THE PERSISTENCE OF THE NIGER DELTA CRISIS
Recently, the Niger Delta crisis that has been persisting for years assumed a dangerous dimension and intensity. The militia groups disrupted oil business in the area and exploit millions of dollars from the multi-national oil corporations. The people of Niger Delta have been complaining about environmental damage from oil exploration and rising unemployment and poverty in the region, but the successive government has been insensitive to the plight of the people. The people have endured a long history of economic and social injustice. It is clear that amnesty programme cannot be a catalyst for resolution of the crisis in the Niger Delta. The amnesty progrmme is a shadow of the Federal Government's manipulations, it has been exposed that the ammunition of the Joint Task Force (JTF) is boost with the confiscated weapons which the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta MEND surrendered during the amnesty programme. The weapons include fire arms such as high caliber machine guns, grenades, AK-47 and short guns. It was also gathered that some devious elements used the programme as a means of making dubious financial gains, by selling the confiscated weapons to criminal groups (armed robbers) who rob people of their money and properties and kill their victims in most cases.
The Niger Delta crisis infuriates local communities as they believe that they have been betrayed by broken promises and military violence. With no end in sight to the devastation of the ecosystem and the ongoing disturbance by the militants who are profiting hugely from illegal practice of oil bunkering, at the expense of local communities and ultimately risking the lives of their own people (who they claim to fight for) when there is an attack to stop the bunkering by the government force. The Federal Government has put the economic loss incurred by the nation while the Niger Delta crisis lasted at over N308.7 billion with a whooping N3 billion lost in 2008 alone to the conflict. This translates to the production loss of one million barrels of oil per day.
It is believed that the Federal Government, both past and present have not made any sincere and practical steps towards resolving the problem, instead sink big amount of money into setting up commissions, boards, conflict resolution committees and Ministry in Niger Delta yet the resolution of the crisis remains a mirage. This is because these initiatives have never solved the problems; rather a lot of money has been wasted, and yet no fruitful result is achieved. It is important to note that it is the resources from oil that Abuja the capital of Nigeria and other major cities in Nigeria were built and developed. Yet Niger Delta is left undeveloped. It is also from the resources of oil that the salaries of soldiers and traditional rulers are paid. It is from the money from the oil that the corrupt leaders embezzle for their selfish interest. The truth is that successive administrations have paid artless service or done nothing to the situation instead keep stealing the fund that could have solve a part of the problem. It is this prevalent state of affairs that stimulated the demands for a drastic redress, which later developed from peaceful agitation to violent crisis, and most regrettably, the involvement of criminals which appears to have overwhelmed the noble course.
It is pertinent that many prominent people in Niger Delta and the entire Niger Delta have mounted all kinds of resistance against this oppression and injustice on them. The agitation of Movement for Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP) came up as an outrage of Ogoni people over the issues of marginalization and neglect by Shell Development Company and the Federal Government. There was the issue of the Murder of four Ogoni men, hanging of nine Ogoni people and execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa. Another uprising was the Kaiama Declaration. It was a resolution of a meeting of the Ijaw Youths Conference (IYC) held in Kaiama, Bayelsa State in 1998. The resolution ordered all producing companies to vacate the region latest December 1998. There was relative peace after this time. But in 2003 there was a rivalry clash between the gangs and cults loyal to Asari-Dokubo of the Niger Delta People's Volunteer Force (NDPVF), Niger Delta Peoples Salvation Front (NDPSF) and Ateke Tom of the Niger Delta Vigilante Group (NDVG). Also in 2006, the introduction of Movement for Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND) added a new dimension to the entire saga. There are so many agitative groups created over the years but another dimension to the entire issue are the cases of illegal bunkering, cultism, militancy, sea piracy, hijacking of vessels, hostage taking and kidnapping.
Now the effect of the crisis persists because of the uncooperative and greedy attitude of the people, availability and easy access to fire-arms, financial benefits from illegal oil bunkering and hostage taking. And, on the other hand the government reacts to the situation because of the loss of revenue as a result of the destruction of facilities, especially pipelines and flow stations. Although there are ecological consequences alongside environmental hazards which arise from oil spillage and the cost of repairs of these facilities is very huge.
