Editorial: The way to returning permanent peace in Niger Delta

The resurgence of militancy in the Niger Delta region has again put Nigeria on the edge. The bombing of oil infrastructure in the creeks has not only been blamed for the collapse of electricity generation systems, it has also affected revenue accruing to government by dwindling the volume of crude oil exported by Nigeria to the international market.

Regrettably, the singsong now is the drop in power generation or collapse of power generating systems. The System Operation/ Market Operation, SO/MO, of the Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN, disclosed that electricity generation into the national grid dropped from 2,730MW to 1,400MW on May 17, 2016. The usual suspect remains the blowing up of pipelines which prevented the supply of gas to power stations.

As if this is not bad enough, Nigeria has been stripped of its position as the largest producer of crude oil in the global market. That title is now been held by Angola because Nigeria’s crude oil production has fallen by almost 40 per cent to 1.4 million barrels per day due to militant attacks on facilities in the Niger Delta.

The Minister of state for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, while making this disclosure, specifically said: “because of the incessant ttacks and disruption of production in the Niger Delta, as I talk to you now, we are now producing about 1.4 million barrels per day. We were at 2.2 million bpd, but we have lost 800,000 barrels.”

This extent of damage was done while Niger Delta Avenger, NDA, was the sole militant group holding the nation to ransom. Now that another band of militants under the auspices of Red Egbesu Water Lions have joined the fray, Global Reporters shudder to think of what their activities will now cause the nation.

Amidst the ultimatum handed the federal government, the militants on Friday destroyed another section of the Escravos gas trunk line in Warri South West Local Government Area of Delta State. The damaged valve supplies gas from Escravos to the Escravos-Lagos Pipeline System, ELPS, owned by the Nigerian Gas Company Limited. This would cause a reduction in gas supply to the ELPS which supplies gas to Egbin Power Plant in Lagos, meaning that power generation from the plant will decline further.

Earlier this month, a pipeline transporting crude oil to Warri and Kaduna and a 16-inch gas line, owned by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, were blown up by the NDA. In January, the Escravos-Warri-Abuja-Lagos pipelines came under attack, a development that affected gas supply to power firms.

The growing apprehension has been deepened by the one week ultimatum handed by the Red Egbesu Water Lions for the federal government to meet its demand or have all oil exploration activities shut down in the Niger Delta. This is after the Niger Delta Avengers issued a two-week ultimatum for oil operations and personnel to leave the region or face “bloody attacks.”

This is the same group that threatened to cripple the Nigerian economy. Regrettably, it seems to be succeeding in this bid as President Buhari admitted at a meeting with the Global Director (Upstream) of the Royal Dutch Shell Group, Mr. Andrew Brown, that, “We have to be very serious with the situation in the Niger Delta because it threatens the national economy”.

Government’s resolve to proceed with using the military to quell the Niger Delta situation is ill-advised. The threat by President Muhammadu Buhari in China last month to crush vandals and saboteurs blowing up oil and gas installations like Boko Haram has been identified by many as what stoked the embers of militancy, particularly given that the President failed to use the same tone in condemning the rampaging Fulani herdsmen killing and wrecking havoc in villages across parts of the country.

Thankfully, the stance of the President has changed a bit since he made the statement on Wednesday April 13, 2016. While still directing “the Chief of Naval Staff to reorganise and strengthen the military Joint Task Force, JTF,  in the Niger Delta to deal effectively with the resurgence of militancy and the sabotage of oil installations”, the President at a meeting on Friday “urged aggrieved persons, militants and communities in the Niger Delta to drop their confrontational stance and work with those who have been charged by the Federal Government to review the Amnesty Programme initiated by the Yar’Adua Administration for the benefit of all parties.”

Although the President may have mellowed a bit, the above quotation shows that military action is still on the card. Global Reporters is not in support of using the military to whip the militants into line. We don’t see that achieving the expected result since the same military tasked with the responsibility of safeguarding oil installations have spectacularly failed in guaranteeing this. It is not an understatement to say that the nation’s military is overstretched, allowing them face another guerrilla warfare at a time Boko Haram may still spring up surprises will expose the vulnerability of the nation’s armed forces to the world.

There is lesson to be learnt in the recent disclosure by Kachikwu at the Federal Government’s town hall meeting in Kaduna State which has unfortunately been glossed over. He said after his phone number had been published online, he had got millions of phone calls.

“One of the first phone calls I took not knowing who was calling me was from a militant somewhere and when I picked up the phone, he said, ‘Are you the minister of petroleum’, I said yes.

“He said I dey go blow pipeline tomorrow, and I said why would you do that my brother if you love Nigerians? He said ‘are you sure you are the minister’, I said yes.

“Then he said for being so humble, I will drop the plan. That’s the kind of environment under which we operate.”

This shows that the militants can indeed be won over if only government can come down from its high horse. The attacks and violent posturings of the militants may just be a bluster that would vanish once they see government’s readiness to engage them in talks.

Beyond this however, Global Reporters believes that the resurgence of violence in the Niger Delta only goes to show how ineffective the politics of appeasement, which the amnesty offered Niger Delta militants by late President Umaru Yar’Adua, can be. It has clearly proven not to be a permanent solution, but only succeeded in postponing the evil day.

We believe that what can permanently return peace to the Niger Delta and indeed all parts of the country is when every constituent of the Nigerian union is fairly given a sense of belonging and made to believe they own the government, not minding whether the President is from their geopolitical zone or they voted against him at the polls.

Bearing this in mind, Global Reporters makes bold to say that the country would not have come to this terrible pass occasioned by the renewed militancy in the Niger Delta if President Buhari had allowed his famous inaugural speech of belonging to everybody and belonging to nobody guide his actions and utterances.

The Niger Delta situation is not rocket science, it can easily be resolved when leaders acquit themselves as fair and nationalistic by allowing equity, federalism and justice reign supreme. Our stand is that the seeming absence of these virtues has made the militants appear to have a compelling case, hence the need for government to engage them in dialogue.

http://globalreportersnews.com/2016/05/editorial-the-way-to-returning-permanent-peace-in-niger-delta/