INTRODUCTION:
Let me begin by thanking the
organizers of this lecture for finding me fit to deliver the keynote Address at
this year’s event. It is an honour well appreciated and I hope that at the end
of the day I would have been able to justify the honour you have reposed in me.
The topic I was given to speak on is, “Youth
Restiveness And Militancy In The Niger Delta: The Impact On The Economy”,
but I have slightly altered the it to read “Youth Restiveness, Militancy and the
intractable problems of Niger Delta: The Need For A New Thinking and Enduring
Problem Solving Approach”. I took the liberty of slightly adjusting the
topic for the following reasons:
(i)
The
new topic fits even more with the Theme of this year’s lecture, which is, “Curtailing the Culture of Impunity in our
National Life”.
(ii)
The
twin issues of Youth Restiveness and Militancy in the Niger Delta are not only
well known to all, but are equally well documented. What is however required in
solving this intractable problem is a new thinking and approach. Both on the
side of the Federal and State Governments of the region as well as the Oil
Corporations.
(iii)
Again
the effects of the Niger Delta crises on the Nation’s economy are not only also
well documented but are better felt than explained.
So unless you are a highly gifted
speaker, you will hardly find anything to say that will capture and sustain the
attention of a critical audience. The effects
of the crises on the economy are clear, present and vividly biting. To the extent that they have almost crippled
the government of President Muhamadu Buhari.
Understandably too, Nigerians are beginning to blame the harsh effects
of the economy on the Buhari administration.
The change mantra of the APC/Buhari Government is now associated with
hardship even in our places of worship.
My eleven-year-old son came home from Church the other Sunday and said
the Pastor prayed that “Buhari should not be our portion in Jesus name"
and the church chorused a thunderous "Amen!" Obviously, the effect of
the crises occasioned by the disruption in oil production and the accompanying
fall in the price of crude oil in the International Market has also taken its
toll on tithes and offerings in the church.
I do not intend in this keynote
address to rely on, or engage in high flying academic language or theories. My
aim is to lay out the issues and tell them as they are in plain, simple
language as possible. The convoluted language of the academics has been part of
the problem. Their abstract and most times, selfish postulations have provided
an avenue for unbridled corruption where billions of naira that should have
gone into practical development of the region have been expended on
frivolities. Emergency millionaires have
been made of all manner of consultants, emergency conflict resolution and youth
development experts, etc, etc.
DEFINITION
OF KEY TERMS:
Permit me therefore to move into the
subject of this Address proper by attempting a definition of the key words
therein - “Youth Restiveness”, “Militancy” and the “Niger Delta Region”.
YOUTH
RESTIVENESS: According
to Peter Osalor in an article published in the December 24, 2012
edition of the Vanguard Newspaper, “a
sustained protestation embarked upon to enforce a desired outcome from a
constituted authority fits the label of youth restiveness. It could also be a
combination of any action or conduct that constitutes unwholesome, unacceptable
activities engaged in by the youths in any community."
MILITANCY: The free Dictionary (Online) defines
Militancy as “having a combative character, aggressive, especially in the
service of a cause; a fighting warring, or aggressive person or party.” A ‘militant’ according to the Cambridge
dictionary is “active determined and often willing to use force.”
THE
NIGER DELTA REGION: According to
John Vidal, (The Observer of May 20,
2010, what comes to mind when you mention the name “Niger Delta Region” in
relation to any issue today, is “that Petroleum-rich region that has been at
the centre of National and International controversy over issues of pollution,
corruption and human rights violation.” Whereas we all know the Niger Delta to
be a geographical location, the region is now more popularly defined by oil
production, deprivation, violence, environmental pollution and lack of
development and poverty rather than history and cartography to include the
States of Akwa-Ibom, Edo, Imo, Abia, Bayelsa, Delta, Rivers, Cross River,
Anambra and Ondo. With the recent discovery of oil, Lagos state is on its way
to being a Niger Delta State.