The Niger Delta crisis is a serious matter that requires serious policy, commitment and courageous leadership to resolve. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta has even carried out some rocket attacks. The government does not seem to care, because the demand of the people seemed to be too enormous burden for them to resolve as they complain of financial inadequacy. Instead, the government lines up sycophants that are philosophically attuned with their false policies to laud the success of their policies in the Niger Delta. The question is "When will the government do the right thing and find a lasting solution to the crisis, rather than waste time and resources creating ineffective commissions and resolutions that could not solve the problem?"
The Commissions established by the government include (Oil Mineral Producing Areas Development Commission (OMPADEC) in 1992, which was replaced by the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) in 2000) have not made any noticeable socioeconomic impacts in the region. The crisis in the Niger Delta is not complex by itself, but the approach to resolving it makes it complex and dangerous. The main causes of Niger Delta crisis include greed from both the government and the people of the Niger Delta who in turn embezzle funds allocated to the region, be it enough or too little, although, there exist deprivation and social injustice etc.
Now, that the amnesty programme is appearing to be a failure, MEND threatened to continue in the fight with the current tempo for the right of the people and that if their demands are not met peace talks may collapse and the unrest will resume. They claimed that the government has been offering bribes to a numbers of militant who surrendered their birth rights under its amnesty program in the form of contracts. MEND abundantly made it clear that members who are involved have no course to be alive. "Although, they took bribe and went in the hidden, MEND believes that they will fished-out soon." MEND is committed to continue in its fight for the rights of the people of the Niger Delta.
The crisis has created a weird booming business of hostage taking for money and storming of banks carting away with millions of Naira. It was recently reported that a gang of militants stormed some financial institutions in Port Harcourt (and its environs) and made away with millions of Naira. The world was told that freed hostages were without strings attached. But everybody knows that the federal government was lying; it dished out some millions before they were released. Also, the crisis has become an avenue for the corrupt government officials to loot, by hiding behind excuse of ‘paying for hostage release' to steal from the public. As a journalist beautifully noted, "Hostage taking has become a lucrative business providing a means of spending money without proper accountability."
And the situation could spiral out of control into a "civil war." Economic and social factors have been noted as the underlying conditions for civil wars in societies. The ethnic militias fighting for ethnic self-determination could be perching on the fence waiting for such a thing as civil war to happen! But, there is no guarantee that a bloody hostage taking situation will not occur in Niger Delta in the future because the government is yet to put in place resolute mechanism and better policy to forestall such possibility. The Nigerian police, who even occasionally go on strike action or the Joint Task Force, do not have the credibility to provide the security the society needs because most times they are afraid to engage the militants in a shootout battle.
On May 10, 2006, an executive with the United States-based oil company Baker Hughes was shot and killed in the south-eastern city of Port Harcourt. At the time of the shooting, it was not immediately known if MEND had any involvement or not. Witnesses say the attacker appeared to be specifically targeting the US executive.
On June 2, 2006 a Norwegian rig offshore Nigeria was attacked and 16 crew members were kidnapped. According to the news agency Reuters, MEND has not taken responsibility for this attack.
On August 20, 2006, 10 MEND members were killed by the Nigerian military. The members were working on releasing a Royal Dutch Shell hostage. In an email to REUTERS, MEND stated, "Our response to Sunday's killings will come at our time, but for certain it will not go unpunished."
On October 2, 2006, 10 Nigerian soldiers were killed off the shore of the Niger Delta in their patrol boat by a MEND mortar shell. Earlier that day a Nigerian/Royal Dutch Shell convoy was attacked in the Port Harcourt region resulting in some people being wounded.
On October 3, 2006, a militant group abducted four Scots, a Malaysian, an Indonesian and a Romanian from a bar in Akwa Ibom state.
On October 4, 2006, Nigerian soldiers attacked a militant camp, in the ensuing battle 9 Nigerian soldiers were killed.
On November 22, 2006, Nigerian soldiers attempted a rescue of kidnapped oil workers which resulted in one soldier being killed.
On May 1, 2007, MEND attacked Chevron's Oloibiri floating production, storage, and offloading vessel off southern Bayelsa state. They seized six expatriate workers, consisting of four Italians, an American and a Croat. On the same day, MEND published photos of the captives seated on white plastic chairs in a wooden shelter around the remains of a campfire.
On May 3, 2007, MEND seized eight foreign hostages from another offshore vessel. The hostages were released less than 24 hours later, stating they had intended to destroy the vessel and did not want more hostages.
