NIGER DELTA: AMAECHI’S HOME TRUTH Vs KINGIBE’S VIEW FROM AFAR

 The statement by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) Babagana Kingibe at the NDDC/NBA talk show in Port Harcourt that “the people of the Niger Delta should hold their leaders responsible for deprivations in the region, since the leaders failed to harness all that had accrued to them for the development of the region” could best be described as a diversionary view from afar on the Niger Delta question. Though the SGF acknowledged that there is nothing wrong in the people demanding what is due to their area, he wanted them to start asking their leaders what they had done with the allocations received so far from the Federation Account and the derivation funds that had accrued to them over the years.

 His words: “The agitation has continued in the Niger Delta for so long because of the inability of successive governments to carry all the people of the region along. Because of the oil company and its related activities, the internally generated revenue to the Niger Delta states is comparable only to that of Lagos”.

 The SGF failed to add that the extrapolation would have been correct if the oil companies were encouraged by the federal government to be honest in their social responsibilities and declaration/payment of taxes and levies.

 “It is time that these elements (Niger Delta people) stop the blame game and look inwards to their own leaders in the region and hold those responsible to account.

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 “In the light of these facts and realities, it is legitimate for the rest of Nigeria to ask the question: if so much resources accrued to the Niger Delta states, and indeed to the local governments, why is there no commensurate development in the region?”

 This Federal Government’s opinion on the development imbalance of the Niger Delta region actually represents nothing but insincere views from people who are far removed from the reality on ground. One thing should be clearly appreciated by operatives of government at the national level that the entire matter has become a question of trust and mischievous campaigns to incite the people against one another will be very hard to sell in the region.

 It is an outright insult for Nigerians from outside the Niger Delta to berate the people for not attacking their state governors, local government chairmen and other public officials for their failure to utilize huge resources collected from the Federal coffer over the years. Such tricks would no longer work. The people of the region know how best to deal with their leaders and does not require advise from anybody on the matter- pure and simple.

 Nothing can best describe the home truth as presented by the Rivers State Governor Chibuike  Amaechi than to say that it pays to get into the heads of your enemies than their hearts. In a truth declaration, Gov Amaechi reiterated that the Federal Government should be blamed for sabotaging the development of the area, and should take full responsibility for the woes of the region. At least this may be the first sincere step towards addressing the problem.

 Though Governor Amaechi did not exonerate previous leaders of the Niger Delta especially the elected officials from misdirection of accrued resources, he maintained that the pitiable developmental imbalance of the region was caused by the Federal Government’s lack of will power to be sincere and honest in the matter.

 “I heard that Chevron is planning to build an LNG plant in Lagos and pipe gas to the plant from the Niger Delta region. It won’t work. For peace to return in the region, the federal government has to do more to make life more humane for the people”.

 Regrettably, despite all its efforts, real and acclaimed, the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) has not been able to fully perform and affect the lives of the common man in the region since its establishment. It is very obvious that most of the development initiatives so far implemented by the commission, for whatever reasons, were yet to tangibly affect the physical environment and the lives of the people of the region who were supposed to be the targets of concern.

 Fleet of talk shops organised by the commission were yet to be translated into meaningful development. This is the truth. Until the
NDDC translates what comes out of its sterile academic adventures and talk shops into legislative agenda that everybody within and outside the Niger Delta buys into and supports, the commission would remain ineffective.

 There must be a willing effort by the Commission and the people of the region to evolve the kind of development that would affect them and the NDDC should midwife this willingness and ensure its sustenance. This is where the commission seemed to have gotten off tangent from its statutory obligation to the people.

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 Review of existing oil and gas laws, as well as the Land Use Act as they affect ownership and participation as advocated by the NBA/NDDC Port Harcourt show has nothing to do with the problem of correction of the development imbalance of the Niger Delta.

 Agreed that the sincerity of governments of the nine oil-producing states is crucial to achieving the development aspirations of their people, the sincerity and the willingness of the federal government to be honest in the matter are even more crucial in addressing the problem.

 The believe that the establishment of a Niger Delta Finance Corporation to primarily fund infrastructure and entrepreneurial development in the region would make any difference from the way things have gone in the handling of the region’s agitation is nothing but a clear malaria dream and an outright deceit by proponents of such arrangement.

 By design or chance, the NDDC master plan had remained another library -copy research thesis, of course a mega-million dollar document for that matter. Development experts had warned on several occasions that the plan would remain a mirage until measures are taken to make it a working document. NDDC’s effort towards achieving the feat had remained at best blurred and at worst obscured.

 The master plan still does not have the force of law to translate it into a workable document. When it becomes a working document, the people can identify with it and take ownership because it would then become meaningful to their lives and self interests. For sure, they will advance its implementation either by militancy or peaceful negotiation whichever option the federal government prefers.

 BY: IFEANYI IZEZE

 IFEANYI IZEZE IS AN ABUJA-BASED CONSULTANT ON POLITICAL STRATEGY AND
GRASSROOT CONSULTATION (iizeze@yahoo.com)