The Nation Newspaper

Category: Niger Delta

  • Group seeks alternative conflict resolution in Niger Delta

    Members of Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (UK) Nigeria branch gathered in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital recently to discuss the need to adopt use of “Alternative Dispute Resolution” (ADR), in settling issues, rather than the stereotyped court system.

    The two-day gathering was put together by the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (CIArb), Nigeria branch. It was the group’s 17th annual conference of the Nigeria’s branch, established in the country in 1999.

    The theme of this year’s annual conference was “Exploring New Frontiers in Arbitration and ADR.” Indeed new frontiers are emerging in the arbitration and alternative dispute resolution (ADR) plane.

    Issues on the proven effectiveness of ADR in resolving conflicts arising from Oil and Gas activities were discussed, with those in mainstream oil operators giving insight to the challenges. The role of Arbitrators in the ongoing terrorism, insurgent attacks, the role of modern technology in conflict creation and how ADR could be a variable means of solving the problems, as well as Nollywood issues, among others were discussed.

    Earlier in her address, the branch chairman of the Institute, Mrs. Adedoyin Rhodes-Vivour said: “These are turbulent times for the Oil and Gas industry, effective and expeditious dispute resolution will assist in assuaging the effects of the downturn in the oil market.”

    Concerns on new phenomenon and new challenges in Arbitration plane were equally handled by discussants.

    In the same manner, new developments such as third party funding currently generating debate in various jurisdictions in view of the need to ensure that ethical considerations or the transparency of the process is not being negatively impacted by the relatively new practice were examined.

    According to Vivour, the emerging improvements in industrial and technological knowhow have necessitated expansion in the nature of disputes that arise in the society, coupled with the relatively new forms of threats to the relationship among individuals, nations and corporate organisations, hence the need for faster and effective means of resolving them so they don’t get worse.

    “Indeed, terrorism and insurgency threats abound worldwide and further depict the growing level of conflicts in human society. Our mission is the global promotion of the resolution of disputes through mechanisms outside the court system, alternative dispute resolution (ADR).

    “We recognise the need to evolve and position ourselves in line with present day challenges and developments. Indeed the continuing relevance of any organisation lay in its ability to adapt to evolving times and maintain its relevance in a changing world.”

    She expressed the need for Nigeria to review and upgrade her arbitration laws to accommodate the latest realities.

  • The Niger Delta story will change for the better, says Ndoma-Egba

    The new chairman of the board of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba from Cross River State told reporters soon after his inauguration that the story of the Niger Delta, will change for the better under the new administration. NICHOLAS KALU was there. Excerpts:

    What are your plans towards revamping the  NDDC  as quickly as possible so that it can achieve the developmental goals for which it was set up?

    First of all, we would need to carry out a number of audits. An audit of our systems, audit of our processes, audit of our projects and audit of our personnel so that we can have a true picture of not only the governance systems but also a true picture of our obligations.

    Secondly, we have to develop a master plan. There was a master plan that was drawn up before. It was a 15-year plan. It is more than 10 years after the plan was drawn up, so it is either we do a new plan or we revalidate the old one. But there has to be a master plan that would govern planning for the region.

    Part of the problems has been that the NDDC is budgeted for on a year-by-year basis. It would not work. We have to have a long-term plan to say this is what we want to see out of the Niger Delta and then you use the yearly budget to achieve that ultimate goal. Those are some of the things we intend to set out to do.

    Uncompleted projects would be captured in the project audit because a project audit would determine the number of projects you have, the nature of the projects and the status of each project.

    The projects that you need to get off your books, you find a convenient way of getting them off the books, because we need to clean up the books. Right now, NDDC has over 9, 000 contracts and that is an unwieldy number. No matter the capacity of an organisation, I doubt if you have capacity to properly execute 9, 000 contracts. Some of those contracts are moribund, some are dead and some are non-existent. So, you need to really investigate and find out the status of each and every one of them and then you clean up the books and then begin to deal with the realistic ones.

    Funding of NDDC is a known problem. Apart from the budget from the Federal Government, there are companies and organisations to contribute to the running of the NDDC. How are you going to deal with this given that most have lost faith in the commission?

    Well, funding would be an issue, but one of the greatest impediments to funding is the lack of transparency. When people don’t see a transparent process in an organisation, they will hold back their money. So, we have to re-engage the stakeholders by making sure our systems and processes are transparent.

    What people see now is a very opaque environment and that would not encourage them to put in their money. So, you have to open up the system, make sure that there is due process in everything you do and then re-establish the confidence of the stakeholders. Under the act establishing the NDDC, for instance, there are some committees and organs that should operate. There is an advisory committee made up of the governors of the NDDC states. But I don’t know when last that organ met. Why do you need the advisory board? You need the advisory board because the member states are contributors to the finances of the project. So, they must be part of the planning.

    They must be part of the budgeting process. They should have input into what kind of projects the commission should or not carry out in their states.

    Recently, I was told in Rivers State or so, the NDDC said it did some projects and the state government is saying no, you did not do the project. We did the project. So, we don’t even know who did what.

    Youth restiveness, militancy and vandalism are affecting the economy and people are expecting that your board would definitely address all that. What is your comment on this?

    First of all, we need to engage with the youth. We need to engage with all the stakeholders. If a group believes that it was part of a process, a decision-making process, they will feel a sense of ownership of the process and the outcomes. But when a group is not part of that process, it sees the process and the outcomes as being strange to them, because they are detached.

    So, there is no ownership. The important thing going forward in the Niger Delta is that every stakeholder must feel a sense of ownership. They must be a part of the process. If the youth are part of the process, I believe they will begin to own the process and it would begin to douse militancy. It won’t stop it because what would eventually stop militancy is development; the kind of development that would create an economy that would make them productive.

    So, until we get to that point, we would still have some restiveness. But you cannot have development in an atmosphere of militancy and chaos.

