TERRORISM IN THE DELTA: Nigeria held hostage

Dokubo and Ateke

The Niger Delta issue has recently been dominated by the Ijaw elements of the region and forcefully so. This struggle, its mode of operation and some of its fallouts are giving serious concerns to the other elements of the region and Nigeria as a whole. In this piece, BOLAJI OGUNDELE takes stock of the struggle so far, pointing out salient issues that those involved in it might possibly not have taken cognisance of.

RECENT developments in the oil-rich region of the country have been attracting attention, both locally and internationally, and very critically so. Some of the issues which have thrown themselves up, either desirable or otherwise, have been the well-worn marginalization/underdevelopment issue, which does not seem to have received enough attention as to turn the situation around. Thus, it continues to generate serious heat, affecting not just the immediate Nigerian environment, but also the entire international clime. Other issues, which actually derive, one way or the other, from the mother issue, will include environmental degradation, quest for resource control and then militancy.

Actually, the last issue mentioned happens to be the basic concern for the federal government now because as it stands, it seems to lack a describable form due to the several dimensions it has in recent times assumed. Initially, it seemed to be coordinated and was being hailed by most of the people of the region as a means to achieving their freedom. For instance, when in 2004 the leader of Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force (NDPVF), Alhaji Mujahid Dokubo-Asari, turned his struggle against his rival in arms , Tom Ateke, who was then said to be receiving support from some top brass of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), to fight against the federal government and the oil multinationals, he was well celebrated by the average Niger Delta man.

From Dokubo-Asari's campaign, especially from the moment he had been able to cow the Olusegun Obasanjo's administration into submission and obtained a truce, militancy seemed to have bought a place for itself in the Nigerian system. Coming back to the Niger Delta, the notion had been cut that arms struggle has come to stay as part of the system, just as founding of arms training camps is permitted. From then on, other splinter groups started showing up in the region, building arms bases from creek to creek. From then on, face-offs between federal troops and armed groups have become regular occurrences, as well as military occupation of most riverine communities in the oil-rich region. The situation has gradually become a state of emergency of sort, where the barracks culture was gradually gaining grounds.

Over the last five years, events and activities in the region have shot up the trend in militancy , indicating a higher prevalence of small arms in the streets of the region. At this point, petty robbery, like snatching phones at gun point, house to house robbery, even bank robbery and piracy are being carried out daily by some of the elements of the 'struggle'. Such criminal acts are enlisted as part of the militant engagement. At a point, it became fashionable, especially in the media, to report such acts as would have ordinarily in other parts of the country been referred to as crime to be militant activities. "Militants abduct Rivers SIEC boss", "Militants storm bank, cart millions away" and "Militants attack Bonny-bound boat, kill two, wound four and cart away goods worth millions of naira" became headlines in most national dailies on reports from the Niger Delta.

"I entered Port Harcourt and I started having headache, for no just reason. The moment you step into the city, may be after a long time, and you hear of the experience of those living there, you are bound to be scared, if I have my way, I don't think I want to enter Port Harcourt in a long time, forget the fact that I was born there and my parents live there", lamented Mrs. Sarah Joseph, an Ijaw lady, but resident in Lagos. According to her, "criminals have conquered the Niger Delta. I had my own bitter experience in 2005 when I went to see my parents. Just outside my parents house, a guy came down from a bike, walked straight to me, pointed a gun at me and demanded for my phone. I could not say a word, seeing a gun live. That was on the same street where I grew up and that was just my own experience of what I read about daily in the newspapers", Mrs. Joseph stated.

There is the issue of kidnapping, which initially was made to look as a tool for the 'struggle', initially shrouded in all manner of secrecy. At the beginning, when abduction of expatriates by militants, especially the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), started , then as a means of pressurizing government to let Dokubo-Asari and the former Bayelsa state governor, Chief Diepriye Alamieyeseigha, off the hook, besides enforcing total resource control for the region, many were made to buy it as a genuine tool for agitation, especially as they claimed it had no pecuniary motive. That view held for a while until the 'no pecuniary attachment' claim was discovered to be a ruse, that the militants were actually making mega bucks from the business and had persisted because it continued to pay off. Other groups keyed into the new business access and were also making money so much until it lost value to such an extent that victims began been let off the hook for as low as some few thousands, depending on those behind the particular abduction.

