The President Muhammadu Buhari led Federal Government has again been accused of running a policy of segregation against the Niger Delta and other sections of Nigeria.

Frontline Niger Delta activist, AnnKio Briggs, who made this accusation against the President, stressed that the construction of the AKK gas pipeline reinforces the current administration’s policy of neglect, discrimination and exclusion of certain regions in the country, especially, the Niger Delta.  

“President Buhari, in continuation of the pursuit of his segregative policy, announced from the beginning, carving Nigeria into 95% and 5%, never thought it proper to at least show a little kindness to the people the natural gas that will power the AKK project he commissioned would be tapped from their domain.”

“He doesn’t pretend about his lack of feelings for us, not even once. It is the same region or regions that the trans-Sahara gas pipeline beyond Nigeria is to derive from.”

Briggs further stressed that going ahead with the construction of the pipeline without consultation with the owners of the gas that will be wheeled to the North and across Nigeria into other sub-Saharan African countries was a clear indication of the disdain President Muhammadu Buhari has for the Niger Delta and South Easterners.

She said in furtherance of this policy the Niger Delta region will be exploited to repay the loan obtained by the Federal Government from the Chinese Government to fund the controversial AKK gas pipeline.

“Now the government has borrowed from China to implement this project, my fear is that the Niger Delta would be exploited continuously to offset that loan with its unknown and undisclosed conditions by China, a country its loan conditions remain questionable.”

“We don’t know the duration of repayment and what the interest rate is to estimate the extent of exploitation. Buhari didn’t tell us and he has bypassed us, the owners of the resources, to activate the northern end of the national project.”

Close watchers of the administration have continuously accused it of highlighting the centrifugal cleavages of a country many fear is on the verge of disintegration if nothing was done to force a national rebirth or restructuring. These concerns are reinforced by the seeming nepotistic hue of appointments since the inception of the administration.

President Muhammadu Buhari, on Tuesday, June 30, 2020, commissioned the construction of the $2.8 billion 614km Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano (AKK) natural gas pipeline, the single biggest gas pipeline project in Nigeria’s history, in Ajaokuta (Kogi State) and Rigachikun (Kaduna State).

The AKK gas pipeline currently being developed by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) will deliver gas from Qua lboe in Akwa Ibom State, Cawthorne Channel in Bonny LGA, Alakiri in Okrika LGA, Obiafu/Obrikom in Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni LGA, and Obigbo in Oyigbo LGA, all in Rivers State, deep in the Niger Delta region to Rigachikun in Kano State, far north.

Further to this, the pipeline, which foundation project started in about 2008 to be concluded in 2020, was laid from Calabar in Cross River through Akwa Ibom, Abia, Imo, and Enugu States into Ajaokuta in Kogi State and then to Rigachukun in Kano State.

Curiously, the pipeline was commissioned at the receiving end in Rigachikun in Kano State instead of any of the dispatch ends anywhere in the Niger Delta or the South East given that the gas fields of these regions are the raw material base for the mega project.

This ordinarily would have ensured equity, profitability and total development of the sector with high economic potential for the whole country.

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The project, which forms phase one of the Trans-Nigeria Gas Pipeline (TNGP) project, will be executed in three phases, with phase one covering the construction of a 200km-long segment between Ajaokuta and Abuja Terminal Gas Station at a cost of $855m.

Phase two will comprise a 193km-long section to be built between Abuja and Kaduna at a cost of approximately $835m while phase three will involve the construction of a 221km-long section between the Kaduna terminal gas station (TGS) and Kano TGS. This section will cost an estimated $1.2bn to complete.

A 40” diameter pipeline, expected to transport 3,500 million metric standard cubic feet per day (Mmscfd) of dehydrated wet gas from several gas gathering projects in Nigeria’s deep south, is a build and transfer (BT) public-private partnership (PPP) project, which involves 100% contractor funding.

It will ensure a steady and guaranteed gas supply to the northern part of Nigeria by utilizing the country’s widely available gas resources deep south.

Tenders for the development of the AKK pipeline, which is expected to reduce the large volume of gas flared annually in Nigeria, as well as the subsequent environmental impact, was originally announced by NNPC in July 2013, the project proposal submitted to the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC) in June 2017, its PPP compliance certificate issued in July 2017 alongside the approval of its feasibility study, and granted approval by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) in December 2017.

Contractors involved in implementing the project in include OilServe/Oando consortium, which will handle the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for phase one and Brentex/China Petroleum Pipeline Bureau (CPP) consortium which was awarded the EPC contract for phase three.

AnnKio Briggs described the establishment and deployment of specialized military units such as the Operation Delta Safe (OPDS), Operation Python Dance and several others as part of an invidious plot to cage the southern regions ahead of the implementation of projects such as the AKK pipeline project to pre-empt any revolt by the disenfranchised peoples of the southern regions of the country.  

“This is the latest invasion of the Niger Delta and now the South East in addition, and before this, advance militant teams coming in various cover-up names had been drafted over time to our farmlands and bushes.”

“They come and raid and kill and the target is that should there be any resistance from the exploited people, these terrorists all laid ambush in our bushes would be unleashed on our people to kill them off. So they are out to take everything with the highest form of force and brutality.”

“It is a move not meant to favour us in anyway. They care not about our happiness and I can tell you that I am really worried, especially for the fact that our people are no longer speaking out. So I am afraid if they really know the meaning and intention of what is going on.”

“How else could one describe this gross injustice by this government that previous administrations handled the project to benefit all and right now at the activation, the South-South and South East where the natural gas is sourced stand shortchanged and suppressed to make sure the north takes the benefits alone?”

“So, the president and those that advise him on how to handle Nigeria are ok with creating economic opportunities for the north and sidelining the regions and areas the resources derive from.”

She also called out her kinsmen serving in the Buhari administration: Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, Minister for Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio, and Minister for Transportation, Chibuike Amaechi, for maintaining a culture of silence in the face of exclusion of their home region.

“To worsen the matter, the Minister of State in charge of Petroleum is Timipre Sylva, a Niger Delta man from Bayelsa. To him this injustice doesn’t count or the people denied also don’t count in the scheme of things in Nigeria because he as an individual is favoured.”

Buhari never relented in executing his segregation of the 5% in denials in all facets, economic, social, infrastructure etc, even to the point of robbing them of their resources to feed the north.

“Sylva as I mentioned earlier, Godswill Akpabio, the Minister for Niger Delta, Chibuike Amaechi, Minister for Transportation and other Niger Delta people serve in this same government and they cannot to tell Buhari that this ruthless denial won’t work, because the people may decide to say no tomorrow and that means the gas to feed the project won’t be there.”

“That will be double loss to us since we would face the exploitation to repay the loan and possible raid and mass killing of our people by the bands of militants they have already stationed around us.”