Changing Tactics in the Niger Delta -- Analysis
Nigeria’s well endowed oil and gas basin, the Niger Delta, has been on the front burner of national and international discourse in recent years. The reason for this is not far-fetched.
For the country’s treasure trove, it has been a sordid tale of squalor, neglect and underdevelopment in the midst of wealth and plenty. Successive governments and the oil exploring multinational firms in the last five decades have only made half-hearted efforts to tackle the endemic and mind-boggling poverty in the region.
Courtesy of the Niger Delta, Nigeria today exports about 2.4 million barrels of crude oil per day; it is Africa’s biggest oil industry, the second largest exporter of oil to the United States, sixth oil producer in the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and the 10th among oil producing countries in the world.
But this statistics appear insignificant against the backdrop of recent anarchic developments in the region, which resulted in the country losing at least $13 billion monthly on oil exports, besides cutting oil production by a quarter. In the last 18 months or so, several armed groups have emerged to lay claim to greater control of the region’s resources and revenue. Oil platforms and installations have often been attacked and destroyed by such groups, whose members usually abduct foreigners to draw attention to their demands.
Other criminal-minded groups have also joined the kidnapping fray. These insurgents have extended their nefarious acts beyond abduction of only foreigners to women and toddlers and in return demand huge ransom before the hostages are set free. At the moment, it is difficult to say whether such acts have anything to do with the so-called political or liberation struggle in the impoverished region.
Several pundits believe past attempts by the government to address the problem have been tokenistic and aggravated rather than resolve the issues. From the days of the river basin authorities to the defunct Oil Mineral Producing Areas Development Commission (OMPADEC) down to the subsisting Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), the problem had always been that of poor funding coupled with corruption and the lack of political will.
The government had also tinkered with the idea of stakeholders and consultative fora as well as setting up of committees, with the latest being the Niger Delta Peace and Conflict Resolution Committee that was established in June by the President Umaru Yar’Adua administration to chart a new way forward. Although the Senator David Brigidi-led committee is yet to show any discernible direction and focus, analysts are pessimistic whether it would be any different from past groupings, whose assignment came to naught at the end of the day. At least, it is foolhardy to continue to do the same thing the same way and expect a different result.
As stakeholders and the NDDC grapple with how to bring sustainable development to the region, the fact remains that the persistence of gross underdevelopment and the escalating violence are enough pointers that previous attempts at addressing the issue have been futile or have not given enough succour. To such pundits, there is need for a change of tactics on the part of government. The reasoning is that it is high time the Federal Government threw the Niger Delta challenge to private initiatives or policy institutions like the National Think-Tank, which had recently volunteered on its own to find answers to some of the lingering questions in the country, including the Niger Delta question.
National Think-Tank coordinator, Steve Azaiki, in a paper entitled: "Momentum for the Niger Delta", argues that there is no shortage of ideas on the way forward. According to him, there is a surfeit of proposals as various groups, individuals and stakeholders articulate their positions and proffer what they consider the appropriate template upon which to launch the region into a new and desirable era.
Some have even suggested a summit on the Niger Delta by the Federal Government. But the thinking among pundits is that such a forum organised by the government will be premature at this stage. The reason being that the government must move away from the habit of hurriedly getting on the driver’s seat without a dependable road map.
Even such a summit, by its conception, does not provide the best forum for brainstorming. How many days can a summit spare? A summit, more or less, is a rectifying forum where the final assent is given to a clean copy that was produced from all the hard labour of earlier negotiations, arguments and counter-arguments that had taken place usually before the summit.
However, the groundwork for a summit on the Niger Delta at this point ought to engage the attention of the National Think-Tank. Its membership, which is an amazing roll call of quality and diverse pool of talented Nigerians may never be readily available to a government-nominated committee that was charged with organising such a summit.
