The hapening is the Niger Delta do indeed state everything contrary to his allegations.

The central Government by virtue of its unjust/ immoral laws and practices has arrogated all the regions resources to itself and then used same to set up stooges (much like the divide and rule tactics of the colonial masters) at every level. They are not interested in who governs ifelodun or Yewa North LGA. but go and see the contest when Obio Akpor or Warri Local Gov. election is holding. You will know the powers at work.

We know those that are representing the people. Ask informed Indigenes of Rivers State (for instance) if you want to know who won the State Governorship election in 1999.
So when Non Deltans talk about "our politicians", we know those they are referring to.

On the other hand, there is an obvoius misconception of how leadership(abi governorship) is viewed as or what it represents in the ND.
Your governor may be considered as next -to- God, in terms of respect etc. But its definitely not so in the ND.
You just need to take a look at a quasi socio-political body like the SSPA (South South Peoples Assembly). No Governors word is taken as bond, for instance
To be very clear, we do not have any Oba, Olu, Alaafin or kabyiesi whose words are sacrosanct and the ideas and words of political leaders are not laws. In addition our kings, princes, lords etc live among us and feel the things that hurt us.
One of the Delta's problems is the current attempt to shrug off the imposition of an alien way of viewing rulership on the phsyche of the people.

Therefore, when outsiders impose 'political office holders' on our system, and the stooge goes ahead to separate himself out of the fold in the name of politics, little do the imposters know that the soul of the society is very far from the grasp of their stooges. Therefore while they label the 'politicians' as being corrupt (which may be correct/wrong), Niger Deltans sees far beyond the politician to the imposter and attempt, in their own way, to deal with the root of the problem.

In any case, those whose masters are domiciled in Abuja know that thier days are numbered.

My brothers and sisters thanks you all for your contributions and they have being heard and passed to the appropriate authorities.The following recommendations have being taken and we are ready to talk with any party that is willing to talk with the federal government.
But first we have some ghana must go to share is anyone interested am in aso rock this is my number 0023456879837.

We must crush the niger delta people they are going to be wiped out of nigeria and the oil proceeds will be shared by all the other good citizens of our beloved country.
Long live One nigeria.

The people from niger delta are not a capable of taking care of themselves so we have to help them and if possible use any means possible to suppress any uprising.

Mend they are rascals who will be subdued soon by our might military force and the people will suffer for allow miscrants to wage war on our oil companies who are helping to finance our economy.

We have deployed submarines,aircraft carriers and military hardware to start the eradication of niger delta so soon delta state,bayelsa state,rivers state,cross rivers and akwa ibom will be under strick control under tough sanctions and movement will be highly restricted and anyone found to mention the word mend will be put in the gaols in kaduna and our tough sss squard are at alert to give maximun feedback on the so called terrorist.

The rest of nigeria is about to enjoy the benefit of oil windfall.

No more fighting please the government will take care of all of you so stay calm and pray for the leadership to continue to do it's best as you know we know what you people like and need.

Contracts have being giving to companies to build roads,houses,hospitals and schools least i forget every nigerian will be given money to do any kind of business he or she likes but you have to promise not to mention the world niger delta again as it is a taboo.

@ OWO,
pls spare me the crap, u can call names all u want but we all know that the yoruba hav the best educated political elite in the country. I guarantee u that if we had those oil resources, yoruba land would be the envy of Africa (i'm sure u know that). I know everything i need to know about the niger delta area (as i hav stated earlier).

As for this hilarious issue of the region forming a soveriegn state, it would be interesting to see how any nation in the world will give away its valuables without a verygood fight. From what i hav read u seem to support these acts of vandalism by criminals (not youths) in the region.

All i hav to say is that for as long as u believe that the solution to this problem is kidnappin/vandalism & not political unity among ur ppl, the current generation of Ndeltans would hav nothing to show for their lives[b]. "Take note" [/b] i dont hate the Ndeltans as i'm partly from this region. The solution to this problem is clear, lets put away the dynamite/guns & begin to think like the rational human beings that we all are. Remember any Nigerian govt would rather deal with daily attacks than cede the region to self rule.

jagwar:

@ OWO,
please spare me the crap, u can call names all u want but we all know that the yoruba hav the best educated political elite in the country. I guarantee u that if we had those oil resources, yoruba land would be the envy of Africa (i'm sure u know that). I know everything i need to know about the niger delta area (as i hav stated earlier).

"Take note" [/b] i don't hate the Ndeltans as i'm partly from this region. The solution to this problem is clear, lets put away the dynamite/guns & begin to think like the rational human beings that we all are. Remember any Nigerian govt would rather deal with daily attacks than cede the region to self rule.

Sorry bo, the oil is in the Delta. And right now, ''OBJ'' is the eyesore of Nigeria.

As per your suggested solution, thinking like rational beings, we've tried that option in the past 50 years or so. It did not work. So what would you have us do?

AN insight into the lingering crisis in the Niger Delta, which recently culminated in hostage-taking, came from the Defence Headquarters yesterday. The Director of Operations, Air Vice Marshal Femi Gbadebo, alerted that the crisis was being externally influenced by some countries who are interested in the break up of Nigeria.

