Ajirioghene Emeada
7 March 2005
opinion
No price should be seen as too big to pay for peace. ONE of the reasons for the continued and unabating crisis in the Niger Delta region is the pervasive feeling among the people that they are oppressed and marginalised by the Nigerian leaders and indeed people from other parts of the country.
There are a number of things to point at as evidence of the oppression meted out to them. These include the various laws which rob them of their God-given oil wealth and transfer the ownership of the wealth to a Federal govern-ment that has consistently proved reluctant to plough back even the meagre percentage that is constitu-tionally sanctioned into the area. They also point at the dilapidated state of infrastruc-ture and the general undeve-loped state of the region which is inversely proportional to the contribution of the region to the national coffers and national development as one of the indices of the national policy of marginali-sation against them.
Obasanjo's refusal
But the latest index of oppression which is beginning to attract the attention it deserves is the politics behind the continued refusal of the President Olusegun Obasanjo administration to appoint a minister of petroleum resources. Since May 29, 1999 when the Obasanjo adminis-tration came to power it has been operating without a minister to mann the petroleum ministry. The ministry has thus been opperating as an annex of the presidency, with the President preferring to work with a band of special advisers on petroleum. The President has had occasion to explain that he chose not to appoint a petroleum minister because of the intensive lobby for that position by politicians and ministerial nominees right from the day the administra-tion was inaugurated. The President's interpretation of the intensive lobby for the post which perhaps informed his decision not to appoint a minister for the ministry is that everyone of the lobbyists saw the ministry as the gravy pot from which they were more than eager to serve their greed.
The President's interpreta-tion of the situation may not be very far from the truth. But the Niger Delta people from whose land the crude oil wealth, which is the subject of such permutations and conclusions, is extracted do not see the issue that way. To them, it is an outright denial of their right to produce a top government functionary at the federal level to represent their interest.
The Obasanjo administra-tion has tried to break some norms as regards the appointment into sensitive federal positions. Thus, he has consistently appointed persons from both the Northern and Southern minorities to lead some of the sensitive arms of the military. But there are certain ministries that are still considered the natural turf for people from certain parts of the country. An example is the ministry of agriculture which is almost always headed by a Northerner. This is because they are more into farming and there is the need to have one of them at the helm of affairs in the ministry to ensure that such issues that fundamen-tally affect the people of the zone as fertiliser distribution are adequately handled.
This is where the feeling of denial among the people of the Niger Delta as regards the non-appointment of a petroleum minister stems from. The petroleum industry in Nigeria is something that primarily affects the Niger Delta area. They thus feel that a minister for the ministry that controls the petroleum industry should naturally come from the zone to ensure that their interest is maintained. Thus, the continued non-appointment of a minister of petroleum is a denial of their due.
Upsurge of illegal bunkering
The reverse side of the coin of general disappointment and resentment arising from the non-appointment of a petroleum minister is the upsurge of illegal bunkering aided and abetted by youths in the region. Though the kind of bunkering activities engaged in by some of these youths is against the law of the land, they don't feel any sense of compunction in engaging in it since they see that as the only avenue to break into the industry that has denied them of their traditional occupations like farming, fishing and hunting. It is therefore believed that if there were a minister of petroleum from the zone who understands the predicament of the youths, he should have been able to work out ways of getting some of the youths legitimately engaged either through contracts or some ancilliary businesses in the industry. With the current situation, the major beneficiaries of juicy contracts in the industry are those who are related directly to the President or the heads of the different parastatals under the ministry.
The appointment of a minister of petroleum from the zone could also be another means of augmenting the people empowerment programmes of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC). Anything that could lead to the rapid development of the region and the economic empowerment of its peoples should be accorded urgent attention as it is the only way of ensuring peace in the Niger Delta. No price should be seen as too big to pay for peace.
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