With the plethora of suggestions and multiplicity of stakeholders in the region, it only makes sense that a body like the National Think-Tank should distill and synthesise the various propositions, interact with stakeholders, research into the common denominators on the programme and projects to get the region on track. It should then be in position to present a working document; some invaluable intelligence will guide the preparation for the summit and implementation of the development of the agenda for the Niger Delta.
In Azaiki’s opinion, in rushing into a government-organised summit, especially on the Niger Delta, there is no way stakeholders will not raise as part of their demand the issues of resource control and fiscal federalism. But he says in granting such greater autonomy over resources and enthroning increased fiscal federalism are not matters of executive fiat.
These issues, he maintained, will have to be dealt with constitutionally. Besides, they are not matters that can be resolved in favour of the Niger Delta alone, as other constituent parts of the federation will, to a large extent, be affected by the decisions concerning such issues.
Other posers include: What is the best way to present or handle resources control and fiscal federalism issues at such a summit? What are the best ways of sensitising and winning over Niger Delta stakeholders, to realise the limitation of a summit or to pronounce authoritatively by way of a final solution on the vexed question of fiscal federalism? These and other salient matters are important for a think-tank to think through and present its recommendation on the best approach to maximise a summit on the Niger Delta.
But while the summit may engage in productively mapping out development strategies for the oil-producing region, it may find itself bogged down by the agitation for resource control, a situation that will command more headlines. Such scenario will send wrong signal and would heighten the propaganda that the Federal Government is unable to find answers to the needs of the peoples of the region. This may also lead to a fresh escalation of crisis in the creeks.
Azaiki, who is a former Secretary to the State Government (SSG) in Bayelsa State, believes Nigeria should strive to get away from the practice where the government is always at the forefront of everything no matter how genuinely concerned it may be. This is because in its haste to get things done or to be seen to be concerned, government misses out on the benefits that a more rigorous situation analysis and recommended course of action would provide.
For a lasting solution to the problems of the Niger Delta, let other actors, including stakeholders, brainstorm. Let them own the ideas, let them lay on the table what they need and what they would cherish. It is at this point that government as the trustee of the nation can step in to give its official seal of approval on what it can do either in the present or in the future, taking into consideration the vital interest of the other component groups in the nation.
Speaker's 70-Year-Old Mother Still Held Hostage -- Analysis (Vanguard)
*Bayelsa in frantic search for abducted septuagenarian mother of speaker
‘I cried and watched my aged mother being lowered into the boat and it disappeared into the night'
THE kidnap on Tuesday night of Mrs. Hansel Seibarugu, the mother of the Speaker of Bayelsa State House of Assembly, in the sleepy riverine settlement of Akaibiri in the Ekpetiama clan of Yenagoa Local Government Area has again brought to the fore the anarchy in the troubled Niger Delta.
Armed groups initially operating in the oil fields of the Niger Delta, demanding a greater share of political rights and revenues for their polluted and impoverished region, resorted to kidnapping expatriates to draw attention to the blighted region and have burgeoned into several splinter bodies some of which have degenerated to money making machines. But the availability of arms as well as growth in the number of criminal gangs and the involvement of some powerful local politicians during last April elections has also helped to stoke this alien culture of violence in the once peaceful region.
For those not conversant with the beautiful but underdeveloped rural riverine settlement of Ekpetiama, one of the host communities to the multi billion naira Ubie Gas Gathering Project, being undertaking by oil major, Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), it is a long stretch of marshy land on the bank of the Nun River that snakes through the state capital. It is an area that could be accessed both by land and river while most of the communities can only be reached by boat during this period of the year (flood season).
Interestingly, the natives, many of whom reside in the big cities across the country, love returning to their ancestral home to spend their vacation because of its serene and natural surroundings believed to be a soothing balm to the hassles associated with life in the city.