Meanwhile, the commander of the Joint Task Force (JTF) code-named "Operation Restore Hope", Brig.-Gen. Elias Zamani, has been redeployed to the Army Headquarters.

Briefing the committee yesterday in the National Assembly, Gbadebo told the committee that there was high suspicion that some foreign countries interested in the break-up of the country were fuelling the crisis.

The military top brass also told the members that some indigenes of the Niger Delta who are outside the country were also giving the militants in the area some support, positing that the situation could snowball into full-blown agitation for independence if not properly handled.

"It is possible for the entire Niger Delta to become a recruiting ground for militants. Remote involvement of mercenaries cannot be ruled out. The most problematic is that the crisis could snowball into a full agitation for self-determination and independence. In that case, it is necessary for government to take both political and drastic military action to stop the drift, especially now that the Niger Deltans in Diaspora and their sympathisers are

supporting the action of the militants", he said.

Gbadebo, who stood in for the Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Alexander Ogomudia, said the militants are in possession of sophisticated weapons such as general purpose machine guns, grenades, rocket propellers and AK 47. He added that a former governor in the Niger Delta and some powerful politicians were funding the militants. He also said that while the militants engage in oil bunkering and use the proceeds to buy high caliber weapons, the military was being subjected to due process in the acquisition of weapons and in most cases, experienced a lot of delay.

The Director of Operations further said that military equipment and hardwares take long time to produce and they are done to specification but the due process mechanism had been a stumbling block.

Speaking on the way out, Gbadebo said the military has the capacity to flush out the militants but cautioned that the solution would be to seek a socio-political dimension while there would be serious military action.

He said right now, the military in the Niger Delta area was not targeting the militants but there exist many groups in the area, emphasising that there is a possibility that many countries interested in the break-up of the country could be supporting the militants.

"It is not just a case of military option. It also requires a socio-political dimension. Yet, there is need for increased military action as we will not like a situation where our military will be disgraced. We are not exactly taking on the rebels. There should be increased military action because we are facing many groups. Their activities have gone beyond mere bunkering. It is possible that some foreign powers interested in the breaking up of Nigeria are supporting the militants", he added.

He blamed part of the problem on the embargo on importation of military hardware at a point, which made it difficult for the military to access some spare parts.

Earlier, the Minister of State for Defence, Rowland Oritejafor, had lamented the path chosen by the militants to express their anger. He added that the present administration had done a lot to ameliorate the situation in the Niger Delta. He said the Federal Government had taken some measures to prevent the situation from deteriorating into a conflagration. The committee members urged the Defence Headquarters to swing into action before the situation got out of hand.

The redeployment was announced by the Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Martins Luther Agwai.

Several militant groups in the region, particularly the Front for Ijaw Survival and Hope (FISH) had demanded Zamani's removal as one of the conditions for the release of the nine expatriate hostages.

Zamani came under severe criticism following his approval to use helicopter gunship to strike at illegal bunkerers in Gbaramatu kingdom, Warri South-West Council, Delta State, after the militants released the first four hostages taken on January 11 in Bayelsa State.

Ijaw militants and leaders alleged that their communities were hit by missiles and that over eight persons were killed. This was the chief reason the militant group, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), gave in seizing the nine hostages in Delta State against their avowal not to take hostages again in the Niger Delta. The militants later released six of the hostages after 12 days in captivity.

The out-going JTF commander assumed office in August 2003, at the peak of the inter-ethnic Warri wars.

Initially, the mandate of the JTF was to keep peace in Warri, but its mandate was later expanded to include the whole of the Niger Delta as well as to put an end to illegal bunkering in the region.

He added that a former governor in the Niger Delta and some powerful politicians were funding the militants.

I smell Alams here no doubt.

Earlier, the Minister of State for Defence, Rowland Oritejafor, had lamented the path chosen by the militants to express their anger. He added that the present administration had done a lot to ameliorate the situation in the Niger Delta. He said the Federal Government had taken some measures to prevent the situation from deteriorating into a conflagration. The committee members urged the Defence Headquarters to swing into action before the situation got out of hand.

Watch the agitators dismiss Dr. Rowland Oritsajafor, a niger deltan as a stooge.

Several militant groups in the region, particularly the Front for Ijaw Survival and Hope (FISH) had demanded Zamani's removal as one of the conditions for the release of the nine expatriate hostages.
Zamani came under severe criticism following his approval to use helicopter gunship to strike at illegal bunkerers in Gbaramatu kingdom, Warri South-West Council, Delta State, after the militants released the first four hostages taken on January 11 in Bayelsa State.

Only this is false. Zamani did not order the bombing. Gen Ogomudia did.

http://allafrica.com/stories/200602160079.html


Hammed said the task force commander, Brig. Gen Elias Zamani, in turn reported to the Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Alexander Ogomudia, who ordered the air strike.