    People’s expectations are high from the NDDC. What advice do you have for the people of Niger Delta?

    The people should expect a new story. It would be a new story of commitment, single-minded focus and determination to make a change in the region. It is only the Niger Deltans that can change the Niger Delta and we have this historic opportunity to do so. The choice to succeed or fail is ours to make, and I would rather choose to succeed than to fail. I would do everything to make that difference.

  • New leadership, new vision at NDDC

    New leadership, new vision at NDDC

    With the appointment and inauguration of the chairman of the board of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) and its Managing Director, Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba and Obong Nsima Ekere, BISI OLANIYI writes that there is a new vista for the interventionist agency of the Federal Government to engender more development in the Niger Delta.

    There is a change in leadership at the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC). Consequent to the appointment of former Senate Leader, Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba and ex-Deputy Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Obong Nsima Ekere, as Chairman of the board of the NDDC and Managing Director of the interventionist agency respectively, the baton of leadership changed from its former Acting Managing Director and ex-Rivers State Commissioner for Information and Communication, Mrs. Ibim Semenitari to the new team.

    Mrs Semenitari was appointed on acting capacity on December 21, last year, by President Muhammadu Buhari to end the rot at the interventionist agency after the sack of the then Managing Director of NDDC, Bassey Dan-Abia from Akwa Ibom State.

    Since his sack, there had been clamour by the people of Akwa Ibom State that one of their own should be appointed as the Managing Director of NDDC to complete the tenure of Dan-Abia.

    In order to ensure justice, President Buhari, on July 21 this year, appointed Obong Nsima Ekere, a former Deputy Governor of Akwa Ibom State as the substantive Managing Director, while a former Senate Leader, Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba (SAN), who is indigenous to Cross River State, was appointed as the Chairman of the board of the commission. They were inaugurated four months later, while the handover ceremony held in Port Harcourt on November 7.

    The handover was carnival-like. Family members, relatives, friends, political associates and other well-wishers of the appointees in were in attendance.  Crowd control by policemen and operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) was taxing.

    At 10:00 in the morning, Semenitari, in company with some directors and other top officials of NDDC, stood at the main entrance of the corporate headquarters of the commission to welcome Ndoma-Egba and Ekere.

    While speaking during the handover ceremony, Ndoma-Egba declared that Semenitari had a remarkable tenure in NDDC.

    In her remarks, Semenitari praised President Buhari for giving her the privilege to serve her region and country, as well as appointing the crack team of tried, tested and distinguished gentlemen to constitute the board and management of NDDC.

    She reiterated that the setting up of NDDC 16 years ago was in furtherance of the demands of the Niger Delta people for improved and accelerated development.

    She said: “I was determined to make a difference. But by myself, it would have been impossible. So, urged on and supported by the management and staff of the commission, we began our journey to higher standards, higher goals, and better service delivery.

    “When I assumed office the percentage of jobs completed in the commission as at December last year, hovered around 25 per cent. As at September 9, that figure had gone up to 41 per cent and as at today, we are in the 50 per cent range. That is a huge leap and one that I am delighted we were able to achieve. Working with our contractors, we were able to gradually reduce our debts.

    “Today, NDDC jobs are no longer pariah, as banks and other lenders are willing to fund our projects. This is because we have been able to restore confidence in our creditors.”

    Semenitari also stated that things were done differently and new ideas were tried, since her appointment. She called on the management, members of staff, contractors and other stakeholders to give unalloyed support to the new team, by eschewing bitterness, malice, gossip and rancour.

    Semenitari also stated that things were done differently and new ideas were tried, since her appointment. She called on the management, members of staff, contractors and other stakeholders to give unalloyed support to the new team, by eschewing bitterness, malice, gossip and rancour.

    In his address, the Managing Director of NDDC, Obong Ekere reiterated that members of the management and board of the interventionist agency were beginning their assignment at a critical time in the Niger Delta and Nigeria, especially dealing with reduced revenues resulting from the combined effects of decline in global oil prices and the crippling economic sabotage of Nigeria’s oil production activities.

    He noted that NDDC needed to consider innovative and more efficient ways of doing things, find new partners to help execute the mandate for the Niger Delta region, strengthen existing relationships to ensure that all stakeholders were working towards common goals and promote the peace that was necessary for the development of the region.

    Ekere further revealed that NDDC’s oversight responsibility derives from the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) and now with the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs, to impact the region effectively, while stressing that the commission is still under the Presidency.

    Ekere said: “The governing board and management of NDDC are committed to fashioning a new path for the commission and it is not the well-worn path that leads to failure, but that one least travelled, which will make us trailblazers for the people of the region.

    “To build a commission we must be proud of, that meets its statutory obligations and mandate, we must restructure the balance sheet, reform the governance protocols, restore our core mandate and re-affirm our collective commitment to doing what is right and proper, as a strategic roadmap for the path we must all walk.

    “We must have to do things differently to improve the transparency of our processes, leverage technology to increase accountability and efficiency, consult stakeholders frequently, engage proactively and be creative about the programmes that we design, to uplift the people and the region.

    “This administration will work to enthrone a management vision that emphasises efficiency, transparency, effective deployment of resources, promotes due process and the quality implementation of projects and programmes.”

    Ekere also stated that his focus would be on intervention programmes that would deliver real measurable developmental outcomes for the Niger Delta region and its citizens, stressing that every NDDC team member had a role to play in moving the commission and the Niger Delta forward through the right vision, hard work and determination.

    Speaking at the event, the new chairman of NDDC, Ndoma-Egba, assured that management and the board of the commission would be on the same page, in the drive to change the song, the story and the narrative of NDDC and the Niger Delta region.

    He stated that emphasis would be placed on transparency, accountability, rule of law and due process, even as he called for support of all the stakeholders.

