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Africa Report N°135
5 December 2007
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS
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The Niger Delta is again at risk of
sliding into chaos. The 29 May 2007 inauguration of new federal and
state governments offered an opportunity to resolve longstanding
conflicts afflicting the oil-rich, deeply impoverished region. Six
months later, the opportunity is unravelling amid new violence and
criminality. Decisive action is necessary to stop militant violence and
criminal hostage-taking, initiate quick-impact development projects
that can build public confidence in President Umaru Yar’Adua’s
administration and tackle constitutional and legal issues that have
fuelled unrest in the region.
Yar’Adua’s early statements and
actions raised hopes in the Delta. The selection of Goodluck Jonathan,
an ethnic Ijaw and then governor of Bayelsa State, as his running mate
responded to the region’s demand for representation in the presidency.
Yar’Adua identified the Delta as one of seven priority areas in his
inaugural address and followed up by initiating consultations with
ethnic and militant organisations and endorsing the regional
development master plan launched by his predecessor, Olusegun Obasanjo,
in March 2007. But none of this has yet led to a comprehensive and
credible strategy for ending the violence. Repeated postponements of
the Niger Delta summit, initially called for June, and lack of clarity
over its participants, methods and goals are eroding confidence and
threatening a relapse into even more intensive conflict.
Following the 3 September arrest in
Angola of one of its leaders, Henry Okah, the Movement for the
Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) resumed attacks on oil
installations and hostage-taking. On 18 October, it threatened to
extend its bombing campaign beyond the Delta if the federal government
agreed to the military’s request to raid militants’ camps.
Hostage-taking, employed by
militants since early 2006 to draw international attention to the Delta
crisis, has turned into a lucrative, criminally driven enterprise, with
local politicians and their relatives frequent victims, instead of just
the oil industry expatriates who were the original targets. The
practice has also begun to spread beyond the core Niger Delta, to Ondo
State on the western fringe of the region and other parts of the
country.
Clashes in Rivers State between
politically sponsored criminal gangs in August and deepening splits
within the Delta’s major militant groups have worsened the security
situation. Divisions within militant ranks have reduced prospects for
forging a united front to negotiate with the government.
If Yar’Adua is not to lose his
opportunity to resolve the Delta crisis, he must urgently go beyond
drawn-out consultations with militants and ethnic leaders and translate
his promises into credible policies which address the violence and
legitimate demands. The federal legislature needs to provide
constitutional solutions for the political, economic and environmental
grievances that have been at the roots of ethnic and communal agitation
for decades. The Rivers State government, whose territory has seen the
worst and most recent violence, must act with restraint to avoid
aggravating the already volatile relations between ethnic groups in the
state.
RECOMMENDATIONS
To the Federal Government and President Yar’Adua:
1. Appoint an independent
presidential envoy of high moral authority from civil society and
outside the region to lead an inclusive consultation on process, agenda
and participation for the Niger Delta summit and report back within
three months; the envoy should:
(a) include armed militants and
non-armed civil society representatives, including women’s groups, from
all Niger Delta states and ethnic groups in the consultation;
(b) revisit the recommendations of the 2005 Ogomudia report; and
(c) review and propose changes to
make the peace and reconciliation committees more inclusive and
efficient tools for conflict prevention, management and resolution.
2. Stop all attempts to divide and
co-opt armed militants by offering contracts and appointments to
leaders and instead encourage them to create and articulate a common
and realistic political agenda.
3. Proceed immediately with
security and infrastructure development assessments as preliminary
steps to holding the Niger Delta summit.
4. Institute a judicial inquiry
into the Port Harcourt violence and prosecute all political actors
identified as having contributed to armed conflicts and political
assassinations in the Niger Delta since 1999.
5. Appoint a special federal prosecutor to investigate local and state government officials involved in hostage-taking.
6. Clarify the terms and
applicability of its amnesty so as to distinguish between politically
inspired militants and criminally motivated gangsters, and accompany it
with adequate punishment for the most serious crimes and appropriate
compensation and rehabilitation measures for the most affected victims.
7. Strengthen security arrangements in the region by:
(a) increasing the manpower and
equipment of the Nigeria Police Force for constabulary duties on land,
and of the navy for patrolling creeks and waterways;
(b) requiring improved
collaboration between the police and local security, including private
and community-based security organisations; and
(c) increasing the means available
to the military police, military justice and internal police services
to arrest and prosecute any officer of any rank involved in oil
bunkering or other organised criminal activities in complicity with
Niger Delta armed groups.
8. Identify clearly money
allocated in the 2008 budget for Niger Delta development and release
all outstanding funds due to the Niger Delta Development Commission
(NDDC) since 2001.
9. Implement on a fast-track basis
those elements of the Niger Delta Development Master Plan with
potential for generating jobs quickly.
10. Provide funding to the Rivers
State government, if it proceeds with the demolition and development of
the Port Harcourt waterfronts, to ensure that the project is
implemented within a framework of comprehensive urban development that
minimises the suffering of those that would be displaced and prevents
the stimulation of new ethnic conflicts.
To the National Assembly:
11. Amend the NDDC Act of 2000 to
ensure that all relevant oil-sector corporations in the region
contribute to funding the commission.
12. Begin the process of amending
the 1999 Constitution, particularly to improve provisions for returning
more oil revenues to the region from which they are derived, in
accordance with recommendations of the 2005-2006 National Political
Reform Conference.
To the Rivers State Government:
13. Ensure that the demolition and
relocation of waterfront communities is preceded by comprehensive
preliminary work, implemented within a framework of urban development
and carried out in a humane and orderly manner, with minimum
humanitarian consequences and due respect for the cultural rights of
the ethnic communities long resident in those settlements.
To the European Union (EU), the U.S. and other International Partners of Nigeria:
14. Engage with the Yar’Adua
Presidency and the National Assembly to encourage a speedy resolution
of the Niger Delta crisis, with emphasis on the root causes of the
conflict as much as its security consequences, and give assistance as
necessary, including by:
(a) promoting increased investment and infrastructure development in the Delta;
(b) providing greater capacity
building aid and enhanced project funding to credible civil society and
community-based organisations engaged in civic education, youth
programs for attitudinal change, communal healing and restoration of
community governance;
(c) encouraging the multinational
oil companies operating in the region to adhere to best environmental
practices, evolve more conflict-sensitive community relations
strategies and demonstrate greater transparency in their community
development programs; and
(d) aiding the Nigeria police and
security services, bilaterally and within the framework of the Gulf of
Guinea Energy Security Strategy (GGESS), to curb oil theft, money
laundering and small arms trafficking in the Delta.
Dakar/Brussels, 5 December 2007
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Posted by Robot| 06.12.2007 07:32