"General” Ramsey Mukoro opens a wad of cash and orders a double Hennessy before issuing his warning: the rebellion he was part of is threatening to return to the oil-rich Niger River delta.
Sipping the cognac from a gold-leaf glass at a mid-morning interview in a hotel bar in the southern Nigerian city of Yenagoa, Mukoro, the 33-year-old former militant commander, listed grievances that may return the delta to the violent days before a peace deal in 2009: unemployment, pollution and prosecution of top leaders of the insurgency.
“There’s no development around,” he said on the balcony of the gaudy Aridolf hotel, overlooking hollow buildings and shacks made of wood and corrugated iron opposite a busy highway lined with mounds of garbage. “Another agitation is coming.”
Before the last bout of unrest ended with a government amnesty and agreement to pay the gunmen, the rebels kidnapped oil workers and attacked installations run by companies including Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Chevron Corp. and Eni SpA, cutting output in Africa’s biggest oil producer by about a quarter.
With his security forces engaged in fighting Boko Haram’s Islamist insurgency in the north, President Muhammadu Buhari can’t afford renewed rebellion in the delta. Oil accounts for two-thirds of government revenue, and almost all of Nigeria’s exports. Africa’s biggest economy is already reeling from the 69 percent drop in prices for Brent crude, the equivalent of Nigeria’s Bonny Light, since June 2014. Three pipelines were bombed last month.
The militants are frustrated by Buhari’s decision to cut multi-million dollar contracts given to former commanders to guard the pipelines they once attacked. The government plans to slash financing to the amnesty program by half this year to about $100 million and scrap it all together next year. Under the agreement, about 30,000 fighters have been receiving training and a 65,000 naira ($327) monthly allowance.
They’re frustrated too by the decision of the state anti-corruption agency to charge one of the most powerful former commanders, Government Ekpemupolo, on Jan. 14 with money laundering and colluding with the country’s maritime body to divert 34 billion naira of government funds. Ekpemupolo, widely known as Tompolo, didn’t appear for questioning and has denied the accusations in statements in local newspapers.
“The prosecution against Tompolo, our leader, is unfair and we will not take it,” Mukoro said. “The federal government should be mindful of what they are doing.”
The weekend after an arrest warrant was issued for Tompolo, the Bonny-Okrika and Escravos-Warri pipelines were bombed, shutting down supply to two of Nigeria’s state-owned refineries. Tompolo’s spokesman denied he was involved and said the violence was orchestrated to frame him.
Shacks made of wood and corrugated iron in Yenagoa, southern Nigeria. Photographer: George Osodi/Bloomberg
Paul Boroh, Buhari’s special adviser on the Niger delta, said militants who accepted the amnesty have “disassociated” themselves from the attacks and were helping to track down the perpetrators. A 57-year-old retired brigadier general who’s also heading the amnesty program, Boroh said he’s confident the former fighters “won’t go back to the creeks.”
Many commanders may have no interest in resuming violence because they have “enjoyed largess, they’re now used to luxury, they have a lot of business,” Olumide Oyebamiji, senior project officer at the Stakeholder Democracy Network, which mediates in local conflicts, said in Port Harcourt, the southern oil industry hub.
One of the biggest criticisms of the amnesty program is that commanders allegedly siphoned off their followers’ share of the cash. The program has also failed to tackle pollution and a lack of development in a region where Nigeria’s statistics agency says more than 50 percent of the population live on $1 a day, said Anyakwee Nsirimovu, who helped draft the original amnesty program.
“Those few leaders are living well. They have become billionaires overnight and the young ones are still loitering the streets,” said Nsirimovu, head of the Port Harcourt-based Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law. “These leaders pocketed the money and gave them peanuts. Those who really carried AK-47s in the Niger delta are still here.”
A militant camp in the Niger delta, 2007.Photographer: AFP via Getty Images
While the amnesty has created a semblance of stability, many see it as a government reward for violence, potentially encouraging others to take up arms, said Patterson Ogon, who was an official on the amnesty program between 2011 and 2014. Many ex-fighters can’t find jobs and those that do find they often pay less than their amnesty allowance in a country where the minimum wage is 18,000 naira per month, he said.
“People are apprehensive because these are enough reasons to create room for another insurgency,” he said.
With government finances pressured by oil prices close to $35 a barrel, Buhari doesn’t have much choice but to be tough with the former militants, which may prompt “another mini-war,” said Cobus Claassens, the 50-year-old managing director of security company Pilgrims Africa Ltd., which has operations in the delta.
Buhari will have to “be strong and show them the mailed fist, pull the sword out of the scabbard,” said Claassens, whose company caters to clients such as General Electric Co. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc's. Game shops in Nigeria. “He doesn’t have anything to offer them, there’s no oil and gas business, there’s no development, he doesn’t have the money to pay them off.”
Even without a resurgence in unrest, at least 250,000 barrels a day, or about 13 percent of total production, are stolen, Buhari said in July, accusing unidentified former ministers of being involved. In December, the Security and Civil Defence Corps said it had destroyed more than 200 illegal refineries in the delta and jailed 120 people.
Other crimes, including kidnapping, are still thriving
Yet the crash in crude prices has a silver lining for Nigeria: reducing financial incentives for oil theft.
Only three leakages were recorded last month by the government agencythat tracks oil spills. That compares to 68 in January last year and 615 in all of 2015. Theft and pipeline sabotage cost the government, energy companies and local communities about $14 billion in 2014, according to the Stakeholder Democracy Network.
“When oil prices started to drop drastically, the theft business became not too juicy. At $100 oil, the guys are stealing and probably selling at $50-60 and it makes sense,” said Kola Karim, the 47-year-old chief executive officer of Shoreline Group, a local producer with a license on oil fields near the city of Warri. “The big theft, I think, has gone down drastically. The local refining is still going on.”
Along with low prices making the trade less profitable, criminal networks and ex-insurgents that colluded with Nigerian security agencies have been compromised by the change in government, said Mike Karikpo, an author of a book about oil theft in the delta.
“Since the entry of Buhari it seems to have gone down because those who were enablers at the presidency are no longer there,” said Karikpo, a program officer at the Environmental Rights Action non-profit group. Former militants “had a free reign doing whatever they wanted, they could bring in vessels, pick up oil, and it was their own share of the national booty.”
Other crimes, including kidnapping, are still thriving, with hundreds of people abducted each year. Politicians also pay armed thugs and the ex-insurgents to intimidate rivals and voters at election time, said Oyebamiji of the SDN, pointing to violence during ballots in the delta state of Bayelsa in January.
In a region awash with guns, it’s now the young and jobless who weren’t included in the amnesty that are the real danger, he said. “General” Mukoro agrees.
“We might not get back to the creeks, but there are people who will,” Mukoro said. “Those people denied amnesty can have a u-turn in the struggle.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-02-02/oil-pipeline-bombings-in-nigeria-signal-new-threat

