BONGA: Death by any name

By Muyiwa Apara

ALL seems deathly quiet now in the soft but putrid underbelly region of the country, the Niger Delta.

It is quiet because of the ceasefire declared by the militants of the region after visiting a deadly devastation on the country’s main source of income, the Bonga offshore installation.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) which declared the ceasefire also claimed responsibility for the devastation at Bonga. MEND’s spokesman had in an e-mail claimed that the ceasefire was in response to an appeal by “Niger Delta elders to give peace and dialogue another chance.”

It is of course pertinent to note that the devastation to Bonga oil field installation came three days after the Presidency pledged to grant amnesty to the militants who are ready to lay down their arms.

So how sincere is a ceasefire declared unilaterally by a group that chose to attack the country’s major offshore oil installation three days after a pledge from the presidency to grant amnesty to militants that are ready to lay down their arms? How ready is such a group to listen to and obey Niger Delta elders “to give peace and dialogue another chance”?

For a country wholly dependent on crude oil for its economic survival, the attacks on the oil installations of Bonga and Chevron’s Abiteye-Olero pipeline can only be likened to a muscled blow on the jugular. It is symptomatic of imminent death.

But to the militants, it was necessary to put all foreign interests on notice that their adventures on the country’s shores was no longer safe especially since their communities, as they claim, bear the heavy brunt of oil exploration without anything to show for it in terms of development, self-determination and fulfillment.

According to Mr. Remi Babalola, Minister of State for Finance, Nigeria now loses 84 million dollars daily to militant activities. The Bonga devastation shut in 225,000 barrels per day production. The second attack credited to militant youths cut Nigeria’s crude oil output further by 120,000 barrels per day.

However, nothing rankles more than the relatives ease with which the feat, if it could be called that, was accomplished. Twenty militants in three speed boats travelled 75 kilometres of open sea to deal such a deadly blow on a strategic facility unnoticed let alone apprehended by the governments security forces. It was after the devastation that President Umaru Yar’Adua ordered a clampdown on the Niger Delta militants.

Both attacks on these oil installations speak eloquently about the country’s inexplicable vulnerability. It is even a sad commentary on the perfunctoriness indeed shoddiness of the country’s security agencies which left the country’s pot of soup or sole feeding trough to be debased by angry disaffected militants so easily.

The comment of MEND’s spokesman declaring a unilateral ceasefire in response to Niger Delta elders to give peace and dialogue another chance is too cynical to be trusted. Who are these faceless Niger Delta elders? Which another chance did it so glibly refer to? Has there ever been a chance for peace and dialogue?

But the Federal Government itself is not anymore sincere than the Niger Delta militants. If there had been a genuine desire to handle the issue of the Niger Delta expeditiously outside the slow, phlegmatic, plodding style of government business may be the restiveness and desperation there could have been mitigated enough to avoid the present tragedy.

Nigeria is a victim of two major interventions in its political history; colonialism and military incursion into governance but that is not to say that the challenge posed by the Niger Delta cannot be surmounted with wisdom and improvisation like all progressive human societies do. Government has been too laid back over the issue of the Niger Delta.

Only an offensively docile human community can tolerate the exploitation going on there without any form of protestation even if terrorism as MEND has resorted to is hardly the answer.

It is also foolish of the government to remain a monolithic economic after all these experiences. Even a foolish man will not point all his eggs in one basket as they say. President Umar Yar’Adua should find a lasting solution to the problem of the Niger Delta but to me making Nigeria capable of existing in spite of the Niger Delta should be priority on his check list.

GADFLY will proceed on a short vacation from today. See you, esteemed reader, soon.

RESPONSES

If all our leaders including you journalists say it as it is, concerning comments on Adedibu’s death, then there is hope for us the young generation, so keep it up please. Ekemode Rasheed, 08023376377.

We are a nation of liars, or how do you react when people say the death of an 80-year-old man came as a ‘rude shock’! Patrick Adegbamigbe, 08057736980.

They’re birds of a feather with Abacha the dictator. What would you expect them to say? Thieves defending a colleague, they’re shameless looters. Ganiyu Quadri, Saki, Oyo State. 08072407006.

Late Chief Adedibu was generous and he accommodated all tribes in which most of our present political leaders in the South West can never do. Baba built and took good care of the less privileged and the Almajiris. The Almighty Allah will grant him Aljannah, amin. Abdullahi Odetoyinbo, Lagos, 08030644403.