The Niger Delta and Other Issues of National Unity

By Msonter Anzaa

I can bet that there are few people in Nigeria who don’t know the Niger Delta. To the federal government, the region has been a night mare for some time. The issues arising from the Niger Delta also spark series of unending debates. The Niger Delta may be looked upon as just a region but what has happened there has a potential to spread to other parts of the country.

Oil and the Niger Delta have become synonymous with each other. The region is the sole producer of the oil revenue that is the main strength of the national economy. Oil exploration began long ago in that region. And right from the beginning of its exploration, the issues of the relationship existing between oil companies and the host communities; what share of the derived revenue should be given to them and environmental challenges, arose. The struggle for fair terms of dealings in the oil business also has a long history. If we go a few years back, we will remember Ken Saro-wiwa and the other eight Ogoni activists hung by the General Abacha administration. The most recent Niger Delta history is fraught with brutal exchanges between militant groups and the government. Raw exchange of fire between militant groups and government forces; blowing up of oil installations and violent attacks on public buildings, characterize the region’s most recent history.

All these ugly developments existed because of a variety of reasons. First while oil exploration came with its attendant environmental and economic responsibilities, government was not doing enough to address the challenges. Groups in the region arose to demand fairness and equality in the distribution of the oil revenue. Their farmlands could be used no more; their waters could neither be fished in nor drank and their atmosphere became saturated with poisonous gases. Life was simply unbearable. Terrible sicknesses arose because of the rapid changes in the environment. And for a long time, government exhibited insincerity in its dealings with the agitators. Then unpleasant aspects became introduced into the struggle. Kidnapping for ransome, oil bunkering and many other criminal dimensions overtook the main struggle. And so the Niger Delta continued to boil.

The issues in the Niger Delta are very broad and diverse. Bad leadership and corruption are not peculiar to that region alone. We have them all over the country. These contributed greatly to worsening the situation in that region. While they agitated for increased revenue allocation, their leaders could not account for what was being given them from the federation account. Government demonstrated its insincerity in the summits and review summits it held. All went on that way until the amnesty program began.

A lot of lessons can be learnt from the issues in the Niger Delta. First it was proved once again in that region that there is a level to which a people would be so pushed to the wall that they would turn and fight back hard. Second, the Niger Delta testifies that corruption, bad governance and imposition cannot last long among a people without trouble. Another

important lesson from the region is that when people refuse to be sincere; when they become selfish and insensitive; and when they would neither dialogue nor accept good reason, the violence that erupts affects all. The Niger Delta signifies what can happen when a people and their government exist on different spheres of realities. It represents what happens when a government loses trust from its own people. The crises in that region point clearly to what would happen when government fails consistently in meeting the yearnings and aspirations of its own people.

The problem of this nation today is lack of unity. And this is worsened by bad governance and corruption. Where governments are accountable and responsive to the needs of their people, people think positively. It is only where there are so many problems that people turn round an think it is because their tribesman is not in power that they are suffering. And when they consistently blame an authority for their woes, the resultant dissatisfaction can lead to violence. The unity of this nation has been shaken by political and religious crises. To correct these, only a sustained mental readjustment is feasible. When the government is good, no one would insist that a president or governor must come from their tribe or religion. What every one wants is peace, security and progress. If we can make ourselves comfortable, we would have less agitations for leadership positions or even outright secession. The stability of a country, whether religious or political, depends on its ability to make its people comfortable and satisfied.

Now that there is relative peace in the Niger Delta, the federal and state governments would do well to aggressively address the developmental challenges of thatregion. Our governments- past and present- must realize that the solution to agitations does not lie in suppressing them but in sincerely addressing the issues that throw up those agitations. And “the maturity of a system is not in the absence of conflict but its ability to handle them while preserving itself.”