    Ndoma-Egba said: “The NDDC will be guided by the guiding principles of the President Buhari’s administration, which include transparency, accountability, rule of law and due process. Things will be done differently, because the circumstances have changed. The times are challenging and as the times are challenging, you must get innovative and you must cut excesses. “Our books must be cleaned up. Our projects must be audited. Our processes must be audited. Our personnel must be audited. Our finances must be audited, so that we are clean and efficient. We have only one challenge: to develop the Niger Delta region. We also need to engage the young men and women, by drawing up policies and programmes that teach people how to fish and not giving them fish.

    “Out there, the image of the NDDC is that of contract-awarding outfit. The new board and management of NDDC will work with you (the workers) to effect that change. Embrace the new change agenda. In working together, I believe that we can change the story, the song and the narrative of the Niger Delta.”

    Shortly after the handover, the Chairman of the Rivers State PDP, Chief Felix Obuah, stated that he was happy that the alleged misfortune of having Semenitari as the acting managing director of NDDC ended on November 7, with her handing over.

    Obuah, in an online statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Jerry Needam, claimed that the ex-Rivers Commissioner for Information was the worst ever, in NDDC’s history and she allegedly did nothing to the people of Rivers State.

    He said: “Rather than improve on the legacies of the previous managing directors of NDDC, Mrs. Semenitari made politics the fulcrum of her administration and ran the affairs of the commission as an arm of the APC.

    “Bereft of the requisite managerial skills and ignorant of the vision of the commission, Mrs. Semenitari thought the best she could do was to politicise the place (NDDC) and has unfortunately left the commission worse than she met it. There is nothing to show in the state that a Rivers indigene was there as managing director for the period she held sway at the commission.

    “The new management of NDDC should tread with caution, scrutinise the handover notes of Mrs. Semenitari and chart a new course for the commission, with a view to pursuing the mandate and delivering the services for which the commission was established.

    “We have no doubt that the end of Mrs. Semenitari’s leadership of the great commission marks the beginning of the pursuit of the vision and mission for which the commission was founded, which was distorted by Mrs. Semenitari and substituted for APC’s vindictive agenda.”

    Obuah also stated that henceforth, NDDC would be run and managed as a public institution, charged with intervention in development programmes and not an extension of the APC.

    While reacting through her Special Assistant, Media and Communication, Bekee Anyalewechi Semenitari, however, insisted that she delivered on her mandate to reposition NDDC, stressing that the latest attempt to rubbish her record of service was pre-determined, declaring that the campaigns would fail, since her record of service while at the commission was in the open.

    She also revealed that Obuah’s cry was that of a man hunted by conscience, in view of his poorly-executed, multi-billion Naira students’ hostel project at the University of Port Harcourt (UNIPORT), a contract that was awarded to him by her predecessor, Bassey Dan-Abia of Akwa Ibom State.

  • The Niger Delta story will change for the better, says Ndoma-Egba

    The Niger Delta story will change for the better, says Ndoma-Egba

    The new chairman of the board of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba from Cross River State told reporters soon after his inauguration that the story of the Niger Delta will change for the better under the new administration. NICHOLAS KALU was there. Excerpts:

    What are your plans towards revamping the  NDDC  as quickly as possible so that it can achieve the developmental goals for which it was set up?

    First of all, we would need to carry out a number of audits. An audit of our systems, audit of our processes, audit of our projects and audit of our personnel so that we can have a true picture of not only the governance systems but also a true picture of our obligations.

    Secondly, we have to develop a master plan. There was a master plan that was drawn up before. It was a 15-year plan. It is more than 10 years after the plan was drawn up, so it is either we do a new plan or we revalidate the old one. But there has to be a master plan that would govern planning for the region.

    Part of the problems has been that the NDDC is budgeted for on a year-by-year basis. It would not work. We have to have a long-term plan to say this is what we want to see out of the Niger Delta and then you use the yearly budget to achieve that ultimate goal. Those are some of the things we intend to set out to do.

    Uncompleted projects would be captured in the project audit because a project audit would determine the number of projects you have, the nature of the projects and the status of each project.

    The projects that you need to get off your books, you find a convenient way of getting them off the books, because we need to clean up the books. Right now, NDDC has over 9, 000 contracts and that is an unwieldy number. No matter the capacity of an organisation, I doubt if you have capacity to properly execute 9, 000 contracts. Some of those contracts are moribund, some are dead and some are non-existent. So, you need to really investigate and find out the status of each and every one of them and then you clean up the books and then begin to deal with the realistic ones.

     

    Funding of NDDC is a known problem. Apart from the budget from the Federal Government, there are companies and organisations to contribute to the running of the NDDC. How are you going to deal with this given that most have lost faith in the commission?

    Well, funding would be an issue, but one of the greatest impediments to funding is the lack of transparency. When people don’t see a transparent process in an organisation, they will hold back their money. So, we have to re-engage the stakeholders by making sure our systems and processes are transparent.

    What people see now is a very opaque environment and that would not encourage them to put in their money. So, you have to open up the system, make sure that there is due process in everything you do and then re-establish the confidence of the stakeholders. Under the act establishing the NDDC, for instance, there are some committees and organs that should operate. There is an advisory committee made up of the governors of the NDDC states. But I don’t know when last that organ met. Why do you need the advisory board? You need the advisory board because the member states are contributors to the finances of the project. So, they must be part of the planning.

    They must be part of the budgeting process. They should have input into what kind of projects the commission should or not carry out in their states.

    Recently, I was told in Rivers State or so, the NDDC said it did some projects and the state government is saying no, you did not do the project. We did the project. So, we don’t even know who did what.

     

    Youth restiveness, militancy and vandalism are affecting the economy and people are expecting that your board would definitely address all that. What is your comment on this?

