By Confidence Biebara, Emily Igoerechinma

Stakeholders in the Niger Delta region have decried the state of underdevelopment the region has witnessed 64 years after Nigeria’s independence, calling on leaders emerging in the new political dispensation to prioritize a paradigm shift in governance and development.

This convergence of thoughts and position statement was the outcome of deliberations at the 2^nd Niger Delta Alternatives Convergence (NDAC) held on Tuesday, April 25, 2023 in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

In his Welcome Address, the Convener of NDAC, Dr Nnimmo Bassey said NDAC was anticipated as an agenda setting forum for policy makers, public and private sector players, and other decision makers with a view to creating accountability templates for those in authority, expressing optimism that the event will graduate from a regional to a national confab.

“Primarily, the NDAC is an agenda setting gathering so that those representing us in government must be held to account for what they promised us. We insist that things we agree here are critical to whatever plans they have.

“We are hoping it will not end here. It will become a regional and national event. The reoccurrence in pollution generated in Niger Delta also affects other people.

“We have also seen pollution from other countries coming through water current close to us. We have to do everything within our capacity to secure our environment to ensure it is habitable.

Lamenting that 64 years after independence, the country was still stagnated with critical development and governance issues, Bassey, who is also the Director of the Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), organizers of the confab, stressed that key issues such as criminalizing the destruction of the environment, clear roadmap for diversity, environmental audit of the Niger Delta, amongst other issues must be mainstreamed. 

“We have to tell those coming into power or into office of what must be done. Things are still the way they are 64 years ago. We have different government agencies at different times, the agencies may have tried but they have not addressed the issues affecting the Niger Delta region such as pollution.

“We demand immediate audit of Niger Delta in areas of health, livelihood, impacted territories, etc. We also demand that our Government draw up clear roadmap for diversity. We believe there should be comprehensive solution against artisanal refining; oil theft must be stopped.

“Legislators should remove sections in the PIA that holds communities accountable for oil theft. We demand immediate release of forensic audit of NDDC. We also demand flood response mechanism to address reoccurring floods.

“We should have zero tolerance for abandoned projects. When people come into office they have to learn to complete projects that were started by their predecessors. Nigerian Government should make destruction of Mother Earth a criminal offence.”

In his remarks, Gbenemene and Kasimene Bangha VII of Ogoniland, His Royal Majesty, Mene Dr Suanu Timothy Yormaadam Baridam, JP, who is also the Chairman, Conference of Ogoni Traditional Rulers, charged Niger Deltans appointed into public office to mainstream responsibility or take a bow when conditions are no longer comfortable for ethical conduct and uprightness.

“We are part of our problem. If someone appoints you and you are asked to do what is not supposed to be done, you are supposed to resign.”

King Baridam, who is also Vice President of the Treasury of Forum of Sovereign and Traditional Leaders of Africa, stressed that “civil societies have a lot of work to do. We are in a situation to be wiped out by what God gave to us. We must not just drop a statement must also pursue it and deal with the issues that confront us as a people”.

In his speech, spokesperson for the Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), Ken Robinson located the Niger Delta question in mixed voices and lack of consensus on critical issues affecting the region, urging stakeholders to amplify the challenges facing the region with a view to attracting sustainable interventions.

“The problem arises when there are discordant tunes. I am pleased with this event. The issue of flooding has been raised. The flooding as projected by NIMET is coastal flooding due to rise in sea levels. Some Local Government Areas will be affected by coastal flooding.

“We should amplify the need for our people to be vigilant and our Government to get ready for remediation. We need to alert our Government to ensure there are plans to contain the situation.”

On his part, an erudite scholar, Professor Sofiri Peterside, in his Keynote Address titled “Looking Back and Thinking Forward: Imperatives of A New Niger Delta Agenda”, elucidated that “the objective of the convergence is to provide a platform where peculiar concerns of Niger Delta people on the front burner of national discourse will be addressed”.

“It is pertinent to recall that Niger Delta region, despite its huge oil and gas deposits, exploration of oil and gas has brought conflict, impoverishment, pollution of environment.

“Oil production has damaging effect on oil bearing communities. We are approaching the end of fossil fuels hence the need to think about diversification.”

“Divestment means running away from responsibility by oil companies. For instance, once they are offshore, they run away from their corporate social responsibility. Government holds the view that any community where oil is extracted from does not have capacity to direct their affairs, which is untrue.”

“The platform provides us opportunity to interrogate issues. How do we make our people to be part of this considering the level of poverty in some communities? We need to step down the conversation in the language they understand. We have a lot to do.”

Also speaking, the National Coordinator of the Association of Rural Chiefs for Peace and Development in Niger Delta (ARCPD), Alabo Nengi James stated that relevant key performance index of the region predicates its wellbeing far below 100%, asserting that it is just about 40% as the real issues have not been addressed.

“The response to performance index on environment in the Niger Delta issues, I’ll say it’s about 40% because the real issues have not been addressed. All that is being done is just palliative and trying to push the people in a way that, just giving them peanuts to see that things are going well.

“Sometimes, divide and control tactics and not the real demand of the Niger Delta people have been really, properly put in place. So, these are just ordinary things, alternatives, set up and all that. So, I don’t think it has been properly done.”  

“The major issue in the Niger Delta area is environmental degradation for now. They should tackle the issue of cleaning up the Niger Delta and infrastructure at the rural areas. There should have been new good towns in the coastal areas.”

“First, the oil companies have destroyed our lands and there is danger, health matters, bodily matters and physical issues. People are traumatized, millions of Niger Deltans are sick; we are just walking. So, healthwise, no better specialist hospital to take care of the people at the coastal axis. Infrastructural development is not there at the real oil producing areas.”

The Panel Session, which discussion centred on “Framing Niger Delta into the National Conference: Opportunities and Strategies,” had the Secretary of PANDEF; Ken Robinson, Programme Manager, Stakeholder Democracy Network (SDN); Florence Kayemba, Executive Director, Policy Alert; Tijah Bolton-Akpan, Executive Director, Environmental Rights Action (ERA); Chima Williams, and Executive Director, Africa Network for Environment and Economic Justice (ANEEJ), Rev. David Ugolor, as panel discussants.

The Panel discussants, in their various submissions, observed that after 64 years of oil extraction with devastating environmental, livelihood and human rights impacts, the four largest transnational oil companies operating in Niger Delta, Shell, ExxonMobil, Agip and Total have announced plans to sell off their assets, move into deep waters or simply leave the region.

The planned divestment of oil companies has been reinforced by global bent towards a shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy. In July 2021, European Union unveiled plans for a radical shift from fossil fuels including the end sales in the European Union of new fossil powered vehicles in 14 years and increased the cost of using fossil fuels.

They noted that this trend was really disturbing because the Niger Delta people have had no direct benefits from the proceeds of oil extraction for the past six decades, stressing that even the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) has left the region and its people more confused than before, therefore lending their voices to the demands in the Niger Delta Manifesto for Social Justice to be attended to without delays.

Earlier, Ken Henshaw the moderator for the event read out the demands in Niger Delta Manifesto for Social Justice which includes an immediate and comprehensive audit of the entire Niger Delta region covering the environment, livelihoods, health, social and economic impacts of crude oil and gas extraction.

They also called for a divestment framework for international oil companies (IOCs) and their partners that should include the development of a framework for guarding their pipelines, provide definite deadline for stoppage of gas flaring, amongst others.

In attendance at the gathering were notable personalities such as environmentalists, traditional rulers, civil society organizations, development actors, government functionaries and representatives of various communities.