abdulraheem
“In 2005 while in War College we went on tour to Rivers and the participants asked about the security of the BONGA project. The Shell reps told us since the oilfield is 120 nautical off our coast it was safe from attacks. In warfare the attacker has the surprise and freedom of action” TEXT MESSAGE “Three weeks ago I told you of words in the creeks to expand the struggle to Nigeria’s deep off shore; I am sure you now know better. Bonga fields have been hit. Two weeks ago I talked of words in the creeks of a planned across the board boycott of the Niger Delta summit. You now know better. Now there is words (sic) in the creeks of plans not only to cripple all Nigeria’s fuel and gas imports, and to completely cripple all other commercial shipping (imports and exports) to and from Nigeria. Nigeria’s water ways from Lagos to Akwa Ibom will be made no go areas for shipping vessels and ships of all types. The local refining infrastructures will not be spared. You are a journalist use your instincts” TEXT MESSAGE Last Thursday’s attack on the Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) Bonga fields reverberated around the world. By every standard, it was a most daring assault on the economic artery of our country as well as a major attack on the interest of some of the most powerful countries in the world today. The bonga fields is located about 120 nautical miles off shore, and in the words of THE GUARDIAN newspaper of Friday, June 20, 2008, “that Bonga field is of common interests to Britain, united states (US), France, and Italy, which own Shell, ExxonMobil, Elf and Agip, in that order, all operating in the field.” The shadowy organisation, MEND, claimed responsibility for the attack, which cut Nigeria’s crude export by 225, 000 barrels per day. It came against the back drop of the announcement by the Minister of State for Finance, Mr. Remi Babalola, ironically the day before the Bonga field attack, that Nigeria now loses N9.919bilion ($84million) daily to the activities of Niger Delta militants. Nigerians and indeed the oil-consuming community, was still taking in the daring nature of the Bonga field assault, when over last weekend, the militants struck again, to blow up a pipeline belonging to the American oil company, Chevron. That facility was producing up to 120, 000 barrels of oil per day. On Monday, June 23, 2008, THE GUARDIAN newspaper reported that Nigeria was systematically suffering from oil shut-in, directly related to the series of attacks from the Niger Delta low-intensity insurgency. The two attacks of the last one week have so far reduced the country’s output by 345,000 barrels per day. From those two attacks alone, Nigeria is now losing N5.48billion ($46.44million) per day. This is outside the earlier quoted figure of about N10billion per day which the Minister of State, Finance had released. In the wake of the events, there have been all kinds of commentaries in the Nigerian media, about the festering sore in the Niger Delta. Last Monday, after reading the communiqué he released on behalf of AC, I called up lai Mohammed, to ask him, just who the “real stakeholders” he wanted the government to be engaged with were. His answer was that the youths now constitute the REAL force driving the insurgency, not the elders who go about collecting money, enriching themselves fabulously, while their communities and people continue to live in the most appalling poverty. Another issue which frightens me about the Niger Delta issue is the way many people in government see it as simply a “law and order” issue. It is an issue of criminal bands who really must be dealt with; this much sums up the perspective of a government adviser that I spoke with a few days ago. But more than at any point in recent history, what is happening in the Niger Delta, really ought to give us the pause. I am very worried, because as a patriot, I love my country with a passionate intensity and I really do honestly believe, and this has been the basis of my own political and journalistic life, that Nigeria possesses so much latent possibilities that should be properly harnessed for all of our peoples, and in fact for the greater glory of all the African peoples. I believe that Nigeria’s multi-dimensional complexities do not or should not be a disadvantage; that where there is a far-seeing leadership instituted on the basis of justice for all our people and a historical sense of purpose, then we can build this, into a very great nation. Unfortunately for us, as I have argued severally in the past few months, we are saddled with a ruling class project based on banditry, total irresponsibility, lack of an awareness of the need to safe guard even their own class project of hegemonic control and therefore constituting a danger to Nigeria, Africa and even the world! If we need an example of the irresponsibility of those who rule our country, the insurgency in the Niger Delta is a perfect illustration. I speak of my fears for our country, because all the available indices show that we are being driven to a total collapse of our country. And as I will argue here, it is becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy, as a result of acts of commission and omission by our ruling class. Take the issue of revenue allocation to the Niger Delta states; I think that we should not close the debate about what is equitable and can genuinely assist the development of that region: with its fragile environment; its dispersed population whose cultural life has