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 8 2006


Obasanjo owns up, Nigeria’s leadership poor
From KABIRU YUSUF, Abuja

PRESIDENT Olusegun Obasanjo yesterday reminded Nigerians that they should expect nothing less than retrogression in a society where the quality of leadership is poor, the rule of law is weak, basic regulations corrupted and infrastructures are not maintained.
According to him, Nigerians should equally know that the quality of service delivered by an institution determines its degree of credibility, integrity, ability to retain customers and even its level of productivity.
Chief Obasanjo who stated this at the SERVICOM Open Forum held at Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja, explained that in a society were values are compromised and morals are contaminated, people should not expect any form of quality service, be it in the public or private sector.
‘’In societies where the quality of leadership is poor, the rule of law is weak, basic regulations are corrupted, infrastructure are not maintained, values are compromised and morals are contaminated, you cannot expect any form of quality service, be it in the public or private sector,’’ he stressed.
He lamented that poor service delivery has cost Nigeria so much and distorted the country’s values and development process since Nigeria’s political independence, adding that the implications of all these ‘’are all around us.’’
The president pointed out that his administration’s policy on service delivery was informed by the fundamental consideration that ‘’whatever progress we make in our overall reform agenda would amount to very little if its results are not delivered to the citizens.’’
He said: ‘’The success quotient of the entire reform programme needed to be anchored on a service delivery criterion in other words, service delivery is both the object and the subject of reform.’’
Service delivery, he added requires commitment, dedication, patriotism and purposeful leadership at all levels, saying that it is not possible to deliver quality service without a leadership that has the attributes of selflessness, integrity, objectivity, accountability, honesty, drive and untainted patriotism.
To achieve these, he said, leaders at all levels must be committed in word and deed to provide the basic services to which every citizen is entitled in a timely, fair, honest, effective and transparent manner.
Chief Obasanjo further said, to give practical effect to the government determination to entrench service delivery, government has resolved on four major resolutions to implement SERVICOM which includes the establishment of ministerial SERVICOM units with a cadre of training officers who form the arrow-head of SERVICOM in each line ministry.
Others are the establishment of a service delivery institute professionally to be run for regular training in service delivery, production of service charters and the adaptation of SERVICOM index which is a scientifically determined yardstick for measuring quality of service delivery.
Earlier, the national coordinator of SERVICOM, Mr. Ado’obe Obe had described Obasanjo as a reformer, saying that Nigeria and Nigerians will continue to remember him for that.

Well Nigeria Government plans to build Liberia thats nice i hope they succeed but first they should build our country first maybe niger delta first lol

LAGOS — Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo told his Liberian counterpart, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, on Saturday that Nigeria would continue to support her effort to rebuild the country.


Johnson-Sirleaf was on a state visit at the weekend to secure Nigerian investment in Liberia.

Obasanjo assured JohnsonSirleaf — the guest speaker of a programme in commemoration of former Nigerian vice-president Shehu Musa Yar’adua who died in jail in 1997 — that “we shall continue to be there for you … we shall be in the vanguard”, the official News Agency of Nigeria reported.



Obasanjo also reportedly said a team of experts from the country headed by State Finance Minister Nanadi Usman, had been sent to Liberia “to see in which areas we can work together”.


Thanking Nigeria again for its effort at restoring peace in her country and helping to rebuild it, Johnson-Sirleaf said Nigerian troops had also given “the Liberian people an opportunity to speak through the ballot box”.
The two African leaders did not, however, discuss the fate of Johnson-Sirleaf’s predecessor Charles Taylor, who is living in exile in Nigeria to escape war crimes charges at a United Nations (UN)-sponsored special tribunal in Sierra Leone.

“Nigeria’s position on former president Charles Taylor remains the same,” Nigerian spokeswoman Remi Oyo said after the leaders’ breakfast meeting.

“I believe what is uppermost in the minds of President Obasanjo and President Sirleaf is to get the people of Liberia to settle down.

“However, the prerogative of the return of former president Taylor remains that of the Liberian people and government,” said Oyo.

Sirleaf has said that bringing Taylor home to Liberia or handing him over to international prosecutors in neighbouring Sierra Leone is not her priority, despite pressure from the international community for him to face justice.

“President Obasanjo has an opportunity to demonstrate Nigeria’s commitment to the rule of law in West Africa,” said Shina Loremikan, of the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights, a Nigerian pressure group.

Taylor came to Nigeria at Obasanjo’s invitation in August 2003 as part of a UN-backed political process which brought to an end Liberia’s 14-year civil war and organised the election which brought Sirleaf to power. Bloomberg , Sapa-AFP

