The Rivers State Chapter of the Nigeria Institute of Public Relations (NIPR) has attributed the rising insecurity challenge in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria to economic sabotage and nepotism while sketching a roadmap for the return of peace to the area.

The body, which comprises professionals in communication practice, came up with this position during a Stakeholders’ Roundtable Session on Tuesday, May 11, 2021 in Port Harcourt, packaged to address issues pertaining to the future of the Niger Delta in the current security turmoil in Nigeria.  

Veteran Public Relations expert and NIPR Fellow, Bobo Brown; Managing Consultant, Global Rainbow (GRAIN) Consulting, alongside a Professor of Mass Communication, Godwin Okon; Dean Faculty of Social Science, Rivers State University, together with an NIPR Fellow and Director General, Rivers State Neighbourhood Safety Corps Agency; Dr Uche Chukwuma, were the lead speaker and discussants, respectively, that gave direction to the event.

In his lead speech, Bobo Brown took the participants down memory lane of how robust the economy of the Niger Delta was, stressing that such economic independence was the bane of peaceful coexistence amongst people of the area

While commending the Rivers State Governor for always being pragmatic on issues of security, Brown pointed out that things are no longer the same today which may be why youths have unfortunately resorted to self-help.

“I want us to pay attention to what happened in Rivers State about a week ago; unknown people went to different checkpoints and started attacking innocent security agents who were on their legitimate duty post protecting us.”

“I want to hereby commend the Rivers State Governor for taking the trouble to quickly do his duty. What many Governors don’t remember is their duty to tell us what is happening and to respond to our needs but he did. He quickly made a broadcast to tell us this is the situation he has been consulting with security chiefs.”

Brown, however, noted that there was need for improvement in the Governor’s communication style, calling on security agencies to run an open and transparent system that involves collaboration with the people.

“Look at what the commander of the Pentagon in the year 2000 said to his officers that anything you can’t let the public know, anything you can’t tell the Congress or Media, then that thing should be thoroughly investigated.”

“There is nothing about security that the public cannot know except your strategy for dealing with the situation. The public has a right to know what the situation is and that the government is aware and on top of that crisis”

• 

• 

• 

• 

“So, what we see here is a trend that we commend in the Rivers State Governor and his team and we urge His Excellency to continue to maintain exemplary leadership in that regard.”

He lamented that politicians were prioritizing their welfare over that of the masses, noting that such behaviour was responsible for frustrations and feelings of inadequacy rampant in the land.

“We are aware that we the people are slaves to a few people. How did we know what we knew? Because a few people who have political power, once they get political power the first thing they do is to settle their future, they don’t leave it for National Assembly to settle they settle it themselves but your future and mine is never discussed and is not settled.”

“We don’t want to choose a leader we want to choose our own future we want to choose our future and tell who ever that want to be a politician to serve our interest, that this is the future we want and we want to measure the goals and how they can be achieved and we monitor it to ensure that it is done because 21 years of 4th republic politics has proven to us that the politicians knows about their future and is very efficient by protecting it but they don’t care about our own future and we can’t no long trust them to take care of our future.”

Brown took a sharp departure from the practice of capital punishment for crime convicts, advising that such does not hold the key to the solution of insecurity, rather, they should be rehabilitated.

“We shouldn’t make the mistake of believing that merely killing the culprits, those who are caught in one act of violence or the other is sufficient for societal cleansing, no it’s not we are not a blood drinking society. The killing of people who are caught for crimes doesn’t in anyway enhance our own status. So we need to move from killing to making such people useful members of society but they can’t be useful members of society except you and I begin to defend our future.”

The lead speaker called his audience to question on what means of livelihood was peculiar to Rivers State and the Niger Delta, portraying that the absence of domestic means of survival is a major insecurity indicator.

“What business does Rivers State and Niger/Delta people have today that they want to die to defend? We don’t have any and unfortunately, we even ignore the blessing God has put on us through fishing and farming as no one wants to travel home any more. What do we see, our ancestral communities have become old people’s homes, just there for the sick and the dying. We only go to visit when there is a marriage or more likely burials and this place use to be centers of commerce and life before now.”

He explained that strategic unity of the South was key in overcoming the raging insecurity in Nigeria.

“We want to see that God forbid if anything happens, the Governor should talk to his people within three, four days. He can then push the police and other security services to provide information that is needed. One of the challenges we face here about security is that everything here is misdefined. The Police, the Army, all of them tell you that security matters should not be spoken about.”

“So we need to come back to say to ourselves this is not what Rivers should be, this is not what Niger/Delta should be remembered for when mentioned. As at today, we are vulnerable when we stand alone, Rivers State cannot face the insecurity challenge alone, we must find strength in numbers by forming and forging workable, mutually reliable and independent liaisons with our brothers in the Niger Delta together with the South-East, the Middle-Belt and the South-West as a trading front from being a common market to us, we can build profit with the North.”

