Issues
Participation In Petroleum Development Towards Sustainable Community Development In The Niger Delta
Continued from last Wednesday May 26, 2010.
The book “Participation in Petroleum Development, Towards Sustainable community Development in the Niger Delta” by Eseme-Alabo Dr. Edward Bristol-Alagbariya is essential for key oil industry experts, administrators, scholars and students who wants to gain further insight on how the Niger Delta can benefit from oil exploration and exploitation. The Tide, beginning from this edition, run excerpts of the book. Enjoy it.
Thus, despite the military
intervention posture of the Federal Government (FG) in the crisis-riven region, incumbent President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua created the Ministry of Niger Delta in September, 2008. This Ministry is to coordinate government environmental, infrastructural development and youth policy initiatives, to enhance the development of the Delta region. It is the second Ministry to concentrate on a particular area of the federation, following the Ministry of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) created to address the developmental needs of the federal capital. Before the creation of the Ministry of the Niger Delta, the predecessor of Yar’Adua, President Olusegun Obasanjo, pronounced in April 2006 that successive FGs of Nigeria had failed the Delta region. As expressed in Chapter 2, President Obasanjo lamented the age-long neglect of the region, while admitting that previous efforts of the FG towards resolving the region’s development problems and challenges is yet to make any appreciable impact on the lives of citizens of the region. President Obasanjo, who considered the crises in the region as a national challenge, established the Council for the Socio-economic Development of the Coastal States of the Niger Delta (SEDCOSND). The opinion of the author is that President Obasanjo had to set up this Council, having realised that the NDDC, established in the interest of the entire oil-producing states (some of which do not belong to the true Delta region), is a misrepresentation. The setting up of the SEDCOSND justifies the focus of this book on the ethnic minority composition of the Delta region. As expressed in Chapter 2 and especially under the sub-heading of Chapter 1 entitled ‘The Niger Delta Region’, this book indicates that two out of the nine NDDC states (ie, Abia and Imo states) do not truly belong to the Delta region. There is thus a need for Nigeria to distinguish its other oil-producing areas from its true and main oil-producing Delta region, to properly address the problems and challenges confronting the region, its citizens and communities.
It is considered in this book that the FG’s establishment of one intervention institution after another (ie, from the setting-up of the Niger Delta Development Board, NDDB, in 1961, the Oil Mineral Producing Areas Development Commission, OMPADEC, in 1992, the NDDC in 2000, and the SEDCOSND in 2006) has not solved the problems of the Delta region. These intervention institutions have not fully fulfilled the recommendations expressed in the Sir Henry Willink Commission report of 1958. As demonstrated in Chapter 3, the Willink Commission was set up by British colonial government at the end of the 1957 NICCs held at Lancaster House, London, to enquire into the fears of the ethnic minorities of Nigeria and the means to allay these fears towards the grant of political independence in the country. The Commission found that the Delta region was ‘poor, backward and neglected’. This state of the Delta region has become more deplorable in the course of more than five decades of petroleum development, as the region is poorer, more neglected, underdeveloped, and crises riven. The seriousness of the ongoing crises in the region reveals that its state and the plight of its people are now worse than those that obtained during the period of the Willink Commission, due to the same historical problem. That is, the marginalisation of the interests of the region and its people by the major tribes whose elites control political power and authority, and in effect decision-making processes in the federation. The new Ministry of Niger Delta therefore has a Herculean task if it is to make a difference from previous FG’s intervention measures and not merely to thrive as a bureaucratic structure.
Due to the concerns of many in Nigeria, the efforts of the FG along with those of the state and local governments exercising jurisdiction over the Delta region are being assessed by the civil society, especially non-governmental organisations (NGOs). As expressed in Chapter 8, 92 per cent of Nigerians who expressed their opinion in a poll conducted by NOI Polls (a Nigerian-based not-for-profit organisation partnering with Gallup Poll of the USA), stated that various levels of government exercising jurisdiction over the Delta region are not doing enough for the region and its citizens. As expressed in Chapter 1 and reinforced in Chapter 2, the problems of the region are mainly lack of political will and sustained commitment of successive FGs. These are, for instance, evidenced by the divide and rule strategies and marginalisation of the region and other minority areas by the ethnic majority political rulers presiding over the affairs of the federation at the federal level of governance. Thus, considering how the Niger Delta crises are associated with governance, natural resources development and conflicts in Nigeria and other major natural resources-rich developing countries characterised by the resource curse, Chapter 2 echoes the view of Karen Ballentine that ‘for developing countries, natural resources are [often] the ‘only game in town’.’ In resources-rich developing countries suffering from the resource curse, intrigues regarding the control of revenues accruing from the development of major natural resources are indeed the main games generating crisis and conflicts in town.
