Niger Delta — In spite of the ongoing efforts by President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua to tackle the Niger Delta Question the crisis appears to be escalating to near war situation. Our Associate Editor (News), IYOBOSA UWUGIAREN, takes a critical look at the Federal Government's approach to tackling the problems.

In spite of the current legitimacy crisis enveloping President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua-led administration, not many political analysts might disagree that he has in the last few months demonstrated commitment and willingness to take bold steps in resolving some serious socio-political and economic challenges facing the nation. Perhaps, like every serious minded leader of a country, especially those democratically elected, the president appears to have vision, plans and agenda for the nation especially, when view from his recent public pronouncements and actions. And he appears to have designed implementation strategy on how he wants to go about executing those plans.

Perhaps, aware of the tension the Niger-Delta questions had generated in both local and international circles, President Yar'Adua-from day one of his administration made the issues of Niger-Delta one of his seven-point agenda. Apart from the interventions from local governments councils, states government, international community and Non-governmental organisations, Yar'Adua-led administration recently came out with master plans on how to tackle the questions of the region, which appears to be threatening socio-political and economic development nationally and globally.

To be sure, apart from the huge fund that is allocated to the master plans in the 2008 Appropriation, the Federal government recently constituted a special committee, headed by Vice President Goodluck Jonathan to liase with those he regarded as "stakeholders" in the region and come out with the best possible ways of resolving the issues.

However, at a time President Yar'Adua is raising the hope of both international and local communities that the questions of Niger-Delta could be tackled, the conflict in the region is fast escalating to near war situation; the approaches of the parties involved in the conflict is obviously taking frightening and criminal dimensions. To be sure, kidnapping of oil workers and prominent political figures by self-styled freedom fighters in the region is fast becoming a regular occurrence. And the questions being asked by right-thinking members of the society are: What are the problems? Are the issues irresolvable? Is it a question of wrong approaches to resolving the problems? Does President Yar'Adua really understand the issues involved? Is the government sincere? Is it a case of poor communication and public relations approach?

Records available show that Nigeria is the largest oil producer in Africa, and the fifth largest in the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries {OPEC}. The discovery of oil, first in Olobiri, Rives State of the Niger-Delta region according to economists had transformed the nation's political economy. And as statistics show, oil had for the past three decades provided "approximately 90 per cent of foreign exchange earning and over 80 per cent of federal revenue". In other words, the region remains the economy "life wire" of the nation. But in spite of this significant nature of the area, most people in the region say they have little or nothing to show for their rich natural resources.

Those who benefits from the system, in the estimation of the aggrieved people are federal government, multinational oil corporations, like Shell, Chevron, Agip and some "thieving political leaders" including their cronies. A recent survey conducted by international Non-Governmental Organisation based in New York, Human Rights Watch {HRW} reveals that the oil exploration in the region has caused "near irreparable environmental damages" to the region. " Where Vultures Feast", a researched book written by Barrister Oronto Douglas and Dr. Ike Okonta also suggests that the human ecosystem of the Niger-Delta is being "strangled to death, slowly but relentlessly".

Truly, with annual population growth of three per cent and daily migration of young people to the few cities in search of almost non-existing job in the oil industry, experts say pressure on habitable land and the ecosystem itself has become intolerable. And there is a popular view in the region by "owners of the land" that their resources are being used to develop other part of the country, at the expenses of their areas. Late environmental rights activist and leader of Ogoni, Mr. Ken Saro Wiwa shared this strong view, in his pre-conviction statement to the Justice Auta Tribunal, before he was hanged in 1995.

Here is an extract from the statement: "My Lord, we all stand before history. I am a man of peace, ideas. Appalled by the denigrating poverty of my people who live on a richly endowed land, distressed by their political marginalisation and economic strangulation, angered by devastation of their land, their ultimate heritage, anxious to preserve their right to life, to a decent living and determined to usher into this country as a whole a fair and just democratic system which protect every one and every ethnic group and gives us all a valid claim to human civilisation, I have devoted all my intellectual and material resources, my live, to a cause in which I have total belief and from which I cannot be blackmailed or intimidated.

