Reappraising the Niger Delta Question

In recent times tension in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria has escalated to unprecedented levels due to militancy exerted on the region by her youth. This tension has played out in various forms ranging from destruction to oil exploration facilities to hostage taking focused on foreigners. To a large extent, the socio-economic atmosphere in the region has been compromised with a climate of fear and uncertainty of life pervading precariously amongst inhabitants. The people’s means of livelihood has suddenly assumed a factor in inevitable vulnerability.
The environment has not been excused as it has been subjected to the horrendous consequences of damage done to oil facilities such as forest incineration, oil spills, etc. The human resource potentials of the region has been poohhooed what with the youths of the area engaged in the militancy that many identify as the Niger Delta struggle, whether real or imagined.
Socio-political institutions in the area have come under serious credibility scrutiny with a certain twang associated with the public trust and goodwill reposed in the leaders on the political, traditional and religious fronts. The national economy has not been left out as it has witnessed tremendous losses on a daily basis in foreign exchange earnings of an unevisaged scale. Investment prospects in the country and the delta region in particular, is in the present in a contemplative freeze. The international community is equally affected with oil prices constantly escalating due to increasing shortages in supply of badly needed crude around the world. These are not beautiful scenarios as would be wished for by all concerned in the Niger Delta question.
Given the place of the region in local and international oil politics, it becomes understandable the anxiety exhibited towards happenings in the region. It can be surmised that the concept of the goose that lays the golden eggs is no longer a viable prospect or a thriving scenario that should thrive without attendant adverse consequences. This is due to increased awareness in issues affecting peoples and communities the world over ranging from ethical, environmental, economic, and political issues to self-determination.
Pulling the wool over the eyes of peoples and communities (be they ethnic minorities, labour unions, youth groups, gender-based movements, or whatever else) is no longer in vogue. This is one basic lesson the Niger Delta debacle is posing distinctly at the world.
For the Niger Delta peoples and communities, it has been a long arduous journey that has seen huge losses and casualties in human and material terms. The quest to assert and make claim to the particulars of justice accruable to the region and her people has not been easy. Isaac Adaka Boro, Captain Amangala, Ken Saro Wiwa, Harold Dappa Biriye and a host of others have all been sucked into the fast flowing stream of the struggle. The goal of giving voice to the just rights and demands of the Niger Delta has met with brickwall resistance by the Nigerian state consequently precipitating a mindset of exclusion pervading the region. Obviously, when the most vocal leaders of the region are compromised, blackmailed, hounded, and even killed in their quest to actualize the justice accruable to their people, it leaves the victimized, marginalized and excluded with very few options.
While it would be immoral to countenance acts of brigandage, arson and wanton destruction of lives and properties, it could be observed that such has become the various acts that constitute the gory legend that has transformed the region into a theater of war.
What can be said of youths who are supposed to be in educational institutions giving direction and credibility to their future wielding weapons of mass destruction all over the creeks; graduates who should be contributing to national development out there lending their intellect and skills to the chagrin of the economy of the nation; servicemen, trained with the nation’s resources retiring, resigning or absconding to go join the struggle; and even those currently in active service providing insider information to sabotage government efforts at arresting the situation? So much for the Nigerian government’s hesitancy and unwillingness to be honest for once.
The dispatch, determination, daringness, sophistication and harmonious coordination of the campaign by militants operating in the region are to be candid subduing to keen observers. Supposedly untrained youths holding sway in militarized areas and taking captive foreigners under the conscious watch of soldiers is befuddling. It suggests certain things viz; the protagonists of this militancy have a locus or else why would they give their all to a cause they have a fluctuating belief in; the soldiers combating the militants are either afraid of them or have reservations about the plausibility of resisting them or do not believe in the Nigerian cause; and the politicians are dishonest about the issues relating to the Niger Delta.
Certain things give verve to this mindset. Where legal contraptions abound that shortchange the people, giving sweeping powers to the central government to usurp the wealth of the region; military troops with orders to stifle any form of protest by the cheated still pervade the region; the so-called derivation principle being more or less a mockery of the people’s preference for a negotiated settlement and dialogue in the face mounting injustice; remediation, compensation and mitigation of the region’s devastated environment not yet an issue in government circles; interventions focused on the area being more a hypocritical lip-service and puerile approaches borne out of insincerity; underdevelopment, poverty and disease still very much a reality; how can we say the Niger Delta question has been adequately answered.
Resolving the Niger Delta question would seem a Herculean and scary prospect or more an impossible task but the issue is that with a bit of sincerity here and there; some willpower to translate promises into tangible realities; repealing and obliterating of obnoxious laws; restoring the wealth of the region to its rightful owners; withdrawing of military personnel from the area (given that peace cannot be exerted nor exacted but negotiated); instituting of corporate social responsibility accounting system that is visible, dynamic, accessible and realistic and the eschewing of inordinate tendencies by both politicians and locals, nothing that is an intriguing issue in the region that cannot be resolved. Let the tranquility of the Niger Delta come home to roost!