A rebel group claiming to fight for justice has resumed blowing up oil wells in the impoverished-but-oil-rich Niger River delta after six years of relative peace, adding to Nigeria’s growing economic issues.

The Niger Delta Avengers’ attacks on Nigeria’s oil industry have been so effective that the country’s output has fallen to its lowest level in 20 years, researcher and analyst Gregory Brew reported in OilPrice.com.

Angola bypassed Nigeria in the second quarter of 2016 as the top oil producer in Africa, according to oil production data from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Macau Hub reported.

In the second quarter, Nigeria produced 1.539 million barrels per day compared to Angola’s 1.776 million barrels per day.

Attacks on oil wells and pipelines resumed in the Niger delta this year after Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari ended security contracts and payments that had previously turned militants into protectors and achieved relative peace since 2010, Bloomberg reported.

Oil accounts for 66 percent of Nigeria’s government revenue, and almost all its exports. Nigeria produced 1.4 million barrels a day in May, the lowest in 27 years, according to the International Energy Agency.

The rebel group claiming responsibility — Niger Delta Avengers — says it wants to expose corruption and get justice for poor local communities in the Niger River delta.

Niger Delta Avengers is a media-savvy group, according to Bloomberg, which quoted an unverified website (the group’s Twitter account was taken down) listing grievances, destroyed targets, and threats against producers not to make repairs. Oil companies and the government haven’t used profits from the oil “towards any development in the region,” the site said.

Partly because of the Avengers and their sabotage, Nigeria has fallen behind
Angola as Africa’s top oil producer, New York Times, reported.

Nigeria’s oil production was down 25 percent in the second quarter — enough to contribute to a slight increase in global oil prices, according to an analysis by London consulting firm Facts Global Energy.

The militants have been blowing up crude oil and gas pipelines for six months, shattering years of relative peace in the region, New York Times reported:

“We are not asking for much, but to free the people of the Niger Delta from environmental pollution, slavery and oppression,” the Avengers wrote on their website, explaining their attacks. “We want a country that will turn the creeks of the Niger Delta to a tourism heaven, a country that will achieve its full potentials, a country that will make health care system accessible by everyone. With Niger Delta still under the country Nigeria we can’t make it possible.”

Buhari’s government has said it is open to negotiating with the group. But it is already stretched thin.

The Avengers have separatists aspirations and want a Brexit-­style referendum to split the country, New York Times reported.

The predominantly Christian south has long been an area of resistance and anger, where electricity and drinking water are scarce but billions of dollars in oil are removed, benefiting international companies and politicians. People live on polluted waterways gunked up with oil spills

Many people believe that Buhari, a Muslim from the north, is neglecting them for political or sectarian reasons, even though conditions were also grim under his predecessor, Goodluck Jonathan, a Christian southerner.

“You always say you fought for the unity of this country during the civil war,”
the Avengers said, addressing Buhari on their website. “You haven’t been to the Niger
Delta, how can you know what the people are facing.”

Within the first six months of taking office, Buhari made 12 foreign trips including two to the U.S. but few official trips within Nigeria, earning him the nickname “Minister for Tourism,” Ventures Africa reported in December.

His administration said the trips were necessary to aid the growth of the economy, and they are a lot less lavish than his predecessor’s.

The Niger Delta Avengers “are likely getting some support from former and current” officials of the People’s Democratic Party, which held power until Buhari’s victory, Eurasia Group reported in May 2016, according to Bloomberg.

After winning the 2015 presidential election on an anti-corruption platform, Buhari cut the multi-million dollar contracts that his two predecessors gave to former militant commanders to guard the pipelines they once attacked. The contract was part of an amnesty deal that included monthly stipends to tens of thousands of fighters, Bloomberg reported. The annual budget for payments to ex-militants has been cut back from about two thirds from more than 60 billion naira ($214 million) to about 20 billion naira.

Oil companies that have been affected include ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell, Total and Eni. International oil companies have divested billions of dollars in assets from the region, but are still exposed to attacks, Bloomberg reported.

All Thanks To Nigerians and Nairalanders

Chinaza Mary Vivian
CEO Vivian Gist INC

Published On http://www.viviangist.com/the-fall-of-nigeria-as-the-africas-no-1-oil-producing-country


Cc; lalasticlala , mynd44

Honestly, i hate viviagist.

Came to read AFONJAS comment, many of them would come here to lament more than the bereaved. hahahahahahahahahahahaha abi them say Lagos don get oyel

ClitRaider:
Honestly, i hate viviagist.

Hating is more injurious to the hater than the hated (Martin Luther)..........Be warned.

Oksman:

Hating is more injurious to the hater than the hated (Martin Luther)..........Be warned.

