The diversity of Niger Delta agitations

WITH various militant groups emerging in the Niger Delta region purveying different interests, the achievement of peace and a permanent truce seems relatively elusive and almost a tedious task for the government of the federation. Often, the government expresses the frustration and confusion it is bequeathed as a result of the diversity and complexity of the agitations of the militant groups which are not only increasing in power, but also in number. Hence, the Federal Government finds it somehow difficult to identify which of the groups to negotiate with.

These armed groups fiercely and forcibly carry out destructive attacks on oil and gas installations and facilities in the oil-rich regions. They carry arms and ammunition, and even attack military personnel posted there to monitor and secure the facilities. And they come in different names and ideologies such as the Niger Delta Avengers, the deadliest so far; the Niger Delta Peoples Democratic Front, the Niger Delta Watchdogs, the Niger Delta Peoples Fighters. These are just few of the agitator groups rampaging and vandalizing oil facilities.

The immediate consequences of their heinous activities are being felt on the crippling economy of the country which almost totally relies on exportation of crude oil as the backbone of the economy. Before it declared a cessation of fire last year, the NDA successfully reduced the production of oil to around 800, 000bpd from over 2 million. Besides, the sabotage is compounding and complicating the environmental issues in the polluted region. Although the Federal Government has a financial burden to clean up the environments, the Niger Deltans bear the health yokes arising from the militants’ unpatriotic activities.

Negotiating with militant groups has always been a reliable means of achieving peace and stability. The late former President Umaru Yar’Adua negotiated with the then Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND) and his administration granted amnesty to the repentant militants just before other groups started emerging from different creeds. The present administration’s effort to reach a truce there appears futile, as more groups are springing up. It seems, apparently, that armed groups are really after their own interests exclusively.

While about four groups have agreed to embrace peace and dialogue as proposed by the Federal Government, others being led by the NDA stick to their guns to resume violence and vandalism. Also, the leader of the NDPDF, General Playboy, gave a condition that the incarcerated leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Mr. Nnamdi Kanu be released adding: “If President Buhari wants peace, we (militants) also want peace. But as far as we are concerned, the President does not want peace. If he does, I believe he will not look for Tompolo; if he wants peace, he will not look for Mrs. Patience (Jonathan), Kingsley Kuku and Orubebe.”

Whereas, in its objective to ground oil production, the deadly NDA has declared ‘Operations Walls of Jericho’ and ‘Hurricane Joshua’ to knock out oil operations in the country after the government had turned down the Edwin Clark-led Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), which comprises national leaders and traditional rulers, and in which the NDA says it has confidence. This foretells the fact that the region itself is divided with nothing as a common point of agitation even though all the groups vociferously claim to be agitating and fighting for the freedom of the Niger Deltans. Their demands would have been achievable if they all had talked in uniformity with one true and plausible focus of redeeming the region. But what drives the individual group to resort to firearms is not common among them. They become violent, thinking that this will secure the attention of the Federal Government for them while the region is still lagging behind.

By now, the government should have known that it is dealing with jobless youths being sponsored by some individuals, and not really agitators fighting for the development of the Niger Delta region. And the individuals include political and traditional leaders who are hell-bent on wrecking the fortunes of the nation lying in the Niger Delta. With the complexity and diversity, it becomes imperative for the government to exercise patience while moving to negotiate and have dialogues with the militants. Entertaining their grievances always (and one after another) will encourage others later in the geopolitical zone to start another agitation with an assurance that government will yield to their demands. And this will not augur well for the country and its economy.

Once the government exhausts its strategies to achieve a permanent accord without a desirable outcome, it should not hesitate to name any of the groups as a terrorist one. And any group named should be treated as such. The diversity in their demands and agitations is enough to conclude that the objectives of the groups do not include the development of the Niger Delta.

• Faboade writes in from the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State.