Leadership (Abuja)
Livinus E. Opara
28 August 2008
analysis
Abuja — One of the problems confronting the Nigerian nation today is the Niger Delta region's agitation for the control of the mineral wealth that derives from their region.
The issue now is no longer the crises itself because, it grows from one stage to another; from ethnic clash to kidnapping, to vandalisation and so on. Successive governments had tried without providing the ideal solution to this problem.
Based on this, I will opt for what Ike Nwosu called "the tripled 'A' Model Strategy Of Environmental Public Relations," since the Niger Delta problem is an environmental one. According to Nwosu, the tripod is anchored on awareness, acceptance and adjustment. According to the International Institute of Public Relations, public relations is a deliberate planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain mutual understanding between an organisation and the public.
Thomas et al (1998) defined public relations as a marketing and management function that focuses on communications to foster goodwill between a firm and its many constituent groups. Edward Berneys is of the opinion that public relations is a management function which tabulates public attitude, defines the policies, procedures and interests of an organisation, followed by executing a programme of action to earn public understanding and acceptance. Ike Nwosu (2005) quoting the 1978 Mexican statement which states that public relations is the art and social science of analysing trends, predicting their consequences, counseling organisations leaders and implementing planned programmes of action, which will serve both the organisation and the public interest.
Therefore, the PR manager/director is the person who co-ordinates the activities of the public relations department to ensure that the organisation and the public have mutual understanding of the role of each other. This, according to Peter Oyeneye (1999), will lead to a favourable image and reputation for the organsiation.
In all types of public relations such as community relations, employment relations, government and financial relations, the relationship between the Niger Delta people and the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) could be described as both community relations, which is the planned two-way communication which an organisation creates and maintains with members of the host community to ensure peaceful co-existence, and also financial relations, which emphasises that the epicenter for the survival of any organisation is funding. Therefore, there is need to cultivate good relations with financiers of the organisation.
In this case however, the government is the major financier, although there are other sources of funding for the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), such as the oil and gas exploring and processing companies in the Niger Delta region, the ecological fund, grants and donations from organisations, locally and internationally.
The Niger Delta region of Nigeria is situated in the Southern part of the country and is bordered to the south by the atlantic ocean and to the east by Cameroun. The region occupies a surface area of about 112,110 square kilometers. It represents approximately 12% of Nigeria's total surface area and going by the 2006 population census, its population is put at over 28 million inhabitants. The pattern of settlement in the region is largely determined by the availability of dry land and the nature of the terrain. Low relief and very poor drainage are the primary factors responsible for the low number of large settlements in the region.
Another pressing problem is pollution. There are many kinds of pollution confronting and endangering the life of the people, such as air pollution, which is mainly caused by gas flaring and smoke from heavy equipment; water pollution, which has affected the means of livelihood of the people; land and agriculture are not left out; instead of producing food crops, the people are now consumers.
The region has been agitating for a fair deal in the exploration and exploitations of petroleum products in the area. Youth dominated ethnic militant groups have sprung up in droves to challenge not only the oil companies, but also the nation and innocent individuals. Some of the groups are the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), the Egbesu groups, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), to mention but a few. On one hand, while some of the groups are engaged in both intra and intercommunal clashes, others are engaged in a war of attrition against the oil companies in the region. The end result of these clashes are loss of lives, damage to property, persistent vandalisation of oil and gas installations and most recently, hostage taking of both expatriates and prominent politicians or members of their families in the region. The implication of all these for the country are many and include threat to socio-economic survival and corporate existence of the country.
Development efforts in the region are also constrained by weak, inefficient and dilapidated institutional capacity. There is lack of adequate trained manpower. Also, the lack of gainful employment, especially among the youths is not only an economic issue, but also, has become a major security concern and an underlining factor and cause of conflict and violence in the region. Thus, the demand of the people envisages action on both the human and natural systems of the Niger Delta.
It was because of the urgent need to address the numerous problems that the Niger Delta Development Commission was established in 2000 by the then President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Although there have been similar establishments by successive governments with a view to addressing the Niger Delta issue, like the Niger Delta Board in 1961, the Niger Delta River Basin Authority in 1976 and the Oil Mineral Producing Authority Development Commission (OMPADEC) in 1992, the NDDC is largely a response to the demands of the population of the Niger Delta and commitment of the government to ensure infrastructural development of the states in the region.
In order to achieve its mandate, the NDDC and the federal government should identify the following areas of focus: Development of social and physical infrastructure, technological and economic revival, ecological and environmental remediation, as well as stability in human development. All these could be achieved with the use of the triple 'A' model strategy.
The first 'A' of the model advocates adequate "Awareness" of the basic problems, issues and desired changes that are at the core of the environmental management effort. This is necessary to clear the air on so many wrong assumptions by some environmental experts. In line with the first 'A' of the triple strategy, the government should tackle any environmental problem or issue management by launching a well-researched, planned and executed awareness campaign, made up of phases of actions and communication that would start and end with the target population in accord with model environmental public relations campaign management practices. Next is the second 'A' which is "Acceptance." This is to be achieved through working together with the population with a well-designed plan, systematically implement services of appropriate information, education and communication programmes, combined with various participatory activities over a period of time.
The third 'A' is 'Adjustment' which implies that with the awareness and acceptance of the challenges, people will now begin to adjust in their behaviour, which will translate to success for the government, NDDC and the various oil companies.
There is nothing we can achieve by using warships or importing armament to destroy our own people; it is a wrong and unacceptable way of resolving an important issue of such magnitude. If we can handover Bakassi to Cameroun in order to maintain international peace and respect, we can, as well keep internal peace, for charity should begin at home.
Livinus E. Opara writes from Abuja
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