Niger Delta still in pains
By Emma Okah ( 08033211999)
Sunday, May13, 2012
With two years in the saddle as Vice President and three years as President, Dr Goodluck Jonathan, in his quiet moments, should begin to appraise the journey so far in the resolution of the Niger Delta question. This is because many rightfully had thought that his ascension, as son of the soil, to the highest level of governance in Nigeria ought to deal a final blow to the recurring problems of the Niger Delta. In 2010, this column expressed fear that the region may remain poor even with Jonathan as President. Three years down the road, Jonathan has not started resolving the basic issues of underdevelopment, environmental degradation, human rights abuses and unfair treatment of Niger Deltans in the region. While the presidential amnesty program is on course and recording relative significant successes, it must be understood that militancy or violent agitations by the youths were the effects of the failure of government at various levels to develop the region. Therefore, there are still more questions on core issues of development than answers in the Niger Delta region. For the avoidance of doubts, we said inter alia:
At the moment, there is great enthusiasm in the oil region suggesting that poverty and anguish in the Niger Delta are about to end. This enthusiasm, though unfounded, may be good for the FG and probably for politicians. It may give breathing space to the FG and the political class to have some peace, but what the leaders do with the space is what would count, at last. Nigeria, or the FG, has always blown any goodwill or financial opportunity such as the Gulf War oil windfall that comes her way, and this present opportunity may not be an exception. The new-found enthusiasm seems anchored on some recent developments, especially the emergence of a Niger Deltan as President and Commander-In-Chief of Nigeria. It is believed within the region that Goodluck would simply write off all the problems in the region since he “has” the power and knows the problems. Those outside the region simply believe that now that a man from the oil zone is king, his kinsmen would simply drop their arms and walk home satisfied. Unfortunately, this is a very myopic and simplistic expectation.
The nation would find this trust to have been misplaced, and the danger would soon be the notion that “nothing can satisfy the Niger Delta people”, which in itself is also not true.
The truth is that Jonathan may be President of Nigeria but he surely does not have all the power to resolve the Niger Delta question. He can only act as a catalyst. This is because the problem is complex and aged, requiring all strata of the Nigerian leadership spectrum to adjust in one way or the other to give a unified end-result. The bone of contention is the demand for resource-control. The demand came as a result of decades of neglect. Now, the FG is trying to give some developments but the size of what is being offered far under-weighs the anger in Niger Delta’s souls.
By this, the enthusiasm on the part of the Niger Deltans that the messiah has come at last would be misplaced. On the other hand, the expectation by the larger Nigeria that the Niger Delta section or South-South geo-political zone has got a president and should be pacified is a gross under-statement because a presidential slot is far below the issues at stake. Resource-control is far bigger than presidential slot, and would galvanize the lives ofthe entire citizenry far more than any presidential slot would ever hope to achieve.
The reasons why the Niger Delta may remain poor despite the emergence of a president from the zone are many. The first is the nature of the neglect. The area is waterlogged and swampy, requiring a different development strategy than the one applied in other zones. It has environmental and ecological challenges that have been aggravated over the years due to discovery of oil. There has also been neglect and fears of domination in the region. The agitations have been violent and have led to some cosmetic solutions, which rather added to theproblems.
Various efforts by the FGN to address the issues of development in the region have been rather cosmetic, solving the problem from a marginal definition. There has been no holistic approach to solving the problem. The other factor for failure is that more than half of the funds arising from each agency have been wrongly appropriated, leaving the problems unsolved. The next reason why the region may remain poor is the economic meltdown or recession facing the world. Many international donors and investors have lost huge spending allocations back home and this is greatly affecting the volume of funds available to do things overseas.
Again, there is a way those in power in Abuja perceive the Niger Delta and its problems. This nonchalant attitude is there, no matter who is heading the FG. See how amnesty was muddled up despite the over-whelming presence of Niger Delta chieftains then as vice president, special adviser on Niger Delta Affairs, head of amnesty committee, Minister of Niger Delta, Minister of Defence, etc. The mind of the FG is programmed to address the symptoms instead of the virus. The actions are rather piecemeal and later, new symptoms do emerge.Nothing can illustrate this disdain and the nonchalant indignation of the centre than the fact that between 2000 and 2007, the nation earned N2.9Trn in oil and gas revenue and the 15 per cent amounted to N436Bn within the period. Instead, he said Obasanjo remitted a mere N110Bn, leaving behind N326bn.
Most observers believe that the FG would continue chasing shadows, will continue to do fire-fighting, will continue to treat the symptoms, and so long will the Niger Delta region remain poor and continue to haunt Nigeria.
Perhaps, the most intriguing factor in this dialogue is the danger of the attitude of leaders in the region such as ministers, governors, development agency (NDDC) executives, and local council chairmen. The belief is that these leaders are simply interested in looting and stealing, to make themselves and their future generations comfortable for ever.
There are cases of LGA chairmen who collect allocations and simply retire into hotel suites and squander the funds till the next allocation. They would have handed-down the share of their godfathers, touts, and hangers-on before swallowing the rest. A governor in one of the Niger Delta states has shown anger against this attitude and caused an assessment to be done by an independent body, which found only five out of 23 to have excelled. So far, two LGA bosses have been overthrown by their people. Now that the EFCC is toothless, the politicians are simply on the rampage.
The NDDC has rather produced more governorship aspirants and sorcerers than developments experts. The executives over the years have been busy fighting each other. Now, some are sponsoring protests and court cases against others, and the youths are angry that executives are more in Abuja lobbying for factional support than in PH to treat files and meet the people to come up with solutions to problems of the region. It is difficult to find anyone with power and funds as well as the passion to change things. It’s either that those who have the money and power do not have passion and skill or that those who have the passion do not have the funds to act, or the power to do things.
The way out is simple, as this column has always enumerated all this while.
This writer is an indigene of the Niger Delta who started his career in the two most elitist and enlightened professions (law and media) in Nigeria, who has played close to the corridors of power and therefore understands what politicians think about, and who has lived in the power-triangulate of Nigeria (Lagos, PH and Abuja) with attention to the inter-play of finance, politics and oil/gas in Nigerian contemporary politics. There is therefore some cognitive ability to fathom the problems and proffer practical solutions that work.
The emergence of a Niger Deltan as chief executive of this arrangement called Nigeria is a big step forward, but surely not an end in itself, as many would think. Jonathan as President & C-I-C has the power and opportunity to get to the deepest segment of national caucus made up of godfathers from the north, west and east to put across the real determination of the Niger Delta and a workable plan.
