Movement For The Emancipation Of The Niger Delta (MEND)

They have started again. When the leaders refuse to carry out the mandate of their constituency then the followers are free to disgrace them in public that is if the leaders are not disgraced by their unpopular actions. Look at this

http://www.vanguardngr.com/articles/2002/cover/april06/11042006/f411042006.html

This being Nigeria,I have no illusions about the purpose of this group.It is a group that is formed to enrich the members of it through kinappings for ransome,robberies,oil bunkering e.t.c under the pretence of fighting for the people of the Niger-Delta   

Hey folks,
we don't have to get too sentimental about this issue,No doubt, It's a very sensitive issue, I'll implore us all to thread softly.

I am a Niger-Deltan from Delta State, though I've been residing in Lagos since i was a kid, I travel down country-home once in a while with my family whenever the need arises.

It is a sorry-sight in the creeks,and  it pains me so-much to see my 'folks' in the Niger Delta suffer so much in the midst of plenty. I know it all didn't start 'today' and as such may require some time for structures to be laid, but the question is, is 7years not ample enough for 'foundations' to be laid?

I am not impressed with the NDDC,I think it's just an avenue for looting the treasury.

Admitedly, vilence will never lead us anywhere, but these guys seem to have had it up to neck-level, with the disasters these explorations visit on us.


If u take the statistics of local workers in the oil companies, How many of them are from the Niger Delta? What's up with the concession supposedly open to graduates from the region. What we hear is 'they are lazy', 'they don't want to get educated, yet they want us to absorb them', How about the few of us that are?

The govs have the 'lion share' of the fault, with the billions they get from allocation, u can hardly get them to account for the unseen projects they claim to be embarking on, hence their 'silence' on the issue.

Folks, let us register our sympathy with the people of ND. we all know they get barely nothing for feeding the nation. If we all can stand in unison to support the ND, this marginalisation would stop.

Long live Nigeria!
Long Live Niger Delta!!
Long Live Nairaland!!!


Seun, you're a gem!

It is a shame that the people of the Niger delta have not benefited enough from the natural resources that is being tapped from their soil. We all have to deal with this problem and hopefully we can arrive at a middle ground in solving this problem.

do you have to be spoonfed?

lazy u, anyway, here is the info

All men of goodwill and conscience will read this article by one Obijiofor, and really pity our condition in the delta.

Niger Delta: A question of conscience

CONSIDER two reports published on the same day this week in two national newspapers and you will get a fair idea of the clear contradiction between the discovery of oil in Nigeria and the steady deterioration in the living conditions of the people in the oil-producing areas of the country. Rather than serve as the facilitator of social change and economic development of the Niger Delta region, the discovery of oil has become the silent killer of the Niger Delta people and their environment. It is a clear case of 45 years of unconscionable behaviour by mindless military dictators and civilian leaders who held court over the economic and political affairs of the country.

In an interview published in Tuesday's edition of THISDAY newspaper, Bayelsa State Governor Jonathan Goodluck shocked the nation when he said that, 50 years following the discovery of oil in that part of the country, the state was still in the waiting list of areas to be connected to the national electricity network. The revelation was as scandalous as it was spine-chilling. As the governor pointed out, electricity supply is key to a range of human activities, such as medical treatment and care, business success (some businesses are dependent on regular supply of electricity), international trade and investment, and quality higher education.

After 50 years of oil exploration and production in the country, how has Nigeria rewarded the oil-producing Niger Delta region? The reward has come in various forms but they have, ironically, taken the form of payment made by Nigerian leaders in counterfeit currency - of no use to the Niger Delta people. The Guardian editorial of Tuesday this week summarised the sad story of how Nigeria plundered the oil wealth in the Niger Delta region and abandoned the people to the elements. According to The Guardian editorial: "Disastrous ecological degradation and environmental pollution in the Niger Delta, coupled with the utter neglect of the region by successive Federal Governments and the oil companies, have combined to impoverish the citizens of the area. Over 50 per cent of the 70,000 sq. kilometres of the territory has neither motorable roads nor hospitals. There are three refineries and two petrochemical plants, yet fuel stations are not available in 50 per cent of the area."

Anyone who has been following the grim predicament of the people of the Niger Delta would find in Governor Goodluck's statement and the editorial in The Guardian another evidence of utter neglect of the Niger Delta by past and present federal authorities. A region that produces the nation's main source of foreign exchange should naturally attract federal attention and indeed the interest of the oil exploration companies. Not so in the Niger Delta. It is an agonizing irony and indeed a measure of the nation's collective sense of twisted justice that, while the people in many communities and cities in the non-oil producing regions of Nigeria live in paradise, most people in the oil-producing Niger Delta have experienced more than their fair share of hell on earth. These stark contradictions were also highlighted in The Guardian editorial.

It is not too difficult to untangle the reasons that inform the consistent federal policy of neglect of the oil producing communities and states. As unthinkable and inhuman as the situation in the Niger Delta might appear, as desperate as the people might be to overhaul their situation, there are at least six incontrovertible forces that are working against the interests of the people who reside in the oil-producing states. These are: an eerie and deliberately skewed policy of national development in which non-oil producing areas of the country receive federal attention and infrastructure more than the oil-producing states; lack of vision and political will by the present group of political leaders to correct the roguish conduct or policies of their predecessors; lack of conscience on the part of national policy makers; perverse personal attributes of the military and political leaders the nation produced in the past 45 years; a high level of dishonesty and unhindered corruption at the highest level of national leadership, endless conspiracy between oil exploration companies and political leaders, coupled with the predatory instincts of federal officials who are more interested in what they would receive rather than what the local communities would get from increased oil exploration activities.

