No Justice, No Peace
By Chris Ajaero
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Niger Delta leaders demand that the federal government shows its commitment towards correcting perceived injustices against the people of the region if it wants the militants to drop their guns
Edwin Kiagbodo Clark, former federal commissioner for information and a leading voice on the intractable Niger Delta question has said there cannot be peace in the oil-rich region without justice.
He told Newswatch in Kiagbodo, Delta State, his home town, that militancy among the youths in the region is a reaction to the injustices meted to them by successive governments in Nigeria. He recalled that in the 1960s when the groundnut pyramids from the North, cocoa from the South-West and palm oil from the South-East were the mainstay of the nation’s economy, the revenue allocation formula was based on 50 percent derivation.
But since the 1970s when petroleum from the Niger Delta became the major source of revenue for the country, the derivation formula was discarded. In its place, the federal government initially allocated a paltry 1.3 percent of oil resources to the Niger Delta, which was later increased to three percent, and further raised to 13 percent. Clark considers this as injustice because the oil communities from where the oil wealth is derived have remained poor and neglected.
The attempt by the South-South delegation to use the 2005 national conference as a platform to put an end to this injustice was ridiculed and rebuffed by the Northern delegates. According to him, the South-South delegates canvassed for a return to 50 percent derivation formula, but the majority of Nigerians, particularly from the North believed in maintaining the status quo. "Everything we said, they made a mockery of us to the extent that some of them said that now that you are uncomfortable with the oil industry in your area, we will resettle you. Can you imagine such an insult," Clark said
The vocal Niger Delta leader explained that even when the South-South delegates later reduced their demand for derivation to 25 percent and requested that the balance of 25 percent be met in five years, the other sections of the country refused. "They said they wanted us to have 18 percent and we said no. That was why we staged a walk-out at the conference," Clark told Newswatch.
He said that the youths of the Niger Delta had to resort to militancy which involves kidnapping, destruction of oil pipelines and bombing of oil fields in order to vent their anger on the federal government. "The boys are fighting for their own survival. They are fighting unemployment, criminal negligence of the area, the dehumanisation of our own people, and lack of education for them," Clark told Newswatch.
He believes that the deployment of warships to the Niger Delta as a result of the recent bombing of the Bonga oil field will not cow the militants because they are determined to fight for their freedom. To him, it is only through dialogue with the interest groups in the region that the Niger Delta question can be addressed. He said that following the decision of the federal government embracing the option of dialogue, stakeholders in the region have started meeting over the issue. He explained that what they were doing was to collate all the reports that have been done by previous administrations on the Niger Delta from 1958 till date. The report will be submitted to the president who would forward it to the National Assembly for approval so that the requisite funds could be released for the development of the Niger Delta. Clark believes that if the militants discover that there are genuine efforts by the federal government to develop the Niger Delta, they will surrender their arms and this will lead to the restoration of peace in the region.
Like Clark, Itse Sagay, a professor of law has also been consistent in his clamour for equity and fair play as the best approach towards resolving the Niger Delta question. Sagay told Newswatch that militancy in the region had assumed an alarming proportion because of the continued oppression and gross under-development of the area that produces virtually the entire wealth of the nation. He recalled that from the figures gathered from the Federal Ministry of Finance during the 2005 national conference, the Niger Delta contributes more than 90 percent to the federation account. From the figures, the North-Western zone contributes zero percent, the North-Central zone, almost zero percent, and the North-East, zero percent. On the other hand, the South-East contributes about two percent while the South-West contributes four percent.
Sagay said that it was unfair for the federal government to continue to use the bulk of the resources derived from the Niger Delta to create paradises in other places like Abuja while the region is neglected and its people remain wretched.
The professor of law suggested steps that the federal government must take to persuade the Niger Delta militants to shun militancy and tow the path of peace. First, the people of the region must have a say about how the oil blocks behind their farms are allocated. "They do not need to wake up and be told that one Chinese company has been given a block behind the person’s grand father’s farm. That is insulting," he said.
Secondly, oil companies should give a certain percentage of the resources derived from such ventures to their host communities.
Thirdly, Nigeria should return to the 50 percent derivation principle as obtained during the First Republic. This, he said, implies that 50 percent should be allocated to the oil producing states, 20 percent to the federal government, while 30 percent would be put in a revolving fund meant for all the federating states, excluding the federal government.
