Niger Delta Human Development Report - UNDP Nigeria - United ...

purposes, and the property rights of individuals
and communities where private
business is concerned.
GOAL 4: The Rule of Law and Access
to Justice
The rule of law, access to justice and effective
law enforcement are central to any
efforts to build peace in the Niger Delta
region. The region is insufficiently policed,
so breaches of the law cannot be dealt with
expeditiously. This only encourages ‘self
help’ when people are aggrieved. Secondly,
access to justice is constrained by many
factors. The primary issues are the costs
related to litigation, a lack of understanding
of applicable laws, and the scarcity of
courts and judges, which leads to slow judicial
processes. Increasing access to justice
depends on the following.
• The establishment of more courts of
various types in the region would speed
up dispensation of justice.
• Since the region is not homogeneous,
alternative conflict resolution mechanisms
should be tailored to the culture
and circumstances in each state
and locality.
GOAL 5: Demilitarize the Region and
Ensure Effective Law Enforcement
Peace-building will advance through the
demilitarization of the region. Small arms
are commonly available, and militant gangs
have weapons superior to those of the
police. A report by Amnesty International
(Nigeria: Are Human Rights in the Pipeline?)
estimates that there are about 70,000 sophisticated
weapons in the region. This
helps explain why the government calls in
soldiers for what obviously are internal
security operations, with often disastrous
consequences. Therefore:
• the number of police in the region,
particularly in the more conflict-prone
core Niger Delta, should be increased
substantially, and they should be supported
by appropriate logistics and
arms; and
• sustained efforts should be made to
reduce the proliferation of arms.
NIGER DELTA HUMAN DEVELOPMENT REPORT
2
The arms buy-back deal that the government
struck with Alhaji Mujaheed Dokubo-
Asari, the leader of the Niger Delta
Peoples Volunteer Force resulted in the
surrender of quite a large number of arms,
but this does not seem to have diminished
the ability of militant gangs in the area to
replenish and outgun the police. Much
more needs to be done.
Furthermore, the military should be withdrawn
from the region once the operational
efficiency of the police is sufficient to cope
with security demands. The presence of
the military contributes to a sense of siege,
in addition to the denial of human rights
wherever the military is deployed.
Indicators of Peace
The centrality of peace to the development
of the Niger Delta region generally and to
poverty reduction specifically is so fundamental
that all necessary efforts should be
mustered to ensure that there is obvious
progress in a relatively short time. The following
indicators could mark the advancement
of peace:
· a 60 per cent reduction in cases of
criminal assault and burglary within 10
years;
• an 80 per cent reduction in sabotage
of oil and gas pipelines within 10 years;
• an 80 per cent reduction in violent
intra-communal, inter-communal and
inter-ethnic conflicts within 10 years;
and
• a 70 per cent reduction in conflicts
between communities and oil companies
within 10 years.
GOVERNANCE BASED ON GENU-
INE DEMOCRACY, PARTICIPA-
TION AND ACCOUNTABILITY
The importance of governance to sustainable
human development cannot be overemphasized.
Genuine democracy should
appeal to the Niger Delta people, given the
multiple stakeholders in the region and their
dissatisfaction with the current performance
of state and local governments
across the region (see chapter five).
Many people in the delta possess a poor
understanding of democratic processes
The complications of the
consequences of lack of
clarity over who should
benefit from alienation of
land need urgent
attention.
The rule of law, access
to justice and effective
law enforcement are
central to any efforts to
build peace.
Peace-building will
advance through the
demilitarization of the
region.
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