On May 8, 2007, three major oil pipelines (one in Brass and two in the Akasa area) were attacked, shutting down oil production and cutting power to a facility run by Italian oil company Agip, part of the ENI energy group. An e-mail statement from a MEND spokesperson said, "Fighters of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) attacked and destroyed three major pipelines in Bayelsa state... We will continue indefinitely with attacks on all pipelines, platforms and support vessels."
On September 23, 2007, a MEND spokesperson named Jomo Gbomo announced, through a communiqué to the Philadelphia Independent Media Center, that media reports of his arrest and detention were false; and then further informed, through the letter, that MEND had officially declared war, effective 12 midnight, September 23, 2007, and that they would be commencing "attacks on installations and abduction of expatriates."
On November 13, 2007, MEND militants attacked Cameroonian soldiers on the disputed Bakassi peninsula, killing more than 20 soldiers; three days after this incident, a southern Cameroonian rebel group claimed responsibility to the attack on the soldiers.
On May 3, 2008, MEND militants attacked Shell-operated pipelines in Nigeria, forcing the company to halt 170,000 barrels a day of exports of Bonny Light crude.
On June 20, 2008, MEND naval forces attacked the Shell-operated Bonga oil platform, shutting down 10% of Nigeria's oil production in one fell swoop. The oil platform, Shell's flagship project in the area capable of extracting a massive 200,000 barrels of oil a day, was widely assumed to be outside the reach of the militants due to its location 120 km off-shore. This attack has demonstrated a level of prowess and sophistication never before seen by the rebels and it is now known that all of Nigeria's oil platforms are within range of MEND attack.
On September 14, 2008, MEND inaugurated Operation Hurricane Barbarossa with an ongoing string of militant attacks to bring down the oil industry in Rivers State.
In September 2008, MEND released a statement proclaiming that their militants had launched an "oil war" throughout the Niger Delta against both pipelines and oil production facilities, and the Nigerian soldiers that protect them. In the statement MEND claimed to have killed 22 Nigerian soldiers in one attack against a Chevron-owned oil platform. The Nigerian government confirmed that their troops were attacked in numerous locations, but said that all assaults were repelled with the infliction of heavy casualties on the militants.
On September 27, a week after declaring an oil war and destroying several significant oil production and transportation hubs in the delta, the group declared a ceasefire until "further notice" upon the intervention of Ijaw and other elders in the region.
On May 15, 2009, a military operation undertaken by a Joint Task Force (JTF) began against MEND. It came in response to the kidnapping of Nigerian soldiers and foreign sailors in the Delta region. Thousands of Nigerians have fled their villages and hundreds of people may be dead because of the offensive.
MEND has claimed responsibility for pipeline attacks on June 18-21 on three oil installations belonging to Royal Dutch Shell in the Niger Delta. In a campaign labeled by the group as "Hurricane Piper Alpha", Chevron was also warned that it would "pay a price" for allowing the Nigerian military use of an oil company airstrip.
On June 18, MEND claimed they had blown up a Shell pipeline, as a warning to Russian president Dmitry Medvedev who was arriving to Nigeria the next day and to any potential foreign investor.
July 6, MEND claimed responsibility for an attack on the Okan oil manifold. The pipeline was blown up at 8:45 p.m. (3:45 p.m. ET) Sunday. The militants claim that the manifold carried some 80 percent of Chevron Nigeria Limited's off-shore crude oil to a loading platform.
In a separate action on the same day, the group said that three Russians, two Filipinos and an Indian were seized Sunday from the Siehem Peace oil tanker about 20 miles from the southern port city of Escravos.
MEND carried out its first attack in Lagos late July 11. Rebels attacked and set on fire the Atlas Cove Jetty on Tarkwa Bay, which is a major oil hub for Nigeria. Five workers were killed in the strike.
As at 17th of Oct, reliable sources stated that The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) would resume its hostilities against the Nigerian oil industry, the Nigerian Armed Forces and its collaborators with effect from (no time specified) hours, Friday, October 16, 2009," the group's spokesman, Jomo Gbomo, said in the statement.