However, Tuesday night abduction of 70 year old Mrs Hansel, fondly called “Mama Yenagoa” has not only shattered this myth but has also brought to the fore the frightening dimension youth activism has assumed in the troubled oil rich Delta where armed gunmen now prey on toddlers and parents of public office holders for monetary gains. It is still not clear what led to the abduction of the septuagenarian woman whose only crime is giving birth to a son who turned out to be the speaker of the state House of Assembly. But an eyewitness, Mr. Tuanake Nimitei, told Sunday Vanguard, who visited the community shortly after the news of the kidnap filtered into Yenagoa, that some strange faces were noticed ostensibly on reconnaissance about four days before the victim was whisked away.
Wary of their movement, he claimed to have challenged one of the strangers who told him they were fuel dealers in search of potential market. The strangers, he added, turned out to be the invaders who whisked away the aged woman in their speedboats without any resistance from the villagers many of whom had travelled to a neighbouring community for a social function.
The younger sister of the speaker, identified as Powei Sam, who was with her aged mother when the gunmen struck, recalled with pain how she was kidnapped.
Sitting in front of their cream coloured apartment which stood out from other buildings in the community, the visibly lady, fighting tears from dropping from her swollen eyes, recounted how she and her mother were seated at her shop located by the bank of the Nun River when four boys walked up to them and requested to buy liquor ‘Chelsea’.
The mother, she noted, had made it a habit to spend her time at the shop as a form of exercise. “As I was about attending to them, two of the youths grabbed mama and immediately dashed to the water front where a speed boat occupied by two others was already steaming waiting for those that came for my mother,” she said, adding that her shout for help was of no consequence as most of the youths who could have come to her rescue had gone to town to attend a social function.
“I cried and watched my aged mother being lowered into the boat and it disappeared into the night,” she lamented. Sympathizers, especially women who thronged the kidnapped woman’s home, were heartbroken, saying, “we want mama back, because she is sick.”
A youth who simply identified himself as Ebiowei told Sunday Vanguard that the operation could have been averted had the speaker taken seriously information allegedly leaked to him shortly on his arrival from London, last week, that plans were afoot to kidnap his mother. He said though the speaker had planned to relocate his mother to Yenagoa on getting the information, nobody knew why he changed his mind before jetting out to South Africa.
Also an eyewitness said he was at the river taking his bath when the gunmen struck but that there was nothing he could do because the invaders were heavily armed, stressing that they even released volley of shots in the air to warn any likely intruder before they disappeared into the night.
Similarly, the deputy Amananaowei of Akaibiri town, Chief Mekwe Nimitei, said he had retired to his bed after the day’s job only to be jolted from his deep sleep by the distress cry of the people. The royal father who spoke in his native Ijaw dialect said the kidnappers were already gone when he came out.
With the invaders gone, he said he had no choice but to mobilize his fellow chiefs and community leaders to contact the Joint Task Force and police in Yenagoa. The foremost militant group in the region, Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND), in a swift reaction, distanced its members from the act, which it linked to what it called internal politics with no connection with the genuine Ijaw struggle for self-determination and resource control.
The group in an online reaction signed by its spokesman, Jomo Gbomo, said, “We were not involved in such a despicable act. The abductions are undoubtedly related to local politics and the government should rather look inwards for the perpetrators or masterminds of this crime.”
Meanwhile, Speaker Werinipre Seibarugu, who was away in South Africa for a parliamentary conference when his mother’s abduction took place, has cut short his stay to return to Yenagoa to join in effort to secure the release of the victim whose whereabouts remained unknown even as his immediate family has moved out of the Legislative Quarters home in Ekeki, Yenagoa. Also, fierce looking mobile police men have taken over security activities at the quarters with only residents allowed into the premises. Confirming the incident, the state commissioner of police, Mr. Julian Opalaeke, said about six heavily armed youths carried out the attack between 8 and 9p.m. He said a suspect had been arrested and was helping the command in its investigation.
