Resolving Host Communities, Oil Firms Disputes

Since independence in 1960, insecurity has been a feature of the Nigerian State as conflicts in different parts of the country have continued to make life insecure. In the Niger Delta, violence has been the bane of the region where conflicts have been occurring for over four decades.
Beginning from the pre-colonial period, the region has witnessed series of conflicts, which had their roots, initially in the protest against injustice, and in recent years in the quest for resource control.
Conflicts in the Niger Delta have been occurring as far back as the pre-colonial period and the early 1960s when there were protests against the marginalisation of the region. The struggle, which started as a peaceful protest, metamorphosed into armed conflict after the killing of a renowned activist and playwright in the region, Ken Sara-Wiwa and eight other Ogoni men, which led to the shutdown of oil facilities in Ogoni land for more than two decades now.
Unfortunately, rather than proffer needed solution, efforts by the Federal Government to use force to address the conflict in the region since 2003 has instigated a new wave of protests characterised by the abduction of foreign oil workers, bombing of oil installations, and destruction of lives and property.
Since then, all efforts to resolve conflicts in the region had failed until 2009 when amnesty was declared by the Yar’Adua/Jonathan administration, and some form of uneasy peace prevailed.
The amnesty, which was proposed to last for five years, required that repentant militants surrendered their arms in return for unconditional national pardon. The exercise witnessed a total of 26, 808 militants surrendering their arms and ammunitions and being granted amnesty, which involved co-opting or integrating them into the society as well as training them.
While amnesty lasted, there was some reprieve as militants sheathed their swords. However, six years down the line, there is renewed militancy in the region due to accountability challenges bedeviling the amnesty programme since the inception of the present administration, and effort is once again, geared towards finding lasting peace.
The Federal Government, in its bid to check this, has been returning fire for fire by constituting military operation code-named operation ‘Crocodile Smiles’, which the militants and many analysts feel is not the answer to the problem of conflicts in the region. No doubt, the continuous disruption of peace in the region has caused huge revenue lose and engendered socio-economic difficulties to the Niger Delta region.
It is on this premise The Tide backs the recent invitation of Chairmen of Cluster Development Boards in Asari-Toru, Akuku-Toru and Degema Local Government Areas, as well as oil companies and security agencies by the Rivers State Governor, Chief NyesomWike, to a meeting to evolve a more pragmatic approach towards engineering lasting peace between oil companies and their stakeholder communities in Rivers State.
While we agree that the discovery of oil, which was expected to improve the lot of the communities where it is sourced, has become a curse rather than a blessing because of oil exploration activities and its attendant hazards, such as air and water pollution in the region, we equally think that persistent violent confrontation leading to shutting down of oil facilities should not be an option to press home the demand for justice.
There is no gainsaying that many strategies have been put in place to resolve the ongoing imbroglio in the Niger Delta. However, these efforts have failed to have the desired effect of ushering in the needed peace. We hold that the failure of the various strategies is not far-fetched from the fact that they lacked sufficient elements of democracy, accountability, equity and active public participation of all stakeholders.
We, therefore, urge communities to embrace the opportunities offered by Governor Wike and cement more cordial relationship with oil companies operating within their areas, and avoid circumstances that could lead them to take the law into their own hands by preventing oil production companies from carrying out their operations in a peaceful atmosphere.
Also, we expect oil companies operating in the state and the region at large to fine-tune those policies and programmes that short-change their host communities, and make them more responsible and responsive to the long-term and short term needs of stakeholder communities. We insist that oil companies know the right thing to do and they must be seen to have taken the right steps.
While we commend Governor Wike for demonstrating commitment to ending the crisis between oil companies and their host communities to ensure the development of Rivers State, in spite of recurrent failures, we recommend the application of a cooperative approach to resource and conflict management strategy by not only avoiding conflicts and addressing social and environmental crises, but also salvage significant financial resources and foster goodwill among parties to the dispute.
We believe that commitment to harnessing the diverse mosaic of ecological zones of the Niger Delta, five of which are the Mangrove Forest and Coastal Vegetation Zone, the Fresh Water and Swamp Forest Zone, the Lowland Rain Forest Zone, the Derived Savannah Zone and the Montane Zone will engage the people more and produce the needed lasting peace in the region.