AMID an upsurge in violence in the Niger Delta and threats by militants to expand the theatre of battle to other parts of the country, fresh suggestions for peace in the region were proffered by stakeholders at the weekend.
Specifically, the new options were canvassed by South-South caucus of the National Assembly, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the Action Congress (AC).
In fact, military and derivation principle in revenue sharing will top the agenda of a planned summit of South-South lawmakers in the national and state assemblies.
The parley will be held ahead of the review of the 1999 Constitution with a view to articulating their position on all the areas of the constitution that are directly affecting the area.
In a chat with The Guardian in Abuja, the chairman of the publicity sub-committee of the caucus, Warman Ogoriba, disclosed that the lawmakers were deeply touched by the plight of the Niger Delta people who, according to him, had been subjected to undeserved suffering due to no fault of theirs. He said that the review of the Constitution would provide an opportunity to redress the situation and everything democratically possible would be done by the lawmakers from the Niger Delta to end the several years of humiliation.
He lamented that despite the fact that the area produced oil, which is the mainstay of the nation’s economy, the people had nothing positive to show for it, besides harassment and dehumanisation. Ogoriba further said that various committees had been set up to sensitise the people of the area, particularly lawmakers so as to make meaningful contribution to the process.
He disclosed that one of the areas that the summit would examine would be the issue of derivation. Ogoriba who represents Yenagoa/Kopokuma Federal Constituency in Bayelsa State pointed out that Nigeria’s Constitution stipulates 13 per cent minimum for the people of Niger Delta and regretted that the government had stuck to it despite all that had taken place in the area.
He stated that the lawmakers from the area were “now determined to change the situation and ensure that the region got its fair share of the derivation.
“We will use the opportunity of the review of the Constitution to make a difference. In doing so, we will be looking at the derivation. Something has to be done to increase it substantially and we are set to do this. All the lawmakers from the region are going to put heads together so that we will come up with one voice on the matter. We will seek the co-operation of our colleagues from other parts of the country in this effort,” he said.
The lawmaker also said that the meeting would discuss the issue of militants and hostage-taking in the Niger Delta. Ogoriba disclosed that preliminary discussion on the activities of the militants had already begun.
“We are worried by the situation in the region, particularly hostage-taking and we are trying to see how we could all collectively find a way out of the problem. I am sure that after the meeting, we will come up with a position on that matter. It is a big problem and I hope that when our resolutions, especially those bordering on the issue of derivation, are implemented, they will go a long to solve some of these problems”, he stressed.
Ogoriba also said that the meeting would discuss the issue of Nigerians in the Bakassi Peninsula and the position would be communicated to the Federal Government. He expressed concern over the matter, wondering why it had taken government time to properly resettle the people affected by the judgment of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague that ceded the oil-rich area to Cameroun. According to him, timely and proper resettlement of the people would assuage them.
To the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole, came an appeal to the youths of the region to shun violence and embrace peace. In a statement signed by his Media Adviser, Kayode Akinmade on behalf of Bankole, he agreed that the situation in the Niger Delta requires urgent attention. He, however, cautioned that development can only take place in an atmosphere of peace.
On its part, MEND has pledged to cease all hostilities in the Niger Delta and start immediate dialogue with government if one of its leaders, Henry Okah, arrested for alleged gun-running in Angola was released.
MEND spokesperson, Jomo Gbomo, yesterday described Okah who was arrested at Luanda Airport in September as the actual cornerstone needed to restore credibility back to the peace initiative and jump start a genuine process to bring peace, justice, reconciliation and prosperity to the Niger Delta in particular and Nigeria.
Gbomo who described Okah as the pillar of the failed peace process, alleged that after his arrest, the Nigerian government offered the oppressed people of the region a false sense of peace, hope and security by giving bribes to a few interest groups.
MEND noted that the continued incarceration of Okah would only worsen the already volatile situation in the Niger Delta and demanded that he be released and allowed to return to his place of abode in South Africa.
He said Okah does not want to return to a “country that does not respect the rule of law, has a record of unsolved murders of the opposition, human rights abuse and has recorded capital punishment to activists, including Ken Saro-Wiwa, whose only crime was peacefully clamouring for a better deal for the environment and people of the Niger Delta.”
