Niger Delta: It’s time for action

FOLLOWING the rise in the international price of crude oil, Nigeria’s economic mainstay, the past few weeks have brought partial relief to the country. The rise elicited excitement from the Federal Government, which announced that the country’s daily oil production had risen to 2.1 million barrels, thus increasing the external revenue earnings. The initial continuous decline in oil export was largely owing to sustained attacks on oil installations by aggrieved Niger Delta militants for close to one and half years. Nigeria lost not less than $6.59 billion, which at the current official exchange rate of N305 translates to more than N2 trillion, to pipeline vandalism in 2016. That is a humongous fund that could have gone a long way in reflating the national economy which is currently in a parlous condition, with harrowing effects on the citizenry.

The diplomatic shuttle embarked upon by acting President Yemi Osinbajo in talking to the Niger Delta people is reassuring. But the Federal Government needs to move fast as the nation cannot afford more losses. The obvious enthusiasm among major stakeholders in the troubled region over the latest initiative by the government is instructive. The move needs to be built upon expeditiously. At the end of any conflict, parties end up at a roundtable. All the parties involved in the Niger Delta situation should by now be weary of bickering. The government must take pragmatic steps to convince stakeholders that it is sincere with the new initiative. It should rise above the usual promises without real action. As a notable Nigerian poet once asked: how many million promises can ever fill a basket?

Though the acting president said the Federal Government knew what to do, it must not take for granted or discountenance the inputs of critical stakeholders in the Niger Delta and in the oil sector on how to achieve lasting peace in the troubled region. The infrastructure and human capital problems of the zone must be adequately addressed and sustained to guarantee that the nation does not once again pass through the same route that has brought it to its knees. Over the years, the inertia of the authorities on critical issues affecting the area had exacerbated the problems of environmental degradation, shylock investors and flagrant disregard for best practices and standards by players in the region. There is thus a critical need for sincere and proper engagement and partnership with the people, who on their part must be prepared to take ownership of the oil installations in the region and cooperate in securing them for their own good and that of the country at large.

On June 2, 2016, Osinbajo, on behalf of President Muhammadu Buhari, had launched a $1 billion clean-up and restoration programme of Ogoniland, with a remark that financial and legislative frameworks were already in place to commence the implementation of the recommendations of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). He had assured that the implementation would be based on recommendations from a 2011 UNEP report commissioned by the Federal Government on the impact of oil extraction in the area. While it asserted that institutional control measures introduced in the oil industry and by the government were not implemented adequately, the report recommended the establishment of an Ogoniland Environmental Restoration Fund with an initial capitalisation of US $1 billion to cover the clean-up costs. However, months after the Ogoni cleanup was launched with fanfare, there has been no paradigm shift in the apparent culture of rhetoric.

Save for the appointment of Dr Marvin Barinen Dekil by the Governing Council as the new Project Coordinator for the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP) for the implementation of the UNEP report, little efforts seems to have been directed at concretising the overall plan for the cleanup exercise. Indeed, the situation in Ogoniland is not an isolated case concerning the criminal neglect of the region. As they say, there is no oil-producing area of the world that looks like the Niger Delta. However, we believe that the gains are limitless if the Federal Government walks the talk and does the needful in the Niger Delta region. The relative improvement in power supply in the country in recent weeks is an indication of what sustenance of peace could bring to the country. With the necessary gas supply, power generation would witness an upswing, while the plan by the Federal Government to attract $10 billion investment into the gas and oil industry annually to bridge infrastructure gap would be achieved in record time.