Sagay also insisted that there must be a comprehensive programme for cleaning up the Niger Delta and then the federal government should begin to introduce a new resource to replace oil because in a few years time, the oil could dry up and the country’s economy would be in jeopardy if there is no alternative source of revenue.
Sagay also suggested that efforts should be made to retrain the Niger Delta youths by giving them the skills to enable them secure employment in the oil and gas sector. He believes that instead of keeping more than $70 billion in the nation’s foreign reserves, part of the money should be used to develop the Niger Delta region. "I cannot understand why we have over $70 billion now in the reserve doing nothing whereas the place that produced the billions is dying in wretchedness. That is the problem. This is why the Niger Deltans are so irritated by what is happening," Sagay told Newswatch.
For Tony Momoh, former minister of information, one factor that would make it difficult for the Niger Delta people to control their resources is the Petroleum Act, which provides that every inch of the land belongs to Nigeria. He suggested that these laws that deprive the people the control of their resources should be reviewed or abrogated so as to reduce the feeling of deprivation among the Niger Delta youths. Momoh warned that the deployment of warships to the Niger Delta by the Navy will complicate the situation instead of ameliorating the problem. "Revolutions come when some people believe that there is only one way of resolving issues. The creeks of the Niger Delta cannot be policed by even by the world army. If warships are deployed to the creeks of the Niger Delta, they will only help to damage the pipelines they have come to protect," Momoh said.
At the inception of Yar’Adua’s administration in May, last year, the militants had consistently canvassed for the release of Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, former governor of Bayelsa State who was then standing trial over corruption charges. In a bid to ease the rising tension among the militants at that time, the Yar’Adua administration had facilitated the freedom of the ex-governor through a plea-bargaining deal in July, last year. Following the freedom deal packaged by the Yar’Adua administration, Alamieyeseigha has been involved in the efforts to restore peace in the region. The former governor popularly called the "Governor General" of the Ijaw nation told Newswatch that since he regained his freedom, he has been going to the creeks to prevail on the militants to abandon violence. He explained that a few days ago, he was in the creeks of Tombia, Bayelsa State where he gathered the militants and preached to them on the need to maintain peace so as to promote the sustainable development of the Niger Delta. He was hopeful that through his peace initiatives, the militants would eventually tow the path of reason so as to provide a conducive atmosphere for dialogue between the Niger Delta stakeholders and the federal government on how to develop the region. "I am assisting the government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in search of peace and security in the Niger Delta because without peace, there would be no development in the area," Alamieyeseigha told Newswatch.
He, however, urged President Yar’Adua to be more committed towards addressing the Niger Delta question by speedily implementing the recommendations that would enhance development in the region.
Afenifere, the socio-cultural organisation of the Yoruba recommended its panacea for the crisis. Yinka Odumakin, national publicity secretary of Afenifere explained that the problem in the Niger Delta has remained unresolved because the people are not happy that their environment has been polluted, yet they do not participate in the exploitation of oil and gas in their region. "If they are allowed equity participation on the basis of their ownership of the land where oil wells are located, there would not have been this crisis," he said.
Odumakin said, the agitation by the militants is their own way of expressing their bottled up anger at the social paradox whereby they are suffering from poverty in the midst of plenty. He said that although Afenifere does not endorse kidnappings and other militant activities, it cannot decree to an oppressed people how they should fight to liberate themselves.
Afenifere then suggested measures that should be adopted by the federal government to bring a lasting solution to the debilitating crisis. One of its recommendations is that Yar’Adua should forward a bill to the National Assembly to increase derivation to the Niger Delta to any percentage around the 50 percent demanded by the people. It also wants the Nigerian polity to be restructured to give autonomy to the component units of the federation. This, it says, makes it imperative for the urgent convocation of a sovereign national conference to look into the structures that have not allowed for peace, development and progress.
Afenifere also believes that unless this was done, the injustices that have been going on because of the lopsidedness of the country’s federalism will continue to anger the Niger Delta militants. "The wonderful sharing formula that saw over 85 percent of the strategic grains reserve going to the Northern part of Nigeria recently is just a tip of the iceberg," Odumakin said.
Additional reports by Dike Onwuamaeze and Kazeem Akintunde
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