As President Unaru Yar�Adua�s military agreement with the United Kindom on Niger Delta continues to attract criticisms from various interest groups within and outside the country, the British Deputy High Commissioner to Nigeria, Mr. James Tansley, said at the weekend that his country had no sinister motive in its offer to help improve the security situation in the oil rich region.
Speaking in an interview in Abuja, he said his country�s offer of assistance could have been taken out of context by many Nigerians, as according to him, UK only wanted to help improve the Nigerian and global economy by ensuring greater oil output from the Niger Delta.
His words: �We haven�t got a sinister motive. Our interest is very much for the good of Nigerian people.
We also recognize what is good for people of Niger Delta which is also potentially good for global economy. It is how Nigeria can reach its potentials in oil production: Nigeria attains more revenue from oil; make the security situation better for the people living and working in the Niger Delta.
We are mindful that President Yar�Adua made Niger Delta one of his priorities in the 7-Point Agenda; he has also talked about a holistic approach to the Niger Delta master plan.
�I think people have taken it a bit out of context� we are interested in increasing capabilities so that they will be able to address criminalities and the causes of criminality and you don�t do that by alienating the local popula-tions. These are factors that we need to consider.
�I feel that people are perhaps not fully understan-ding what is our motivation or what we are trying to do. It is not sinister; it is not cynical attempt. It is an attempt to help and we recognize that the best way to help is to help the people who are living in the Niger Delta and if there is anything we can do on our side we will be happy to consider it.
�If the Nigerian government thinks we can play useful roles in that, we will look at ways we can help, but as things stand nothing has been decided.
No decision has been taken. We are keen to do what can be helpful, that is very clear. But we are not going to rush into any commitments; but as we can see from Wednesday�s communiqu�, UK stand to provide assistance if that can help,� he said.
Mr. Tansley explained further that full agreement was not reached between his Prime Minister, Gordon Brown and Preisdent Yar�Adua during the visit of the Nigerian leader to the UK, as according to him,
�The talk between Prime Minister Gordon Brown and President Umaru Yar� Adua on Monday didn�t reach a full agreement on any aspect.
It was a useful and productive discussion. They discussed a wide range of issues, bilateral interest, and international interest as you could see in the joint statement that was issued after the talks.�
According to him, the Niger Delta crisis became important as at had been identified as a major cause of the soaring crude oil prices in the world and therefore needed to be tackled.
�You are aware that the British Prime minister for some time has been concerned at high levels of oil prices; he is very keen to see oil prices com down to level which will benefit the global economy as a whole.
He has looked at the situation of oil production and Nigeria as well, Nigeria � Niger Delta has been identified as a scenario where there is nee to increase oil production.
�We are aware that the problems in the Niger Delta have led to a reduction in oil out put. This is damaging to, first and foremost the people of Nigeria producing 800,000 to 1 million barrels per day in oil revenue. The people that suffer it most are the people of Nigeria .
�Also indirectly the insecurity in the Niger Delta is contributing to the rising prices of oil and that affects the global economy as a whole. So there is a very good economic reason to say right let�s see what can be done to resolve the problems of the Niger Delta. Now, this something which is everybody is trying to see what can de done to assist the Nigerian government in addressing the problems.
�For sometime you are aware that an international Gulf of Guinea Energy Security Forum which has been running for two or three years together with a number of international partners�, the envoy.
Asked whether on not U K was planning a military base in the Niger Delta, Mr. Tansley said no such decision had been taken and that the military assistance bordered on training as contained in the joint communiqu� between the two leaders.
Pressed further he said, �what we are looking at is to see whether we can , in addition to the peace keeping training we provide at Jaji, if we can provide training which will directly benefit security situation in the Niger Delta. No decision has been taken on what form it might take�.
He said the situation in the Niger Delta had turned to criminality which hurts the people of the region even more that the expatriates and other members of the society who fall victim to kidnapers, a situation he said could not be ignored.
His words, �We experience it, not as bad as the people living there. Of course there is a security problem. We saw only a couple of days ago a couple of German citizens working for Julius Berger who where kidnapped in River State and are still being held.
They were working on the east west high way, they were not working on oil field; they were involved in construction project which will benefit the people of the region, of course this is criminality and a reflection of the poor security situation in the region.
�We need to distinguish pure criminality and take steps to address that because criminality hurts the people of the region far more in terms of the proportionate number of the expatriates working there.
�Kidnapping expatriates tend to hit the headlines but it is the people of the region who are suffering from these criminal actions. The fact is that criminals are able to get away with this. In this case I don�t believe you can take construction workers who are working on an infrastructure project which should have a direct benefit for the people.