Hostages: The Militants’ Riot Act
By Segun James, 03.07.2006

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When in another daring move reminiscent of what happened in January, when four foreign oil workers were abducted at a Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) location in offshore Bayelsa State, Ijaw youths took another nine expatriates oil workers as hostage, no one was surprise except possibly the Federal Government.
Government had earlier ordered the military to attack alleged illegal oil bunkerers in one of the riverine Ijaw community. In the retaliation, youths of the community proceeded not only to confront the men of the Nigerian Armed Forces, but also destroyed valuable economic property of the nation.
This action of the youths signaled a new dimension in what is happening in the Niger Delta and as the youths, this time around were ready to dare all to tell the world that the Nigerian Government has lost control over what is happening within its borders, most especially in the oil rich Niger Delta, land which produces the minerals that sustain the nation’s economy.
Before now, it was unheard of that anybody would confront the army and get away with it. In December, 1999 when 12 policemen were brutally murdered by suspected Ijaw youths at Odi in Bayelsa state, the entire town paid the price as the community was completely leveled by the Nigerian Military.
Determined to “take their future in their own hands”, the youths confronted the Federal Government and struck where it matters most: the economic nerve centre, the oil export terminal an action that forced the government to set process of negotiation negotiate with the militant youths.
However, what is generally agreed by almost everyone is that the Niger Delta is a most neglected, pathetic and pitiable part of Nigeria. However, the attack on the early hours of Saturday February 18, by the dare-devil Ijaw commandos on specifically selected and strategically located oil facilities and installations in the western Niger Delta was devastating.
To prove that they are really ready for whatever retaliatory move the government would make in response to their action, the youth took as hostages nine expatriates working for an oil servicing company on contract with Shell, the nation’s largest oil producing company.
And so the negotiation for the release of the nine men who are from America, Britain, Thailand, Egypt, and the Philippines began. Humbled, the tough talking Federal Government was forced to eat its words by choosing to negotiate with the militants.
Even the Delta State Governor, Chief James Ibori in order to avoid his state becoming a theater of war, went the extra mile to talk to the militants. Before then, it was assumed that the faceless members of the group-- Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) were responsible for the attack as the group continued to make inflammatory statements. In addition, another militant group in Okerenkoko and Gbaramatu: Federated Niger Delta Ijaw Communities (FNDIC) was fingered as being responsible for the statements and other attacks. The group is led by Chief Oboko Bello.
Bello was immediately contacted and negotiation started between the group and government representatives led by another Gbaramatu leader, Chief Jonathan Ari. The Bello team made a ten point demand that must be met by the government before the hostages are to be released.
The demands of FNDIC which is contained in a letter addressed to President Olusegun Obasanjo and signed by Chief Bello Oboko, President; Mr. Kingsley Otuaro, secretary general, Chief Government Ekpomupolo, director of mobilisation, Hon. George Timinimi, spokesman and Comrade Dan Ekpebide, chief adviser include that government should create the conducive environment necessary for dialogue.
Other demands for the release of the remaining three hostages, the group insist that government must:
•Ensure that oil companies no longer operate behind the terror of soldiers, disband the security Joint Task Force and demilitarise Ijaw land;
•Stop further pollution and extinguish all gas flares now.
•For peaceful resolution of the situation, set up a credible government negotiation team with sufficient authority to take far-reaching decision on behalf of government.
•The Ijaw will set up a negotiation team of elders, women and youths.
•Any discussion with the Ijaw should take place in an acceptable place and not in places that will evoke the memories of Ijaw impoverishment.
•The Ijaw intend to chronicle their demands for consideration when and only when there is sufficient willingness on the part of government to dialogue and their negotiating team put in place.
•For lasting resolution of the situation, vendetta, reprisal, witch-hunting be ruled out.
• Out of sight is out of mind. To keep at a distant issues of violence, aggressive rehabilitation programme of Ijaw youths be embarked upon.
•The peace process should be coordinated and facilitated by a neutral world recognised peace building organisation.
•International observers be accredited and allowed to observe proceedings.

In order to show its magnanimity, FDNIC agreed to release one of the hostages, 69 years old Macon Hawkins, an American who is frail and sick with diabetic. Governor James Ibori persuade the group to release five more so that he would have a bargaining chip that he can use when negotiating with the Federal Government on the issues raised by the group.
That the federal government was humbled by a group of marauding youths became evident when Ibori had to personally take the letter of demand to Obasanjo in Abuja on Thursday, a few hours after the men were released.
Now the fate of the remaining three men is unknown even as news of the presence of men of the Anti-terrorist Group of the American Marine continued to filter in. The militants who are now garrisoned in their “Aso Rock Barracks” in Okerenkoko said they are waiting.
The barrack is located within a number houses built by Bilfinger and Berger Oil and Gas Company (B+B), a subsidiary of construction giant, Julius Berger Nigeria Limited when it had a construction job in the area for Shell. The company was however forced to abandon the area and flee at the height of the Warri crisis.
The buildings were immediately converted to barracks by the army of FNDIC with Chief Government Ekpomupolo as the general officer commanding (GOC).
It was at this barrack that the men of the Joint Task Force (JTF) on the Niger Delta, Operation Restore Hope wanted to destroy when the helicopter of the Nigerian Air Force bombarded Okerenkoko on February 15 and 17, a situation which led to the reprisal action by the youths.
The military decided to use aerial bombardment because Okerenkoko had become a “No Go” area for men of the Nigerian Armed Forces. Even when in 2002 and 2003 the men of the Nigeria Navy attempted to take the town, they suffer humiliating defeats.
It was such defeats that prompted the use of the Air Force plane instead of invading the well garrisoned town through the waterways, the only way in. Even as the boys hold on to the three remaining expatriates, they have ordered the venerable out of Okerenkoko as they prepare for more battle.
Right now, the Federal Government has suffered humiliating defeat while the nation’s economy has continued to suffer as almost 500,000 barrels of crude oil per day has been closed down, a loss of almost 20 per cent of the nation’s total oil out put.
The question that is now agitating the minds of many is whether the Federal Government is going to renege on the agreement reached with the boys and dare another attack in order to save face? That is the question and only time will tell.