been largely conditioned by the environment of the creeks. Are we as a nation doing enough sociological/anthropological studies (colonial anthropology was deployed as a science to facilitate plunder and control in the late 19th and early 20th centuries), in order to facilitate genuine resolutions of problems together with the peoples of these communities? Secondly, isn’t the nature of the nation’s political process and leadership recruitment pattern part of the problem? Let us be frank with ourselves; the PDP regimes of the different states of the Niger Delta and the Obasanjo regime at the center have contributed to the institution of criminality in the region, as revelations from the Rivers Truth Commission have shown in recent days. It is amazing just how patently criminal types became governors, ministers, commissioners and so on, in the region. With access to huge sums of money, they went on a looting spree unprecedented in Nigerian history. Of course the inept regimes they ran could never have won free and fair elections; therefore, they armed young men to help steal elections in 2003, with active connivance of the PDP government of Obasanjo at the center. Those that were armed became the backbone of the more criminal elements responsible for the kidnappings, wanton killings and other acts of lawlessness that became the hallmark of Hobbesian existence in the Niger Delta. It is a fact that the PDP regimes in those states and at the centre have been responsible for the arming of the criminal elements in the Niger Delta; that is why many operatives of government only see the criminal side to the Niger Delta problem. They after all caused it. But it is also obvious that there is a rational kernel within the Niger Delta struggle that must be engaged with. When I read the communiqués of MEND; or study the way they creatively use media as well as the issues they raise, it is obvious to me, that we cannot reduce the problem we are faced with, to just a “law and order” problem. Besides, even if that is the approach favoured by the authorities, they are deluded, because it is a well-known fact, that the Nigerian armed forces do not have the capacity to seriously pacify the region. The armed forces are not properly equipped, and there is restiveness amongst troops deployed in the region, because compared to the fire power of the militants, our troops are sometimes not better than boy scouts on patrol. It is that inadequacy of equipment, which makes them sitting ducks, at the mercy of the militants, according to many accounts. Then there is also the well-reported problem of officers and men becoming sucked into the illegal trade in petroleum products. Somebody told me, that these officers can make more money in one day, than the entire salary they would earn in a 35 year service in the military! Therefore, they have become interested in the continuation of the anarchic breakdown that we are all suffering from today, as a country. Underlining all these problems in my view, is the fundamental choice that has been made by our ruling class to foster a society which facilitates a get rich quick and damn every other person culture! If it is capitalism that our rulers think they are constructing in Nigeria, it is such an uncaring and incompetent form of it. The decision to withdraw the state from the lives of the people, as a compassionate force has unleashed all kinds of demons in our society today: armed gangs; forces sworn to the dismemberment of the country; criminals preying on society and the state and the theft of state institutions in the criminal processes of privatization embarked upon by a succession of regimes since the mid-1980s. Capitalism, especially its Nigerian variety, is not working for our people. On the contrary, it has led to the consolidation of criminal wealth in the hands of bandit billionaires; it has led to the criminalization of politics with groups of godfathers and politicians only interested in looting state resources and a peculiarly Nigerian phenomenon of “privatization” of the state. The obverse is the process which took root in the Niger Delta and the insecurity we all face in different parts of the country today. It is very poignant that President Yar’adua has not visited the Niger Delta except to go and provide political “covering fire” for the PDP to rig the elections in Bayelsa State! Yet, the Niger Delta is one of the 7-point agenda of his regime. That tells so much about the nature of our ruling elite in Nigeria. In the post-cold war period, right wing think tanks in the USA have been arguing that there are some countries that are too big for proper control in Africa, and might have to be broken into smaller units. They often mention Sudan, the Congo and Nigeria (remember the American intelligence assessment of a few years ago?). These are strategically important countries that are also fabulously rich in all kinds of resources that the imperialist countries will like to control firmly in the context of the international geo-political rivalries of the contemporary world. So while they are building larger units in Europe, Asia and North America, they want us to fragment. Unfortunately, our country is run by a bandit ruling class: inept, kleptocratic, and irresponsible and without a sense of history. They are driving us to the edge of the precipice; but patriotic forces are too slow to grasp the need for a different political and economic direction for our fatherland! That is why I have so much fear for Nigeria!