Put all these together in one basket and you will discover why the impoverishment of the people of the Niger Delta has persisted over many decades. It is almost like every government at the federal level maintained a secret policy to undermine the interests of the oil-producing states and the people who reside in those states. In this context, if we must credit our national leaders - past and present -- with any special attribute, it must be their sinister capacity to justify anything, including why the people in the Niger Delta region are suffering and are neglected while people in the non-oil producing communities are smiling and looking healthier. For too long, people in the oil-producing states have looked on helplessly as federal policy assisted by the nonchalance of oil-producing companies turned a national resource into a regional hazard.

From all indications, the discovery of oil in Nigeria has added to rather than diminished cases of policy misadventure by previous federal governments. Here is The Guardian again: "The oil industry in Nigeria was born in 1956. Fifty years on, the country still imports over 70 per cent of her domestic fuel requirement as none of the four refineries has ever functioned effectively by reason of the selfish lure of importation, encouraged by bad leadership." The questions the entire nation must ponder on the 50th anniversary of the discovery of oil are: would the predicament of the Niger Delta people be different or the same if there had been no oil exploration and production activities in their region? What would Nigeria be like without oil and the revenue that accrues to the nation from oil sales? Would the non-oil producing states and cities that benefit prodigiously from oil revenue be insisting, as they do today, on a united Nigeria if oil had been discovered in their own region or would they be the chief instigators of a divided Nigeria?

As politicians engage in the politics of oil exploration and revenue allocation formula, it is important to remind everyone that oil is not an infinite resource. Today we have oil wells littered in the Niger Delta region. Tomorrow we may not have any oil wells to drill. The people in the Niger Delta deserve much more than they have received from Nigeria. They have produced and they still continue to produce the nation's oil wealth. Social deprivation shouldn't be our way of acknowledging the sacrifices made by the communities and the people in the region. Oil revenue should be used in a fair and equitable manner to transform the lives of the people, and to make a difference in their living conditions and their environment.

Political leaders cannot forever shut their conscience and their eyes to the problems that confront the people in the Niger Delta region. Nigeria's political and military leaders have kicked the Niger Delta people repeatedly in their groins for far too long. Are we also going to deny the people their natural right to cry and to complain? The most recent revelation that the Niger Delta crisis has adversely affected the nation's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is, I predict, the beginning of worse things to come. How soon and by what means the nation is able to resolve the crises in the Niger Delta region will depend on the magnitude of the feelings of remorse shown by political leaders. It is indeed a question of conscience.

Source: www.ngrguardiannews.com

I had to ''reactivate'' this thread again at this time. This is because of recent ''unwaranted'' killings of harmless Ijaw youths who were mistakenly taken as MEND boys. The local newspapers are awash with the stories.

OBJ had given a shoot at sight order on harmless people. Who does not know that the money he used in purchasing the Transcorp shares came from the Niger Delta? Who deos not know that the Otta Farm he has and all of his Obasanjo Holding was built with money stolen from the Niger Delta? He has the audacity to give a shoot-at-sight order in the Delta with all his filthy, bloody hands!

I can only hope and pray that the region does not go up in flames very soon. But, I must state that the order was absolutely unnecessary. The result of foolish words coming out of a ruler's mouth can have grave consequences, such as we have seen recently.

i can only cry for the people of the niger-delta   

but i wish to make 2 points clear here,
1. the non oil producing parts of the country are not paradise as was mentioned by ono. they are still a junkyard as the rest of the country including the nigerdelta. nigeria is largely a very big slum.

2. this may be hard, but i would like the people of niger delta to ask their leaders some serious questions. i've heard stories of monies meant for the niger delta diverted by their own leaders, fellow niger deltans, what are your representatives in both NASS and the GOVS doing? i hear Odili has been a wasteful governor, same with the other niger delta govs (like the rest of the country anyway). i think u guys should try and hold your leaders and representatives to account more aggressively.

by and large the niger delta is a cheated region. and the earlier this injustice is corrected the better for nigeria, before they advance from hostage taking to hostage killikng(i hear they have killed one or more hostages recently) and even may be they advance to the dreaded terrorism (remember asari is a muslim o) . no disrespect for muslims please
this injustice should be addressed ASAP

Young man, I challenge you to state the "lot" that shell pays out.
If you do, I will produce at least five times your set of figures to prove that it does not and has never had the real interest of the Delta at heart. The peanuts they are paying you in the name of salary seems to be really "working its magic".
Are you aware of your company's CASHES policies at all?

See article and photo essay in current issue of Vanity Fair magazine: http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2007/02/junger200702

As a responsible son of the Niger Delta i am not in support of Kidnapping,i think they are doing the right thing the wrong way. However you do not blame them because the issue is more complex than you think.

I blame Govt as well for fuelling the crises,a lot of fingers point to the Niger delta Govs in the bid to cover up the money they have stolen they end up giving tacit support to these groups. These militant groups were asking for 1.8billion for 2pivot expatriates,where do they expect the money to come from? Ofcourse these experts always gets released to Govt officials. They and their cohorts will justify the money as security money. On the other hand it is also rumoured that Baba Iyabo wants to use the crises to achive tenure elongation that is why he is not hard on them. He wants to achive from the creeks what he could not get from the national assembly.

I have also been pondering as to why no Local Govt Chairman, House of Assembly Member, commissioner or Governor has been kidnapped within the Niger Delta. Are they not the custodians of the 13%? How many NDDC officials have they kidnapped? Until they go this far i consider them self serving and people without a vision.