Since a handful of the world's oil producers are concentrated in one region they can act as a cartel to dictate the terms on world oil markets and manipulate prices.

These producers, having no accountability, use oil revenues to increase military expenditures, and thus destabilize regional balance.

They use oil revenues as a means to maintain their hold on power including yielding to terrorists' pressures and thus are constantly exposed to insecurity.

For energy and national security, US military presence in the region is inevitable. This adds more tensions and a deepening rift between the pro-American oppressive regimes and the oppressed.

China's increasing arms sales to some Middle Eastern countries hostile to the US and its allies to ensure its access to oil will also add to tensions in the region.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
REGIONAL RIVALRY

The rhetoric feeds into a growing regional rivalry in Nigeria to succeed President Olusegun Obasanjo after elections next year.

The vote in 2007 should mark the first time one civilian president hands over to another in Nigeria's 47 years as an independent nation. But the process of choosing a successor has been stymied by a campaign to amend the constitution to allow Obasanjo to stand for a third term.

U.S. intelligence chief John Negroponte predicted "major turmoil and conflict" if Obasanjo, who has been evasive about his plans, confirms a desire to run again.

"Such chaos in Nigeria could lead to disruption of oil supply, secessionist moves by regional governments, major refugee flows, and instability elsewhere in West Africa," he told a Senate briefing in early February.

These fears are understandable in Nigeria, where at least 14,000 people have been killed in political, ethno-religious and communal violence since the restoration of democracy in 1999.

Embryonic secessionist movements exist across the south, while Islamic sharia law is being enforced with increasing seriousness in the north.

Rampant corruption in government has fuelled distrust and rivalry between tribes and regions.

Former Foreign Minister Bolaji Akinyemi said various apparently unconnected crises, including religious protests against Danish cartoons in northern Nigeria which killed 16 people on Saturday, could combine into something more dangerous.

"The government should keep in mind there is a danger that a whole bunch of grievances -- whether cartoons, Niger Delta or opposition to a third term -- could coalesce into a huge uncontrollable grievance," he told Reuters.

Na so na sidon look we dey do now so my work na just to feed una with information so that una go dey see developments outside nigeria.GOD BLESS NIGER DELTA abi this one go vex some people too

Omadino, Nigeria - The sound of speedboats on the otherwise calm rain forest creek was enough to send villagers fleeing.

"They were afraid. They just ran away," said Gabriel Walter, 42, the only resident of Omadino who stayed to meet a group of journalists and soldiers visiting the oil-rich swamps of Nigeria's volatile Niger River delta. Entire families had fled into surrounding forests with laundry still hanging on the line and pots gurgling on cooking fires.



Walter would not say whether it was Nigerian security forces or ethnic militants that the townspeople feared. Both groups are known to go on killing rampages.

Nigeria's oil industry - Africa's largest and the fifth-biggest source of US oil imports - likewise is concerned for its future after a yearlong spree of bloodletting that has killed more than 1 000 people in the Niger Delta.

Local residents complain that they have benefited little from the oil wealth in their midst, and ethnic tensions along the country's southeastern coast have aggravated strife in the region. Kidnappings and sabotage have escalated, forcing costly shutdowns by companies pumping crude.

The growing conflict in Nigeria comes during an expansion of exploration and drilling in West Africa's Gulf of Guinea, estimated to hold up to 10 percent of the world's oil reserves. The United States, Europe and Asia increasingly are looking to the region's oil as a partial alternative to crude from the Middle East.

The Nigerian subsidiary of San Ramon, California-based ChevronTexaco Corp. is among the companies hit hardest by Nigeria's worsening oil-related violence, suffering an estimated US$750 million in sabotage to its wells, pipelines and other facilities since March 2003.



Sixteen months later, the company still can't restart production at pipeline pump stations and wells considered unusable or unsafe, resulting in estimated losses from foregone production of more than US$1 billion since last year.

Royal Dutch/Shell, Nigeria's largest oil operation producing half of the 2.5 million barrels Nigeria's exports daily, is also reeling.

A confidential 93-page security report commissioned by Shell in December 2003 warns that mounting attacks by criminals and ethnic militants could force the oil giant to abandon its onshore operations in the delta by 2008.

No possibility of a company pullout

Shell spokesperson Simon Buerk rejects the possibility of a company pullout.

"We don't agree with that conclusion. We are committed to our operations in Nigeria," he said.

Other company officials concede, however, that the firm is increasingly turning its attention to oil fields that are offshore because it considers them safer from attack by bandits and activists - even though militants in boats have in the past occupied offshore platforms and held their crew members hostage.

Buerk declined to discuss the confidential report's other conclusions: that Shell "exacerbates conflict" in the way it gives cash and contracts to delta residents and offers "stay-at-home pay" to disgruntled youths.

Such "lack of transparency" encourages villagers to fight Shell - and each other -for a share of the oil money, the report's authors concluded.

Multinational companies encourage crime through "corruption in the contracting process and the payment of ransoms that make crime lucrative," the study warned, adding that Shell's "social license to operate is fast-eroding."

Indeed, delta residents - most of whom earn less than US$1 a day despite the region's petroleum wealth - accuse oil companies of colluding with Nigeria's government to foment divisions between rival community groups in a strategy to deprive them of oil earnings.