It is yet to come to the public understanding that the multi-national oil corporations are not responsible for the Niger Delta crisis, because the corporations are doing their best and even going out of their legal capacity to take care of some responsibility that the government directly own to its people. After all, the multi-national oil companies do not have the duty to formulate federal government policies. The government should take responsibility for their inaction and device innovative ways to tackle the problems. It should put appropriate policies in place to grow the economy to reduce the rising unemployment and poverty, environmental degradation and the violence in the Niger Delta. Also Government should initiate attractive programmes of demobilization, rehabilitation and re-integration of militants. We have to review the contentious laws that seem to inhibit the participation of host communities in the enterprise of the oil and gas industry. Against this backdrop no responsible Government should sit and ignore the stark reality. From the look of things it does not appear that the situation will improve in the future, the question is ‘Will there ever be an end to the crisis?'
The Niger Delta crisis infuriates local communities as they believe that they have been betrayed by broken promises and military violence. With no end in sight to the devastation of the ecosystem and the ongoing disturbance by the militants who are profiting hugely from illegal practice of oil bunkering, at the expense of local communities and ultimately risking the lives of their own people (who they claim to fight for) when there is an attack to stop the bunkering by the government force. The Federal Government has put the economic loss incurred by the nation while the Niger Delta crisis lasted at over N308.7 billion with a whooping N3 billion lost in 2008 alone to the conflict. This translates to the production loss of one million barrels of oil per day.
It is believed that the Federal Government, both past and present have not made any sincere and practical steps towards resolving the problem, instead sink big amount of money into setting up commissions, boards, conflict resolution committees and Ministry in Niger Delta yet the resolution of the crisis remains a mirage. This is because these initiatives have never solved the problems; rather a lot of money has been wasted, and yet no fruitful result is achieved. It is important to note that it is the resources from oil that Abuja the capital of Nigeria and other major cities in Nigeria were built and developed. Yet Niger Delta is left undeveloped. It is also from the resources of oil that the salaries of soldiers and traditional rulers are paid. It is from the money from the oil that the corrupt leaders embezzle for their selfish interest. The truth is that successive administrations have paid artless service or done nothing to the situation instead keep stealing the fund that could have solve a part of the problem. It is this prevalent state of affairs that stimulated the demands for a drastic redress, which later developed from peaceful agitation to violent crisis, and most regrettably, the involvement of criminals which appears to have overwhelmed the noble course.
It is pertinent that many prominent people in Niger Delta and the entire Niger Delta have mounted all kinds of resistance against this oppression and injustice on them. The agitation of Movement for Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP) came up as an outrage of Ogoni people over the issues of marginalization and neglect by Shell Development Company and the Federal Government. There was the issue of the Murder of four Ogoni men, hanging of nine Ogoni people and execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa. Another uprising was the Kaiama Declaration. It was a resolution of a meeting of the Ijaw Youths Conference (IYC) held in Kaiama, Bayelsa State in 1998. The resolution ordered all producing companies to vacate the region latest December 1998. There was relative peace after this time. But in 2003 there was a rivalry clash between the gangs and cults loyal to Asari-Dokubo of the Niger Delta People's Volunteer Force (NDPVF), Niger Delta Peoples Salvation Front (NDPSF) and Ateke Tom of the Niger Delta Vigilante Group (NDVG). Also in 2006, the introduction of Movement for Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND) added a new dimension to the entire saga. There are so many agitative groups created over the years but another dimension to the entire issue are the cases of illegal bunkering, cultism, militancy, sea piracy, hijacking of vessels, hostage taking and kidnapping.
Now the effect of the crisis persists because of the uncooperative and greedy attitude of the people, availability and easy access to fire-arms, financial benefits from illegal oil bunkering and hostage taking. And, on the other hand the government reacts to the situation because of the loss of revenue as a result of the destruction of facilities, especially pipelines and flow stations. Although there are ecological consequences alongside environmental hazards which arise from oil spillage and the cost of repairs of these facilities is very huge.
The Niger Delta crisis is a serious matter that requires serious policy, commitment and courageous leadership to resolve. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta has even carried out some rocket attacks. The government does not seem to care, because the demand of the people seemed to be too enormous burden for them to resolve as they complain of financial inadequacy. Instead, the government lines up sycophants that are philosophically attuned with their false policies to laud the success of their policies in the Niger Delta. The question is "When will the government do the right thing and find a lasting solution to the crisis, rather than waste time and resources creating ineffective commissions and resolutions that could not solve the problem?"
