In the way it was when the world had not gone sour, Bulou-Ojobo, an ancient settlement in Delta State and an offshoot of the Oporomo kingdom of Bayelsa State, was idyllic, serene and endowed with nature’s best. The environment was perfect and unspoiled; the stream was a long, natural fish reservoir where, without much effort, even an unskilled fisherman could fill a canoe to the edge with catch. The stream was rich in diverse fish species and water creatures. Occasionally, turtles were sighted, using the stream as a hunting and basking field. Gbesa, the eponymous progenitor of the residents, is said to have settled there due to the abundance of fish and animals, as well as the hope-inspiring calmness of the area. From the time of its discovery, the stream has been characterised by its relatively clear, dark, coffee-tainted water and a moderate, year-round flow. The stream was a central element of the local economy. For those living in their fishing, palm-tapping and local gin (ogogoro) distilling camps, the stream served as a source of domestic water for bathing, washing, and, in most cases, drinking. In those beautiful old times, the Bulou-Ojobo stream held cultural and spiritual significance; it was associated with the Osuopele and Benisede deities, attracting sacred sacrifices and communal rites each year.
The stream has a significant impact on the Nigerian economy. It is on and around the stream that a considerable number of pipelines lie supine and unprotected. The pipelines, some running to the Forcados Terminal to empty their contents to feed the insatiable pockets of the country’s rapacious political leaders in Abuja and others supplying elsewhere through land and water, were the stream’s albatross. The once alluring stream and the riparian vegetation adorning it were trapped in the centre of a violent scene: saboteurs and tyrants in an orgy of indiscriminate breaking of pipes and stealing and spilling of the crude gushing out in barrels. This was when the Kpofire regime was at its peak. Kpofire represents the illegal artisanal oil refinery operations and the consequent explosions that characterise their dangerous nature. Kpofire was a booming local enterprise involving groups of desperate economic predators whose activities desecrated and despoliated the environment. Its reign was a disaster for the stream. It turned Bulou-Ojobo, the small settlement overseeing the stream, into a den of vicious nocturnal pipeline vandals.
The whole space was an environment bleeding, gasping and suffocating from merciless and mindless torture. It was an environment in pain, tears and sorrow, an environment defiled and assaulted. The scenic beauty of the stream had vanished, replaced by a stark emptiness and an unbearable stench of decay and hydrocarbon smell. The scars, blisters and bruises from the torture were evident from the mouth of the stream to where it terminates, not far from Edegbene in Bomadi Local Government Area of Delta State. There was absolute silence: no sound of birds, no sound of monkeys playing on tree tops along the banks, and no fish leaping to indicate a willingness to cooperate with fish hunters. Why would anyone even expect fish to survive in a water body that was mixed with toxic effluents from incomplete distillation? It must have been an overstretched miracle if birds flew through such thick black soot and survived, and plants gave their owners the promise of bountiful harvests. Daily, the hopeless farmers and fishermen were welcomed, on both sides, by stunted, charcoal-coated plantains standing like children suffering from kwashiorkor, and dead fish, blemished with festering ulcers on their skins, floating in the water. The environment was one large oven, exhausting volumes of hot and poisonous air into the ambient environment.
The people suffered when the natural resources they depended on were destroyed, and the polluted water, air and soil caused them health and economic challenges. This calamity was brought upon them by their own brothers and sisters, referred to as the Kpofire operators, a highly organised syndicate running riot for quick fortune at the time. They conquered the community. The entire land appeared fear-stricken at the sight of these economic manipulators. Everyone complained only in murmurs; no one dared to challenge the mafia gangs or report the activities. The mafia cartels were more feared than the sight of the ‘Osuopele masquerade’ frightened little children in the heydays of its annual festivals. Rather than preserving the stream, as was the practice in the past, the community leadership, in a somewhat conspiratorial or acquiescent manner, stood idly by and watched as its brazen devastation was carried out. The fellows’ power and influence grew so immense that they infiltrated the entire community, wreaking irreparable havoc on its fabric.
The oil-tarred money put them at the upper echelons of economic power and political control in the community and the entire locality. They commanded loyalty and support, forming a sprawling web of alliances. With little or no effort and with or without resistance from the aggrieved, they indiscriminately enthroned and or dethroned leadership in the communities where their operations were executed. They were always fully armed and prepared to resist any force of opposition, whether from the communities’ vigilantes or official state security operatives. They had in their stock agents who carried out spy jobs and image-promoting assignments. The spies were strategically stationed to gather information about invaders and approaching danger, then report it to their superiors. They monitor every strange and suspicious movement, sound and change. In the same way, the hired image launderers were glued to their multiple social media platforms, defending and promoting them with all their creative energies and intellectual weapons.