    First of all, we need to engage with the youth. We need to engage with all the stakeholders. If a group believes that it was part of a process, a decision-making process, they will feel a sense of ownership of the process and the outcomes. But when a group is not part of that process, it sees the process and the outcomes as being strange to them, because they are detached.

    So, there is no ownership. The important thing going forward in the Niger Delta is that every stakeholder must feel a sense of ownership. They must be a part of the process. If the youth are part of the process, I believe they will begin to own the process and it would begin to douse militancy. It won’t stop it because what would eventually stop militancy is development; the kind of development that would create an economy that would make them productive.

    So, until we get to that point, we would still have some restiveness. But you cannot have development in an atmosphere of militancy and chaos.

     

    People’s expectations are high from the NDDC. What advice do you have for the people of Niger Delta?

    The people should expect a new story. It would be a new story of commitment, single-minded focus and determination to make a change in the region. It is only the Niger Deltans that can change the Niger Delta and we have this historic opportunity to do so. The choice to succeed or fail is ours to make, and I would rather choose to succeed than to fail. I would do everything to make that difference.

  • To Ndoma-Egba and Ekere

    Dear Sirs,

    Congratulations, Mr Chairman and Mr Managing Director. These, indeed, must be busy times for you as you take your seats at the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), a body which is largely a response to the agitation of the people of the Niger Delta, a populous area inhabited by a diversity of minority ethnic groups.

    I am sure that since you were named, your phones have not stopped ringing. And now that you have fully taken charge, the phones will over-ring, if there is anything like that.

    The phones that have not stopped ringing, dear brothers are not about you but about the offices you now occupy. How many of those calling now called you six months back?

    Both of you have been Senator and deputy governor before and I am sure the calls while you were in those offices ýand when you left were not comparable. So, do not let the calls get to your heads. They are more about what those calling can get from you.

    For me, this is the time to remind you of where the Niger Delta was before NDDC, where it is with NDDC and where it needs to be. Only when you take the past and the present into heart will the future be discernible.

    Since the 50s, the need for a special treatment for the Niger Delta, as a result of its difficult terrain, dawned on the authorities. As such, the region has had interventionist agencies such as the Oil Mineral-Producing Area Development Commission (OMPADEC), attending to the needs of the area. It was the OMPADEC that gave way for the NDDC.

    In the 1990s, the Ijaw and the Ogoni set up organisations such as the Ijaw National Congress (INC) and the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), to confront the Federal Government and multinational oil companies.

    Their reason for agitation was that: they had received little or no currency from the multi-billion-dollar-a-year industry. The agitation became confrontational and the NDDC came at a time when things were really at the edge. Poverty walked on all fours in the region. Things were really bad.

    OMPADEC achieved next to nothing. One of the first things the NDDC thought of was a Master Plan for the region. It was done about decade and a half ago. This is a long time for change to take place. In that period, a new city can spring up, a small company can become a conglomerate and a toddler can become a teenager.

    The Niger Delta worked with other stakeholders in the region to design this plan whose dream was to turn the creeks around by 2020, which is just four years away.

    Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, in his preface to the Master Plan, was so optimistic that with the plan, the Niger Delta would get back its groove.

    But the NDDC, which is supposed to drive the development of the area, has been bogged down by internal and external factors.

    At a point, the commission owed its contractors over N1trillion on existing contracts. At a point, contracts, we were told, were awarded with no design and no specific location but with the sole purpose of collecting advance payments.

    There were instances where one contract was awarded to two or three contractors. Many were just interested in taking money meant for a road, hospital or other projects and did not care to do the job.

    There were allegations that members of staff of the NDDC were colluding with outsiders to institute legal actions against the commission and later push for out-of-court settlement, after which they shared the settlement money from the NDDC. The commission, at a point, had over 400 court cases against it in courts.

    Sirs, things were so bad in the commission at some point that an insider said if it were a private sector firm, it would be regarded as insolvent.

    A presidential report on the commission showed that it also got into projects with nothing to do with its mandate as an interventionist agency. What on earth was NDDC doing in renovating Port Harcourt Club and inaugurating a study on the generation of electric power from gully erosion sites?

    There were also a lot of in-fighting over how to share the money and further pauperise the people. There was no synergy between the board and the management.

    A former Chairman of the Governing Board, Senator Bassey Ewa-Henshaw, at a management retreat in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital, spoke from the heart about how the commission had not lived up to expectation. It was a session where he let out some home truths and declared: “It can no longer be business as usual. Substantial and immediate changes for the better must take place. We must root out impunity from NDDC.”

    It was admitted during the retreat that the people of the Niger Delta had not received the value they expected from the commission.

    The quality of some of the infrastructure projects fell below acceptable standards. The commission was seen as a ‘contract cow’, whose award letters were being hawked in the major cities of the country.

    Sirs, I have gone this much into the past to show that those who say leaders in the region have part of the blame for its woes are not wrong. The people who have manned NDDC were picked from the region and the people who manned OMPADEC also had their roots in the region.

    I must also point out that the blame for the non-realisation of the dream of the Master Plan four years into 2020 is not just NDDC’s. Other stakeholders such as the Federal Government, Southsouth state governments, Southsouth local government areas and the oil giants, have not done their parts as envisaged in the Master Plan.

    The Federal Government, for instance, has not released all cash due to the commission. Several trillions statutorily due the commission are held by the Federal Government, the state governments, the local governments and the oil giants. So, the commission has far less than it needs and to make matters worse, people still stole the inadequate cash using all kinds of tactics.

    Mrs Ibim Semenitari, in the last few months, has laid a foundation which I believe you both can build on.

    My final take is: people who want one favour or the other will keep disturbing you with phone calls. But this is not the time to think of individual interests but of the general good of the majority of the people of the Niger Delta. It is also time you ensured all stakeholders, including the Federal Government, pay the agency all its dues so that more cash will be available to turn things around.