Addressing such allegations, the Shell-commissioned report's authors say there is "no evidence" companies have these sinister motives. Yet the authors warn that some oil company employees do "engage in criminal activities" that deprive residents of benefits.

Oil companies 'feeling the backlash'

Oil companies are feeling the backlash from militants and other groups, which increasingly use sophisticated equipment to syphon oil from pipelines for resale to tankers bound for Europe, Asia and South America. Nigeria's government estimates the industry loses up to 300 000 barrels a day - 15 percent of total exports of its most important commodity.



Another growing concern for oil multinationals, company officials privately acknowledge, is the possibility of their being blamed for killings, robberies or other abuses inflicted by Nigerian police and soldiers trying to control the restive delta.

Earlier this month, security forces raided five delta villages, leaving 15 people dead and ransacking and burning homes, according to witnesses and militants, in an operation that security forces said were part of an effort to combat attacks on multinational oil operations.

In March, a US federal judge in San Francisco ruled that ChevronTexaco could be made to stand trial for civil damages in the United States on allegations that its Nigerian subsidiary was linked to the deaths of nine people allegedly shot by soldiers during protests on an offshore oil platform in 1998.

ChevronTexaco has denied any misconduct in the case.

Similar US cases are pending against other Nigeria-based oil concerns. A lawsuit brought by members of Nigeria's ethnic Ogoni tribe in New York accuses Shell of colluding with Nigeria's former military regime to cause the hanging of nine Niger Delta activists, including author and Nobel Peace Prize nominee Ken Saro-Wiwa, in November 1995. Shell contends it lobbied Nigeria's government to free the activists.

Many residents of the delta, increasingly awash with automatic weapons and rocket launchers, say they have given up hope of a peaceful resolution to the conflicts between armed gangs, soldiers and oil companies.



One group led by Alhaji Dokubo Asari, a self-styled warlord in the jungle creeks near the oil city of Port Harcourt, openly challenges President Olusegun Obasanjo's government in what activists call an "armed struggle" for territory and crude.

"If we had guns, we wouldn't be running," said Walter, the resident remaining in Omadino after all his fellow villagers had fled.

Photo source: AP

na so we see am

this sweet o

life na wha oooooooo

i like this one well welll wat about u

Please go to this website to have a clear picture for yourself me am weeping for my people

http://allafrica.com/photoessay/nigeria_oil/photo12.html

this is the height of make i no talk o i dey fear ooooooooooooooo for verbal attack o 

Look at them smiling  shell MD Omiyi and Jack Straw

what are they smiling at?

The problem in my view is one of decades old greed, and banditry institutionalised by leaders, past and present, traditional and otherwise. The engagement of the problem can start with a massive ,visible ,reasonable and relevant developmental efforts in the region and a determined investigation and prosecution of the leaders in this region.This , in my view, would reveal to all if the governments , fgederal or state, regard this region as anything more than cows rich in milk for the benefit of others.

And Basil Omiyi is from where? Niger delta.

I guess he is a stooge too.

@Demmy
Anything that is in the books is considered to be lost by most people.
Try to ensure that you don't fall into that group.
Books will help you even if they say what you don't like.

Please try and understand the posts before you comment. Your personality may be at stake.

Its cetain that Basil Omiyi is not a tribalist

owo:

@Demmy
Anything that is in the books is considered to be lost by most people.
Try to ensure that you don't fall into that group.
Books will help you even if they say what you don't like.

Please try and understand the posts before you comment. Your personality may be at stake.

Its cetain that Basil Omiyi is not a tribalist

You're being unnecessarily enigmatic. I can't discern what you mean to say. sorry.

On Basil Omiyi. Its good to know that he is not a tribalist but that is not the point here. The point is he head the company that is destroying his very own environment and you mean to say he can't do nothing about it? I understand he has just taken over but I would still expect him to have some kind of plan at least as the gas flaring is concern. But I guess none of that matter because according to you he is a stooge and the real problem are (the yoruba) tribalists who are hindering the likes of him.

demmy:

And Basil Omiyi is from where? Niger delta.

I guess he is a stooge too.

The saddest part is, i doubt if the man will have the necessary power to make any changes. The people who make the decisions that affect Shell's operations in Nigeria are in the boardrooms in Europe.

To be honest picketing Shell's HQ and their major filling stations in Europe will achieve much more than militants blowing up pipes and polluting their own environment.

i want us to understand that the agitations in the niger delta did not start yesterday.they started as far back as 1953.at this time,the agitation was not for resource control it was for more humane conditions of living.we must all be aware that the region is probably one of the most hostile in the entire federation.the willinks commissiomnof 1958 recommended massive government intervention in the region by way of infrastructural development. this was never done .succesive governments have paid lip service to developing the niger delta.
if we look at the mission statement of the nddc it is a glaring admission that the area still needed development and still does.the people have become more militant because all the persuasive arguments(non violent) of the ken saro wiwas have not yielded dividend.one of the most intractable conflicts to mediate in is a resource based conflict and this is what the ndelta conflict has been allowed to metamorphose into.the govt has used avoidance as a conflict management tool and this has not made the problems in the region go away,but mutate and mutate into this aggression and violence we see today.
irrespective of what the excesses of the youth may be,the area remains the most important area in the country today.why for GODS sake can the people not enjoy the benefits accruable to them?the time for us to get real is now.

