Is Niger Delta Under Colonial Rule?

It has long been established that the Niger Delta region required accelerated physical development to compensate the people of the area, pauperized by decades of political marginalization and crude oil exploration and exploitation activities in the region which killed their sources of livelihood, both on water and land, through uncontrolled oil spillages.

  It is not in doubt therefore that this negative impact of the activities of oil companies on the environment without concomitant remediation measures to enable the people sustain themselves from their environment needed to be urgently addressed to give the people a sense of belonging.

  This line of thought led to the  establishment of interventionist agencies like the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, and the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs,  which tend to indicate that the Federal government is ready to speedily address the Niger Delta issue.

  It is therefore, safe to assert that the primary function of the Ministry of the Niger Delta is to champion the infrastructural and physical development of the region within the ambits of available resources. The ministry is expected to build bridges, roads, canals, embark on land reclamation and embankment projects in order to open up the area spanning nine states of the federation, for development commensurate with its contribution to the total national revenue. 

  There is no argument over the fact that opening up the Niger Delta communities for development is essential now more than ever before because youths of the area, some of whom are beneficiaries of the government amnesty programme, now undergoing various skills acquisition courses, are expected  to settle down in their respective homes as welders, auto mechanics and electricians, to mention these.

   But this dream cannot be realised except we have a Niger Delta Ministry that is operated by visionary and  patriotic elements that are wholly committed to the task ahead.

This could have informed the announcement by the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs in 2010 that the federal government plans to build new towns in select oil producing communities. The towns, according to the former minister in the ministry, Chief Ufot Ekaette,   were expected to house about 10,000 people and would cover all the states in the oil producing region.

Explaining the rationale behind this thinking, Ekaette had said that it arose in response to the perceived need for rehabilitating the ecologically disadvantaged oil producing communities. He also said the plan was aimed at building a cluster of communities and equipping them with infrastructural facilities that would boost the living condition of the people, and indeed the ex-militants now undergoing training in various skills and imbibing civil  survival techniques through non-violent activities.

At the opening of the 2010 South South Economic Summit in Tinapa, Calabar, the federal government in support of the foregoing  had declared its commitment toward the development of the Niger Delta within the shortest possible time, adding that  in pursuit of this goal it intended to stimulate the appropriate infrastructure, social and political environment for the private sector to thrive.

However, if the realization of these lofty goals should be driven by the existing interventionist agencies like the NDDC, and the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs, it is apparent that they would not do much to improve the lot of the area as long as their budgets remain very slim and determined by Abuja if present tendencies is anything to go by.

This much was alluded to at a recent forum in Rhode Island, United States by former United States Ambassador to Nigeria, John Campbell when he declared that the Niger Delta was under colonial rule.

Campbell noted that the people of the area were subjected to suffering by both the federal government and the oil companies operating in the area. Campbell who was in Nigeria up to 2007 in his recent book”, Nigeria on the Brink?,” noted that Niger Delta as a colony, is producing  profit that is being distributed from oil and gas as determined by Abuja and not the people of the area.

This charge is ominous and places a moral responsibility on the federal government  to repudiate it by deeds and not by mere words. Already, poor funding had been identified as the bane of projects execution in the region. Speaking during the budget 2010 defence session with the Senate Committee on Niger Delta the former minister lamented that projects suffered from some budget implementation technicalities that were beyond the ministry.

Therefore in view of Campbell’s fears and Ekaette’s assertion the people of the region expect that allocation to  the ministry should be fabulously increased in this year’s budget to fast-track its development.

 The paltry sum of about N19 billion allocated to the ministry last year, from our current oil boom where the federal government possibly racked in over N1.8 trillion, going by NNPC estimates, gives credence to Campbell’s assertion, and could be provocative.

 In addition, the presidency should as a matter of exigency consider allocating a percentage of the excess crude oil revenue to the urgent development of the Niger Delta region, to finally arrest youth restiveness there and guarantee steady flow of crude  oil, the nation’s economic mainstay.

Campbell, should, however, be commended for speaking up for the oppressed and depressed people of the Niger Delta. Besides, it is high time citizen in the area stood   up to their leaders to make them accountable for whatever revenue that trickles in to the region through the respective states in the geopolitical zone for the overall development of the area.           Therefore toward sustaining the current peaceful atmosphere in the region the federal government should live up to its responsibilities by showing more sincerity through adequate funding of the interventionist agencies to enable them go beyond building classroom blocks, health centres, markets and supply of speed boats to locals, and as a way of repudiating Campbell’s  assertion, once and for all. 

Thomas Abbey