In all these, two issues have been thrown up in the region,a kind of eye opening developments, namely the predominance of the Ijaw elements of the region in this sort of agitation/breakdown of law and order, plus the sentiments so far associated with issues surrounding it. The second issue is the blessing or curse it has brought to the region.

IJAWS INVOLVEMENT/ DOMINANCE OF THE ARMED STRUGGLE
In the Niger Delta struggle, as it is known today, as in the form it has taken since Dokubo-Asari, the soul and spirit of the new wave is undoubtedly the Ijaw nation. In fact, in the myriad of statements so far sent out by the militants, the focus has been the Ijaw nation, at best it has usually been put as Ijaw/Niger Delta people struggle. The names of the several generals and commanders of the various groups have always been of Ijaw background. Also, the sentiment that has largely fuelled the passion to continue in the struggle has been the we-against-them perception, which has made it really difficult for any Ijaw man to fault another one, even when such one is in the wrong.

This disposition, it should be noted, has been bolstered by past experiences which have posed the people, in the different states of the region they find themselves, against either the federal government, state government or other tribal groups bordering them. For instance, the Odi massacre in Bayelsa State, in the heydays of the Obasanjo administration and a near-repeat of the incident in Odioma, few years after, still in Bayelsa, are just two examples of several incidents of federal actions, which have come to be recorded as attempts at ethnic cleansing of the Ijaw nation. The Warri civil disturbance in Delta State, Ilaje/Ijaw clashes in Ondo State and the Ogoni/Okrika fight in Rivers have further conditioned the minds of Ijaw people to see themselves as a people under attack, needing to do all necessary to protect themselves against external aggression. Federal government's military reaction to current criminal/violent trend in the Niger Delta now, especially in the riverine communities, which are basically the home of the Ijawshas further put the people on the edge, crying foul.

This defensive attitude of an entire race against the larger society has pulled several fallouts along with it. The most noticeable, probably most dangerous of these fallouts, is the new attitude of protecting anything Ijaw by all Ijaw elements, not minding the merit of the issues that might be involved. As it stands today, an Ijaw man accused of criminality is most likely to go unscathed if the system that is to try him is anyone outside the Ijaw nation. The case of the former Bayelsa State governor, Chief Alamieyeseigha, arrest of Mr. Henry Okah and most recently, the attack by Mr. Tom Ateke on Port Harcourt are three unconnected examples.

Governor Alamieyeseigha has been credited with the biggest achievements in the development of Bayelsa State, especially the transformation of Yenagoa. But for whatever reason, it was still some Ijaw people from his state who wrote petitions to the federal anti-graft agencies, accusing him of corruption. He was haunted till he was brought to the grass by the federal system. Though the manner his matter was pursued had been globally trashed as beyond graft fighting, especially as he was not the only political office holder guilty of what he was accused of, the Ijaw nation seemed to be unanimous in the fierce struggle to get him freed from the federal hook. They called him 'thief', but was accorded a hero's welcome when he was finally released. 'Even if he is a thief, he is our thief', the general Ijaw attitude seemed to have said of Alams.

In the earlier part of last week, a group, at press conference, lashed out at the Ijaw elder statesman, Chief Edwin K. Clarke, for some positions he had backed recently and on some of his statements. The group had faulted Chief Clarke's castigation of the federal government on Mr. Tom Ateke and his demand on the situation of Mr. Henry Okah. You will recall that the Ijaw elder had blamed the Joint Task Force (JTF), Operation Flush Out 3 for the attack on Tom Ateke, not minding what the kingpin might have been accused of.

"We are not defending criminality, but we want the Federal Government to rise to its obligations to citizens, as contained in domestic and international laws, by demanding the release or repatriation of Henry Okah who has been detained by Angolan authorities for four months without any charges. His continued detention is now agitating some of our youths and that is why the Federal Government's peace process is being gradually eroded in the Niger Delta", the Ijaw elder statesman had said on Okah. His view of the Ateke issue did not have much to do with the bloodbath of the first day of the year, but the action that infuriated the 'almighty' kingpin.

