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Your nose, your face

By Ray Ekpu
26 July 2016   |   5:13 am
The Niger Delta region has, since the discovery of oil been a beehive of militant activities by various groups with a diverse assortment of names. Over time we have had the Egbesu Boys, Greenlanders, KKK, Icelanders and Vultures.
 Niger Delta Avengers (NDA)

Niger Delta Avengers (NDA)

The Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) which coincidentally has the same acronym as the Nigeria Defence Academy, the major training school for Nigeria’s military men and women, is in town. With a series of attacks on oil pipelines and other oil infrastructure it is seeking to announce its birth with a bang. What it is avenging is not very clear yet but it is clear that it does not believe in the good Lord’s statement that “vengeance is mine.”

The Niger Delta region has, since the discovery of oil been a beehive of militant activities by various groups with a diverse assortment of names. Over time we have had the Egbesu Boys, Greenlanders, KKK, Icelanders and Vultures. Most of these later coalesced into two major platforms namely Niger Delta People’s Volunteer Force (NDPVF) led by Mujahid Dokubo Asari and the Niger Delta Vigilante (NDV) headed by Ateke Tom. All these groups had different and varying agenda but all claimed to be fighting the cause of Niger Delta.

However, before these groups there had been the Isaac Adaka Boro group in the 60s who waged the famous 12-day war for the creation of a Niger Delta Republic. It fizzled out as quickly as it came. There were several skirmishes in the 80s but it was actually in the 90s that the real battle for the soul of the Niger Delta region began. In 1992, a famous, pipe-smoking playwright called Ken Saro Wiwa brought his eloquence into the service of the Niger Delta. He, along with a few like-minded fellows, established the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) that canvassed for the restoration of the environment to its pristine state by the oil companies and the Federal Government. They took their message with photographs and video clips of the devastated Ogoni land to the United Nations, African Union and anywhere else that they thought would give them a listening ear. Encouraged by their apparent success, they went a tad over the top and produced their own national anthem and a flag with three compartments and four stars in the middle. When Ken Saro Wiwa showed these symbols of rebellion to me in my office I told him those things would not help the just cause of the Ogonis. It didn’t. Rather it provoked the government to go for their jugular.

Ken Saro Wiwa and his co-agitators must have remembered the remark of the famous tycoon, Paul Getty, that “the meek shall inherit the earth but not its mineral rights.” They wanted not only the mineral rights but also the earth. That brought them into a mammoth confrontation with the macho government of Sani Abacha. The government hanged Saro Wiwa and eight others on charges that were not proven beyond reasonable doubts.

Next, soldiers took over Ogoniland and pillaged the place. They committed rape, arson, looting, you name it. By Amnesty International’s account 30 Ogoni villages were sacked, 2000 civilians killed, 600 people detained and 100,000 people displaced. Till this day Ogoni has remained a gaunt shadow of its former self.

Undaunted, other groups sprang up. The Ijaw Youth Congress was formed in December 1998. It quickly produced a definitive statement of its mission called the Kaiama Declaration. It pledged “to struggle peacefully for freedom, self-determination and ecological justice.” They mobilised youths in Bayelsa and Delta States for a demonstration that they codenamed Operation Climate Change. On December 30, 1998, 2000 youths all dressed in black filed out into the streets, singing and dancing. Two warships carrying about 15,000 troops stormed Bayelsa and Delta states. They shot and killed civilians, destroyed canoes, confiscated fishing equipment, burnt down churches and captured livestock. Hell had come to the region.

The region has not been able to heal its own wounds nor has it found favour with those who could have helped. Conflict has, therefore, become a permanent state of affairs. And just when a flicker of hope is showing its face with the Federal Government’s determination to clean up Ogoni, the Avengers are showing the impatience of a challenger. Our nerves are at full stretch and we all have been driven into a paroxysm of fear. We are all walking the knife-edge of danger.

What the Avengers are doing now can only exacerbate the problems of the region. In 2012, the Niger Delta experienced 588 oil spills resulting in the loss of 115,000 barrels of crude valued at N2.024 billion. 70 per cent of those spills were unrecovered and the sites not properly cleaned up.

In 2006, UNIDO estimated that Nigeria flares 76 per cent of its gas every day. That is the highest in the world. The U.S. flares only 0.6 per cent, Holland 0.0 per cent, Britain 4.3 per cent, Mexico 5 per cent, Libya 21 per cent, Saudi Arabia 20 per cent, Algeria 19 per cent. The OPEC average is 18 per cent while the world average is 4.8 per cent. What this high flare of gas means for Nigeria is not only trillions of naira burnt but there are serious radio-active elements of gas flaring. These include such carcinogenic diseases such as respiratory disorders, skin and lung cancers and eye abnormalities.

