Beyond the Niger Delta amnesty -By Sonny Atumah

The Willink’s Commission of July 1958 was to enquire into the the fears of the minorities and the means of allaying them in the Nigerian Federation. A mixture of governments from General Yakubu Gowon in 1967,General Murtala in 1976, General Ibrahim Babangida in 1987 and 1991 to the late General Sani Abacha in 1996 created States. Before then the civilian government of Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa created the Mid-West Region in 1963.

The demand for greater autonomy as articulated for the control of the region’s petroleum resource resonated as oil was found in the Niger Delta. Through the years, governments, civil society organisations and the media have made their way to the region to consider the major issues and to brainstorm on solutions to address these challenges.

The story of Niger Delta has been a patchy one yearning for development since oil was discovered by Royal Dutch Shell on the 15th of January 1956 at Oloibiri, in present day Bayelsa State. The region has 159 oilfields and 1481 oil wells in operation. After about six decades of operations the Niger Delta is maturing; reached the plateau of production where oil reserves are dropping and output is dropping too. Nigeria’s oil production reached production peak in 2005 and has a reserve depletion period of about 38 years from now.

Most International Oil Companies (IOCs) are divesting from the onshore in the Niger Delta, concentrating on offshore exploration and production (E&P). IOCs claim they are divesting because of insecurity and operational difficulties in terms of sabotage to infrastructure and oil theft. It is a truism that IOCs had operated in dangerous terrains but if we may rationalise; there is diminishing output of marginal fields.

One of the super majors that made Delta thick left; Warri’s socio economic life plummeted in a dangerous downward spiral and portends danger. This is compounded with a dead refinery in Warri, same with Port Harcourt refinery. Before the upsurge in militia using weapons, arms and ammunitions, there have been conflicts within the Ijaw, Urhobo and Itsekiri communities sometimes culminating in conflagrations in that part of Delta State.

The Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP) formed in 1992 protested IOCs operations and demanded royalties, damages and compensations from oil companies. They also demanded immediate stoppage of environmental degradation and called for negotiations for mutual agreement on all drillings.

Engagements with the authorities led to the formation of the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) and the issuing of the Kaiama Declaration to struggle peacefully for freedom, self- determination and ecological justice which culminated in the “ Operation Climate Change” of December 1998.

Government’s response was the deployment of troops to occupy the Ijaw areas of Delta and Bayelsa States. This drove the youth group with roots in tertiary institutions to metamorphose into militias. This piece is for us to proffer solutions to imminent danger that looms in the near future for a highly militarized zone.

By the year 2008, insecurity, kidnapping of expatriate oil workers especially with the oil majors operating in the region rented the air. Militants employed covert operations against the state via vandalism of oil pipeline and illegal bunkering. Up till now a Joint Task Force of the military to contain threats of offences against the state is in place.

The late President Yar’Adua granted the Niger Delta militants amnesty relying on Section 175 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria for the proclamation. He granted amnesty and unconditional pardon to all persons who directly or indirectly participated in the commission of offences associated with militant activities in the Niger Delta.

Was the amnesty granted the former militants an exigency for the government of Umaru Yar’Adua? Yes! Production had dropped to about 700,000 barrels down from about 2.5 million barrels per day. The annual revenue accruing to government dropped to about $42.2 billion by 2009.

President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua established the Niger Delta Amnesty Programme on June 26, 2009, to meet the yearnings and aspirations of the people of the region for sustainable development amid cries for injustice meted by companies that ravaged their natural habitat for about six decades.

Nigeria has enjoyed relative peace since the Amnesty programme commenced in 2009. Government’s attempt at appraisal should not be misconstrued as a stoppage of the programme. The government should equally fulfill its side of the bargain by paying the monthly stipends and the fees of students in schools and training institutions all over the world.

It was heartwarming last Tuesday when President Muhammadu Buhari appointed retired Brigadier General Paul Boroh to take charge of the Amnesty programme. The appointment put paid to all rumours of regrouping of the former Niger Delta agitators. We hope General Boroh would bring his international experience in conflict resolution to bear. He should not allow the matter to degenerate, especially now that we are regaining the confidence of the international community.

Last Monday, the President in an NTA televised programme, Good Morning Nigeria, appealed to Nigerians to be patient with him as security is key to meaningful development, reiterating his fight against corruption, which would aid him in addressing high unemployment rate in the country. I call it the three cardinal programme of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.

The Amnesty programme has developed a lot of human capital in the Niger Delta. One is worried of the socio-economic implications of this army of occupation (thousands of highly trained professionals) that may soon be left unemployed when they complete their various programmes both locally and overseas.

By all intents and purposes, they may again become hopeless, helpless, dejected and possibly restive. It is a problem the President did not create inheriting from the land of many corrupt people he is now fighting. Solution must come.

We encourage Mr. President with this quote by William Halsey: ‘’ All problems become smaller if you don’t dodge them, but confront them. Touch a thistle timidly, and it pricks you; grasp it boldly, and its spine crumble.”

As the President Tackles unemployment the Nigeria Industrial Revolution Plan (NIRP), put in place by the immediate past administration in January 2014, would be of significance in addressing the Niger Delta and indeed the national development problem. That Plan is for Nigeria and should not be jettisoned irrespective of who designed it.

A particular area of focus of the NIRP is Oil and Gas Industrial Related activities among others. The Plan’s preamble is: ‘’ that no country has ever become rich by exporting raw materials without also having an industrial sector. The more a country specializes in the production of raw materials only, the poorer it becomes”.

The Niger Delta problem is an issue for all. Several ad-hoc government interventions have not impacted on the rural dweller. Many managers of these ad-hoc agencies, who mostly are from the Niger Delta saw such funds as their share of the national cake, have a fair share of the calamity in the Niger Delta.

Report from Chatham House in the UK revealed that Nigeria loses about $8 billion yearly from Oil theft. We also lose about $18 million daily to gas flaring by the IOCs. The President’s attempt at recovering about $150 billion stolen money stashed in major economic hubs of the West is in the right direction. Part of that could be ploughed back to this region that requires genuine attention.

Mr. President, with dwindling fortunes of petroleum in the international market courtesy of crude export and products imports we must do the extra-ordinary now to get out of the woods. We have comparative and competitive advantages when we establish refining and petrochemical plants for vertical linkages for our economy which is heavily import dependent.

We implore the present government (federal, state or both) to invest in the construction of refining plants in the Niger Delta region to diversify our economy using the backward-forward production model. It would genuinely put us in good stead to effectively control our policies. Reliance on international Oil Companies would make us cede that power. We may however partner with them as no man is an island.