Gbomo added: “Now his situation is even more precarious due to his betrayal by the South African mission in Angola. Because the Angolan government lacked any evidence to charge him with, he was recently offered a deal to implicate political opponents of the Angolan and Equatorial Guinea governments in a phantom coup in exchange for his own freedom. Henry declined.
“Because Henry has lost faith in the Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Nigeria who at the initial time of his arrest went to the Angolan authorities and labelled him a ‘criminal’ in the government’s desperate attempt to extradite him, he smuggled out the detailed information of the plot to the South African Ambassador in Angola. But to his horror, the embassy handed the documented plot to the Angolan authorities thereby endangering his life.
“We want to make it very clear that should any danger come to our comrade, Henry Okah, we will hold the governments of South Africa, Nigeria and Angola responsible. Nothing must happen to him. We call on the United Nations and all concerned to expedite his immediate release.
“We also deplore in the strongest term the treachery of the South African mission in Angola. It is a disappointment coming from a country considered the beacon of hope to the oppressed in Africa.”
Also, the AC has expressed serious concern over the worsening crisis in the Niger Delta and called for a new thinking and urgent action to bring the oil region back from the brink.
In a statement issued in Abuja yesterday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said “fresh threats by the militant groups to escalate the crisis and the tough talk by the military to counter them could trigger a slow-motion insurgency that could throw Nigeria into a deep political, social and economic crisis”.
AC said it was particularly worried by the recent disclosure that mercenaries were now training youths in the region; the threat by militants to raise the tempo of their attacks to cripple Nigeria’s oil export and the warning from the joint task force on reprisals.
It noted that the spectre of the violence being taken beyond the Niger Delta region, if the threat by MEND to blow up the 3rd Mainland Bridge in Lagos and other national landmarks is anything to go by, should be a source of concern to all Nigerians.
AC went on: “We do not take the MEND’s threat lightly, and we think the government should not either, going by the antecedents of the group and the recent rising frequency of violence in the Niger Delta.
“Add this to the parallel actions of Ateke Tom in Port Harcourt, the escapades of the hitherto unknown group ‘Freelance Freedom Fighters’ as revealed by MEND and the activities of the criminal gangs bent on cashing in on the situation to make money, and one can see a problem that is spinning out of control.
“The government, which has so far been waffling on the Niger Delta crisis, should immediately jettison its cloak of complacency, admit it has missed a rare window of opportunity to end the crisis and begin a process of reaching out to all stakeholders, including the opposition, in an effort to end the crisis.”
The party urged the government to also “move away from the current piecemeal approach to the crisis and drop its misplaced belief that a military solution can be found to the festering violence. It reiterated that the ‘peace deals’ with select militant groups have not worked.”
It contended that the government may have inadvertently worsened the crisis by its “ill-advised” allocation of a huge chunk of the 2008 budget to providing security in the Niger Delta – which the people of the region now see as a euphemism for stepping up military campaigns against them.
AC also cited the government’s continuous shifting of the date for the cessation of gas flaring as a bad signal to the long-suffering people of the Niger Delta that the government does not care about them.
The opposition party further said: “As a first step, let the government immediately embark on a massive developmental, bottoms-up approach that will involve the communities themselves and other stakeholders, especially the oil companies.
“The Yar’Adua administration must also immediately clarify that the huge allocation for the Niger Delta in the budget is not meant to purchase new arms and ammunitions to be used against the people, but to be committed to providing much-needed social infrastructure for the communities.”
If the recent strengthening of security at Government House
Asaba is anything to go by, the Delta State Police is not taking the threat of MEND lightly.
MEND had last week issued an ominous warning that the bloody battle in 2008 would be aimed at paralysing “100 per cent of Nigeria’s oil export.”
In fact, security has been beefed up in Asaba, the state capital, with civilians warned to desist from getting close to security posts.
The Public Relations Officer of the Delta State Police Command, Mr. Banawi Ishaku, told reporters in Asaba that the force has been put on red alert to deal decisively with any one who wants to disrupt the peace.
Commissioner of Police in the state, Mr. Hezekiah Banawi, appealed to Deltans to remain calm as the command was ready to puncture any attack from militants or any other groups out to cause trouble.