    Till I write you later, bye for now.

  • Akwa Ibom community, Mobil bicker over projects

    The N1.2bn Special Community Assistance Projects in Esit Eket by Mobil Producing Nigeria (MPN) Unlimited is generating tension due to the refusal of the firm to mobilise contractors for the third phase of its milestone plans, writes Kazeem Ibrahym

    Esit Esit Local Government Area, one of the host communities to Mobil Producing Nigeria (MPN) Unlimited in Akwa Ibom State is in turmoil due to the firm’s lack of dedication to the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) it signed with the community.

    The area, it was learnt, has been devastated by the effects of oil spill resulting from oil and gas exploration activities. As a result, Mobil was to commit the compensation cash of N1.2 billion into communitty development projects in the third phase of its milestone plans.

    Speaking to reporters in Uyo, the state capital, a community leader, Senator Etang Umoyo, decried Mobil’s lack of commitment to the MoU, saying that the firm has reneged in paying the contractors after greater percentage of the job had been done.

    According to him, children in the affected schools now receive lessons under trees as the contractors have abandoned the sites due to failure of Mobil to pay them.

    His words: “Mobil should respect the contract terms with the contractors so that they can return to sites in order not to jeopardise the existing mutual relationship with it.

    “We have no problem with Mobil. They had started some projects in the areas of repair of schools, roads and walls. Now, it is time for children to go back to school and those things are left unattended to. If you go to Esit Eket, you will see the children receiving their lessons under trees.

    “So, we insist that Mobil should meet their payment obligations with contractors so that they can go back to sites and finish those projects in order to create an environment conducive to teaching and learning.

    Some youths wrote a letter to one of the managers, pleading that they should come and do something about the situation. Unfortunately, this was misinterpreted.

    “The General Manager for Public Relations over-reacted and called on the Transition Chairman of Esit Eket Local Government Area to ask the youth to withdraw the letter and apologise to them. As far as I am concerned, that is going overboard which could generate crisis.”

    The Paramount Ruler of Esit Eket, Edidem Ubong Peter Assam 11, appealed to Mobil to mobilise the contractors to return to sites, revealing that pupils in the affected schools have threatened to relocate to his palace for their learning programmes.

    Assam, Chairman of the Council appealed to the youth to toe the line of peace and work harmoniously with MPN towards the actualisation of the community projects.

    Some of the schools visited by Niger Delta Report included Community Secondary School, Akpautong; Qua Iboe Church Primary School, Akpautong; Union Technical College, Ikpa and others in Esit Eket. Works were at advanced stages of completion.

    But the contractors said they would return to complete the project as soon as Mobil fulfils its agreement to release funds for the project.

    Meanwhile, teachers in the affected schools have lamented the deplorable state of education infrastructure, saying such environments were not conducive for the pupils, especially as the May/June West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) approaches.

    “Our pupils have been learning under harsh situations because of the non-completion of the facilities for the pupils to prepare well for their forthcoming examinations. The situation on ground is really affecting their studies. The doors are bad and as examinations are approaching, it is going to be difficult for the students”, Friday Akpan, Head of Motor Vehicle Department at the Union Technical College, Ikpa, lamented.

    Also, the Headmaster, Qua Iboe Church Primary School, AkpaUtong, Elder Edet Ekanem, said: “The students have no place to sit and learn.

    “Even my quarter as the headmaster is yet to be completed. If the headmaster’s quarter was ready, it will help me to supervise the students well and watch over the school premises very well instead of coming all the way from my village to the school every day.”

    Also, the Esit Eket Frontline Youths Movement (EEFYM) and Network Advancement Programme for Poverty and Disaster Risks Reduction, in their separate letters to Mobil, had accused the company of refusal to pay the balance of the said money and threatened with an ultimatum of seven days to be conditionally followed by protests by the community youths.

    But, in a letter by Mobil’s General Manager, Public and Government Affairs, Paul Arinze, and addressed to the Chairman, Esit Eket Local Government Area, Iniobong Robinson, the company said despite the present unpleasant business climate in the country, MPN had not reneged on the execution of the Special Community Assistance Projects in the respective communities of Ibeno, EEket, Esit Eket, Onna, Ikot Abasi, Mkpat Enin, Eastern Obolo and Mbo.

    The letter reads: “As you are aware, the delay in the commencement of project activities in Esit Eket, for the most part, was due to internal community disagreements and litigations. As soon as those issues were resolved; (though some fresh cases have again been filed in court), the process for the disbursement of the first milestone was effected, and payment subsequently made.

    “Upon the completion of the first milestone project activities and submission of satisfactory report by the project manager (I.F. Global Services Limited), the second milestone payment was also made. Based on the value of measured work as earlier communicated, the process for the disbursement of the third (half) milestone payment is ongoing.

    “In view of the above, and in compliance with the Resolutions signed by all the parties on December 19, 2013, the NNPC/MPN JV hereby demands an immediate withdrawal of the letters and the issuance of unreserved apologies by the two groups from Esit Eket Local Government Area, as an irreducible minimum condition for the continued execution of the SP II projects in Esit Eket LGA.”

  • Unemployed youths transform to job creators in Bayelsa

    Unemployed youths transform to job creators in Bayelsa

    Entrepreneurs are emerging from the unemployed population in Bayelsa State. Most of the new job creators are youths. The new generation of entrepreneurs took advantage of an opportunity provided for them by the State Employment and Expenditure for Result (SEEFOR) project.

    SEEFOR, which began in the state, last year, is a partnership project involving the Federal Government, World Bank and the European Union (EU).

    Last year, SEEFOR trained 1,200 people from various local government areas in the state and empowered them with skills and money to start businesses.

    This year, the project has already absorbed 3,000 jobless people. The project engages them in public works maintenance jobs, road maintenance, refuse disposal and other sundry jobs. SEEFOR pays each beneficiary N20, 000 monthly and mandates them to compulsorily save N5, 000 every month for a period of one year.

