BusinessDay 08 Nov 2017

Wednesday 08 November 2017
08 BUSINESS DAY
C002D5556
WEST AFRICA ENERGY
In association with
talking points
Nigeria cannot afford a militancy problem now
ISAAC ANYAOGU
The announcement last week by
a militant group calling itself the
Niger Delta Avengers that it was
resuming bombing campaigns
in the region comes at a time
the nation is barely emerging from bruising
recession and fighting to regain lost markets
on account of a previous campaign last year.
At the height of the madness last year, the
country lost a third of its crude oil output and
forty percent of crude oil earnings. India, Nigeria’s
largest crude oil buyer shifted to the United
States as it could not guarantee supplies from
the country. States were badly affected as revenues
from the Federal Government reduced
to pittance. Teachers’ salaries were delayed,
civil servants were owed months on end and
crime was on the increase.
Suffice to say, Nigeria is a country that
does not learn from history, its schools do
not even teach it to children hence lessons
are lost.
The agitation from the Niger Delta is as old
as crude oil exploration in the country itself
and the fact that it generates crises till today,
analysts say, is the biggest measurement of
how abysmal the country’s leaders have been
in their failures.
“To the elders of the Niger Delta, PANDEF,
we warned you against the antics of the Nigerian
Government yet you requested a chance
to broker a new vision for our people; we told
you and the rest of the world that the Nigerian
Government is only interested in our oil wells
and not our well-being yet you told us the
signs are different this time around.
“Instead of allowing us to continue our
quest to bring the Nigerian economy to our
targeted zero daily production, which recorded
huge success; you threatened us with
Tompolo to stop the struggle; out of respect
for elders and not to the threat of Tompolo we
adhered the call and halted our strike actions
hoping you (PANDEF) would keep your own
side of the bargain.
The question to Tompolo and the PANDEF
is to tell us what progress they achieved since
we heeded your retrogressive call, to whose
benefit is the move by Tompolo and the Niger
Delta elders to impede a mission sanctioned
by our ancestors and the Almighty?” said a
statement from NDA.
This illustrates the huge trust deficit between
the Federal Government and agitators
in the region. Many have condemned the
cavalier attitude with which the Federal Government
treats agreements and contracts it
freely enters. Part of the deal to calm tensions
were the promise that Ogoniland would be
clean of oil spills and their agitations looked
into. After a year, it has not commenced.
Last year, Buhari threatened to deal with
the militants, comparing them to Boko Haram
extremists but when the country lost
nearly 1 million barrels per day production
it realised that showboating as communication
strategy is as ineffective as whispering
a battle cry.
Lauretta Onochie, the social media aide
of President Muhammadu Buhari, over the
weekend suggested that the invitation by an
Abuja court to former President Goodluck
Jonathan to serve as a witness in a corruption
trial relating to Olisa Metuh, a former PDP official
could be the reason for the resumption
of hostilities by Niger Delta Avengers, typifies
the kind of rhetoric that escalates tensions.
Nigeria’s 2017 budget is heavily financed
by debt, the economy is still unsteady and
food prices are through the roof. Also the
country is trying to stabilise crude oil production
and win back markets it lost when
its production dipped due to militancy last
year and cannot afford another round of
destruction of oil facilities.