Buhari and the Niger Delta question: An agenda

Ever since the first official attention was drawn to the Niger Delta region in 1958 by the Wilink Minorities and Fiscal Commission report which among other things recommended that ‘the Delta of the Niger…be regarded rather as a special development area, requiring particular economic assistance,’ the issues of the region have continued to remain very topical in the life of every regime and administration whether military or civilian or diarchy as we had in the twilight days (1992-1993) of the Babangida military junta .

This is, moreso, because while on the one hand, the region has continued to grow in national importance as the major revenue earner for our country, on the other hand, the agitation/struggle by the people of the region for fair treatment has sustained over the years, growing in intensity and prominence, from sensitisation through intellectual advocacy to armed struggle in the early 2000s, thereby engendering an enduring national and international sympathy and support for the region and its people.

Though the Niger Delta region with huge deposits of oil and gas and a long coastline of over 395km is considered one of the richest deltas in the world, yet the issues and challenges of human and environmental under-development in the region are as varied and complex as the over 40 ethnic nationalities which inhabit the over 75,000sq km difficult terrain. The highly linked sensitive issues of poverty, environmental abuse and degradation which are festered by crude oil production activities and neglect have over the years been summed up as the Niger Delta question, the resolution of which is critical not only to national peace and development but also to regional and international stability.

Late Saro Wiwa

The Buhari administration, however, is in an advantageous position to smartly learn from history (and there are volumes of them anyway, going by the huge interests and many reports cum literatures that the Niger Delta matter has generated over the years) and use the lessons learnt thereof to quickly develop and apply the right policies and approaches in handling the ever-recurring Niger Delta question. One sure way of how not to go about this, is trying to downplay the issues and using government forces of coercion to suppress genuine agitations and demands. It did not work with the suppression of Adaka Boro’s 12-day revolution in 1966 nor did it work with the killing of Ken Saro-Wiwa in 1995 by the General Abacha regime, ditto under President Obasanjo administration with the Odi massacre in 1999 and other such past military actions against the people of the region.
This of course leaves the new administration of President Buhari with the Hobson’s choice of devising and applying only clear-headed attitudes and approaches in the handling of the issue. Anything short of that will be quicksand to national calamity amid the challenges of the dreaded Boko Haram crisis, economic downturn and other socio-economic as well as security challenges plaguing the nation.
However, the inability of successive governments to resolve the impasse is not for want of good policies and programmes nor implementing institutions but for lack of right attitude and approach which often times is engendered by official corruption, lack of political will and focus. Over the years, successive administrations have put in place various measures and institutions to midwife and address the issues of the region.
Currently, some of the administrative and statutory institutions as well as programmes and measures of government that are wholly dedicated to the issues of the region include the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), 13 per cent derivation formula, amnesty programme, Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs, Oil-producing Areas Development Commission created by states in the region amongst others which though are currently running, yet the sorry state of things in the region makes it looks as if very little or no efforts have been made at all.
The everyday people in the region still live in abject poverty with virtually no access to potable water, poor healthcare and education facilities while many communities remain unconnected to the national grid, the source of power and other basic social amenities. Many still do not have all-season access roads and waterways to their homes and communities, while general death rates among children, women and able-bodied persons due to preventable causes arising from lack of development, are still intolerably high. There is basically little or no means of livelihood as land and environment are heavily ravaged by oil spillage, gas flaring and coastal erosion while the environment is still not remediated. The typical city and settlement in the region are still plagued with squalor, poor drainage and sewage system, high unemployment, overstretched social and infrastructural facilities with high crime rates leading to general frustration and insecurity.
Also becoming worrisome in the zone is the phantom of political rejection which is an aftermath of the 2015 general elections as many people in the region rightly or wrongly believe that some parts of the nation conspired to push the Niger Delta region out of power at the national level. This, in addition to the anxieties generated by the expected termination of the amnesty programme later this year, forms the current hard realities that are capable of relapsing the region into renewed crisis, should the Buhari administration attempts to overlook the issues and refuse to act on them.
In the light of the poor performance of previous efforts at proffering enduring solution to the issues of the region, the new administration, as a matter of priority, will have to overhaul the entire intervention system and package in terms of the institutions and methods in order to make them compact, effective and focussed in delivery on their mandate.
By way of advice to the Buhari administration, the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs which was an administrative creation of the late President Musa Yar’Adua administration could be scrapped and its various aspects domiciled in the relevant MDAs for an enhanced all-round capacity in programmes’ conceptualisation, implementation and supervision. For the NDDC, it should be empowered through adequate funding while at the same time it is being sanitised and fine-tuned in line with the zero tolerance to corruption disposition of the current administration to enable the commission delivers on its mandates with utmost transparency and accountability.
As for the amnesty programme, because of the way it was structured and managed to concentrate enormous wealth in the hands of very few ex-warlords and persons at the expense of the generality of the people who still live in penury in the region, the Buhari administration should therefore allow the programme to terminate this year as scheduled by its initiators. In its place, the administration should within the shortest time possible, develop social safety nets and quick-fix measures which could be implemented via platforms that are driven by public/private sectors’ collaboration in order to minimise the undue delay and high overhead costs which are associated with public sector driven implementation platforms. By this, services will be delivered directly within the shortest time possible to the vulnerable people who live in the creeks and under very difficult conditions in the Niger Delta while government takes its time to painstakingly position its institutions for overall development of the region.
In all these, the role of effective communication by government with the people of the region both in the immediate and in the long run cannot be overemphasized. The Buhari administration should as a matter of priority engage all stakeholders and people of the region to dissuade sentiments on the one hand and to build and restore the peoples’ confidence on the ability of this government to transform the region on the other hand. Through this, the people will not only buy into and support the policies and programmes of the administration, but also they will sufficiently partner with government to drive the process of development as well as become the agents of peace and change in the oil-rich area.