    Within the period, SEEFOR organises various mentorship programmes on money management and entrepreneurial skill to educate the beneficiaries on how to establish and run individual business ventures, using their compulsory savings.

    Such mentorship event was held at various centres. Beneficiaries in Ogbia, Brass and Nembe gathered at Ogbia Town; Southern Ijaw went to Amassoma; Ekeremor assembled at Ekeremor Town while Sagbama and Kolokuma/Opokuma were trained at Sagbama Town.

    The acting state Coordinator, SEEFOR, Mr. Charles Enuma, who spoke to the beneficiaries at Yenagoa centre, said the project was designed to give employment to many jobless youths. He said the programme empowered the youth by providing jobs for them and encouraging them to save part of their salaries to enable them to begin and own their own businesses.

    He said: “SEEFOR intervenes in several other areas. Other than the employment side, it engages in public financial management, building institutions and structure to ensure that government provides good financial management system. They are also involved in the training of youths in small craft.

    The SEEFOR initiative is an empowerment package for youths in Bayelsa State. Last year, we engaged 1,200 youths and this year we are engaging another 3,000 young people under the Public Works Technical Committee of SEEFOR.

    “We are empowering the youth and at the same time training them in entrepreneurial skills, savings and money management.

    “Apart from the public works committee, SEEFOR also provides funding for five technical and craft development centres for the training of youths,  provision of grants to farmers through co-operative societies, among other interventions and public financial sector institutional reforms.”

    He said though there was no technical college in the state to facilitate the activities of the project, SEEFOR took advantage of five craft development centres. He said SEEFOR provided equipment and consumables in the craft centres for proper training of the beneficiaries.

    In his remarks, the Chairman of the PWTC, SEEFOR, Bayelsa State and Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Science, Technology and Manpower Development, Chief Bomoyo Amachree, said the scheme was aimed at encouraging hardworking and positive youths to give them a sense of belonging.

    He urged the youth to avail themselves of the opportunities the scheme provided, saying that their hard work, dedication and attitudes would determine their altitudes.

    Amachree drew a distinction between the amnesty programme of the Federal Government and the SEEFOR project. He said while the amnesty engaged repentant gun-wielding militants, the SEEFOR came as a reward for youths who, though were jobless, remained peaceful.

    He added that SEEFOR was encouraging dignity of labour and assisting beneficiaries to learn the rudiments of financial management and entrepreneurial skills. He said the beneficiaries had a life-time opportunity to rise above their financial problems.

    One of the beneficiaries, Cynthia Titipreye, described the programme as interesting. Titipreye said through the programme, she learnt how to manage money.

    “Before now, I found it difficult to manage and save money. But after the programme, I learnt that money management is necessary for entrepreneurial success,” she said.

  • Why Buhari shouldn’t dialogue with Niger Delta militants, by Nembe chief

    Why Buhari shouldn’t dialogue with Niger Delta militants, by Nembe chief

    A community leader and social commentator, Chief Wilfred Ogbotobo, has said that a group of militants who has the penchant for wanton destruction of national assets, especially oil installations in the Niger Delta region, does not deserve a dialogue with President Muhammadu Buhari.

    He advocated military action as the best approach to flush out the criminals from the creeks and quell the unrest in the region.

    According to him, criminals should not be pampered and any dialogue with militants amounts to treating criminality with kid gloves.

    He said: “With the weighty challenges confronting the country at the moment, the Buhari administration does not have the luxury of time and resources for hopeless, hypocritical frolics with every lunatic group that springs from the creeks and other parts of the Niger Delta.

    “Instead, the Federal Government should consolidate the successes so far recorded and expand the overall capacity of the Operation Crocodile Smile to restore law and order in the region. This, he said, will enable the government to fast track significant development without delay.

    “Dialogue, especially with the same Ijaw actors, elders and leaders is akin to bathing a pig. The late President Yar’adua had broad and extensive consultations and dialogues with the same syndicates of Ijaw and other regional actors, elders and leaders before the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) was fashioned and implemented with its fraudulent Amnesty Fund which the syndicates hijacked in order to side-track the basic concerns of the downtrodden.

    “The cardinal thrust of the PAP, among others, is to confront the major issues of the Niger Delta, including restiveness, especially among the youth. The PAP successfully offered the syndicates hundreds of billions of Naira to share.

    “If another condemnable resurgence is to be pampered and dignified with a presidential dialogue, then, it only confirms that the Yar’adua’s PAP was a sham.”

    He described the amnesty programme as an exercise in futility, saying that Ijaw leaders are blinded by free cash and have been unable to chart a path of development for the region.

    Chief Ogbotobo reels off many interventionist agencies which people from the region mismanaged for their selfish interests.

    “Currently, it has become a miserable exercise in futility, to fathom how many more dialogues are required, for the Ijaws to make a decision on what they want and the manner they want progress in their territories.

    “Niger Deltans, especially Ijaws, have had extraordinary and absolute powers to manage federal interventionist agencies such as the defunct Directorate for Food, Roads and Rural Infrastructure (DFRRI) and much later the Oil Mineral Producing Areas Development Commission (OMPADEC) which had master plans and blueprints on which the same set of elders and leaders had enough dialogues and made more than enough inputs for the development of the region.

    “The Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) came later, with its own master plans and roadmap for the development of Niger Delta, that included robust regional contributions and participations spearheaded by the same elders and leaders.

    “The same cabal participated and contributed in the conferences that succeeded in increasing the derivation revenue for oil-producing states to 13 per cent”, he said.

    He recalled that Nigeria overwhelmingly supported Dr. Goodluck Jonathan to become the President with the expectation to change the mind-set of the people of the region by developing the Niger Delta. He lamented that Jonathan squandered the rare opportunity of the region and surrendered the wealth that was supposed to accrue to the Niger Delta to hawks.

