Last week, President Olusegun Obasanjo met Okerekonko elders in Abuja. At the meeting, he urged them to desist from supporting or encouraging the activities of militants. The President said the ceaseless agitation, accompanied by violence, has retarded development in the whole of the Niger Delta.
Though forthright about the situation in the Niger Delta, the President was undoubtedly coy about the magnitude of the irritation the militants have caused the nation as a whole. Specifically, Obasanjo failed to tell Okerenkoko elders that Nigeria recorded a loss of N570 billion, projected revenue for the 2006 fiscal year, due to the activities of Niger Delta youths. The long-running crisis in the region has ensured that since January last year, the daily production quota of 2.4 million barrels per day (bpd) approved for Nigeria by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has dipped by 25 per cent. The President also failed to mention that youths from the community were partly responsible for the unprecedented poor power supply across Nigeria because of the disruption of vital gas supply.
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With its immense carbon deposits, spread beneath over 70,000 square kilometres of swampy terrain, the Niger Delta is a study in contradiction. Though it totally accounts for Nigeria’s daily crude oil production quota, the Niger Delta is a desperately poor and despoiled region.
Its land is ravaged by exploration activities, making farming difficult. Fishing, a major economic activity in the region, is under severe threat, as oil spills continue to destroy aquatic life and poison drinkable water. Roads, schools, hospitals and other social amenities remain grossly inadequate, fuelling youth discontent. This has given rise to violent agitation with periodically murderous outcomes. The targets of the disenchantment are the oil companies and the Nigerian state.
Those far from the zone are less familiar with the scale of discontentment, which has spawned organisations whose operations are similar to those of virulent groups like the Tamil Tigers of Sri Lanka and the defunct Irish Republican Army, (IRA).
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The most prominent of these organisations is the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND). While the propriety of MEND’s objectives remain contentious, its menace is not in doubt.
In the last 12 months, the group has tattooed its name on the nation’s consciousness. MEND has claimed responsibility for most of the attacks on key oil installations as well as the abduction of 70 per cent of about 200 expatriate oil workers between 10 January 2006 and 25 January 2007.
But MEND’s biggest impact has been on the nation’s power sector. Through MEND’s unremitting attacks on gas pipelines, the quantity of gas required for power generation has slid, compounding the nation’s power crisis.
Late last year, the militants unleashed mayhem on two vital pipelines conveying gas to two gas –fired stations, Egbin in Lagos and Afam in Rivers State.
Both stations account for 75 percent of Nigeria’s energy supply, put at 3,200 megawatts. The hydro stations generate the balance of 25 percent.
Though the 3,200 mw falls way below the estimated 12,000 mw required for national consumption, the crippling of Nigerian Gas Company pipelines has inflicted further damage on the already prostrate energy sector.
First to receive militants’ attention was the Escravos-Chanomi gas pipeline, which conveys supply from the Chevron gas stations in Delta State through creeks and swamps to the Egbin Thermal Station in Ikorodu, Lagos. Engineers of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria, (PHCN) watched despairingly, as power generated by Egbin’s six generating units dipped from 2,300 mw to a paltry 800 mw. But worse was to come when the volume of gas supply came down to 140 millimetre standard cubic feet (mmscf) per day, leading to the current level of less than 300 mw. Still, matters got worse. Days later, the Akakiri Gas Pipeline, which conveys supply from the Shell gas fields in Rivers State to the Afam power station, was hit by the militants.
The action led to a further loss of about 250 mw. Beyond the damage already inflicted on the existing power station, the ability and capability of the militants to ‘turn off power’ is all too apparent. Last December, the commissioning of the 670 mw Papalanto power station in Ogun State was cancelled because of scarcity of gas for test-run.
With new power stations in Alaoji, Abia State; Geregu, Kogi State; and Omotosho in Ondo State relying on gas supply from the creeks to function, there is no prize for guessing who makes the final decision on power supply.
Outside Nigeria, the activities of the militants have caused concerns. Recently, Kwadwo Baah Wiredu, Ghana’s Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, revealed that the deadline for natural gas to reach Ghana to turn turbines at the Aboadze Thermal Plant and other generation plants would not be met because of the activities of Niger Delta militants who have repeatedly vandalised the Escravos pipeline.
Ghana was to utilise gas from Nigeria by March this year to power the plant. However, the project, designed to supply the Republic of Benin, Ghana and later, Cote d’Ivoire, has been put on hold. Speaking on a Ghanaian radio station, Wiredu expressed hope that the project would resume as soon as possible.
He explained that the section of the pipeline in Ghana has been constructed and everything in place for the gas to come.