Other consequences of gas flaring include acid rain which deprives people of drinkable water. It stunts the growth of crops, damages people’s roofs and pollutes the air and water. So the Niger Deltans have been living with this deleterious impact of oil exploration and exploitation for several decades. Any additional spill caused by the blowing up of pipelines by the Avengers or any other group for any cause, worthy or unworthy, is not in the best interest of the Niger Delta people. It is not.

My advice to the Avengers and their fellow travellers is to accept the olive branch offered by President Buhari and go to the negotiating table. The President has said that “whatever remains of the Yar’Adua agreement will be met.” Even though the Avengers was not in existence when President Umaru Yar’Adua signed the agreement it is obvious that President Buhari wants a lasting solution to the problems of the Niger Delta. The crisis has already taken a heavy toll on the economy, reducing oil production by at least one million barrels per day. That means a substantial reduction in the government’s revenue.

The solution to the problem is a bipartisan approach. I was surprised when the President told the APC leaders he had invited to the breaking of the fast to find ways of talking to the militants. Only two APC states, Imo and Edo, are in the Niger Delta region whereas the main theatres of the conflict are Delta and Bayelsa, both of them PDP states. He should have invited the PDP governors and some of their leaders in the region to the meeting.

However, the leaders in the region should call the militants to order. Whatever they want is negotiable. Destroying oil infrastructure is not likely to serve the cause of peace. It will rather compound the already unhealthy state of the region’s ecosystem and worsen the woes of the people. They should not allow the Federal Government to unleash soldiers on the region again. On all previous occasions that happened, the region came under the big boots of the soldiers, a situation from which it has not yet recovered. Remembered Odi?

Unemployment, poverty and disease are the defining features of the region today. The Avengers cannot resolve those problems with their guns, but if they come forward to tell the government what is biting them then a solution may be found. What they are doing now is the equivalent of cutting their noses to spite their faces. When you cut your nose your face gets ugly.

5 Comments

  • Author’s gravatar

    Indeed. When you cut your nose your face gets ugly. We hope the Avengers and their collaborators in Abuja will heed to this timely advise.

  • Author’s gravatar

    “What this high flare of gas means for Nigeria is not only trillions of naira burnt but there are serious radio-active elements of gas flaring. These include such ‘carcinogenic diseases’ [quotes mine] such as respiratory disorders, skin and lung cancers and eye abnormalities.”
    Uncle Ray i remember when Dele Giwa was murdered, i was but a wee lad. Where have you been? I,m highly disappointed at your level of knowledge. Are you nuts!!!!!!? What is a carcinogenic disease? “carcinogenic” is anything that causes cancer you imbecile! How can a disease cause a disease? You are a disgrace to journalism, abi na ogogoro you dey drink sice 1995?. Like bad wine you got worse with age. Please go back to your catacomb and spend your ’30 pieces of silver,’ and let honest journalists do their job.

  • Author’s gravatar

    Eghu Ray. you can delete my comments all you want, carcinogenic is NOT a disease, it is anything that causes cancer. Dele must be turning in his grave.

  • Author’s gravatar

    most people that write up on the issue complete fail to understand the problem and the required solution to solve this problem. The problem is not only economical development, a university or clean up of their land. The problem lies deep in the people desire to have some control of their land, resources and lives. This writer has listed the past actions of the people, which should inform anybody, that this is going to continue to happen until the real problem is resolved. A renter doesn’t care how the street look, because they can just move to a cleaner street. however a home owner cares about the street and can’t easily move. With owners of resources in Niger delta by Niger delta people less than 10%, they are clearly renters. The solution to this problem is simple. Let the people have more control, ownership and interest in their resources. right now, they are blowing up oil infrastructure because they don’t own it and have no interest in it. Let forget about the rubbish 13% depreciation allocation. when a community has an interest in a pipeline, they would protect that revenue generating interest. when a community has interest in an oil producing block, they don’t want to waste the oil, just like the country doesn’t want the oil wasted. when a community has shares in an oil producing company, they want the company to be profitable, so dividend can be paid to them.
    if this president wants to solve this problem, it is time to start giving the region more owners, control and interest in the resources. Any other solution is just a waste of resources and time.

  • Author’s gravatar

    Veteran Ray Ekpu,u have submitted brilliantly and constructively my most senior colleague sir.To them that have ears,let them hear!