Community crises in the Delta region are further complicated by the inability or unwillingness of state and local governments in the region to properly address the region’s deplorable state and the plight of its poor citizens. Besides the role of state and local governments and that of MNOCs operating in the region, some citizens and citizen groups have a certain measure of blame to bear. While agitating that the FG should enforce the principles of social justice, equity and fair play in favour of the region and its citizens, such citizens and citizen groups are unwilling to enforce these principles, which constitute the basis of the resource-control movement in their respective interpersonal and inter-group relations in the region. The author’s critical assessment on how several of these groups are addressing the principles of the resource-control movement reveals that these principles are being greatly undermined in various interpersonal, as well as intra- and inter-communal relations in the region. Such groups are engaged in resource-control in an incomplete manner or from a limited perspective (ie, based on the relationship of Niger Deltans with the FG, the major tribes and the MNOCs operating in the region). These groups disregard the way in which the principles of the resource-control movement relate to them, especially in social capital relations among them. Such social capital relations, which undermines public good in the region, frustrate environmentally-sound and socially-equitable CI in petroleum development in the Delta region.
To overcome the negative effects of social capital relations and other challenges hindering the success of CI, the win-win environmental consensus and conflict resolution strategy may be applied by development proponents while interactively involving citizens of each directly-affected community in environmental decision-making processes, so as to translate the community’s collective vision into these processes of petroleum development proposals. This strategy promotes consensus-building based on common grounds, which satisfies the powerful and vociferous citizens and citizen groups as well as supports and encourages the weak, voiceless or less powerful ones – who would otherwise have been neglected or excluded from participation. Government regulatory agencies and project proponents thus have a role to be diligent so as to ensure fair play between and among directly-affected citizens and citizen groups, in the course of CIs. In turn, powerful and vociferous community groups have a responsibility to restrain themselves from frustrating the process of due diligence designed by government regulatory agencies and project proponents to ensure the success of CIs regarding petroleum development projects in the Delta region.
To be Continued
This is an open letter to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Chief Nyesom Wike.
Your Excellency,
Sir, ordinarily, I would not be writing an open letter to you, but like a wise man once said, “Silence would be Treason.” So I prefer to stay alive than face the consequences of silence in the face of crime. With each passing day, and as the socio-political tides continue to turn, it has become more pertinent that more people speak up in a concerted MANNER to prevent the death of our party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), as we appear to be, in the words of W. B. Yeats, “turning and turning in the widening gyre” heading for an end where the falcon will no longer hear the falconer
It is unfortunate that since losing control of the Federal Government, with the loss of President Goodluck Jonathan at the poll in 2015, our party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has continued on a downward spiral. It is much more painful, that where it is expected that leaders within the party should rise to the challenge and put an end to this decline of our great party, some have instead taken up roles as its undertaker.
It will be hypocritical to claim aloofness to what I believe is your grouse with the PDP and I am not a hypocrite. It will be uncharitable on my part to discountenance the role you have played in strengthening the PDP from 2015 up until the last Presidential primaries of the party. It is my belief that your grouse against certain members of the party who you perceived worked against the party and abandoned it in 2015 and then came around much later to take control of the party, is justified. Also know that your decision to remain in the Party and stifle its progress on the other hand, as a sort of payback, stands condemned. For a man of your pedigree and stature, it is a dishonorable act, highly dishonorable and stands as testimony against all you claim to stand for.
At least, it can be argued that those who you hold this grudge against, abandoned the party completely and did not sit back while actively working to destroy it from within. But what then can be the argument on your own part, seeing that those you are currently working with against your party are the same people who set in motion, and executed surgically, the plans that not only ended our Party’s leadership at the centre, but ended up dislodging the first Niger Deltan to occupy Aso Rock as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces. Is this not akin to “cutting off one’s nose to spite one’s face?” That will be worse than folly. Let us not throw away the baby with the bath water because we do not like the soap used in bathing the baby. It will be a grave mistake.