Lalasticala et al,u're duly called to duty..

A

Action movie gradually loading. It's gonna be hot. Book a copy NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lol

Nigeria will always survive

we shall see

Below are the highlights of the highpoints & my answers in this useless write-up.

1.) Ramsey Mukoro says there is no development around in the Niger-Delta.

Answer: And who do you have to blame for that if not your kleptomanic elders who have impeded your journey to greatness & looted all the future of your unborn generations.

2.) Buhari's armed forces can't afford renewed rebellion in the Niger Delta.

Answer: As iron sharpens iron, so does war sharpens soldiers. The Nigerian Army have been taking active combat against the insurgents in the north-east which actually will give them huge margin of superiority over your lazy & thieving gangs who know nothing aside waking up in the morning to shots of double-hennessy cognac served with a gold leaf glass by p.rostitutes.

Infact, If a list of the most battle-hardened Armies is made right now, Nigeria will make the top 7.

3.) The Militants are frustrated by Buhari's decision to cut multi-million dollar contracts given to former militant commanders to guard the pipelines they once attacked.

Answer: Yes, you shouldn't have been awarded such contracts in the 1st instance because it's like awarding contracts to the Armed Robbers & Assassins just to take over the duties & primary function of the Police but I guess the ineffectual & clueless buffoon who authorized the contract in the 1st place must have had his brain soaked in Ogogoro & cocaine solution before approving & signing the contracts.

The primary function of the NSCDC is to protect lives, properties & pipelines vandalism, so my advice to you is to get yourself together & start looking job openings either through Nairaland or Punch newspaper, and if you're a drop-out then apprenticeship is your calling.

4.) The prosecution against Tompolo - our leader is unfair and we will not take it.

Tompolo is a human being with a single-head just like the rest of us & cannot be exempted from the law. If he doesn't have any skeleton in his cupboard as regards the NIMASA fraud & embezzlement, then he has nothing to fear.

5.) People are apprehensive because these are enough reasons to create room for another insurgency.

Answer: The people that are apprehensive are mostly the cowards & thieves who have been looting & embezzling the resources channelled through the ministry of Niger-Delta & the 13% oil derivation fund that were meant for developing & cleaning-up the environmental degradation in the Niger-Delta. These are the real enemies of progress that are responsible for the Niger-Deltan predicaments.

6.) According to President Buhari - Even without resurgence & unrest, at least 250,000 barrels a day or about 13% of total production are stolen.

Answer: Now, this is the reason for which the Niger-Delta must be debugged & reset back to factory settings either through peaceful & rational means or war.

Before the discovery of oil in 1956, Nigeria was famous for her agrarian economy through which cash crops like Palm Produce(Oil & Kernel), Cocoa, Rubber, Timber, Groundnuts e.t.c were exported thus making Nigeria a major exporter in that respect.

The Niger-Delta, like every other region enjoyed the proceeds that was made from groundnuts & cotton from the Northern Region, Cocoa from the Western region, Palm-Oil from the Eastern region and nobody complained.

Whatever that is found or discovered within the earth & maritime boundaries of the entity called Nigeria solely belongs to the Government and not some rag-tag bunch of ungrateful, insufferable thieving never-do-wells & militant shielding hypocrites.