Also recently, Dr. Edmund Daukoru, Nigeria’s Energy Minister, said the gas project was supposed to have been completed 18 months from the date of the Final Investment Decision (FID) and that this should have been in December last year.
"But we are in February and it is not yet completed because of a whole variety of reasons. So, this meeting is being held to review jointly with WAPCO (West African Gas Pipeline Company) which is a bulk supplier to the three countries. Everything is coming out of Nigeria. WAPCO is the bulk supplier jointly between Chevron and Shell. We want to review the status of the project and be sure that we make up for lost time and be sure that further delay is mitigated as much as possible," Daukoru told a meeting of project stakeholders.
He admitted that the project had largely been affected by the situation in the Niger Delta and urged the media to get the militants to appreciate the impact of their activities.
"I really don’t want to go into the nitty-gritty of the causes of the delay. But it is a whole collection of things, including also the vandalisation of the Lagos-Escravos gas pipeline.
‘‘At the end of the day, all of us in one form or the other are losers. I think if you can carry this message of persuasion, you will be doing the nation a very big service," Daukoru reasoned. He explained that there is a clause called take or pay. This implies that if buyer is ready before seller, seller is obligated to the buyer and if seller is ready before the buyer, the buyer is obligated somehow to the seller. "It is a take or pay clause to make sure the parties pursue the project in absolute good faith. We really have work to do and from what I am hearing, some of the issues are really serious and we look forward to jointly tackling them. I am hopeful that we will make progress," he said.
This is in spite of the commitment of investors across West Africa to buying the gas. For instance, institutional customers in Ghana have committed to take 122 mscf of gas per day and 22 mscf of gas per day in Benin and Togo respectively.
Aside from the disruption of power supply, the militants have also recorded enormous success on oil rigs and offshore platforms, where their attacks have nonplussed the nation’s security agencies. Despite repeated huffing and puffing, security agencies are regularly embarrassed, as militants kidnap oil workers and destroy equipment and facilities–almost at will.
Handicapped by corruption and inadequate firepower, the security agencies have been turned into a figure of fun by militants. Military sources told this medium that between January 2006 and March this year, about 100 officers and men of the armed forces were killed in clashes with militants. The woes of the military are compounded by inadequate understanding of the Niger Delta terrain, a place militants know like the palms of their hands. Though violent agitation has always been a part of Niger Delta life, the current wave was inspired by the activities of Mujahid Dokubo-Asari, leader of the Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force (NDPVF). In 2005, Dokubo-Asari, currently facing trial for treason, was emblematic of the violent agitation. This was recognised by Abuja, which invited him for discussions with the President.
But since his arrest at the end of 2005, the struggle has been taken over by MEND and a raft of small-time, but equally dangerous, groups.
Their new signature was unveiled in January 2006, when four foreign oil workers were seized from Shell Petroleum Development Corporation’s offshore E.A. Oilfield. The militants, who later identified themselves as members of MEND, shut down the 115,000 bpd platform. To register their seriousness, the group blew up crude oil pipelines, cutting supplies to Forcados Export Terminal by 100,000 bpd. After a series of negotiation with government, MEND released the captives on 30 January 2006. However, the group threatened to resume attacks if its demands were not met. At midnight on 18 February 2006, MEND was back in business. The militants, using speedboats, attacked a barge operated by Wilbros, an American oil services company, and abducted nine oil workers. They also blew up a Shell crude oil pipeline and a gas pipeline operated by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). For maximum effect MEND bombed Shell’s Forcados tanker loading platform, an action which compelled Shell to suspend operation in the 380,000 bpd facility, thus closing its operation in the entire western swamp till date.
However, in the ensuing gun battle, about seven of the soldiers on escort duty at the location were slain by the militants. After a protracted negotiation, the group released six of the nine hostages including one American, two Egyptians, two Thais and a Filipino. The rest were later set free after MEND’s failed attempt to tie their freedom to the release of Dokubo-Asari. On 19 April 2006, the militants stepped up a gear when they took the war to the headquarters of the 2nd Amphibious Brigade of the Nigerian Army in Port Harcourt. Deploying car bombs, planted on cars parked outside the barracks, the attack claimed three lives and injured six people.
Chuffed at its impunity, MEND later revealed to some media houses–via e-mail–that the materials used in the explosives were a mixture of commercial and military-grade explosives detonated with a cell phone.
Soon, MEND inspired a phalanx of unaffiliated kidnap gangs, which specialise in demanding ransom. On 25 July 2006, a gang stormed Agip’s Ogbainbiri flow station in Bayelsa State and abducted 24 workers. The hostages were freed six days later, after the an alleged payment of a fat sum by the federal government. The following month in Port Harcourt, another group kidnapped two Norwegians and two Ukranian oil workers, who regained their freedom after their employers paid ransom said to be in dollars.