CAUSES
OF YOUTH RESTIVENESS AND MILITANCY IN THE NIGER DELTA
The Niger Delta is Nigeria’s goose
that lays the golden egg. While its egg is cherished and feasted upon, almost
solely, to give and to sustain the life of the Nation, the goose itself is left
unfed, malnourished and abandoned.
Years of oil exploration and pollution
have totally destroyed the environment and can hardly sustain the means of
livelihood of the people of the area whose main sources of subsistence is
farming and fishing. The Niger Delta has given its all to the nation without
any corresponding recompense in return. There is total death of basic
infrastructure and social amenities such as, roads, schools, electricity, pipe
born water and hospitals. The people’s sources of drinking water are polluted
by constant oil spillages, their farm lands have been destroyed and rendered
unfit for agricultural purposes. Even the air they breathe is unsafe due to gas
flaring and emission of carbon monoxide and other noxious emissions that are
daily released into the air due to oil and gas exploration activities. Coupled
with this is the lack of job opportunities for employable and active youths
from the area. The Niger Delta region
and its inhabitants are therefore bombarded from the air, land and water. The
region is said to be one of the most underdeveloped and poor oil producing
regions in the world.
While the Human Development Index of
the Niger Delta according to a 2013 United Nations Development Programme report
is put at 0.433, other oil producing communities like Gabon, Libya and Malaysia
stood at 0.668, 0.791 and 0.791 respectively. Even access to youth literacy in
the Niger Delta is lower than that of non-oil producing communities within the
Nigerian nation. Take for example the figure of 87.9 percent for the Niger
Delta and 94.7 for the South West. The
Niger Delta also has the highest rate of unemployment when compared to all the
other regions in Nigeria. While the
unemployment level of the region is put at 9.5 no other region except the
South–East has a figure that is as high as 6.6 percent.
While the region festers in squalor
and decay, resources from its bosom have been used over the years to build and
develop two world-class national capital cities. This disparity in development between non-oil
producing areas and the oil producing region, was one of the reasons that led
to the agitation for resources control. If the Federal Government cannot
develop the region, then the people should at least be given the right to
harness these resources for the development of their region and at worst pay
royalties to the Federal government.
Despite decades of protestation and
even appeals to the Federal, State Governments, Oil Corporations, and the International
Community, the core issues of the region remained largely unattended to. Ken
Saro-Wiwa, a Niger Delta environmental rights activist was murdered in the
course of peaceful agitation for the environmental clean-up of the region by
the Abacha regime. Violence they say begets violence and as the saying goes,
those who make peaceful change impossible make violent change possible.
The people were not only denied this
right to development, either from the centre or through resource control, they
were increasingly being denied the right to life and existence, as the
environment from which they can elk out a living have been rendered unfit for
any such activity and the federal government wasn’t ready to do anything
serious to address the situation.
There is no violation of human right
than can be more than the violation of the right to existence. It is this abiding condition that gave rise
to what is called the Niger Delta problem.
The recurring rounds of violence that continues to hold the nation by
the jugular is therefore a manifestation of the deep rooted frustration of
negligence on the part of government and multi-national companies over the
plight of the region.
THE
APPROACH TO SOLVING THE PROBLEM SO FAR:
While it can be said that government's
intention of setting up the various intervention agencies looks good on paper,
same cannot be said of its efforts to ensure that the objectives of setting up
the agencies are achieved.
Beginning from the time of the Oil
Mineral Producing Areas Development Commission to the creation of the Niger
Delta Development Commission (NDDC) by the Obasanjo Administration in the year
2000 and the establishment of the Niger Delta Ministry by the Yar’ Adua
Administration, all the interventionist agencies have been deliberately starved
of funds by successive administrations.
The NDDC first Quarter Report of December 18, 2015– March 18, 2016,
bemoaned the poor financial situation of the Commission which it blamed on “the
failure of the Federal, member States Governments, and several oil companies to
fund the Commission in accordance with Section 14 of the NDDC Act of 2000.”
Corruption and mismanagement of
received funds have also been a huge factor. Equally rampant and most
disturbing is the halfhearted implementation and or criminal circumvention of
laudable programmes for self-enrichment.