The Commissions established by the government include (Oil Mineral Producing Areas Development Commission (OMPADEC) in 1992, which was replaced by the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) in 2000) have not made any noticeable socioeconomic impacts in the region. The crisis in the Niger Delta is not complex by itself, but the approach to resolving it makes it complex and dangerous. The main causes of Niger Delta crisis include greed from both the government and the people of the Niger Delta who in turn embezzle funds allocated to the region, be it enough or too little, although, there exist deprivation and social injustice etc.
Now, that the amnesty programme is appearing to be a failure, MEND threatened to continue in the fight with the current tempo for the right of the people and that if their demands are not met peace talks may collapse and the unrest will resume. They claimed that the government has been offering bribes to a numbers of militant who surrendered their birth rights under its amnesty program in the form of contracts. MEND abundantly made it clear that members who are involved have no course to be alive. "Although, they took bribe and went in the hidden, MEND believes that they will fished-out soon." MEND is committed to continue in its fight for the rights of the people of the Niger Delta.
The crisis has created a weird booming business of hostage taking for money and storming of banks carting away with millions of Naira. It was recently reported that a gang of militants stormed some financial institutions in Port Harcourt (and its environs) and made away with millions of Naira. The world was told that freed hostages were without strings attached. But everybody knows that the federal government was lying; it dished out some millions before they were released. Also, the crisis has become an avenue for the corrupt government officials to loot, by hiding behind excuse of ‘paying for hostage release' to steal from the public. As a journalist beautifully noted, "Hostage taking has become a lucrative business providing a means of spending money without proper accountability."
And the situation could spiral out of control into a "civil war." Economic and social factors have been noted as the underlying conditions for civil wars in societies. The ethnic militias fighting for ethnic self-determination could be perching on the fence waiting for such a thing as civil war to happen! But, there is no guarantee that a bloody hostage taking situation will not occur in Niger Delta in the future because the government is yet to put in place resolute mechanism and better policy to forestall such possibility. The Nigerian police, who even occasionally go on strike action or the Joint Task Force, do not have the credibility to provide the security the society needs because most times they are afraid to engage the militants in a shootout battle.
On May 10, 2006, an executive with the United States-based oil company Baker Hughes was shot and killed in the south-eastern city of Port Harcourt. At the time of the shooting, it was not immediately known if MEND had any involvement or not. Witnesses say the attacker appeared to be specifically targeting the US executive.
On June 2, 2006 a Norwegian rig offshore Nigeria was attacked and 16 crew members were kidnapped. According to the news agency Reuters, MEND has not taken responsibility for this attack.
On August 20, 2006, 10 MEND members were killed by the Nigerian military. The members were working on releasing a Royal Dutch Shell hostage. In an email to REUTERS, MEND stated, "Our response to Sunday's killings will come at our time, but for certain it will not go unpunished."
On October 2, 2006, 10 Nigerian soldiers were killed off the shore of the Niger Delta in their patrol boat by a MEND mortar shell. Earlier that day a Nigerian/Royal Dutch Shell convoy was attacked in the Port Harcourt region resulting in some people being wounded.
On October 3, 2006, a militant group abducted four Scots, a Malaysian, an Indonesian and a Romanian from a bar in Akwa Ibom state.
On October 4, 2006, Nigerian soldiers attacked a militant camp, in the ensuing battle 9 Nigerian soldiers were killed.
On November 22, 2006, Nigerian soldiers attempted a rescue of kidnapped oil workers which resulted in one soldier being killed.
On May 1, 2007, MEND attacked Chevron's Oloibiri floating production, storage, and offloading vessel off southern Bayelsa state. They seized six expatriate workers, consisting of four Italians, an American and a Croat. On the same day, MEND published photos of the captives seated on white plastic chairs in a wooden shelter around the remains of a campfire.
On May 3, 2007, MEND seized eight foreign hostages from another offshore vessel. The hostages were released less than 24 hours later, stating they had intended to destroy the vessel and did not want more hostages.
On May 8, 2007, three major oil pipelines (one in Brass and two in the Akasa area) were attacked, shutting down oil production and cutting power to a facility run by Italian oil company Agip, part of the ENI energy group. An e-mail statement from a MEND spokesperson said, "Fighters of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) attacked and destroyed three major pipelines in Bayelsa state... We will continue indefinitely with attacks on all pipelines, platforms and support vessels."
