Niger Delta insurgency: Western nations oppose military solution

Careful not to generate diplomatic crisis by publicly stating preference for negotiations, the United States of America and the European Union are using their policy think-tanks to voice opposition to militarisation, while proposing other solutions.

From the Council on Foreign Relations to the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, the common refrain is the failure of military action and the need to address resource allocation question through negotiation.

Other Western bodies, through which Washington policy preferences are advocated such as the Jamestown Foundation and the International Crisis Group suggested a 50 per cent derivation percentage as a way of resolving the impasse.

In the last one month, these think tanks have issued more than 10 reports on the situation in the Niger-Delta, with icg releasing three in the last few weeks.

The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), in a briefing titled �Nigeria�s Political Prospect�, noted that �ultimately, instability in the Niger Delta will only be resolved through political negotiations and compromise.

�Police capacity is inadequate to quell the rebellion in the Delta and even the Nigerian military is barely a match for the criminal networks in the area. Previous efforts to respond militarily have resulted in mass loss.�

While recalling efforts of the Federal Government to address the growing insurgency such as the Presidential Council on Coastal States, the institute noted that �many fear that these initiatives come too late.�

The Council on Foreign Relations, in it�s briefing titled. �The Niger Delta Blues�, reviewed other positions in the western media and think tanks, concluding that the thriving insurgency in the Delta is a long term threat to western energy interest.

While concurring with the suggestion that negotiation is the best way out, the council, a leading body in the United States, was however more concerned with the impact on American oil policy.

As Nigerian oil is regarded as an alternative to Middle Eastern oil, the Delta insurgency is adjudged not just as a Nigerian problem, but an issue with international dimension demanding negotiation and a measure of local resource control.

The Jamestown Foundation, another American think tank, quoted from a report as follows to justify the futility of military action: �These operations reveal the difficulties of fighting an army which uses guerilla style tactics and is indigenous to the area.

The Brussels based ICG, more than any other group, has proffered specific solutions outside military action in one of it�s three recent reports titled �Nigeria�s Faltering Federal Experiment.�

�The Federal Government has an obligation, of course, to deal with violence by the full rigour of the law, but it also needs to look deeper into the circumstances that give rise to so much trouble. It should grant a significant level of resource control to local communities,� the report recommended, among others.

The report advised the Nigerian government to work towards a new division of the country�s natural resources wealth by �increasing, as an interim measure, the oil revenue allocated to oil producing states to 25 per cent.

�Passing uniform resource control, legislation that rests 50 per cent ownership of natural resources in the states and 50 per cent in the Federal Government and then divided a percentage of the Federal share among the states and local governments through the Federation Account.

The Group suggested further that Nigeria should conduct a review of laws that have deprived communities of their lands and birthrights, leading to a reform of the 1978 Land Use Act and repeal the 1946 Minerals Use Act and the 1969 Petroleum Decree.

The support of these think tanks for local resource control and a measure of autonomy for the oil producing states are however yet to be publicly endorsed by the American and the European governments.

The various briefings do not in any chapter endorsed the militant�s action against oil industry operators.