"I have no doubt at all about the ultimate success of my course, no matter the trial and tribulations, which I and those who believe with me may encounter on our journey. Nor imprisonment nor death can stop our ultimate victory".

From his pre-conviction statement, it is safe to argue that Saro-Wiwa, who was later killed by late General Sani Abach-led military junta, had predicted the near war situation in the Niger-Delta region today. Many people also believe that it was the killing of Saro Wiwa, a well-respected leader of the region that set the stage for the current crisis in the area, in spite of many failed interventions by the all the successive governments to resolve the crisis.

The Nature of Niger Delta Crisis

Although the Niger-Delta questions appear to have taken a new dimension, especially in Rivers State but from the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP), Kaiama declaration, the Movement for the Survival of the Izon Ethnic Nationality (MOSIEND) and to CHIKOKO Movement, the current crisis in the Niger Delta started as a mere peaceful protest, a mere conflict of ideas and approaches on how to resolve the conflict by different parties that are involved in the crisis.

To be sure, in its report entitled, "The Price of Oil; Corporate Responsibility and Human Rights Violation In Nigeria's Oil Producing Communities", the HRW says the conflict in the region is directly related to the debate, ongoing since before independence, about the structure of the Nigeria polity. Therefore, it was expected that "the addition of oil production and oil wealth was going to add difficulties to already pose by the problem of ruling a country of at least 250 ethnic groups", each with its separate traditions of government. From testimonies by different parties "at the heart of discontent among the oil producing communities is an acute sense that their wealth derived from their land is being siphoned off by the federal government and never returned: the seeming dry debate on revenue allocation formular are central to the cycle of protest and repression".

And monitors of the region say the conflict escalated and allowed to graduate to the current crisis stage because of the "crude" methods that had been employed by all successive past military regimes and their collaborators-the multi-national oil companies, operating in the region to resolving the conflict. Today, the situation is frightening.

The recent incident in Port Harcourt captures the state of the region: Amidst New Year celebration (2008), in Port Harcourt, Leadership Newspaper (January 1, 2008) reported that a group of armed, blood hungry, militant young men had invaded two police stations and some other locations in the city killing about 16 persons, including four policemen, and one security officer attached to Presidential Hotel.

In a separate incident, three other persons were also reportedly killed inside Diobu. Although details of the incident were still foggy as at press time, but the obvious criminal action of the "boys" came barely few hours after Governor Chubuike Amaechi of Rivers state lifted curfew in the State and few hours after he promised to take the battle against the seeming criminally minded militants to the creeks.

Not even the police commissioner in the state, Mr. Felix Ogbaudu could imagine what may have informed the action of the "boys". But all he could explain was that the attackers came in two cars, a Mercedes Benz V-Boot and Nissan Primera and another 18 seater Mitsubishi L300. "The hoodlums carried out attacks in the state between the hours of 12 midnight and 4am today (New Year day). They first attacked a patrol team in Artillery area around 12 midnights and were replied though two of our men were injured", says the Commissioner of Police in stammering tone. "They then moved to Trans-Amadi Police station where they saw policemen on stop and search and opened fire on them.

While still at Trans-Amadi, the Police boss said the militants ran into a patrol team and opened fire hitting the driver on the head. The armed men were reported to have moved to Presidential Hotel where they gained entrance through one of the small doors. They shattered the glass entrance doors and entered the lobby where they fired sporadically and people scampered for safety. "We lost an Inspector, a Sergeant and a constable at the Borokiri Station", says the Police boss sorrowfully.

Frightening as the situation in the Niger Delta might looks like today, some security analysts and public relations experts still believe that the problems could be located within the context of different conflicting political and economic needs of some traditional and business interest groups in the region.

According to them, there is nothing unusual about conflict; it is natural and unpreventable human experience; it is a critical mechanism by which goals and aspirations of individual and groups are articulated; indeed, it is a process for the creative solution to human problems and means to the development of a collective identity.