Please forgive if I have consciously or unconsciously offended you with my write-up, but here in Ijebu, calling a spade a spade is our destiny & calling - Nagode!

He is just wasting his time. Or probably wants to speak, feeling he has been dormant in a while.

My response to this whole 'buhaha'goes thus;
the present criminal activities of some group of unrepentant militant is attributed largely to SELFISH INTEREST!!obviously some persons are aggrived coz they dont have access to the endless stream of cash flows that was the order of the day during the last regime.,but they forget one thing,the naija delta struggle of 2006,2007 won lots of sympathy in the international community because there was a genuine cause for agitation..,hence the decision of the then president(late yar adua)to offer some sort of respite to the militant..but its a different ball game this time around ..that sympathy the region got as@2008 frm the international community wont be there coz they the militant are currently seen as the aggressors.its high time we stop blamming the fed govt for the ills in our region.from 2008 till date,i have it on record that up to a trillion have been allocated to the region in form of amnesty development programmes,royalties to communities,govt special funded projects tru (NDDC)etc,yet,nothing to show for it..who is to blame,the federal gov that has release funds to the region or the leaders of the region whose responsibility it is to utilize this funds for the overall interest of the region?
"The greatest mistake my brothers in the creeks will make is to assume the military doesnt have enough man power or fire power@its disposal coz of the insurgency in the north east''...i round up with this quote from Douglas Macarthur;whoever said a PEN is mightier than the sword,has never encountered automatic weapons!

Zoharariel:
Below are the highlights of the highpoints & my answers in this useless write-up.

1.) Ramsey Mukoro says there is no development around in the Niger-Delta.

Answer: And who do you have to blame for that if not your kleptomanic elders who have impeded your journey to greatness & looted all the future of your unborn generations.

2.) Buhari's armed forces can't afford renewed rebellion in the Niger Delta.

Answer: As iron sharpens iron, so does war sharpens soldiers. The Nigerian Army have been taking active combat against the insurgents in the north-east which actually will give them huge margin of superiority over your lazy & thieving gangs who know nothing aside waking up in the morning to shots of double-hennessy cognac served with a gold leaf glass by p.rostitutes.

Infact, If a list of the most battle-hardened Armies is made right now, Nigeria will make the top 7.

3.) The Militants are frustrated by Buhari's decision to cut multi-million dollar contracts given to former militant commanders to guard the pipelines they once attacked.

Answer: Yes, you shouldn't have been awarded such contracts in the 1st instance because it's like awarding contracts to the Armed Robbers & Assassins just to take over the duties & primary function of the Police but I guess the ineffectual & clueless buffoon who authorized the contract in the 1st place must have had his brain soaked in Ogogoro & cocaine solution before approving & signing the contracts.

The primary function of the NSCDC is to protect lives, properties & pipelines vandalism, so my advice to you is to get yourself together & start looking job openings either through Nairaland or Punch newspaper, and if you're a drop-out then apprenticeship is your calling.

4.) The prosecution against Tompolo - our leader is unfair and we will not take it.

Tompolo is a human being with a single-head just like the rest of us & cannot be exempted from the law. If he doesn't have any skeleton in his cupboard as regards the NIMASA fraud & embezzlement, then he has nothing to fear.

5.) People are apprehensive because these are enough reasons to create room for another insurgency.

Answer: The people that are apprehensive are mostly the cowards & thieves who have been looting & embezzling the resources channelled through the ministry of Niger-Delta & the 13% oil derivation fund that were meant for developing & cleaning-up the environmental degradation in the Niger-Delta. These are the real enemies of progress that are responsible for the Niger-Deltan predicaments.

6.) According to President Buhari - Even without resurgence & unrest, at least 250,000 barrels a day or about 13% of total production are stolen.

Answer: Now, this is the reason for which the Niger-Delta must be debugged & reset back to factory settings either through peaceful & rational means or war.

Before the discovery of oil in 1956, Nigeria was famous for her agrarian economy through which cash crops like Palm Produce(Oil & Kernel), Cocoa, Rubber, Timber, Groundnuts e.t.c were exported thus making Nigeria a major exporter in that respect.

The Niger-Delta, like every other region enjoyed the proceeds that was made from groundnuts & cotton from the Northern Region, Cocoa from the Western region, Palm-Oil from the Eastern region and nobody complained.

Whatever that is found or discovered within the earth & maritime boundaries of the entity called Nigeria solely belongs to the Government and not some rag-tag bunch of ungrateful, insufferable thieving never-do-wells & militant shielding hypocrites.

Please forgive if I have consciously or unconsciously offended you with my write-up, but here in Ijebu, calling a spade a spade is our destiny & calling - Nagode!

I don't support militant activism but i don't like revisionists either.
The Niger-delta of whom most comprised the old eastern region did not share in your cocoa proceeds or whatever.
It was not possible anyway, given the fact that resources and its revenues were controlled by the individual regions unlike now.
Your cocoa proceeds were utilized by the SW and by the SW alone.