Similarly, the Kpofire racketeers defied the federal government, despite its attempts to halt their activities. They blackmailed the military into submission and, in other cases, compromised the soldiers, the DSS, and the police, converting them into allies. At one point, Nigerian security operatives were in fierce competition to be posted to the ‘oily grounds’ where the activities were in full swing to get their share of the largesse. The military, especially the Nigerian Navy, gave the impression that fighting kpofire was tantamount to felling an iroko tree with a blunt axe. Obviously, apart from compromising might and standard, the military resignedly concluded that the kpofire dealers were invisible to external vigilance. That is, a stranger could not trace them to their hiding for the law of the land to decide their fate. In other words, no outsider, however skilled their detective expertise, could secure these pipelines, crush the illegal operations and apprehend and prosecute the criminal syndicate responsible. That was the dilemma. The efforts of companies previously contracted by the federal government for the assignment yielded no results, leading to repeated failures and embarrassing disappointments.
The failure is substantially attributable to compromise and ignorance: the contractors had no reliable intelligence regarding the suspects’ methodology and the dynamics of the operational environment. It shows that it was a mistake on the part of the federal government to allow foreigners to tackle the security of pipelines in the Niger Delta, with its complex maze of streams, creeks and swamps. This highlights the weakness of the state and its light handling of issues affecting the lives of citizens and the sustainability of the ecosystem. It also indicates that the state miscalculated by assigning such a sensitive job to outsiders, given that competent indigenous companies with expertise and experience in security and surveillance are plentiful in the region. In Hope Eghagha’s words, as in the play, The Oily Marriage “Is it not an insult to import young men from across the Niger to come into our towns and villages to guard pipelines?” Egagha’s drama lends credence to the claim that it would be difficult for any contractor to achieve success in pipeline surveillance without involving community members.
The Bulou-Ojobo creek, a representative example of the Niger Delta, is too deeply remote for a non-native or a contractor without a solid footing in the land to access and succeed in intelligence gathering. Like most parts of the Niger Delta, it is hidden far in the recesses of a forest accessible only through a confusing network of tributaries. Without adequate knowledge of the terrain and the operators, as well as reliable key informants, it is only a waste of time and resources to combat oil-related crimes in the creeks. Considering the community’s intertwined family ties and the bone-melting fear imposed on the people, identifying who is blameless and willing to provide helpful information is the first step to confusion and frustration. All attempts by foreign contractors to step beyond the confusion were met with betrayal and conflict. This emphasises that only an insider who knows the area can protect the pipelines. The villagers alone have the capacity to carry out such tasks. The ecocide perpetrators are not masked before them. The locations of their camps, makeshift huts erected with wood and roofed with thatch, are known to the villagers.
It was an unquantifiable relief when Tantita came to the rescue. Tantita Security Services, a Niger Delta firm that has transformed into a globally recognised security company, made a sudden entrance on the scene. Without any show of force beyond the appearance of some energetic, business-ready youths mounting boats for the purpose, Tantita penetrated the forests to the dangerous jungles of the wild oil thieves. The youths, assembled through a painstaking and rigorous process by Chief Godfrey Tari Pondi, the Operations Manager, declared the territory a no-go zone for the perpetrators. Contrary to the popular belief among Kpofire dealers that Tantita was on a mission to drive them out of business and seize the entire market for their own Kpofire empire, Tantita unveiled a mode of operation that benefited both humans and the ecosystem. Tantita’s approach, sophisticated and strategic, decimated all such misguided impressions. From the obscure Bulou-Ojobo community to the rest of the Niger Delta, the world has witnessed the positive change Tantita delivers. Tantita’s formidable nature and organised approach gave the racketeers reasons to repent and support the fight to resuscitate the environment. Another factor that brought them to submission is that Tantita has its imprimatur, official state approval and backing and is not a loose, busy-bodied interloper, acting beyond the scope of its legal authority.