Efforts and emphasis have always been
focused on nebulous human capital development programmes mostly because it is a
soft area where funds can be siphoned without any noticeable and measurable
impact. Human capital development is laudable and direly needed in the region,
but concentrating on human capital development without first providing the
basic infrastructure to facilitate and sustain economic activities, is like
putting the cart before the horse. “Human development is not about enhancing
capabilities through education alone rather people must adequately be
integrated into society” (Otega Okunono, Dani Salleh and Badariah Hj Din).
Over the years, billions have been
pumped into this area of human development, through the award of scholarships
and training of thousands of youths and women in various skills at various
skills acquisition centres. While this is laudable, the effect has not been
felt in the lives of the people and the condition of the environment. For it makes no economic or development sense
to train a youth in welding, carpentry, hair dressing and give him or her
starter packs or even rent a shop for him or her to ply her trade without first
ensuring that the basic infrastructure needed for that business to strive, such
as electricity, and running water is available. Most youths trained this way
have had to sell off their starter packs and gave up their shops and returned
to the streets or creeks to begin their criminal activities. The simple reason, in most cases being that these
businesses rely on electricity and within a year, cost of buying fuel and
diesel have practically wiped out whatever earnings they made. In an
environment where even established business concerns are folding up due to lack
of basic infrastructure, it is inconceivable that a youth trained and empowered
in this manner would survive such a hash operating environment and go on to be
an employer of labour. But as long as
the business of training consultants and contract for supply of starter packs
thrive, no one gives a single thought to the sustainability of the programmes
or how the huge funds allocated this sector can be better channeled to
providing more enduring projects for the communities. Human Capital development encompasses a
process by which a society usurps the natural surroundings to its advantage for
development (Nussbuam 2001). An environment has to be conducive for a people to
usurp it for developmental purposes.
Efforts by successive administrations
at solving the regional question have always been like this. As the saying goes you cannot apply the same
method to solving a problem and expect different results. It is time for a new thinking and a new
approach.
THE
ROLE OF THE REGIONAL GOVERNMENTS:
While the Federal government must, as
always retain giant blame for the crisis in the region, the various state
governments have not also done their best to redress the issues as they affect
the region either collectively or in their respective states. They have been more concerned with receiving
and appropriating the 13 percent derivation fund according to their whims and
caprices without applying it judiciously towards the real physical and
infrastructural needs of the oil producing communities.
Even those who have set up special
agencies for the utilization of the 13 percent fund have also slipped into the
ineffective approach of the NDDC. These agencies are being used for political
patronages and are hamstrung by lack of independence to truly carry out their
mandates. Some of them, like one we all know very well, exist to pay salaries
to staff who practically does no work throughout the year. It is time Governors
of the region realize that the region and the people are theirs and they owe
them a primary responsibility for development. Investors require a peaceful and
stable environment to operate. No state
can develop without the presence of investors.
Whether we like it or not, in the final analysis, the strife affects us
all.
THE
ROLE OF THE MILITANT GROUPS:
In discussing the Niger Delta crises
we cannot fail to recognize and give kudos to the militant groups especially
the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) for rekindling and
sustaining the plight of the Niger Delta in the consciousness of both the
national and international community after the lull that was created by the
cruel murder of late Ken Saro-Wiwa by the draconian regime of late General
Abacha. Whether they were mobilized for
political reasons or not, the fact remains that the condition of the region was
ripe for such as uprising. MEND
maintained an effective propaganda machine that put the issue on the front
burner of international consciousness through constant heart piercing releases
by a guy that goes by the unlikely name of Major Jomo Gbomo. If Gbomo has not
been promoted a General by now, I recommend that he be so promoted by the High
Command of MEND.
There is no doubt that a struggle of
that type and scale was always going to require some form of illicit funding
and some element of criminality. So the illegal sale of crude oil (bunkering)
high jacking of oil vessels at high seas, kidnapping of expatriate oil workers
for ransom were therefore considered tolerable crimes in the eyes of
sympathizers to the cause as long as it could lead to the redressing of the
issues of the region.
