absence of development and the stranglehold of poverty that actually generated this insurgency in the first place.

Ambassador Lawrence Ekpebu, who was a member of the presidential committee had suggested that it was important that government should not focus on the implementation of amnesty for militants alone, but should continue the implementation of other recommendations that that will help solve the Niger Delta question once and for all. He observed that unemployment rate in the region still remains high, while schools are still lacking basic amenities and that these and other issues needed to be tackled urgently to avert the region sliding to chaos again.

A group“Izon Ikemi, on its part observed that the Niger Delta Region has continued to suffer criminal neglect in spite of the cry of the indigenes for proper attention/remedial actions on account of environmental degradation, pollution and other negative effects associated with exploration and production activities of the oil companies. The group observed that it is worrisome that after several decades of oil production oil in commercial quantity, the quality of life of the people of the Niger Delta has speedily declined by the day. Izon Ikemi regretted that the report of the Mitee led committee is still laying inside the shelve of the precincts of the Villa after the report was submitted..

The Ijaw National Congress has advised the Federal Government not to witch-hunt, harass or otherwise intimidate Niger Delta ex-militant leaders. INC spokesperson, Victor Burubo, said the ex-militants who after surrendering their arms according to the terms and agreement of the 2009 Amnesty deal, have maintained a low profile ever since and should not be harassed in order not to plunge the region into yet another era of unrest.

He explained that the INC is especially happy at the peaceful disposition of Niger Delta youths at this time in the history of Nigeria as the government battles with the Boko Haram terror war, which is costing the nation a lot in lives and resources. He noted that the recent clashes in Zaria, Kaduna State between the Nigerian Army and Islamic Movement in Nigeria is another theatre of blood shedding that gives concerns and it will not be worthy for the government to start harassing ex-militants and adding to woes of political instability rocking the country.

He continued: “We should therefore not deliberately provoke or instigate crisis for political ends and throw the Niger Delta into another round of violence and insecurity. The ex-agitators should be further integrated into the socio calendar and economic development of society.”

The Dawn in the Creeks team (DITC) coordinator, Amaechi Kelechi Justin, has implored the Federal Government to liberalize the seaports in the region to become commercially competitive and functional like the seaports in the South-west of the country. In addition, he advised the government to commence the Coastal rail line project in the region and kick off the Brass and Bonny NLG projects to boost the economy of the region and create jobs for teeming unemployed youth of the Niger Delta.

Justin observed that there is lack of vocational education facilities in the Niger Delta and urged the government to establish these vocational centres as a means to address the high level of unemployment and young people without the right aptitude and skills.