Let our Governments not stand alone, the Southern Governors must swallow their pride and their personal differences and begin to understand that there is security in collective action. They need to come together and workout come areas where they can pull together and build an economy for this region and to build dignity for our people, that way we can have security.”

Using NIPR as a take-off ground, Brown called on professional organisations in Nigeria to come out in strong voices with regards to the current security situation in the country.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

 “We must provide a platform for the voice of professional groups of students, diaspora groups, and people in government even and communities that have been silenced in line so that the disconnection imposed on us by insecurity will not result in the death of our voices.”

“We must define our future, you ask me how do we do that we will do that by groups like this not the individual in society today is very weak your very weak, you are a citizen but nobody listens to you did you hear the Governor of Enugu State crying on radio that he called in to the Presidency on emergency and he was put on hold, did you hear the Governor of Benue State crying that he had written, phoned, sent messages to Aso Rock and he didn’t get any response?”

“If serving Governors feel so voiceless when they command the entire paraphernalia and machinery of state power; how much less you and I? We are nothing, so the only way we can have a voice that counts is to create platforms to allow for the voice of Professional Groups and Associations to be heard.”

For his part, Professor Godwin Okon corroborated Brown’s position on the need to “obviate partisanship” and entrench economic independence outside of crude oil, while calling for unity of purpose to achieve this feat.

 “We must all take a searching look backwards with the aim of diversifying the economy. When you talk about the Niger Delta region, something readily comes up in our mind and that is an oil dependent economy and that is actually a source of agitation in the Niger Delta, so we must pick up our pieces in terms of education because of the need to build ideals around noble professions. We must actually liberate our intellect, we must liberate the mind, we must also illuminate ideology now. The security challenges we have today are beside status, nobody is immune, so it is a collective bargain, everybody must rise to the occasion.”

He anchored his position on the need to demystify security issues and cultivate the culture of periodic update by Southern State Governments and security agencies.

In suggesting the solution to the insecurity of the Niger Delta, Okon emphasized that the community model approach for management of crime should be deployed with caution and utmost inclusion of stakeholders

“The future of Niger Delta region can be assured if proactive measures are taken to stem the spread of violence while whittling down its reverberations. A community management of crime maybe the way forward. Caution in this particular regard is that it must be made to operate within the ambit of the law. We’re talking about multilateral cooperation, we’re talking about the states that make up the Niger Delta coming together to have a community management approach to insecurity, and that is what is going to help us.”

“In so, roles must be clearly stated out in other to avoid duplicity and conflict of functions. This should be in line with pre-planning preparedness in other to control the spread of terror acts in the region. Emphasis should be on intelligence sharing, and once this is in place then we are actually there at stemming the tide in insecurity.”

“The challenge of mutual intelligibility of the different languages and dialects in the south should be given attention on how to overcome it given that the Niger/Delta is replete with diverse languages unlike the South West and South East.”

“We must have integration of technology which must be born out of expanding facilities and investments in that particular sector because we can no longer fight insecurity using the antics of yesterday, it is not possible. Times have changed, dynamism rules the world.”

Also speaking, the Director General, Rivers State Neighbourhood Safety Corps Agency, Dr Uche Chukwuma identified economic shortchange, multinational companies, nepotism by government and complacency of traditional rulers as key causes of unrest in the Niger Delta region.

“I saw companies rising up at Trans Amadi Industrial Area, but when you take a look at who has been employed in these companies majority of the work force at the management level were not Rivers nor Niger Delta indigenes which gave rise to agitations, locking of the (company’s) gates by our youths.”

 “Our leaders did not see it as their responsibility to investigate why this agitations were happening. They left it as youthful exuberance. Even in the security services, I see that our leaders even traditional rulers do not pick interest in seeing what percentage is being allocated to our people and the percentage allocated, how many of our people actually go through and are so enlisted? We leave it to the youth to fight for themselves but other regions take it upon themselves to go down to the federal agency concerned with this and find out if their quota has been met.”

We are talking about the future of the Niger Delta it cannot be discussed if we have a central post where we must contribute to and scoop from with difficulty. We must be sure of adequate representation to overcome all of these.

 Chukwuma mentioned that abstract insecurity is basically the reign of economic frustration where young people because of idleness venture into unwholesome activities. He called for job creation and equitable distribution of resources as a major strand of solving the problem of insecurity in the Niger Delta.

Earlier, NIPR State Chairman and Rivers State Commissioner for Information, Paulinus Nsirim said the round table session was put together to set an agenda that will provide solution to the nagging problem of insecurity in the country. He said the idea was to have an aggregate opinion on what should be done by government, media and the people towards bringing about lasting peace in the Niger Delta and Nigeria at large.

In their separate contributions, participants present agreed with the lead speaker and discussants that the lack of regional collaboration and economic uncertainty of the hoipolois was chief amongst the causes of insecurity in the Niger Delta, adding that poor parenting and inadequate education were critical causatives too.