Reacting to the incident, Governor Timipre Sylva vowed to purge
the state of criminal elements, which he said were damaging the state economy as well as the sense of security of people doing business there. As at the time of filing this report, no contact had been established with the kidnappers which is coming barely five days after the state assembly through its chairman committee on information, culture and media, Hon. Robert Enogha, denied initiating moves to impeach Seibarugu and the state deputy governor, Mr. Peremobowei Ebebi. Ebebi and the speaker were until a few days ago at the centre storm of an impeachment saga rocking the state.
It was gathered that some youths sympathetic to Seibarugu travelled, weekend, to an undisclosed community in southern Ijaw notorious for hostage taking and other related vices where they alleged the aged woman was being held captive by the kidnappers.
Contacted, special assistant to the speaker on media, Mr. Jonah Okah, said the family and the police were still waiting to get word from the kidnappers.
On the whereabouts of the speaker’s wife, Okah said, “Mrs. Seibarugu has just been delivered of a baby, and should be left out of the current problem.” He expressed optimism that the old woman would be released soon as, according to him,” she is innocent and has not done anything to deserve what she is presently passing through.”
Police spokesman, Mr. Iniobong Ikpokette in a telephone chat on Friday, said the command was yet to trace the whereabouts of the kidnapped victim.
Rivers State Bloody Week in Review (Sunday Vanguard)
*Gunmen shoot American Prof., kill commissioner’s brother, oil worker
WILL abduction, shooting, cult related violence and killings ever stop in Rivers State? This is the question on many lips. Many had thought that with the raising of a peace and rehabilitation committee by the state government to reach out to militants and cultists in the state, peace would have started returning to the area. But this much sought after peace is appearing to be a mirage or perhaps it is only a matter of time for it to reign. Within the last two weeks several persons have been killed with many sustaining gun shot wounds.
The most recent victim of the sad state was an American professor, Michael Watt, who was reportedly attacked at the office of a new tabloid, National Point, in Orominike street, D line in Port Harcourt. He was allegedly to have been trailed from a bank on Olu Obasanjo Road where he had gone to withdraw money but was told to come back later.
A staff of the tabloid told Sunday Vanguard he was there to receive an award. Shortly after he stepped into the office, the gun men, about eight of them appeared from the blues, ordering him to produce the money he had gone to withdraw from the bank before coming there.
It was like a dream to the professor, according to an eye witness. He however pulled out the six hundred dollars he had on him. But the dare devil militants or robbers thought he was joking and immediately shot him on the right arm. Perhaps for him to know they were serious and not in a Hollywood session.
When it however dawned on them that the six hundred dollars was the only cash the man had on him; in their frustration they, reportedly, smashed the computers in the office and then thoroughly ransacked the place for anything of value. Before fleeing they allegedly shot a guard attached to the newspaper for making effort to deny them entry initially.
Both victims were later rushed to a nearby hospital. Sunday Vanguard later gathered that the professor who was researching on the Niger Delta was badly wounded on the fingers. None of the hospital staff was ready to comment on his health condition when Sunday Vanguard visited the place.
This sad incident came barely twenty four hours after a newly sworn- in commissioner for energy and natural resources, Eldred Billy Braide, cheated death in the hands of suspected assassins and cultists. But his brother, Ipaly Braide and one other were not lucky as they were felled by the bullets of the assailants. Narrating how it happened to the Sunday Vanguard, a family source said minutes after the commissioner was sworn in at a colorful ceremony in Brick House, last Monday, himself and his wife, political admirers, friends and family members retired to a guest house in Amadi flat area of the state capital for a brief reception put together for him by some of his friends and associates.
When they finished there, they moved to his family compound in Lomumba Street for another get together. It was there the gun men struck. The sources said that residents of the street started noticing some strange youths parading the area on motor bikes after the second leg of the party started. But before they could put their fingers on what was to happen, one of the youths came down from his bike and started shooting into the crowd. Many ran but the killers chased them.
They reportedly caught up with the commissioner’s brother, said to be slightly above forty years and shot him at close range and he allegedly died on the spot. Several others sustained bullet wounds. One of them later died at the hospital.
Confirming the sad news, the state commissioner of police, Mr. Felix Ogbaudu, linked it to political rivalry.