I HAVE READ SO MUCH STUFF HERE THAT IS SIMPLY UNBELIEVEABLE.SOME GUY SAYS THE OIL COMPANIES EMPLOY THE YOUTH OF THE HOST COMMUNITIES AND DEVELOPE SUCH COMMUNITIES. REALLY?
WHAT KIND OF DEVELOPMENT ARE WE TALKING ABOUT?SHELL HAS THE WORST COPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY RECORD IN NIGERIA COMPARED TO EVERY OTHER PLACE WHERE THEY OPERATE AND WHERE DOES ALL THE MONEY THEY MAKE COME FROM?WE MUST LOOK AT THE AMOUNTS THEY SPEND IN RELATION TO WHAT THEY SPEND ON DEVELOPMENT.WOULD SHELL OR CHEVRON BE ABLE TO HOUSE THEIR EXPARTE STAFF IN THE KIND OF HOUSES THAT EXIST IN UGBORODO FOR INSTANCE?
HOW MANY JOBS ARE OFFERED TO THE HOST COMMUNITY YOUTH?IF THESE FIGURES ARE NOT AVAILABLE WE SHOULD NOT EVEN GO THERE.I THINK WE SHOULD BE AS EMPIRICAL IN OUR ANALYSIS AS POSSIBLE.
I AM HOWVER MORE PISSED OFF WITH THE FEDERAL GOVT,BECAUSE THE OIL COMPANIES ACTUALLY PAY LARGE TAXES TO THE GOVT,AND EXPECT THE GOVT TO BE ALIVE TO THEIR RESPOSIBILITIES.AFTERALL,IN ALL THE JOINT VENTURES(JV'S) THE GOVT RECEIVES 60% OF THE TAKE.IT IS UNFORTUNATE THAT ALL THIS IS HAPPENING,BUT I STILL MAINTAIN THAT INSENSITIVITY ON THE PART OF ALL GOVTS SINCE INDEPENDENCE HAVE BROUGHT US TO THIS SORRY PASS.

mazino, welcome to Nairaland.

@Demmy,
Basil's hands are ''tied'' There's a limit to how far he can go in taking decisions.

And if you don't know, Shell own a paltry 30% stake in that business. The bulk of what SPDC makes as revenues, goes to the Federal Govt. Ask NAPIMS, they will tell you more on this. Where do you think the FG gets their money from? Do you think Shell will be in this country and the FG will just siddon dey look? Think again.

Thesame thing goes for this Gen. Ogomudia gist. That man can do nothing of his own free will without the consent of the President.
                         OBJ is President and Commander in Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces

You've got to remember that one, and know that Ogomudia is just one of the men under his command.

Why do they want alarms to be released?

@ono
The whole 'his hands are tied thing' is just an excuse. Everyone has a choice. If a directive goes against your conscience or a company is involved in unethical practices, you have a choice. Personally i could never work for a company like Shell, the role they played in the whole Ken Saro Wiwa saga and their collusion with Abacha leaves me with the impression they will do anything in pursuit of profit. Its worth reading a bit more about Shell and its 'practices' around the world - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell

I'm not condemning any Nigerian who works for Shell, to each his own. I'm sure there are people there who feel they can make a difference from the "inside". From my experience the only people who can make a difference in a multinational like Shell are the shareholders, everyone else is dispensable if they 'rock' the boat.
The Nigerian government can not drill for oil on its own, if the oil companies don't drill the government doesn't get any money so it hardly matters if Shell owns 1% or 30% it can influence government policies if it wants to.

There are far more effective and intelligent ways for the people of ND to fight for their rights. Violence may make a difference in the short term but i doubt it will ever provide a long term solution.

The Niger Delta region’s crisis has become an emergency affair. Indeed, it has been so for some time now, since it graduated from the occasional pilfering of a few barrels of crude oil from flow stations and depots to sporadic disruptions of oil prospecting operations of the multi-national oil companies, to assume the dimension of a parallel (even alternative) government, manned and executed by the militant body which calls itself the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND).

And, come to think of it, what took place in Plateau State to warrant the prompt declaration of a State of Emergency in that state would amount to a mere child’s play compared to the declaration and prosecution of an outright war in the Niger Delta. The approach of government to the MEND warfare and the entire problem in the Delta region is at best, at least to a lay man, indecisive, and at the very worse cavalier.

There is clearly an urgent need for an unmistakable action in the place as a short-term measure before the real problem of inequity in the region is tackled ideologically, politically and diplomatically. This enduring, long term, solution will have to be within the panoptic purview of re-federating the Nigerian State-a problem of national re-designing, which the stale-mated or shelved National Confab failed to resolve and which the tottering PRONACO vowed to address.
What is at hand at the Niger Delta region wears a deadly hat. Hostage- taking of foreign oil workers is the freshest dimension to the protracted crises of response by the people of the region, especially the militant sector of the populace.