    “The Ijaws, and by extension, the Niger Delta region, had the opportunity to produce a President who was given an unprecedented pan-Nigerian goodwill and support.

    “Nigerians virtually surrendered Nigeria to Goodluck Jonathan and Niger Deltans. While he called the shots, notable Ijaw people such as Chief Edwin Kiagbodo Clark assumed extraordinary and all-powerful statuses.

    For six years, they called the shots and possessed statutory powers to grapple with the critical socio-economic challenges that face the region and its downtrodden masses.

    “Therefore, there is neither any novel idea nor rational demand that warrants this latest act of ignorance and immaturity being peddled by the Ijaw in the Niger Delta region. We have had enough dialogue and do not need any for now.

    “Despite the severe economic realities plaguing the nation, he has continued with the Presidential Amnesty Programme fashioned by the cabal to short-change the development of the the region,” he said.

  • ‘How to correct injustice in Niger Delta’

    Rivers State Government has said despite the difficulties oil exploration has brought to host communities, peace is most fundamental towards correcting the situation.

    The Permanent Secretary, Rivers State Ministry of Environment, Mr. Emmanuel Oye, who canvassed this position also said: “It is unfortunate that we have been hit from both sides-the communities, government and the companies.”

    Oye, who spoke in Port Harcourt to declare open a conference organised by Gas Alert for Sustainable Initiative (GASIN) for six communities in Rivers and Bayelsa states, government regulatory agencies such as National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA), National Environmental Standard Regulation Agency ( NESRA), Rivers State Ministry of Environment, members of staff of Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) and Nigeria Agip Oil Company (NAOC), however lamented the difficult situation people from oil-bearing communities have found themselves in.

    While urging the people to embrace peace and accept whatever is being put in place to solve the problems, he also noted that  “some of these processes of change take time to begin to manifest. Dialogue is of the essence.”

    The theme of the conference was “Towards a Sustainable Relationship Between Oil Operators and Host Communities: The Roles of Government, Oil Operators and Host Communities.”

    Welcoming the participants, the Executive Director of GASIN, Rev, Fr. Edward Obi explained that the job of his organisation is to establish a tripartite relationship among government/the regulatory agencies, the communities and the oil and gas companies for harmonious existence.

    Obi also said: “Forming the tripartite relationship is good because it prevents a situation whereby communities lock up companies’ gates. Oil companies do not exist in a vacuum; they exist here and when they come, they have to do what is right for the people and vice versa.”

    He expressed optimism that since the tripartite relationship had worked before, “it will work again in Niger Delta.”

    In his speech, the Port Harcourt Zonal Director of NOSDRA, Mr Cyrus Nkangwung advised that “everybody should be seen as owners of the oil God has put in the land.”

    Nkangwung also urged the communities “to ensure that no oil spill takes place because if it does, it is the communities that will suffer most.”

    He further expressed the Federal Government’s desire to clean the Niger Delta region “which it has started with the clean-up of Ogoni land.”

    The six communities that attended the conference were Akala-Olu; Enito II; Oshie from Ahoada West Local Government Area of Rivers State while those from Bayelsa State included Koroama; Obunagha and Polaku in Yenagoa Local Government Area.

    The people expressed regrets for letting in these companies into their lands.

    The absence of the IOCs from the conference was viewed as an insult to the communities.

    King Funpere Akah of Gbarain Clan in Koroama said it is regrettable that “we are talking about our problems and those who are to help in solving them are not here. If you know they will not come, please do not invite us next time.”

    Akah lamented that SPDC has not helped his community as the company has brought all manner of troubles to them.

    The royal father pointed out that the presence of the company has brought insecurity to his land to the extent that it has become a big threat to the community because “the place is now safe haven for hoodlums, armed robbers and kidnappers.”

    He also said the community that produces gas which is used to light up other parts of Nigeria is groping in darkness.

    Akah also lamented that his people can no longer harvest palm fruits “because everywhere is criss-crossed by oil-pipelines.”

    ”How do you get them to address our problems? Next time, if you know they will not come, please, do not invite me.

    The Spokesman of Akala-Olu community in Ahoada West Local Government Area of Rivers State, Mr Odums .S. Odums said his people are exposed to gas flaring while their rain water is polluted.

    Mr Thompson Pere from Obunagha community in Bayelsa State said his people are assailed by three predicaments that bother on gas flaring; oil spill and their lives.

    Pere said: “Gas flaring is now cracking our roofs, our potable water has no meaning again and our cash crops are now affected.”

    He also said “due to the operations of the oil companies, we have been witnessing oil spills which pollute the water we used to drink and destroy aquatic life.”

    Continuing, Pere stated that “since Oil Company stepped into our land, our social lives are affected and anti-social behaviours which we never experienced before are now the order of the day. Youths indulge in cultism, armed robbery and other acts of criminality.”

    Speaking for Kula community in Rivers State, King Barnabas Kurule said: “Oil and gas companies have caused a lot of damage to us. Due to their operations, we do not know when there is rainy or dry season.

    “Vibration of our land does not allow us to sleep well at night.”

    Others who spoke on behalf of other communities that attended the conference reeled off several woes that have become their lot since the IOCs commenced operations in their land.

    In a 19-point communiqué they issued at the end of the conference and which was signed by all the participants present, they, among others, called on government and the IOCs “to provide adequate social amenities for the host communities to ameliorate the hazards caused by their operations.”

     

     

     

     

  • Lessons from Okoro and co

    Lessons from Okoro and co

    There are books you read and they leave you with lessons you and the society can do a lot with. Not because the books are written in gold or printed in diamond-plated ink. It also has little to do with the beauty of the language of the book in question, but more with time and circumstances. Realities of the time a book is read have more than a cursory role to play in how it is perceived. These realities tweak the place of the literature.