Again there was always going to be a
thin line between this type of noble criminality and a descent into full blown
criminality. With the rise in violence, the international oil and their
servicing companies folded shop and relocated. The few multi-national
expatriate oil workers that did not run away bought up our security and became
"unkidnapable." Government devised more effective way of curbing
large scale oil theft.
It wasn’t too long before the effects
started showing on the region. Unemployment
spiraled upward. Poverty increased and
gradually the violence turned inwards.
The militants being unable to reach the oppressors turned inwards and
became oppressors to their co-oppressed.
They started terrorizing their co-sufferers through acts of piracy on
the water ways. They kidnapped and
violated our mothers, sister and daughters. A practice that has put a blight on
the agitation and cast it in an unfavourable mould in the international
community and even in the eyes of the locals.
THE
PRESIDENTIAL AMNESTY PROGRAMME:
In our attempt to proffer a new
thinking and approach to solving the issue of the region, it is only proper
that we examine effects of previous programmes aimed at addressing the issue,
especially those that have elicited high attention and have attracted humongous
amount of funding. The Presidential Amnesty Programme remains one of the
highest profile programmes in the history of the Niger Delta. It was instituted by the Yar’Adua
administration in 2007 when Niger Delta Militants almost brought the nation to
its knees through the disruption of the country’s major sources of income and
foreign exchange, the production of crude oil. Through, kidnapping of expatiate
oil workers, bombing of crude oil pipelines and gas facilities, the nation was
gasping for breath.
The programme went on to run for five
years and counting. According to General
Boroh, the Special Adviser to President Buhari on the Niger Delta and
Coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Program, it has been extended for
another two years till 2018. General Boron has highlighted a major constraint
that is preventing the government from bringing the programme to a close to be
the lack of exit plans for the ex-militants. An admission that the hurriedly
packaged programme was not well thought through from the beginning. General
Boron has also decried the high cost of running the programme and asserted that
there was nowhere else in the world that such a programme is being run. A total
of 30,000 militants, were captured in the programme, that is, those who give up
their arms and embraced the programme. 17,322 of them have benefitted from the
programme. There are complaints by others that they have not been captured and
hence would want to be included in the programme.
So if you put out the figure of
ex-militants yet to be captured and add it up with the 30,000 already in the
programme you may come up with a figure not less than 35,000 ex-militants. Anyone who tells me that, even at the height
of the bombings, that there were up to 35,000 arms bearing youths in the creeks
of the Niger Delta from Cross Rivers to Ondo State tells a lie. And if over 17 thousand of these militants
out of the 30,000 who embraced the programme and signed for peace have
benefited, who then are the militants bombing oil facilities today and what
roles are these ex-militants who must know their ex-colleagues and modus operandi playing to help the
Federal Government secure the region? What impact has the programme had on the
region if the issues that led to its institution are the same issues of
agitation today? Shouldn’t the huge
funds that have gone the way of the programme have been better utilized if
channeled into creating an environment that can generate jobs for the teeming
youths.
A frank and honest answer to the above
posers will underscore the success or otherwise of the Amnesty programme with
regard to addressing the core issues that led to its establishment in the first
place. The truth remains that the amnesty programme was a programme designed by
our oppressors to entice the Niger Delta militants to cease hostilities so that
the Federal government can carry on with its oil exploration activities while
pollution and degradation of the environment continued. It was conceived as a
bribe and operated as such. If we were
wiser, we would have demanded for more enduring and sustaining solutions. But through a combination of greed and lack
of foresight we bit the bait and here we are today.
While the amnesty lasted, we became
emergency contractors and consultants on all manner of trainings. We smiled to the banks without a thought for
our environment. “Ex-Generals” were awarded multi-million naira contracts to
secure oil facilities and pipelines as well as huge maritime contracts and
forgot all about the struggle.
Magnificent buildings of “Generals” and other ethnic leaders sprang up
over-looking the slums and shanties in which the rest of the people dwell. Even
the traditional rulers were not left out.