If you are hating a **** bigot rolled up into one I doubt if such applies.

Make I book space down since na Viviangist

OZAOEKPE:
Came to read AFONJAS comment, many of them would come here to lament more than the bereaved. hahahahahahahahahahahaha abi them say Lagos don get oyel

You are an incorrigible bigot!, there is no comment that you post that is devoid of your hatred for the yorubas, is there anything the yorubas as a people did to you to warrant this hatred? you and your ilks from other tribes who populate NL, should please turn down the volume of your hatred 'meter' before it consumes you. Thank you.

they lost election to one pedophile and didn't bother much about it, yet this pedophile wasn't ok with that.

He called them 5percenters and told them to expect little from him, they didn't complain.


He and his supporters threatened them with new sheriff in town, and they kept quiet.

He went ahead bombing their place, militarising everywhere, killing innocents, arresting oppositions.


Now they've decided to react, and thid same tyrant is asking them to embrass dialog, while his suppporters are quick to tell us how we are destroying our land.



Why the provocation at the first place when you know you can't do anything and will always go back to beg them to accept dialog.



I am ashamed of all those who were shouting new sheriff in town seeing bubu commit 280nillion US Dollars to employ black whatever to combat NDA.




Buhari cheered by his yoruba loud mouths went about provoking NigerDelta without having any cncrete plans for the outcome.


Same way they came into power thinking money just flows in without you sourcing it.

Now look at were Buhari has gotten us into with his foolish decisions.



Someone should tell him that the money PDP enjoyed, they worked to earn it. Money doesn't come to you to throw around just by answering mr president.


My advise is, pple who cheered him to provoke NigerDelta without any plans for its outcome should equally call his senses back.

Oksman:

You are an incorrigible bigot!, there is no comment that you post that is devoid of your hatred for the yorubas, is there anything the yorubas as a people did to you to warrant this hatred? you and your ilks from other tribes who populate NL, should please turn down the volume of your hatred 'meter' before it consumes you. Thank you.

fact is that afonjas were cheering bubu to pedition thiking they were mocking Easterners. Now, what has the new sheriff in town done after all his provocations ? What has he achieved with his bigotry ? Why demanding the militants to accept dialog when u would have maintained status quo your predecesor handed over to you ?



I can dig up threads where Afonjas were pressing scientific calculators on how the 2016 Budgett of change was not based on oil proceeds, now what is the presidency waiting for to execute the budget ?



Afonjas can deceive more than the devil.


My advise id, if Afonjas know the way the decieved bubu, cheering him to tyranny, let them call his senses back since all look confused.

By the way, i sn't wanna say anything about the propaganda of lagos discovering and producing oil at the time and immeditely militants resumed attacks.

Someone should please dig up those threads zombies told us the budge of change won't be funded with oil proceeds....



Aboki laid his plans without Afonjas, but Afonjas will come and defend what they know nothing about with their lives just to defend aboki.



NB: The term Afonja here is not about yoruba but all yoruba APC mad fanatics.



I am not a bigot

Niger Delta this and that...

Abi Una discovered oyel in lake Chad and Lagos

So use it and top Angola.

Thread haters and wailers can cum on



enjoy your self service

What Nigeria asked for when it gets oil proceeds from the Niger delta but uses the money to fund modern developments in the north and south west of Nigeria.

Oksman:

You are an incorrigible bigot!, there is no comment that you post that is devoid of your hatred for the yorubas, is there anything the yorubas as a people did to you to warrant this hatred? you and your ilks from other tribes who populate NL, should please turn down the volume of your hatred 'meter' before it consumes you. Thank you.

Hope u tell same to NgeneUkwenu Omenka et all.... I hate tribe sentiments. Join my campaign #saynototribalism

Oksman:

Hating is more injurious to the hater than the hated (Martin Luther)..........Be warned.

Noted.
Buh she's such a lieing st.upidass blogger.
I'm not saying i hate her much, but i would unplug her life support to charge my phone.
I detest st.upidity.

Stelvin101:
Make I book space down since na Viviangist

what is viviangst?
Sorry, this thread is going down.

ClitRaider:

Noted.
Buh she's such a lieing st.upidass blogger.
I'm not saying i hate her much, but i would unplug her life support to charge my phone.
I detest st.upidity.

a terrorist in disguise. we love viviangist.

Buhari's government should hurry up and shift Nigeria's major earnings from oil to agriculture and manufacturing.

The can blow up the whole South-south and Southeast for all we care. Their problem, their wahala.

Orjioorji:
a terrorist in disguise. we love viviangist.

Flat.head liars have no place in our society.
They belong to the red mud region.

another fake news? lala no go free move am!