This is the closest I got to the Niger Delta during my stay in Nigeria. On the road to Enugu we crossed the Niger River, although we were still a couple hundred kilometers upstream of the Delta.
When Nigeria makes the news in the West it’s often because of the violence in the Niger River Delta. Last night CNN World News reported from nowhere else but Lagos, and the story was about this very topic.
The report covered the most recent attack on oil production in the Niger Delta. On Monday, militants struck a Shell Petroleum pipeline, halting production of 130,000 barrels of crude oil per day. Since I arrived in Nigeria in June, several such attacks have occurred. The most notable among them was against an offshore drilling station, the first attack on an offshore facility in the history of Nigeria.
The facts of oil in Nigeria are compelling. Nigeria is the world’s sixth largest producer of oil. It was the 5th largest oil producer until recently, when militants' attacks forced oil companies to shut down significant portions of their production. The Nigerian press reported today that for the first time in recent history, oil production has fallen below 1 million barrels per day, while Nigeria has the capacity to produce 3.2 million barrels per day.
From oil production Nigeria receives billions of dollars in revenue per year. The exact amount of revenue is difficult to calculate, but it’s at least $5 billion, according to the CEO of Shell Nigeria (he addressed our SIPA study tour when we came to Nigeria in January). A Nigerian friend told me that the number is likely closer to $20 billion.
Niger Delta Militants are motivated to attack oil production facilities because of the squalor in which Delta residents live, while multinational oil companies use state-of-the-art technology to extract millions of dollars worth of crude oil per day. Militants in the Niger Delta are organized into groups such as Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), who carried out Monday’s attack.
In a statement issued Monday, MEND traced blame for Delta residents’ poverty to the British who employed “divide and rule tactics” during colonial times, favoring Nigerians in other parts of the country and forcing poverty upon Nigerians in the Delta. MEND made specific reference to the July G8 summit in which Gordon Brown offered aid to the Nigerian military to fight militants in the Delta. Through this, MEND claimed, Britain would help the Nigerian military “further the violation of [Delta residents’] human rights.”
According to Nigerians, the situation is more complex than the clear-cut, developed-world-versus-developing-world conflict ones sees at face value. Just as culpable as the oil companies is the Nigerian government, some Nigerians say. The federal government directs significant amounts of funding to develop the Delta region, but governors of Niger Delta states siphon federal funds to their own coffers, building elaborate homes in Nigeria and abroad. The federal government created the Niger Delta Development Commission to see that federal funds reach their intended target, but the effect of such commissions remains to be seen.
One Nigerian explained to me that when projects are planned for the Delta—when the government allocates funds for a school, for example—Delta bureaucrats from the top down require a cut of the funds. In the end, funding for projects is so depleted that projects become ineffectual.
Also, Nigerians outside the Niger Delta blame the attitude of Delta residents themselves. Accustomed to corruption and embittered by poverty, Delta residents turn to violence to provoke change. A Nigerian from Lagos who recently visited the Delta region spoke of the unwillingness of Delta residents to do real work when the opportunity arises. “You cannot develop [Delta residents] if they do not want to develop themselves,” she said.
The federal government is continually trying to placate both sides, but the conflict in the Niger Delta is so complex that it is unlikely to be resolved soon. Living in Lagos, I read about the violence in the Niger Delta as if it were happening in another country; it is concentrated in the far South, where the oil companies operate. Were I to live there instead of Lagos, I would certainly have a bodyguard, because any White person in the Delta is assumed to work for an oil company and is thus a target for kidnappers. Because of the relative calm of Lagos, several multinational oil companies have moved their headquarters to Lagos, and several more are following suit.
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I was talking to my co-workers about the Niger Delta as I wrote this. Ayokunnu, our twenty-two year old IT guy, offered his perspective on the conflict in the Delta:
The Niger Deltans sure have some reasons for their agitations. Development in the Niger Delta is low compared to other regions. For instance, it costs sufficiently more to fix a kilometer length of road in the Niger Delta than it would cost in other parts of the nation, because of different land topography and socio economic concerns. This definitely makes a case for increased funding for the Niger Delta.
Niger Deltans want the chicken that lays the eggs to be well taken care of. This explains the agitation for increased derivation fund for the region. The truth is that government needs to do some more for the Niger Deltans. A visit to this region will reveal deep seated injustices against the people – socio amenities are grossly below required numbers.
As strong as this argument may be, the question that readily comes to mind wants to probe the rationale behind the criminality employed by the Niger Deltans. Taking up arms against the nation will at best bring cases of sedition and crime against the nation state. The only plausible thing is for dialogue and this is another problem in its own right. Niger Deltans are tired of talking, as many instances of such discuss have failed in the end. Government must demonstrate renewed commitment to implement whatever comes out of such national engagements.
Finally, these issues are multi-faceted. The blames must be dropped, enough is enough. We must begin to explore all options to resolving the issues that make Niger Delta so tick and troublesome.