For the six years of the President
Goodluck Jonathan Administration, the issue of
the Niger Delta was kept at the back
burner. Even the most important road in the region, the East-West Road could
not be completed. The Ministry of the Niger Delta headed by a Niger Deltan
under the Presidency of a Niger Deltan was under funded. Meanwhile, incidents
of kidnapping for ransom which is an offshoot of militant activities
continued. We completely turned away
from the struggle and joined with the oppressors to oppress our co-oppressed.
An otherwise legitimate struggle was turned on its head, terrorizing our own
co-suffers through sea piracy. We kidnapped our mothers, wives and daughters
and violated them. We demanded ransom from those who can hardly feed.
This was the situation until the Niger
Delta Avengers started the latest round of bombings that have brought us back
to the pre-amnesty stage. People have had to ask questions about the true
motive of the Niger Delta Avengers. What exactly are they avenging? Are they
avenging their loss of contracts and patronage?
What has suddenly changed in the condition of the region in the Buhari
administration that wasn’t there in the Jonathan administration? Going by the
way the Niger Delta issue has been appropriated and personalised in recent
times, it has also become necessary for the question to be asked; is the Niger
Delta issue about an individual, group or an ethnic nationality? Must the peace
of the region be tied to the pecuniary needs of individuals or groups? The answers to these questions as they say,
are blowing in the wind.
The Niger Delta issue has been used
before and is again being used for political leverage. This is why the Federal
Government must be wary of all those masquerading themselves as leaders and
justling for recognition to represent the region in negotiations with it. They do not mean well for the region. They
are the same old people who have shortchanged the region. They are after their
pockets. They are the emergency contractors, ethnic supremacists, conflict
resolution experts and resource control intellectuals whose roles in the past
have done little or nothing to address the real issues of the region. We do not
need them neither do we need another round of negotiations. It only provides avenue
for corrupt leaders and criminal elements to enrich themselves. The issues are
as clear now as they have always been. Nothing has changed. The region is in
need of basic infrastructure. The Federal Government should move in with
massive funds to do this. The Niger Delta Regional master plan is a good
strategy. Government should start implementing it in the areas where tangible
results and effects will be felt.
Perhaps it also important to mention
the critical negative effect that the Amnesty programme had on the youths of
the region that is often overlooked. It created a culture of receiving payment
without doing any work. Many youths in
the name of training were lodged in five star hotels for months sometimes years,
while undergoing training and were subsequently released into society to
receive monthly stipends without doing any work. This attitude of expecting
payment without work has permeated the entire region. Only years of re-orientation and availability
of jobs can reverse the trend. The Amnesty also inculcated the belief in youths
that the best way to easy wealth is through violence. Rather than hard work as
was in the days of old, violence is now a constant part of our daily life. The federal government must therefore show
and exhibit resolve to deal decisively with all forms of criminality whether
under the guise of freedom fighting or not. As with Boko Haram so must it be
with terrorism in the region.
The Amnesty Programs was not totally a
failure though. Many youths were trained. Some even went abroad for studies. We
congratulate them and wish that when they return home that they will apply
their newly acquired skills for the betterment of the region and meet an
environment that enable them to put their newly acquired skills into practice.
THE
WAY FORWARD:
There is no doubt at all that
addressing the Niger Delta problem requires a new thinking and approach. First
we must start by communicating the problems in a new language. A clear and
transparent language that is devoid of deceit and self-interest. The most
important way of ensuring sustainable growth is through infrastructure. So as a short time measure, the Federal Government should
mobilise massive funds for immediate investment in basic infrastructure across
the region. This will not only raise the standard of living but will boost
economic activities and employment generation. There must be marked departure
from those amorphous programmes that does good to the pockets of individuals
rather than help the region. The Federal Government must stop forthwith the
application of halfhearted political solutions to the regions problems. Niger
Deltans must also begin now to resist and reject such programmes that portray
them as internal colonizers and co-conspirators in shortchanging the region for
selfish motives. Fundamentally,
the only way to put a stop to the Niger Delta agitation and indeed all other
regional agitations is to restructure the Nigerian federation. We practice a highly unitary government which we tout as a
Federal system. We need to encourage competition and creativity amongst the
Federating Units. The practice of states sitting back and waiting for federal
allocation or going cap in hand to Abuja to beg for handouts in the name of
bailouts has encouraged laziness amongst states. Just as the Amnesty Programme
created indolence and a horde of lazy youths in the Niger Delta region, so has
this practice of federal allocation created lazy States and Local Governments.
