Editorial
N’ Delta Summit: The Way Out
The Niger Delta area, for the most part of the five years proceeding 2015 enjoyed rela
tive peace and security which also enhanced improved production and export of oil and gas. The secret was the amnesty programmes announced by the Late Yar’Adua Presidency, which also approved certain developmental projects for the area.
These were either not met or left half way, thus, igniting another round of youth protests.
Since May, 2016, when a new phase of militancy emerged with the Niger Delta Avengers as driving force, a number of other groups, including the Reformed Niger Delta Avengers and Niger Delta Greenland Justice Mandate, have conducted one form of attack on oil and gas facilities in the Niger Delta, or the other or threatened the peace and security of the people and their precious environment. The fresh campaign appears targeted at crippling the nation’s economy by grounding crude oil production and export. That, the agitators held, to force the Federal Government to consider a comprehensive restructuring of the country along the line of fiscal federalism and guarantee resource control, or have them declare a republic.
However, following pleas by some traditional rulers, elder-statesmen and leaders of the region, and overtures by the Ministers of State for Petroleum, and Niger Delta Affairs, and Coordinator, Presidential Amnesty Programme, the Niger Delta Avengers on August 3, announced a 60-day ceasefire to create room for dialogue with the Federal Government. While making the announcement, the group listed for immediate implementation, the various reports and recommendations of Sir Henry Willinks Minority Rights Commission, Kaiama Declaration, Gen Alexander Ogomudia Committee, Ledum Mitee Technical Committee, as guide toward the much-needed restructuring.
Since then, divergent groups have yet to forge a common position on the way forward to restore peace, and engender sustainable development. These include the Niger Delta Dialogue Contact Group, headed by ex-military governor of old Rivers State, King Alfred Diette-Spiff, the Pan–Niger Delta Coastal States’ Consultative Forum, led by former Federal Commissioner for Information, Chief Edwin Kiagbodo Clark, and the Initiative for Peace, Governance and Development of the Niger Delta Region.
It was to harmonise these groups that the Federal Government, in partnership with some local and international stakeholders, scheduled a two-day Niger Delta Summit, September 26-27, 2016, at the NAF Conference Centre, Abuja. Wth the theme: ‘Towards Sustainable Peace and Development in the Niger Delta’, focus was clearly on Security and Public Safety; Development; and Public Leadership. Just when stakeholders were preparing for the dialogue, the Federal Government on September 23, suspended the planned summit.
The Tide was taken aback because the necessity for such a summit at the time could not be over-emphasised. We believe that it would have offered the people of the region another opportunity to make their case for a holistic and pragmatic development to the Federal Government and the international community. We, therefore, urge the Niger Delta stakeholders to bury their hatchets, and come together to prepare a common agenda, which we expect, should focus on strategic steps to restructure this country on the path of strong fiscal federalism, as soon as a new date is taken;
We acknowledge that certain institutions are already in place to drive the development agenda, such as the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs, Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) and the Niger Delta Basin Development Authority (NDBDA), among others. Even so, we regret that these bodies have over the years been starved of adequate funds to aid transformation of the region that lubricates the wheel of this nation. Corruption and politics are also key factors that have whittled down their roles.
This is why we urge the Federal Government to immediately reconvene the summit. We expect that the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government would muster the needed political will to finally address the Niger Delta question head-long for the unity and corporate existence of the country.
The Tide insists that any agreement reached at the summit should be given timelines for implementation, while the government should begin to take action on agreed issues with commitment and sincerity of purpose. This is one plausible way of resolving the century-long Niger Delta crisis for the good of the nation.
We believe that the Niger Delta does not need another round of militancy, restiveness and violence. It rather requires peace to achieve economic growth, environmental stability, and sustainable development, which collectively can reduce poverty and crime. We urge the militants, agitators and other stakeholders to give peace a chance, as jaw-jaw has always been a better option than war-war.
At a time of economic challenges, as the one we are in, which presumpposes we guard our national treasures jealously, such appeal to insurgency and violence is an ill-wind that blows no one any good. Not even the agitators and the environment.
There are moments in the life of a legislature when plain speaking becomes a public service. Senator Adams Oshiomhole provided such a moment on the floor of the Senate when he accused the Minister of Works, Senator David Umahi, of manifestly neglecting critical federal arteries in Edo and Delta States, and implored his colleagues to prevail on the Minister to adopt a more equitable and genuinely national approach to road infrastructure delivery. It was blunt, it was uncomfortable, and it was necessary.
The specifics of his complaint deserve restating. Drawing attention to the recent approval of some 20 new road projects despite the parlous state of existing ones, the former Edo State governor lamented that Nigerians cannot travel from Benin to Warri, Benin to Asaba, Benin to Auchi, or Auchi to Okene without encountering severe distress. He alleged a deliberate omission of these corridors from the national budget in the last three years, save for palliative interventions directed by President Bola Tinubu through tax credit arrangements. His question — “What have we done wrong?” — resonates far beyond the chambers of the National Assembly.