An Italian oil worker employed by Saipem was also snatched from a street in Port Harcourt. He was freed after five days of negotiation.
Again on 3 October 2006, seven foreign oil workers–four Britons, one Indonesian, one Malaysian and a Romanian–were captured in a raid on an Exxon/Mobil residential site.
After their release, effected after the payment of a hefty ransom, Graeme Buchan, one of the hostages, narrated how he was forced at gunpoint to phone his company’s CEO that his colleague, Paul Smith, was dead. While the kidnap gangs ran rampant, MEND was on recess. Its holiday ended on 7 December 2006 when it claimed responsibility for the kidnap of three Italians from a Port Harcourt residential facility. Days later, MEND raised the bar, claiming responsibility for the near-simultaneous car bomb explosions at residential quarters owned by Agip and Shell. Though no casualty was recorded, the explosions traumatised residents of the area and those who live even far away.
On 5 January 2007, MEND was back at work in Port Harcourt, where an Improvised Explosive Device (IED), rocked the Shell quarters to its foundation. Sensing more danger, Shell promptly evacuated its staff from its residential quarters in Port Harcourt, Warri and Bonny Island.
The attack pioneered–locally– the use of Improvised Explosive Device, a speciality of Iraqi insurgents. From Warri to Okerenkoko through Okrika to Bonny Island and the Forcados estuary, MEND and other groups spread a blanket of terror.
Recently, the group pulled off a spectacularly daring rescue operation, when it snatched Soboma George, one of its leaders, from the police.
He was detained at Port Harcourt’s Central Police Station for breaking a traffic regulation.
Arriving Port Harcourt in seven speed boats, George’s colleagues fired grenades and machine guns, as they headed for the station. They threw dynamite into the building, sending the policemen scampering for safety. So did men of the Joint Task Force (JTF), who fled at the sight of superior firepower. Less than an hour later, George was rescued from the police station.
Commenting on the raid and the seeming helplessness of the security agencies, Dr. Soforinjo Peterside, a research fellow at the Centre for Advanced Social Studies in Port Harcourt, said: "It creates that sense of fear in the minds of members of the society, especially residents of Port Harcourt and other Rivers people. A situation where the security agencies are invaded and easily overpowered shows that nobody is safe in the society."
The Port Harcourt Chambers of Commerce recently warned that if the militants are not curbed, the country may be faced with options worse than the militancy, the major one being how to replace expatriate staff whose participation in the Nigerian oil sector "is still largely inevitable."
The chamber officials expressed their dissatisfaction at the way government and Nigerians were watching, while the lives of expatriate oil workers and other foreign nationals were in jeopardy. They said this has resulted in exodus of quality personnel from the region.
In addition to making plans to evacuate their families from the region, major oil companies are reportedly sending signals abroad, asking expatriates to put travel plans on hold. This is part of measures being implemented in collaboration with foreign missions in Nigeria.
Early last month, the Italian government issued a statement, asking all its citizens working in Nigeria to return home and advised against further travels to Nigeria. The decision was prompted by MEND’s seizure of two Italian nationals working for a construction company in Port Harcourt.
Italy’s Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister, Franco Danieli, who issued the statement, also advised Italian companies working in Niger Delta to pull out their non-essential staff from the region immediately.
The chairman of the oil and gas group of the Port Harcourt Chambers of Commerce and Industries, Lucky Akhiwu, said if government does nothing about hostage-taking in the Niger Delta, the country would wake up one morning to see that foreign oil workers had vacated the region. "It is natural to imagine that the Nigerian professionals would take up the roles, but it is not totally correct. There are international standards peculiar to certain sectors. At the moment, if the expatriates have to stay and do their work here, it is at a heavy risk and cost to their employers. It is not good and we as leaders of the organised private sector can unequivocally confirm that the activities of the militants in the Niger Delta is bringing the economy of the region to its knees," Akhiwu said.
Akhiwu, who is the Chief Executive Officer of Port Harcourt-based Oil Flow Nigeria Ltd, added that it is for the same reason that many foreign investors are divesting from Nigeria, and that the activities of the militants in the Niger Delta have resulted in heavy militarisation of the civil society, including reported cases of armed gangs and hostage-taking in parts of Anambra State.
Apart from leading to a drastic reduction in Nigeria’s oil production capability, disinvestment of some foreign multinational oil companies from the country has continued unabated.
