Certainly,
the amnesty programme should have been preceded by a more sincere effort on the
part of government to tackle the Niger Delta development crisis and thereby
inspire the confidence of the people. What should have come first was visible
short and long-term investment in the development of the poverty-stricken area,
and not palliatives, vague gestures and empty rhetoric.
It is not
too surprising, therefore, that the cancer of militancy in the region is
relapsing, courtesy of poor management. This unfortunate development has been
attributed to a number of factors, including executive inaction on the
implications of halting the payment of stipends to the repentant militants by
the end of last year. Besides, there have been reports of callous neglect of
overseas students on the ticket of Niger Delta Office in the presidency.
Indeed,
students on this platform have reportedly suffered some indignity as a result
of failure to pay fees and maintenance allowances in different parts of the
world. What is obvious, in the circumstances, is that privileges being enjoyed
by the ex-militants in the area have been withdrawn without any constructive
engagement with the beneficiaries most of whom do not have alternative means of
livelihood.
This has,
therefore, triggered renewed agitations, with serious implications for peace
and stability in the area. Certainly, the governors of Niger Delta States
should do better in terms of engaging the Federal Government for a development
agenda that can affect quality of life in the area. The youths that have spoken
on behalf of the militants and concerned people have appropriately insisted on
a meeting with the Minister of Petroleum Resources to resolve recent
developments.
It is also
curious that while most of the militants are asking for a fine-tuning of the
privileges being withdrawn, some others are still asking for amnesty, which
they expect to attract fresh privileges. This action speaks volumes about the
fact that the Niger Delta challenge is far from being over.
And it must
be tackled urgently and sincerely in public interest. All the stakeholders must
continue to deepen understanding of the Niger Delta issue as a national
challenge. The Federal Government must integrate the Niger Delta into the
national development programme. All the interventionist agencies, including the
Ministry of Niger Delta, the Niger Delta
Development Commission (NDDC), Office of Special Adviser to the President on
Niger Delta and Amnesty Programme, that have been created to accelerate
development in the area have not added much value to affect quality of life,
let alone engender development in the area.
Therefore,
enough is enough of tokenism and ad-hoc interventions in the Niger Delta. There
will be no end to agitation and indeed militancy in the area if tokenism and
quick-wins remain the fundamental objectives and directive principles of state
policy in the region.
As desirable
as negotiation on the basis of values re-orientation, about the amnesty
programmes and other issues in the area, may be the Buhari Administration
should raise the bar of reconstruction, rehabilitation and reconciliation in
the area.
There are a
number of projects that can be pursued in the area with some seriousness: There
are no good roads yet in the area. The East-West Road has been abandoned. The
water is polluted and electricity supply is still a luxury in the area where it
exists at all. Good schools, from primary to secondary, not to talk of tertiary
institutions, are badly funded. In other words, the people of the Niger Delta
remain impoverished.
What is
more, why, with all the monies already spent, are there no landmark projects in
the area? There are no monuments in the Niger Delta to the huge wealth derived
from there. Indeed, all the organisations in the nation’s oil sector, including
the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Headquarters are not even located
in the Niger Delta.
Why are the Petroleum Trust Development Fund (PTDF),
Petroleum Equalization Fund (PEF), and allied government oil and
gas-related agencies and firms not located in the area to boost development and
employment? Where are the head offices of all the multinational oil companies
located? Instead of staying in the Niger Delta, managers of these oil firms are
known to daily fly over all the numerous challenges in the area.
Also, the
Buhari government should not be carried away by the sentiments of those who
keep harping on the sufficiency of the 13 per cent derivation to the Niger
Delta states and on the accountability questions therefrom. South-South
government may not have done too well but that reference is always provocative
in the extreme and the people of Niger Delta deserve better.
Besides,
with the nightmare over insurgency in the North East zone, the dire cost and
consequences of inattention to the rumbling in the Niger Delta at the moment
are just better imagined. Already two refineries have been shut and there are
risks of producing crude oil at a rate that is higher than the cost in the
market.
In the end,
the solution to much of what ails Nigeria is true fiscal federalism, as
contained in the last National Conference’s report which must not be allowed to
gather further dust on the shelves. (Guardian)
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