Meanwhile, on that same day, an oil worker simply described as Elder Echendu was shot dead at Ede street in Ogbunabali area of the state capital. Sources said he was driving into his house when gun men caught up with him and immediately opened fire, killing him on the spot. Their intention was not clear at press time. But some people in the area feared it was a case of mistaken identity.
It would be recalled that, two weeks ago, a Lebanese was also shot
dead in the same neighborhood. Sources said he was attacked at about midnight. The state police commissioner said the police were not ruling out failed abduction, robbery or even assassination in his case.
The Lebanese according to those in Ogbonde street said he had been doing his furniture business in the area for decades.” We cannot understand why anybody will want to kill him. He had been doing his furniture business in this area for years. He was almost a Nigerian to many of us”, some of his neighbors lamented.
Coming after his experience was the case of two persons who were shot dead on their way from a bank in the state capital. Sources said the gun men trailed them on a motor bike up to Elekahia before opening fire on them. It could not be confirmed if they dispossessed them of any valuable.
Robbers, Sunday Vanguard learnt, now position themselves in front of banks in Port Harcourt waiting for those that go in to make huge withdrawals. But how they manage to know these people is still a mystery to many. Could it be that they have links within the banks? They wait for their victims to come out, trail them to quiet spots and then threaten to shoot them if they don’t hand over the cash.
The security situation has become alarming in many parts of the state. The caretaker committee chairman of Asari Toru Local Government Area, Mr. Ibaninabo Hamilton Dawarey, last week, reportedly, ordered a curfew in the headquarters of his local government after two rival cult groups clashed in Buguma last Sunday leaving one dead.
Governor Celestine Omehia is deeply worried by the sad situation. This prompted his constitution of a peace and rehabilitation committee to persuade these cultists and militants to drop the nefarious acts. The committee headed by Alhaji Hassan Douglass is expected to begin tour of the twenty three local government areas of the state to pursue peace.
It is the prayer of all that peace returns to the state. Already night life has disappeared from the state capital. As early as 6.30 p.m., most residents start racing home for fear of their lives. So the people truly desire peace.
NCAA Threatens to Degrade Airports (This Day)
The Director-General of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Dr Harold Demuren has said the authority will degrade any airport that does not meet certain requirements, noting that some of the airports suffer from infrastructural decay and may not be cleared for certification until they are rehabilitated.
Demuren who addressed journalists at the Murtala Mohammed Airport, Lagos at the weekend said that the five international airports in Lagos, Abuja, Kano, Port Harcourt and Calabar must meet international standards before they will be cleared for International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) certification, which will take place in September.
He decried the lack of basic facilities in some of the airports and regretted that the Nigeria Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) is saddled with too many airports and therefore face daunting challenge to maintain them.
"NCAA will degrade the airports that did not meet the expected standard. FAAN is saddled with so many airports. We cannot accept such decay in our airports. They must meet certain standards so that they will serve the Nigerian public effectively. We must not compromise standards."
On the issue of safety, Demuren said that bad weather was involved in all the accidents that had taken place in Nigeria and cautioned that pilots must wait for bad weather to clear before they operate their flight.
He noted that Nigeria and other countries in Africa are located around tropical revolving thunderstorm, adding that the Gulf of Guinea where Nigeria is located is very stormy.
The NCAA boss disclosed that as part of updating both operators and passengers, weather information will soon be made available at arrival halls of Nigerian airports, stressing that the problem of weather is all over the world.
"All accidents that took place in Nigeria happened in bad weather. Pilots must wait for bad weather to clear before they operate. Nigeria is located in the area of tropical thunderstorm in the gulf of Guinea, but very soon we will begin to show weather reports in arrival halls of the airports."
Demuren revealed that Nigeria has been making progress in the aviation sector, stating that the country must become category 1 compliant so that Nigerians who wish to travel to United States must not go through Europe before going to America but take a direct flight to US.
