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Nigeria: 'Brothers At Each Others' Throats'
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7 December 2007
Posted to the web 7 December 2007
Elizabeth Dickinson
Calabar/Port Harcourt
Roy Mog-Appia's attention is focused on a sheet of white paper, where he scribbles hastily. A few minutes later, he slides the notepad across the table.
"My Village," reads a carefully crafted ten-stanza poem. "…Where farmlands are overtaken/By pipelines and poverty pitch/Brothers at each others' throats…"
Mog-Appia's quiet disposition gives no hint of the daunting struggle faced by his organization, the Ijaw Environmental Monitoring Association, and countless other non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from Nigeria's troubled Niger Delta region. His colleagues talk of healthcare, governance, and environmental standards. Mog-Appia talks of another problem plaguing his region: internal conflict and how to combat it.
Nigeria is Africa's largest producer of oil and the third largest supplier of crude to the United States. Since the country's independence in 1960, its oil industry has operated in close proximity to communities in the Delta—sometimes within meters of their homes and farms. But despite the wealth flowing under the soil, the 1,500 communities that host oil facilities remain infamously poor.
Years of pollution and government neglect have been hard on the agricultural and fishing communities in the region. As livelihoods and agricultural land have evaporated, anger has grown, and many youths have taken up arms.
"The average person from the Ijaw group is angry," says Mog-Appia. "Even a child knows that there is a problem—he can't go to school but he sees pipelines. There is no light but he sees lit-up ships at night. As he is growing, he becomes more aware of it. It is not because he wants to become a militant, but when he keeps asking questions [and receives]… no answer, it's the only option."
The combination of economic decline and militancy, of years of poverty juxtaposed with overwhelming wealth, did something else to communities across the region: it set them against one another, turning once-quiet villages into places wracked with violence, according to community leaders.
Scarce resources and drying agricultural incomes put pressure on families and communities to scramble for land and resources. Disputes and violence sprung up in competition for space and survival.
As a result, the struggle in the Niger Delta today is as much internal-communities against themselves as it is against oil companies and the government.
Oil companies have tried to address the poverty. Through "memoranda of understanding," companies and communities decide upon policies and aid projects for the villages.
The oil companies say the agreements follow discussions with community leaders about people's priorities. But from the outset the memoranda have been contentious.
Bari-Ara Kpalap, a spokesperson for the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People, says oil companies, rather than relying on traditional or voted-in leaders, have often hand-picked local negotiators. "Shell creates its own leadership in communities," he says.
In recent years, under pressure to provide more jobs for local workers, oil companies have begun awarding contracts to community members—to help clean oil spills, guard oil facilities ("surveillance contracts"), or simply to keep young men out of the lucrative business of sabotaging or tapping into pipelines to steal oil ("stay-at-home" contracts).
The contracts are highly sought-after in communities with vast youth unemployment. "There is a way that young men reason—because of the oil boom, they believe that every oil firm has to take care of the host community," says Victor Egbe, youth leader of Akalu-olu village outside Port Harcourt.
The lucky youths who win bids are laden with wealth—often more than that enjoyed by traditional rulers. The contracts give them a reason and the means to challenge community leaders for power and influence in the villages.
"The oil company used the youth against us," says Amstel Monday Ebarakpor of Kedere village. "When they [the youth] win surveillance contracts, [they]… are dissident to the leadership, but loyal to Shell. [Oil companies] are looking for someone who can challenge the local leader—they award contracts on that level."
Local politicians become part of the mix too. Surveillance contracts, for example, are awarded through the chairperson of the local government, and some say the wealth is spread among only a select few.
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During years of internal violence, several ethnic groups in the region have tried to organize and unify. The Ogoni, Ijaw, Itsekiri and other groups have NGOs or political congresses representing them.
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