Honourable Minister, sir, it is rather unfortunate that of all people, you have also decided to play the role of an undertaker not only for our party, but for our dear Rivers State.
I will like to take you down memory lane a little. Let me remind you of your emergence as Guber candidate of the PDP in Rivers State, against all fairness and justice in 2014. You will remember that despite the reality being that you as an Ikwerre man was poised to replace a fellow Ikwerre man in Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi in our multiethnic state, Rivers people overwhelmingly stood by you and pushed for your emergence as Executive Governor of Rivers State in 2015. I dare say that your popularity in the entire Niger Delta region was at an all-time high at this point.
I want you to understand why you were loved across board leading to your eventual emergence as Governor of Rivers State in 2015; it was because when it looked like all were against the second term ambitions of the first Niger Delta man to emerge as President of Nigeria, you became not just a pillar but a beacon of resistance by standing for Goodluck Jonathan. Rivers people, as grateful and rewarding as they can be, paid you back by ensuring your electoral victory against the incumbent All Progressives Congress (APC) led by your predecessor. On your emergence, where there were second term Governors in the region, you, a first term Governor, was seen by the people as not just the leader of the PDP, but the leader of the entire Niger Delta region. You earned it, and no one could dispute it.
In 2019, when your re-election bid was being challenged ferociously, Rivers people once again stood solidly behind you. Many were killed in the process of defending your votes. Do you remember Dr. Ferry Gberegbe that was shot and killed while trying to protect your votes in Khana Local Government Area? There are many more unnamed and unrecognised sons and daughters of Rivers State who sacrificed their lives so that you could emerge as a second term Governor of Rivers State.
In 2022/23, Honourable Minister, you oversaw a party primary across board that saw some candidates imprisoned and internal party democracy jettisoned for your wishes, leading to the emergence of flag bearers of our party all singlehandedly picked by you. You have on more than one occasion publicly stated that you paid for all their forms. Even those shortchanged in this process licked their wounds and continued to play their roles as party members to ensure the success of the party at all levels. In what will go down as one of the most keenly contested elections in recent Rivers history, with formidable candidates like Senator Magnus Abe of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Mr Tonye Cole of the All Progressives Congress (APC), and the vibrant youth driven Labour Party (LP), PDP emerged victorious across board except for Phalga Constituency 1 that was lost to the Labour Party. (Not that you did not loose in some other LGA’s but let’s stick to the official figures declared by INEC).
It begs the question, why then do you want to burn down Rivers State, when everyone who now holds political office emerged through a process designed and endorsed by you? Is it that you do not care about Rivers people and you are all about yourself? If so, I am forced to believe that those around you are not telling you the truth. The truth being that in a state where your words were law; where houses and businesses could be demolished or closed down without any recourse to legalities, where Executive Orders could be deployed to stifle the opposition, that your popularity is now at an all-time low. Probably because they are afraid of you, or of losing the benefits they gain from you, they fail to tell you that what you might perceive as a battle against your successor, has slowly but gradually degenerating into a battle against Rivers State and Rivers people. You know, there is a popular saying that, a man can cook for the community and the community will finish the food, but when a community decides to cook for one man, the reverse is the case.
LEAVE FUBARA ALONE
You have gone on and on about being betrayed by Governor Siminalayi Fubara. You point fingers forgetting that some of those same fingers quick to spot betrayals point straight back at you. It is not Governor Fubara that has betrayed the PDP by working against it in the just concluded General Election, and working with the opposition at the State and Federal level to destabilise the party. It is you, Honourable Minister. It is not Governor Fubara that betrayed Rivers people by instigating a political crisis with propensity to escalate ethnic tensions in Rivers State. It is you Honourable Minister. It is not Governor Fubara that has declared himself God over all in Rivers State and has no qualms with burning the state to the ground to prove a point. It is you Honourable Minister. It is you Honourable Minister who told the world that the APC was a cancer and you can never support a cancerous party. It is you Honourable Minister who ended up facilitating the emergence of the same “cancerous” APC that has accelerated the economic decline of this country and further impoverished our people with no remorse. All so you can be a Minister of the Federal Capital Territory? The lack of self awareness is gobsmacking.