On September 23, 2007, a MEND spokesperson named Jomo Gbomo announced, through a communiqué to the Philadelphia Independent Media Center, that media reports of his arrest and detention were false; and then further informed, through the letter, that MEND had officially declared war, effective 12 midnight, September 23, 2007, and that they would be commencing "attacks on installations and abduction of expatriates."
On November 13, 2007, MEND militants attacked Cameroonian soldiers on the disputed Bakassi peninsula, killing more than 20 soldiers; three days after this incident, a southern Cameroonian rebel group claimed responsibility to the attack on the soldiers.
On May 3, 2008, MEND militants attacked Shell-operated pipelines in Nigeria, forcing the company to halt 170,000 barrels a day of exports of Bonny Light crude.
On June 20, 2008, MEND naval forces attacked the Shell-operated Bonga oil platform, shutting down 10% of Nigeria's oil production in one fell swoop. The oil platform, Shell's flagship project in the area capable of extracting a massive 200,000 barrels of oil a day, was widely assumed to be outside the reach of the militants due to its location 120 km off-shore. This attack has demonstrated a level of prowess and sophistication never before seen by the rebels and it is now known that all of Nigeria's oil platforms are within range of MEND attack.
On September 14, 2008, MEND inaugurated Operation Hurricane Barbarossa with an ongoing string of militant attacks to bring down the oil industry in Rivers State.
In September 2008, MEND released a statement proclaiming that their militants had launched an "oil war" throughout the Niger Delta against both pipelines and oil production facilities, and the Nigerian soldiers that protect them. In the statement MEND claimed to have killed 22 Nigerian soldiers in one attack against a Chevron-owned oil platform. The Nigerian government confirmed that their troops were attacked in numerous locations, but said that all assaults were repelled with the infliction of heavy casualties on the militants.
On September 27, a week after declaring an oil war and destroying several significant oil production and transportation hubs in the delta, the group declared a ceasefire until "further notice" upon the intervention of Ijaw and other elders in the region.
On May 15, 2009, a military operation undertaken by a Joint Task Force (JTF) began against MEND. It came in response to the kidnapping of Nigerian soldiers and foreign sailors in the Delta region. Thousands of Nigerians have fled their villages and hundreds of people may be dead because of the offensive.
MEND has claimed responsibility for pipeline attacks on June 18-21 on three oil installations belonging to Royal Dutch Shell in the Niger Delta. In a campaign labeled by the group as "Hurricane Piper Alpha", Chevron was also warned that it would "pay a price" for allowing the Nigerian military use of an oil company airstrip.
On June 18, MEND claimed they had blown up a Shell pipeline, as a warning to Russian president Dmitry Medvedev who was arriving to Nigeria the next day and to any potential foreign investor.
July 6, MEND claimed responsibility for an attack on the Okan oil manifold. The pipeline was blown up at 8:45 p.m. (3:45 p.m. ET) Sunday. The militants claim that the manifold carried some 80 percent of Chevron Nigeria Limited's off-shore crude oil to a loading platform.
In a separate action on the same day, the group said that three Russians, two Filipinos and an Indian were seized Sunday from the Siehem Peace oil tanker about 20 miles from the southern port city of Escravos.
MEND carried out its first attack in Lagos late July 11. Rebels attacked and set on fire the Atlas Cove Jetty on Tarkwa Bay, which is a major oil hub for Nigeria. Five workers were killed in the strike.
As at 17th of Oct, reliable sources stated that The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) would resume its hostilities against the Nigerian oil industry, the Nigerian Armed Forces and its collaborators with effect from (no time specified) hours, Friday, October 16, 2009," the group's spokesman, Jomo Gbomo, said in the statement.
It is yet to come to the public understanding that the multi-national oil corporations are not responsible for the Niger Delta crisis, because the corporations are doing their best and even going out of their legal capacity to take care of some responsibility that the government directly own to its people. After all, the multi-national oil companies do not have the duty to formulate federal government policies. The government should take responsibility for their inaction and device innovative ways to tackle the problems. It should put appropriate policies in place to grow the economy to reduce the rising unemployment and poverty, environmental degradation and the violence in the Niger Delta. Also Government should initiate attractive programmes of demobilization, rehabilitation and re-integration of militants. We have to review the contentious laws that seem to inhibit the participation of host communities in the enterprise of the oil and gas industry. Against this backdrop no responsible Government should sit and ignore the stark reality. From the look of things it does not appear that the situation will improve in the future, the question is ‘Will there ever be an end to the crisis?'
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