"The occupation of Okrika by the JTF is wrong, especially at a time when President Yar'Adua is negotiating how to bring peace to the region. The excuse is that JTF has to come in because of the raping of some women in Okrika and Bonny," he had stated.

The take of the leader of the NDPVF, whose detention had actually sparked off the blowing situation in the region, on the attack of Tom Ateke by the JTF is not far from that of the elder statesman. He rather held the JTF responsible for the people that were killed on January 1. He even went as far as threatening that should government fail to make use of the peace move he is about initiating to get Ateke under check, he would join forces with the kingpin to fight the federal government. It should be recalled that either of them; Ateke or Dokubo-Asari, could have killed each other during their bloody rivalry throughout 2004. Now, they have closed ranks and may join forces to fight the state.

As it stands now, besides their general standard of securing 100percent control of the oil resources in the region or finally killed the nation's oil sector, the militants have threatened to extend their anger to both Angola, where one of their leaders and strongest supporter, Mr. Henry Okah, is being held for charges of gun running, and South Africa, his base that has refused to rise up to his defence.

SO MUCH FOR OUR STRUGGLE
TWO outcomes have derived , so far, from the activities of the Ijaw/Niger Delta militants. One, even the people are afraid of their supposed emancipators. Most times, people of the region just have to abide with whatever the militants say or else, they might be risking bullets. For instance, politicians from the region, especially those of Ijaw background, dare not object to what the boys warn them against. Many relatives of politicians, in the last few months, have been abducted by armed youths for reason of terrorism. Militant groups like the MEND and the Martyrs Brigade, in times past, have threatened Ijaw leaders in high places with attacks for failure to tow a line dictated by the armed groups.

A most recent incident, which depicts the terrorization of anybody, either of Ijaw background or not, was the attempt on the life of the General Manager, Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Eastern Ports zone, Mr. Sotonye Etomi, by some armed men. On the fateful day, which happened to be a day after he contradicted claims by MEND. In the attack, which police sources have said was from a time bomb, three persons, a police inspector, who drove the van that exploded, was killed while two mobile policemen were injured. MEND claimed responsibility for this act, adding that it did it just to prove a point. Incidentally, Etomi is an Ijaw man.

"MEND Freelance Freedom Fighters; volunteers answering our call to fight against injustice and oppression in the Niger Delta carried out the attack on the convoy of a General Manager with the Nigeria Ports Authority in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

"This attack was meant to proof that nothing happens by accident in the Niger Delta, including the bomb explosion on the oil tanker vessel which the GM tried to cover up. The government wants to deceive the world that it can guarantee security and peace in the region. Foreign investors should take a prudent cue from A.P. Moeller-Maersk A/S the world's biggest container-shipping line which has stopped its vessels from calling at Nigerian ports until justice returns", the group said.

When the JTF launched its operation on Okrika recently, the first fault Mr. Ateke and some militants pointed out in the arrangement was that the army had gone to cause trouble where there was peace. Ateke claimed he had spent millions on organizing peace in Okrika, but military sources noted that if there was peace in Okrika before their entrance into the community, then it was the "peace of the graveyard" because the people were living under bondage of Ateke's men, who lived as lords over the entire Okrikaland.

Anyone who voiced after their word could be at risk of some unimaginable repercussion. This, the military say, they could not condone in a place they had been mandated to go keep peace and security. This circumstance represents itself across the region. In fact, there is a place in Delta state called Camp Five, presided over by one Tom Polo. According to reports, no politician of worth from the region has not visited the place to pay homage to the kingpin in charge. Among those who have paid Camp Five a visit is the Vice President, Dr Goodluck Jonathan.

Oil companies are also compelled to honour the militants. According to reports, the relationship existing between militants and the oil companies goes beyond abduction for ransom, they have to send goodwill messages, in cash and in kind, to the various militant camps to ward off aggression. A source informed that oil companies' Christmas gift to militants run into millions of naira.