Some days back I came across a video where you talked about death and how you do not cry when you hear about the death of some people because you have no idea what might have caused it considering many a politician swear “over dead bodies” and still go back on their words. Those words made me think, and I could see the reason behind them. You see, in chosing to be God in the affairs of Rivers people, you have closed your eyes and ears to reason; you see nothing and hear nothing that can cause you to rethink on the path you have chosen. In your quest to “show Fubara” you have unwittingly united a vast majority of Rivers people behind him, so much that even those who despised him because of you, now like or love him, because of you too. In your scheming, I will advise you not to forget that “the voice of the people is the voice of God”.
Note that the war which you have or are waging against Governor Fubara, has gone beyond being merely political as you might see in your minds eye. It is now one that, fortunately for some and unfortunately for others, has evolved into a war against Rivers people. It is good to point out that no one has taken a stand against Rivers people and won. No one has gone against God and won. In your defiant characteristic manner, it will be unfortunate if you believe your own hubris and that of those around you on the possibility of you being the first to successfully go against Rivers people. It will be a needless gamble; one where if you win you create more enemies for yourself than you can withstand on your political journey, and if you lose, your legacy becomes an inglorious and irredeemable one in Rivers State, the Niger Delta, and Nigeria at large. For your sake as regards posterity, it is my greatest wish that you have a moment of sobriety and a deep reflection and introspection on this path you have chosen.
Honourable Minister, sir, what is left of your legacy is on the brink of being completely desecrated and relegated to the dustbin of our political history, and it will be a sad end to what I will say has been a wonderful political career that many can only dream of. The ball is in your court, and may God Almighty have mercy on us all and forgive us for our shortcomings.
Gabriel Baritulem Pidomson
Dr Pidomson is former Chief of Staff, Government House, Port Harcourt and former member, Rivers State House of Assembly.
In 2015, I made a conscious decision to invest my financial resources, my time, and energy into supporting Nyesom Wike’s gubernatorial campaign. I poured my heart and soul into ensuring Nyesom Wike emerged victorious even at the risk of my personal safety.
Again in 2019, I doubled down on my commitment. I invested a significant amount of money to procure campaign outfits for all twenty-three Local Governments Areas of Rivers State. I spared no expense in supplementing Wike’s election efforts in my own local government, and once again putting myself at great risk to safeguard the fairness and transparency of the electoral process.
However, despite my unwavering loyalty and sacrifices, I found myself abandoned and forgotten by Wike. Throughout his eight-year tenure, he failed to acknowledge my contributions or fulfill his promises and agreements. Even as a former Deputy Governor, Wike denied me my severance benefit.
My investment in Wike’s governorship was not just financial – it was a commitment of passion, dedication, and belief in a better future for Rivers State. Yet, his leadership style of dishonesty, greed, drunkenness and rash abuse of senior citizens brought me nothing but disappointment, misery and losses.
By the grace of God, today I speak not as a victim, but as a hero. I have accepted my losses, and I have moved on. And as I reflect on my experience, I cannot help but urge Wike to do the same and allow peace and development to reign in Rivers State.
Nyesom Wike, when you speak of investing in Governor Sim Fubara’s election, remember those like me who also invested in you. Remember the sacrifices I made, the risks I took, and the promises and agreements you left unfulfilled.
It is time for you, Wike, to let go of the past and allow Governor Sim Fubara the breathing space he needs to lead Rivers State forward. Allow him to focus on the challenges of good governance and the aspirations of the people. Spare him these unwarranted and ill-conceived political manoeuvrings founded on personal agenda and not for general good of Rivers State and her people.
I may have lost my investment on Wike, but I have not lost hope in the future of Rivers State. And together, we will continue to strive for a brighter tomorrow.
Long Live the Governor to Rivers State, Sir Siminialayi Fubara!
Long Live the Good People of Rivers State!!
Long Live the Federal Republic of Nigeria!!!
Engr Ikuru is former Deputy Governor of Rivers State.
Tele Ikuru