We lend our full and unequivocal support to that call. The Auchi-Benin Road, for instance, has been in a deplorable and near-impassable condition for several years, turning what should be a two-hour journey into an all-day ordeal of broken axles, extortionate fares, and despondent commuters. The media have, on multiple occasions, chronicled the suffering of motorists, traders, and students who ply that route. To describe it as a federal road today is to stretch the meaning of the term beyond recognition.
This pattern of sidelining is not confined to Edo or Delta. Even here in Rivers State, the disposition of the Federal Ministry of Works has left much to be desired, particularly along the Eleme axis of the East-West Road. That road, which ought to be a flagship of federal presence in the Niger Delta, has remained in a wretched state for long. Those who use it daily — workers at the Eleme Petrochemical Complex, the two refineries, Onne Port, and the countless ancillary industries — can attest to its deterioration. Work has proceeded in fits and starts without the sustained urgency such a strategic road demands.
The Eleme stretch is not a mere intra-state byway. It is the gateway to the nation’s economic jugular. According to the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing’s 2023 Highway Condition Survey, only about 35 per cent of the country’s 36,000 kilometres of federal roads are rated as being in good or fair condition, with the remainder classified as poor or very poor. The East-West Road, conceived in the 1970s to bind the entire Niger Delta, remains unfinished in critical sections more than four decades after. If it had been treated as a priority, the perennial gridlock, carnage, and economic loss on the Eleme-Refinery junction would have long been consigned to history.
The irony is as painful as it is glaring. The Niger Delta remains the goose that lays the golden eggs. Data from the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative [NEITI 2023 Oil and Gas Audit] show that the region still accounts for over 78 per cent of Nigeria’s federally collected export earnings and about 65 per cent of total government revenue. The National Bureau of Statistics [NBS Foreign Trade Report Q4 2024] similarly confirms that crude oil continues to dominate export receipts. By every metric of equity and economic logic, a region that sustains the national purse deserves first-rate consideration in the allocation of infrastructure, not afterthoughts and tokenism.
Road infrastructure is not largesse to be dispensed by favour; it is the skeleton upon which commerce, cohesion, and citizenship hang. When contracts are concentrated in one geopolitical zone while other zones are left to contend with craters, it erodes trust in the federation itself. The World Bank’s Nigeria Development Update [June 2023] estimated that poor transport connectivity inflates the cost of moving goods by up to 40 per cent and costs the Nigerian economy an estimated $1.5 billion annually in lost man-hours and vehicle maintenance. If we profess to be one country, then equity must be the compass that guides key institutions before any project is executed. Development must spread round, not pool in one place as though other regions do not matter.
There is also a grave security dimension that can no longer be ignored. The deplorable condition of federal roads has become a veritable enabler of criminality. The NBS Crime Experience and Security Perception Survey reported over 2.5 million incidents of kidnapping-related occurrences nationally, with transport workers identifying bad road spots as prime ambush points. When vehicles are forced to crawl at 10 kilometres per hour through failed sections at Auchi, Sapele Road, or Eleme, they become sitting ducks for armed gangs. Fixing bad roads, therefore, is not merely about convenience; it is about safeguarding lives.
By his intervention, Senator Oshiomhole has hit the nail on the head and reminded Minister Umahi of a fundamental constitutional truth: public office is held in trust. The Ministry of Works is not a personal estate where contracts are awarded according to whim or political convenience. It is a national institution funded by the collective resources of Nigerians, including the oil and gas rents from the very communities whose roads are now neglected. The Minister must demonstrate balance, transparency, and a pan-Nigerian outlook in the distribution of projects that impact the daily existence of citizens. Selective neglect breeds suspicion, and suspicion is corrosive at a time when the nation is preaching unity, oneness, equity, and justice.
Consequently, the National Assembly must go beyond rhetoric and assert its oversight powers with vigour. Sections 88 and 89 of the 1999 Constitution [as amended] empower the legislature to investigate and expose any maladministration in the execution of federal projects. If an office holder is not acting rightly, it is the duty of the Senate and the House of Representatives to call him to order. Oversight must not be reduced to budget approval ceremonies; it must translate to field verification, public hearings, and insistence that the Federal Character principle, as enshrined in Section 14(3) of the Constitution, reflects in road awards.
Let the Auchi-Okene, Benin-Warri, Benin-Asaba, and Eleme East-West gangways be restored to motorable dignity. Let priority be given to completing existing, economically vital roads before embarking on new ones. If those who, through their resources, sustain the federation are sidelined in the distribution of tangible dividends, it tells poorly of our nationhood. Bad roads must be fixed, and they must be fixed now, with fairness as the guiding standard.
