RIVERS STATE is now a no-go area for all United Nations (UN) officials with families as diplomatic indications both at the UN and the United States suggesting deepening diplomatic anxiety over Nigeria’s troubled Niger Delta area and the Federal Government’s inability to adopt decisive measures to arrest the crisis.
Concern over Rivers States boiled over in international circles after the New York-based international human rights group, Human Rights watch compiled a devastating report on a former governor’s administration raising issues of corruption and human rights concerns last year.
Although, only Rivers State has been singled out, sources say the entire Niger Delta area remains under intense international watch both at the UN and elsewhere around the world.
Authoritative sources confirmed that families of UN diplomats and officials will not be deployed to the Niger Delta states as it has been declared by the UN as “a non-family duty station.” Apart from the UN, diplomatic sources also say the Niger Delta crisis is still one of the topmost concerns of the U.S. government regarding Nigeria, revealing that during last month’s visit of the Foreign Affairs Minister Ojo Maduekwe to the UN, the top U.S. official on Africa, Dr. Jendayi Frazer again raised U.S. and international concern on the Niger Delta crisis in a bilateral chat with the Nigerian minister in New York.
At the UN Secretariat, it is believed that the Niger Delta region and other parts of southern Nigeria are now being perceived as dangerous and potential no-go areas for UN staff member with family.
Specifically, the UN has quietly decided to add one state in Niger Delta to a list of few regions and war-torn areas around the world like Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, parts of Somalia and also Pakistan-places where the UN will not deploy their staff members with their families.
A recent Cable News Network (CNN) report had previously said the UN recently added Pakistan towns to that no-go areas for diplomatic families and that other spots in the world for such infamy resembling the Afghan capital, Kabul, are “trouble spots including parts of Somalia and southern Nigeria,” now deemed “non-family postings for UN international staff.”
It is believed however that there are several UN world-wide duty stations where family members are not allowed even though the UN continues to work and retain staff in the field in very inhospitable places in the world just to assist people in need. A source said the world body had to protect its staff and their family, with the continuing and worsening crisis in the area, especially since the Federal Government is also said to be perceived as sending conflicting signals on its resolution to confront the Niger Delta crisis.
The UN secretariat can declare a location as unsafe for its staff as it did last week Thursday regarding the Pakistani capital, which the UN said was unsafe for the children of its international staff. The UN therefore ordered families of the staff out of the place, just like it has done with Kabul, Somalia and also parts of southern Nigeria.
However, there were no specific information regarding the proportion of UN staff in the Niger Delta area in Nigeria.
Meanwhile, the 45-member Presidential Technical Committee on the Niger Delta formally resumed its plenary sessions at the Transcorp Hilton Abuja yesterday, expressing “absolute confidence” in the ability of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua to implement the recommendations that would emanate from its assignment.
President of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), Mr. Ledum Mitee, who is the chairman of the committee said at the opening of the session that apart from a critical examination of all previous related documents, the panel would seek to answer the question as to why so little action followed key recommendations in the past and make recommendations that are “specific, bold but with measurable benchmarks.”
The Federal Government might have mandated the committee to work out the structure and modalities of the newly created Ministry of Niger Delta.
Besides, a member of the committee and former member of the House of Representatives, Mr. Nduese Essien, has kicked against government’s plan to merge the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) with the Ministry of Niger Delta, which was created by an Act of the National Assembly.
A member of the committee who pleaded anonymity disclosed to The Guardian yesterday that though the Federal Government had made a pronouncement on the ministry, the committee had been mandated to work out its structure.
He said: “This committee will work out the structure of that ministry. I don’t see that ministry functioning until the committee has finished its work. They are not likely going to appoint any minister yet. The government’s position is that the committee should work out modalities on how the ministry will work because the output of the committee is going to be what that ministry is going to operate.”