Tantita uses able-bodied youths and women, drawn from the communities. In each community, the leadership and all major stakeholders are involved in ensuring the security of life and the environment. The youths, under their various commands, patrol the rivers both day and night, inspecting the wells and oil facilities within their allotted jurisdictions. They ensure that human movements around the pipelines are monitored and the purposes of such movements ascertained and possibly restricted to avoid trespass. In any flow stations with a military presence, Tantita operatives are attached to the military on guard to support by running errands, guiding them, giving directions, and assisting in investigations and prosecutions. The military, which hitherto was docile, gives Tantita security personnel the right ambience for their operations. The collaboration has boosted the reputation of the Nigerian military and has validated the operations. The partnership has led to many remarkable successes, including intercepting and destroying illegal vessels on the high seas where notorious international oil thieves operate in reckless abandon.
It is significant to note that since Tantita’s engagement, Nigeria’s crude oil output has reportedly increased from an all-time low (sometimes cited as low as 800,000 to 900,000 barrels per day (bpd)) to figures running as high as 1.5 million bpd, with aspirations to reach 2 million bpd. Reports are indicating that, due to Tantaita’s tightened surveillance and coordinated security efforts, daily crude oil losses have fallen to a multi-year low. The success in securing critical oil infrastructure and the resulting increase in production are seen as factors in restoring confidence among investors in Nigeria’s oil and gas sector. The stability and recovery in oil production directly translate to higher crude oil earnings and revenue for the Nigerian government, which helps fund national development and run the country more effectively. The surveillance contract has created thousands of direct and indirect employment opportunities for youths in the Niger Delta, including former agitators. This employment is seen as a way to engage local communities and divert youth away from criminal activities like oil bunkering and pipeline vandalism, contributing to social stability.
Tantita’s arrival has positively impacted the Niger Delta in several ways: it has improved the quality of life for the people, reduced economic hardship and poverty, drastically decreased intercommunal disputes through dialogue and negotiation, decreased the open use of firearms, and fostered unity and cohesion between the Niger Delta and its neighbours. Tantita has an established system that regularly assists deserving individuals, especially those in dire need, in all communities to ameliorate the effects of poverty across the region. This initiative is a life-saving force; many beneficiaries, especially those pursuing higher education, rely on monthly stipends or one-time interventions to finance their studies. In numerous communities, scores of women have been decisively wrenched from the clutches of poverty. They now forge a sustainable existence, either through engagement in petty trade or by reclaiming and revitalising local agriculture. Kidnapping, which was almost a daily experience, has been checked since Tantita started. Kidnapping cases in Ojobo and environs were reported almost on every market day, which occurs within seven days. The creeks have become relatively safe and calm since Tantita began. The major waterways have also been cleared of sea piracy, which was a serious obstacle to maritime commerce.
Tantita came to rescue the Bulou-Ojobo people and, by extension, the Niger Delta, offering solutions to combat the problems of the fatally afflicted environment. Tantita’s mission is to restore sanity and sanctity to the environment, and this has been progressively accomplished. By significantly reducing pipeline vandalism and illegal bunkering, Tantita’s efforts have helped curb the ecological degradation caused by massive oil spills, which ultimately impacts the livelihoods of people in the Niger Delta who depend on farming and fishing. Like every other Niger Delta community under the operational radius of Tantita, Bulou-Ojobo is gradually regaining its lost prestige and beauty. The fish and other animals that were on the brink of extinction have progressively returned. Fresh vegetation has begun to sprout, and farmers and fishers have resumed their traditional occupations. The cost of farm produce has also drastically reduced. Before Tantita initiated the war to rescue the environment, garri, the most common cassava product, was nearly out of reach for the average person. Garri is now available in surplus, making it affordable to every household. The mortality rate has also decreased.
As part of the recovery from the aggressive rape, the environment deserves proper cleanup. This is quite urgent because the damage’s effect is still heavy on the stream and the soil. A massive and holistic remediation is still needed. An expert purge to achieve complete regeneration is imperative. Also, some of the canals, which used to produce notable species of fish, are silted up and need urgent desiltation. Parts of some creeks, particularly the Bulou-Ojobo stream, are blocked by water hyacinths and remnants of the instruments used by the kpofire dealers. It is a harmless piece of advice that, after a proper cleanup of the environment, as suggested, and once it has been fully restored, the federal government, through Tantita, should introduce agricultural schemes, making it mandatory for communities to engage in commercial farming. Based on the demonstrated competence, it will be proper and justifiable for the federal government to make the security deal with Tantita permanent and extend its scope of operation to cover other parts of the Niger Delta, where there are still reports of pockets of kpofire activities.
Dr. Brisibe writes from the University of Africa, Toru-Orua, Bayelsa State.
He is a Lecturer and Public Affairs Analyst. He could be contacted via ffumayei@gmail.com