    So, when you come across books imbued with qualities, you cannot but describe as extra. Chances are that you are bound to be left with sterling imprints you will itch to share.

    Such is the case of My Name is Okoro. It is the latest novel from Sam Omatseye, this newspaper’s Editorial Board chair. Okoro, the Urhobo man with American citizenship and the protagonist of the book, is a man of awesome stature and presence.

    Reading this book at a time the Niger Delta question is not just back on the front burner but seriously crippling our national economy tells me that when you do not deal with a problem from the root, you are bound to get into trouble frequently as a result of it.

    The book, for me, raises the minority question, especially the Niger Delta question, which the Nigerian state has been unable to answer. At best, we have patched it and before long, we are back to square one.

    Today, we are in recession. Not just because the Goodluck Jonathan administration bungled so many things but because we left unanswered a question we should have answered decades ago.

    Evidence of the minority concerns abound in this book. At a point, Okoro was forced to ask: “Why do the newspapers keep writing about Igbo pogrom when they killed everyone who was Southerner except the Yoruba?”

    And in chapter five, a woman from the South, who had come to the North in search of her son, said: “Ukwanis are not Igbo… The animals are killing everyone.”

    She went further: “Ukwanis can understand Igbo language but they can distinguish who is speaking Ukwani and who is speaking Igbo. The Igbo know who is speaking Ukwani as distinct from who is speaking Igbo.”

    And this from Okoro himself: “But is it not worse when the language is not even close but seems to sound the same but is not Yoruba or Hausa? For instance, the Anang and Ibibio.”

    Chief Subomi, who hid Okoro in his Kaduna house after he escaped Lieutenant Abdullahi’s bullets, added: “They were not spared. They were lumped together with the Igbo in the slaughter.”

    Yet, the pogrom was largely seen from the majority’s point of view. This tyranny of the majority can also be gleaned from the point where a lady at the Barclays Bank who lost her Isoko uncle in the ‘Igbo pogrom’ in Kaduna wondered why no one was talking about that.

    The book’s unforgettable shots should remain with us like precious pearls. One is that we cannot sweep away the minority question. Two, we should ditch idealism and face the realities of our time. There is also a vital lesson for those who believe with violence, they can get the Niger Delta its due. Okoro’s wife spoke about the futility of war. Here it is: “That (time wasting) is the meaning of this war. People died, families destroyed and cities on their knees. We have returned to where we started without all the things we started with.”

    But for us not to waste our time fighting a war, this is a time for the 16-point demand of the Niger Delta elders and leaders to be considered and with dispatch too. The demands, which were presented to President Muhammadu Buhari, include the relocation of the administrative and operational headquarters of major International Oil Companies (IOCs) to the region, the clean-up of other communities affected by spill, besides Ogoni land, a review of the Presidential Amnesty Programme’s core mandate, economic development and empowerment for the region, the implementation of the Brass LNG and fertiliser plant project and the NLNG Train 7 in Bonny.

    Other demands are: ownership of oil blocs by Niger Deltans, a fast-track of key regional critical infrastructural projects in the region, such as the East-West Road, and the full implementation of the rail project from the Niger Delta to Lagos.

    Also on the list are: reduction of the military presence in the Niger Delta, the prompt take-off of Maritime University, award of contracts for the security surveillance and protection of oil and gas infrastructure to communities, the restructuring and funding of the Niger Delta Development Commission, the strengthening of the Niger Delta Ministry and fiscal federalism.

    Some background will do at this point. Because of the minority question, which was an issue in My Name is Okoro, the Niger Delta, where Nigeria derives the bulk of its revenue, has witnessed agitation upon agitation. It all began when their farms were polluted by oil spills. Their streams were taken over by crude oil. Their health worsened. And their existence seriously threatened.

    Ken Saro-Wiwa was judicially murdered by the military junta of Gen. Sani Abacha. Several other people were killed by security operatives under one guise or the other. With intellectual activists such as Saro-Wiwa out of the way, another generation of activists took over. This set believes if you make peaceful change impossible, you make violent change inevitable. They also believe it is illegal to be lawful in a lawless environment. So, they took to arms in their quest to prove a point.

    The late President Umaru Yar’Adua knew something urgent must be done to rescue the situation. Aside his love for peace, he also needed to save the country from international embarrassment that the arms struggle had become. By then, there had been reports of militants partaking in piracy activities on the Gulf of Guinea, a development which had seen the governments of Equatorial Guinea and Angola complaining to Yar’Adua at international meetings. Okah was mentioned by the two governments as being responsible for the piracy activities against their countries. Okah was a leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), which had claimed responsibility for many of the kidnappings and the attacks on oil facilities in the region.

    Fast forward to April 2009, the then president dissolved the board of the NDDC. Timi Alaibe, who was the Managing Director, however, got another job. He was appointed Special Adviser on Niger Delta Affairs. His major job, it turned out, was to midwife the Presidential Amnesty Programme.?

    Between June 25 and October 4, 2009, 20,192 militants embraced the programme by handing over arms in excess of 20,000. Others who did not hand over their weapons initially because of the fear of the unknown later did before the deadline expired. Even after the deadline’s expiration, 6,166 more people, I understand, associated with it.

    And now to 2015 when Jonathan, a minority from Bayelsa State, lost the country’s number one seat. Jonathan’s loss of the last presidential election saw the renewal of the violent agitation in the region with the Niger Delta Avenger leading the assault. The ongoing dialogue, which led to the stakeholders’ meeting with Buhari, has seen oil production jumping to over two million barrels per day. What this says is that there is no substitute to peace.

    And that is why my final take is that the minority matters. We should not do anything that will make the minority ethnic groups wonder why they are being relegated to the background as was the case with Urhobo, Isoko and other minority victims of the events leading to the civil war and the civil war itself.