Then the final question, which borders on the blessings of this militancy thing. Recently, a senior government official in Rivers state called the attention to the profile of militant activities in the region since the menace started. "Look at us today, the Niger Delta had the 13percent Allocation before this thing started, the NDDC had been given to us before it started. We did not get them through the barrel of the gun, but look at us today, we are worse off. Militancy has fetched us nothing but bad name and leaner treasury. If you know how much goes into security watch every month, money that could have gone into more live supporting projects. I hope these boys will be wise enough to look back at the Niger Delta they came to know before now, before they introduced guns. If you know any good thing this arms struggled had brought us you are free to point it out to me. We are the losers, companies are running out of here, they are going to Lagos where they feel safer with their investments", he lamented.

Nigeria, going by what the militant groups are saying, must pander to their tunes; do it their way or continue to suffer the fate of an insecure nation. Sometime last year, most developed nations of the world advised their citizens to stay away from the Niger.

However, it is not all gloom. A leading militant group in the region, the Grand Alliance of the Niger Delta, after taking a look at the situation on ground and the danger it poses for the future of the region, offered to be part of Rivers and federal governments peace and restoration plans for the region. The group, in a statement signed by its president, General Prekoly Iwo and vice president, Comrade Taribo West, observed that there is need to speedily halt the trend of arms proliferation and criminality in the region fast. It noted that at present, education and reasonable living do not have a future in the region for now, raising the alarm that if it continues for ten more years the way it is now, then the danger would be irreversible.

It Promised to support the government of the Rivers State governor, Hon Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, "to any extent" because of its laudable developmental programme, the group urged the governor to consult on the best approach to getting rid of gangsterism and criminality in the state. It group then pledged to mediate in the ongoing face-off, particularly to prevail on Tom Ateke and other groups in the region to lay their arms down, on the condition that government would respect its terms in the assignment and would be transparent. It, however, voted against solving the problems of the region militarily.

"Military might is not the best approach to the problems, we are dealing with human beings here (our brothers). Why did they enter into such criminal groups? What is the strength of these groups (what makes them powerful)? Government should consult and device a means of eradicating the vices, force should only be the last resort. It is only when appropriate and genuine avenues have been exploited and failed that force can be applied", the group advised.

In deed, the situation in the Niger Delta has deteriorated beyond the state of insecurity that the whole world is talking about. Today, especially in the riverine communities of the region, the social life has entered the disorder stage. Take education for an instance, children still going to school are in a very negligible number and the reason for this is simple. Boys in their teen ages have been exposed to certain businesses, illegal in nature, which bring quick wealth at virtually no risk to capital. Illegal bunkering is popular in these areas and it is arms protected. When doing bunkering became a little more dangerous because of government's opposition, some other forms of businesses, still illegal, which also involve arms, sprang up and kept sustaining them. In the face of these sort of source of livelihood, which brings quick money and which is not necessary tied to any academic achievement, education is threatened. If a twenty-one year-old could amass several millions of naira in his account, drive the biggest and most exotic cars and can afford to stay in a five star hotel without feeling the cost and it is not as if he had to toil through conventional means to acquire all these, he did not even finish his secondary school education, why then should his peers go to school before making as much as he has been able to make?

The real danger of this development, watchers of events in the oil-rich region have predicted, may not be in the immediate terms. The situation worsens by the day because as new school terms begins, the classrooms lose more pupils to the world run with guns and other arms. This, they say, would inevitably lead to a situation whereby going to school will no longer be an issue in the region, those that should have been in school would be found in camps, deep in the creeks, learning how to use arms, with which they hope to amass their own wealth too in a very short period and live as big as their superiors in the businesses they have chosen . Then, if the region has not finally assumed the status or form of a jungle, it would have been set back, in terms of development, for about fifty years compared to the rest of the country. Already, the militancy./terrorism culture is sending civilization out of the region, considering how the big companies have been trooping out of the place and the refusal of some companies and agencies to come and work in the region for fear of their workers being abducted or killed.