The Niger Delta issue has gained a fresh energy since the activities of the MEND (Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta). There is a mixed feeling for the methods of MEND by the public. While some who feel the impact of the degradation of the oil companies in the oil-producing areas in the country necessitate the activities of MEND for drawing local and international attention to the problem of the area, some want the Nigerian government to deal with the “trouble makers” to protect the “continuous existence of the country.”
Another dimension to the issue is the clear-headedness which the militants brought to the issue, which far exceed that of Asari Dokubo now in detention. More importantly, the militants refused to be carried away by backward politics of government and divide-and-rule. Furthermore, despite the nebulous nature of its demands, MEND still draws the support and attention of the international community (even those who wanted to keep quiet).
However, without putting the issue in proper perspective, the struggles of the Niger Delta people will again be derailed. One must first ask what the motives of the MEND guys are: is it to resolve the contradictions of the Niger Delta in a short term or holistically? If the goal is for short-term resolutions, it will be vital to tell these guys that their methods can resolve the matter but will later result in another fiasco for the Niger Delta people, including MEND.
It must first be stated that the problem of the Niger Delta is not peculiar with Nigeria but with capitalism that prioritises the profits for the rich few who control these oil firms as against the welfare and environment of the people living in these areas. From the Amazons of Ecuador to the Middle East, even to New Orleans in US, the oil firms build fortresses to protect their properties and wealth while people living in the areas are subjected to the state of nature that Thomas Hobbes described as brutish and short. Not only oil firms, but other mineral-producing and exploiting companies are involved in environmental degradation. While they export millions and billions of dollars to their home countries through exploitation of the wealth of the land and sweat of the workers, they import currency devaluation, debt, deficit trade and poverty to the people of the mineral-producing countries. To perpetuate this relation, they play roles in controlling the social and political situation in the host countries through the imperialist spy agencies � CIA, et al. To seal the agenda, they force pro-imperialism governments to borrow money and be eternally dependent on them (forget the fraudulent debt relief hype; it is just what it is � a political hype).
Therefore, if $1.5 billion is given to the Niger Delta States by Shell, it cannot solve the problems of the area. Those problems as much as they are environmental and economic, are also political. Inasmuch as imperialism through multi-national vampires along with their corrupt stooges in the corridors of power continue to control the economy and politics of the country, no meaningful development can happen to the Niger Delta areas or the whole country. The banality of this thinking is shown in the recent experience in which hundreds of billions of naira accruing to the Niger Delta States from the 13 per cent derivation are being sunk into the personal account of government officials of each State � many of whom also get to power through subversion of the mandate of the people, ably generated by the ruling PDP.
The country is now being held by the shackles of capitalist imperialism and not any amount of hostage-taking can resolve it. If the money is given to the Niger Delta people, who will manage it on their behalf? The same corrupt leaders or the people through democratic committees set up to manage the fund? It is obvious that the first option is unreasonable while the second option requires high level of popular political struggles of the Niger Delta people with the government. Such struggle will be met with life-and-death opposition by the government that is not ready to concede genuine democracy to the people of the Niger Delta that can set clear examples to other oppressed people who are looking for alternatives.
Therefore, to make any meaning out of the demand for reparation from oil companies, MEND must make itself popular among the Niger Delta people by making the organisation acceptable and rooted in the masses. This at the same time also needs a political platform with other pro-people organisations in the country to tackle the oil firms and their governments based on the political plane so that they will not be isolated.
Another question that should be asked is the rationale behind the $1.5 billion calculation as a true measure of the exploitation of the area. In real sense, the money cannot genuinely develop the Niger Delta. If the money is exhausted, will the MEND demand another one or accept their fate?
This also leads to another question which has to do with the relation of the Niger Delta people with the oil corporations: chase them away or allow them to continue their exploitation? Surely, the more they stay there, the more the degradation and the more the pauperization of the Niger Delta people because the more money spent to improve lives of people in the Niger Delta, the lesser the profit of oil multinationals and money to loot for politicians.
What then will be the long-term solution to the problem? Continue to take hostages and collect money; and after few years get arrested by the government? Surely, such cannot be a reasonable way out. If they are to be chased out, what will be the fate (or more correctly, the reaction) of the Nigerian government and imperialism? Stand akimbo? Surely, this will attract reprisal attacks from the government whose main survival depends on oil while the US government will not allow 30 per cent of its cheap oil source to just go away. In fact, imperialism will react and isolate the Niger Delta people. Such action may find negative responses from other ethnic groups who may consider it as a means to stifle their survival.
Therefore, the only way out is to join force with the other oppressed people not only in Nigeria, but other countries where imperialism is destroying their survival; and wage a political battle to take over the political power by the working and toiling people. It is only then that imperialism can be put into check. This will require nationalisation of the huge oil industry by a pro-poor government that will organise an environmental-friendly exploration while the huge profit from the oil industry, rather than being used to service the interests of the few money bags, will be used to develop the Niger Delta, the social services and the economy as a whole.
This requires high level of political commitment of not only the MEND but other organisations in the Niger Delta, which cannot be achieved in the creeks of the Niger, but through conscious political relations with other organisations within and outside the country. Without this, the organisation will one way or the other becomes a tool in the hands of some corrupt politicians who want to use them to boost their bargaining power with the ruling class.
While one commends the position of MEND on the elitist organisations in the Niger Delta which want to use the issue to gain political strength, the writer feels that such should be moved forward by taking political initiatives with other pro-poor and working-class organisations in the Niger Delta and the country as whole. I condemn hostage-taking of foreign workers who also are looking for means to relieve their capitalism-induced poverty. Such action cannot enjoy the support of the working and poor people of other countries that ordinarily are sympathetic to the cause of the Niger Delta people. Therefore, MEND and other youth organisations in the Niger Delta must adopt a conscious pan-Nigerian political solution to the problem of the Niger Delta. It must join forces with other pro-people organisations to demand the nationalisation of the oil corporations in the interest of the people and massive development