Wilbros, an oil servicing concern, which has been operating in the Niger Delta for over 30 years left the country in February. The company attributed its decision to the security situation in the Niger Delta. Wilbros said the situation was affecting its revenue, as it found it difficult to meet its obligation to its customers.
For operating in Nigeria, the company said it lost close to $83.4 million in 2006. "The operating results in Nigeria for 2006 were negatively impacted by schedule delays, increasing cost to labour, equipment and security; disputes with clients related to change orders and lack of revenues on certain projects due to force majure," the company stated in its 2006 balance sheet, released in March. TheNEWS gathered that if the current trend continues, more companies may be forced to leave the country. "The choice facing oil companies operating in the Niger Delta is either to shoulder the additional cost of providing security for their workers or close down their operations totally in the country," said an oil industry source.
Also, convincing the expatriate oil workers, who currently make up the bulk of technical staff of oil services companies, to come to Nigeria is getting more expensive and difficult. With the failure of the Nigerian security agencies, the oil companies are now relying on foreign multinational security companies. Erinys International, a private security company, recently began operations in Nigeria.
In addition, the security situation is also driving the company farther into offshore exploration of crude oil. But drilling in the offshore is more expensive, explained oil industry analysts.
Also worried by the situation is Nuhu Ribadu, Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). If unchecked, said Ribadu, the Niger Delta crisis may degenerate into a civil war, with an impact similar to those that shattered Liberia and Sierra Leone.
"What is happening in Niger Delta is not being taken seriously and is very sad. It may actually end up being bigger little by little. If we are not careful, chances are that 140 million Nigerians may end up like a Liberia or a Sierra Leone or a Somalia," Ribadu warned.
He added that corruption was responsible for deprivations of the people of the region.
"When we are trying to fight corruption, a lot of people are saying it must be business as usual. If you touch them, you are touching democracy, if you touch them you are touching the rule of law. But they will never succeed. Nigeria will never be a Congo," he remarked.
For the European Union (EU) observers, scheduled to monitor the 2007 elections next month, the Niger Delta is already a Congo. Last week, EU announced that its observers would not be allowed to monitor elections in the core Niger Delta states of Bayelsa, Rivers and Delta for security reasons.
But the federal government seems determined to curb the Niger Delta menace either by stick or by carrot. As part of efforts to help Shell to resume its operations in the western swamp, the federal government, in conjunction with the Delta State government, has promised to provide some basic amenities to the host communities represented by Federated Niger Delta Ijaw Communities (FNDIC). Already, the federal government has earmarked $14 million in development assistance. This will be used to provide a hospital, a health centre, 24 generators and drinking water in the creeks.
While the hospital will be built in an Ijaw community, the health centre in an Itsekiri area, and 15 of the generators – which have already been bought–would be given to the Ijaw, while the Itsekiri will get six. The measure is aimed at reducing the communities’ animosity to Shell’s return.
Already, a road project from Mbanfa to Madagho in Gbaramatu, which will cost about N21 billion, will be undertaken jointly by the federal and Delta governments as quickly as possible.
Shell has already provided the communities with rehabilitation materials.
However, TheNEWS gathered that while the government is busy offering palliatives to host communities, it is also on the other hand trying to update the combat skills and readiness of the armed forces, especially the Nigerian Navy. The Navy was recently described as ill-prepared and under-trained to curb the violence by Theresa Whelan, US Assistant Secretary for Defence.
Washington had offered Nigeria a number of joint training and equipment programmes to curb the violence, but the benefits are not yet obvious. Currently, the Nigeria Navy is unable to use four boats donated by the United States and 17 others bought by the federal government to patrol creeks.
"The only problem is that the Navy is not appropriately trained to use those boats and so, for the most part, they sit idle in the Delta," Whelan said.
But all that may soon change, as the armed forces appear set to take advantage of the controversial N100billion arms deal aimed at improving their capability to tackle the Niger Delta militants.
Conceived to provide adequate training and purchase up-to-date military equipment, the project which is being funded by he NNPC is distributed thus: Army $220million, Air Force $185million, Navy $160million, while the police got a budget of $180 million.
Will the huge cash splash secure the Delta from MEND’s menace? General Jomo Gbomo, self-acclaimed leader of MEND, told this magazine that the group is ready to combat the federal government and its arsenal.
"We are confident we will be victorious against the Nigerian military in conflict in the Delta. We have considered all possibilities and await any eventuality. When it comes to the crunch, fighting in the Delta will be reduced to rifles, machine guns and rocket launchers. We will continue to nibble at the Nigerian oil export industry until we think it necessary to deal it a final and crippling blow,’’ Gbomo boasted.
Empty boast? Not until the boast is busted.
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