He said that if the country becomes category 1 compliant it is Nigerian carriers that will benefit because they can now fly to US, which is a very lucrative route.
Besides, the category 1 certification will declare Nigeria's airspace safe and this will boost the nation's economy, noting that within three weeks America's Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) will reply NCAA with its report, which will prompt the authority to start a programme for a more comprehensive assessment by FAA.
The Director-General also noted that it was because the country passed the ICAO audit opened opportunity for Nigerians carriers through the Cape Town Convention and could lease modern aircraft which have boosted the airlines fleet, that in the major routes of Abuja, Lagos and Port Harcourt one could only see modern aircraft, unlike in the past when old airplanes dotted the nation's skyline.
"About 18 months ago we lost the confidence of the flying public after the two accidents. Nigeria must be category 1 compliant. Things have changed since now. We have relatively new aircraft. We have safe tower project and Nigeria stands a better chance today for investors to come in and do business."
Collapsed Lagos - Badagry Road Causing Strife (Vanguard)
THE collapse of the Lagos -Badagry Expressway has crippled economic activities of many Nigerians who ply the route to their business areas as man-hours are lost endlessly in traffic. The development is provoking angst as it is drawing flakes of both Nigerians and non-Nigerians. Daily, commuters are held in grueling traffic almost endlessly, mainly due to potholes and craters which have since combined to reduce the road to a death trap, forcing vehicles to snarl, while valuable time is lost. On both sides of the road, Sunday Vanguard could count 115 pot holes and 15 craters, between Mile 2 and Okokomaiko.
The points where the holes are common place are First Gate, Agboju, Oluti, Alakija, Mazamaza, Mile 2, Abule Ado, Under Bridge (Trade Fair), Volks, Iyana Iba and Okokomaiko. Added to the woe of commuters on this route is activities of the men of the underworld, who take advantage of the ugly situation and unleash terror. The traffic caused by the collapsed road is being compounded by flood since the rain started .
Consequently, the profile of victims of robbers on the route has been rising. The situation, Sunday Vanguard Business checks reveal, is already taking its toll on trade between Nigeria and neighbouring West African countries, because the route is the major link Nigeria has with these countries like Ghana, Togo, Benin Republic. Following collapsed sections of the road, operators of transport service and traders from Lagos to other cities on the West Coast spend hours from Lagos to Badagry and Seme border for a journey that should not take more than one our.
As a result, transport operators have jerked up their fares, even as the road users count their loses. Our reporters observed last week, many of the commercial transport operators on the Nigeria, Cotonu (Benin Republic) and other West coast route from their base in Mile 2, in Lagos under the aegis of International Transport Association identifying primarily, bad road networks, as one of the major obstacles impeding free flow of traffic. Chairman of the international transport union, Alhaji Abdelrahem Jimoh, who spoke to our reporter, at their Mile 2 garage lamented seriously the effect of the bad road on the Nigerian economy in terms of loses.
Jimoh said that in addition, this ugly situation and adverse negative effect it has brought the nation’s economy, a journey which ought to have taken a passenger less than two hours now takes about four hours. Speaking further, he blamed the governments for not taken their responsibilities serious, quarrying that all the big talks about developing trans boarder working transport system only ends in government papers without actions .
He noted that if the present government is serious in this matter, it must immediately play its role by ensuring that as from today the issue of this international roads will be addressed and made motor able, as this will not only increase business among Nigerians and other people, but it will also help in saving the lives and properties of innocent citizens from further loss of lives to this bad road
“Can you imagine the number of innocent people who have lost their lives on this road, why we are saying this is that it is a problem that cannot be swept aside. Another thing is that sometimes robbers exploit this situation to unleash terror on transporters and passengers. Because we cannot say who will be the next victim, either you or me. Please our urgent call is to tell the present government as transporters to help Nigerians and people of other West African nations in putting this road well. It will help all of us, but above all, it will also help boost the Nigerian economy which all of us are working for.”