Two weeks ago, and not long after four hostages were released to the Bayelsa state Governor, Jonathan Goodluck, nine other hostages were captured or kidnapped. Up till this moment, three of the foreign hostages, two Americans and one Briton, are still being held. To create a crippling impact on the oil economy on the Nigerian State, MEND has resulted into damaging Shell oil facilities with an instant impact on the production output of the company and the number of barrels of crude oil per day that the nation can fetch from the region for international export.

At the weekend, unidentified youths (traceable to MEND, judging from the threat that its spokesperson issued shortly after the disruption) blew Shell oil facility in Agge, in Ekeremor Local Government, leading to massive oil spillage and the loss of 250 barrels of crude oil, instantly. MEND’s disruptive activities, last month only, produced the effect of reducing Nigeria’s output of crude by about a fifth of its present export capacity of 2.5 million barrels per day. The reduction of about 455,000 barrels per day decreased output to about two million barrels per day.

The militants have, in e-mail, boasted that, through the will of God, they ‘hope to reduce Nigeria’s export by a further one million barrels for the month of March’. The e-mail sent to foreign news agency announced, with worrying confidence, that ‘there will be inland operations in March as well as standard creek attacks’. Judging from the way they have carried out their threats on hostage taking and disruption at flow stations, nobody should be in any doubt that they can fulfil their promise. If this is not an emergency, then I have a faint idea what emergencies mean. The very source of Nigeria’s revenue derivation is in total distress.

It would seem that the Government is observing caution, or is engaged in some intriguing diplomatese wavering between dialogue and physical action. There can be no question that Government, in taking a firm, swift and decisive action, as emergency situations require, recognises the moral and economic factors in the whole Niger-Delta question. Nobody should be in doubt about the rightness and justness of the cause of the Niger-Delta people-a people whose resources are being milked to feed the nation, but whose ecology and environment suffer great and unsightly degradation.

What is generally felt by the people of that region-and one of the main cassu belli of Ken Saro Wiwa and the Ogoni struggle, is that the Nigerian Government was acting in concert with the prospecting multi-nationals to ruin their land and their future, while the rest of the country develops on the bleeding backs of the region. Government appears to be in a dilemma as to the justification of applying the Udi or the Zaki-Biam options-massively moving in the military and other agencies of monopolising violence to rout the militants. Those operations truly burned the fingers of the State.

The assuaging measures taken by the State on resource control are regarded as not sufficiently far-reaching and the 13% return to the region from derivation has fuelled the anger of the people to a point of literal explosion. Even the 17%, which the National Confab recommended, which was a strong factor in the inconclusiveness of the conference, is found as unsatisfactory. It is being rumoured that pro-third term mobilizers have been considering, in the manner of carrot dangling, reviewing the derivation formula from 13 per cent to 25 per cent.

If this has any truth in it, and it is genuine, will it not be a better option and dialogue-point than the crippling anarchy going on in that region under the control of MEND? If the military action, via the declaration of the State of Emergency is not attractive, then Government should seriously consider, as part of the package for conflict resolution, and removed from political consideration (I mean removed from the politics of third term), the option of upping the derivation formula and also revamping the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC)-actions that will greatly appease the people of the Niger Delta, with a further potential for whittling the anomic force of the militants.

It is important to take these and some other steps at a time such as this when there are suggestions that evidence of vacillation by government may yield force initiative in the Niger Delta to the American marines and commandos. One such hint came from the militants themselves, when they appeared to have lost contact with three of the hostages yet to be released.

They began to suggest that the American commandos might have stepped in to liberate them. Obviously, if the Government is going to deploy force, it should utilise the Nigerian force and not foreign once-because doing so will send terrible signals about leasing out part of our national sovereignty over our territorial waters to foreign powers and imperial forces. At a time when Nigeria is seriously, and deservedly to my mind, questing for membership of the United Nation Security Council, giving any impression that we are unable to man any part of our territory-on and off-shore- will defray from our argument of our ripeness to join the world security council.

More significantly, for the political vision of our country, is the suggestion that we may have signed an agreement with the United States to handle the security of the Niger Delta-a strong rumour (if it is a rumour) which many people consider as tantamount to a submission of part of our territory, that part which harbours the goose that lays the golden eggs, for re-colonization by default. Many commentators, including the poet-polemicist, Odia Ofeimun, in his recent characteristically extensive but profound piece on the President titled Inside Obasanjo’s Mind (a piece I suspect, I have not asked him, may be a chunk of a book on the President), have described as taking us near the "the Next-Gulf" situation, where the dream of America and its congress’ proposition of the possibility of getting "American oil companies…to exercise police functions inside Nigeria" may even have been bettered by a seeming re-enactment of our pre-colonial history when the Royal Niger Company got the British Government to seize the control of the Niger Delta, for the purpose of securing the palm oil trade. Perish the thought, one might say.

But all of these point to the imperative, even political urgency, for the Federal government to take prompt, national, action in the region and stem the criminal acts in the place and also bring all the stake-holders together, so as to find lasting and enduring solutions to the problem of the Niger Delta. As I said at the beginning, the problem of people at the margins, who aggregationally form the majority in Nigeria, is a major manifestation of the unresolved federalism of the Nigerian State-a problem that can no longer wait.