There
is too much power concentrated at the center. This has been the source of all
the schisms in Nigeria. Name it: whether Boko Haram, Odua Peoples’ Congress,
OPC, Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, MEND, Niger Delta
Avengers NDA, MOSSOP MASSOB or IPOB. All these arose over feelings of
marginalisation or feelings of being left out at the Centre. If the people are
allowed control of the resources within their states no one will hold the Centre
responsible for marginalisation.
If
the Federating States must exist as Centres of developments rather than
wasteful bureaucracies, then they must be empowered to develop at their own
space. There are serious efforts by the Buhari Administration to diversify the
Nigerian economy away from dependence on oil. This is good but can at best be
only a short time measure while we commence the process of truly fashioning out
a new federal constitution that is agreed upon by all constituents.
Diversification without true federalism will in the long run reverse us to this
same position tomorrow. You cannot build on a faulty foundation and expect the
structure to stand the test of time. The Federal Government should not be
afraid of a true conference of the people to discuss the future of the
federation. This is the only way forward. It is the discussion that has been
denied that is being carried out with bombs and guns. Let's put out
this fire before it consumes us all. But let me sound a note of warning to
those who feel and await this as an avenue for break away from the Nigeria
State. Look at your backyards very well before you attempt this. Do not forget
the states of the Balkan Peninsular, Bosnia and Herzegovina or Sudan and South
Sudan. There is strength in our being together on agreed terms than being
fragmented in uncontrollable strife.
Our "Avengers" and other similar
groups must know that their current actions can only lead to what they are fighting to prevent. A new
strategy to redress the years of degradation is urgently required and that time
is now, before the Niger Delta loses its influence on the economy. It may be a
long time before oil dries up but that time must surely come. Diversification
from oil dependent economy may come even much earlier with the ongoing efforts.
There
have been stories about majority, if not, almost all the oil blocks in the region
belonging to non-Niger Deltans. There have been stories about
majority, if not, almost all the oil blocks in the region belonging to non-Niger
Deltans. This can be addressed as a short term
measure of calming tempers and assuaging the feelings of marginalisation but
this really shouldn't be the argument. The argument and the lasting solution
lies in state ownership of resources. Local governments must also be empowered
in a restructured federation to have more autonomy. They are the closest to the
people and should be engines of development.
Money coming from the center is seen as money belonging to all, and people
don't really have that sense of connection and ownership to it, hence the funds
are easily mismanaged without any one raising much of a concern.
Other
short tern measures pending the restructuring to full fledge true structural
and fiscal federalism should be as follows: upward tweaking of the
derivation formula from 13% is required but the Governments of the region must
be held accountable for how they apply the fund in the development of the area.
The Federal Government as regulators must enforce all regulations that require
international oil companies discharge their responsibilities to their host
communities. Passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill in such a manner to enhance
the greater capacity and participation of oil producing communities in oil
production and exploration activities.
Finally, we must desist forthwith from
acts that further destroy the environment. We cannot behave like the mad man
who sets his house on fire to solve the problem of rats.
Whether other non-oil products become
the mainstay of the Nation’s economy now or in the future, the Nigerian Nation
owes the Niger Delta region the responsibility of cleaning the mess it has made
of the region. And the time to start is now.
Thank
you all for listening and thank You Lord for the energy time.
This lecture was delivered on October
1, 2016, as part of activities by the National Association of Seadogs (NAS),
Rainbow Deck, Effurun, Delta State, to mark Nigeria’s 56th independence
anniversary.
Contributed by Austin Emaduku
