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The Media, Niger Delta, and the Criminalization of Politics

October 1, 2009

 I have watched closely with keen interest the stories that have appeared in our local dallies and weeklies about the Federal government’s onslaught and extensive military offensive against perceived militants in the Niger Delta which has caused wide spread displacement of people and numerous deaths. I have observed sadly that these reports are niggardly. Writers have either intentionally or timidly avoided spitting out the insipid, indeed, distasteful truth about that whole battle that degenerated into some carnage with the killing of innocent civilians caught in the crossfire between combatant militants and soldiers. Most of these reports perambulated or prevaricated about the subject without striking the nail on the head.


This is probably the reason I ran into problems in Nigeria because I cannot allow myself to be stifled or strapped. I was probably too vocal or, as a friend would put it, “militant for their liking”. How can majority of the papers avoid telling the whole truth about what happened? As long as I am concerned, compromised or economized truth is no truth at all.

For the most part, what we read in the papers is that militants killed some soldiers and that triggered the last military operation in the region which saw the bombardments and barraging of communities in the Niger Delta by the Nigerian Armed Forces; indeed, this is only a slice of the truth. Something led to the slaying of the soldiers by the militants. After all, militants and soldiers have always frolicked, indeed, romanced. The fraternity between these two predates Ya’Ardua’s administration. The military had always provided cover and protection for the militants to sell their looted crude and both parties shared the proceeds from the loot. Sometime last year, I did a private investigation into the rife accusations that the military works hand-in-hand with the militants. I disguised as somebody who wanted to buy crude oil the black-market way. I made contacts with some youths from Ogoni in Rivers State who were into this black-market trade. After much deliberation, they took me to a few pipelines from where we would siphon the oils. The price of the crude per tanker depended upon accessibility to the pipeline, availability of nozzles to control flow, the party (buyer or seller) that would produce the hoses, and most importantly, the party that would pay the military personnel that would stand on the road a few yards away from the vandalism site as though on routine road check to hoax the public; and finally, the party that ‘settles’ the military men on the different check points along the road as the crude cruises. This last aspect was called security expense. I elected to handle the security settlement myself since this was the whole essence of the investigation. It will amaze you to learn that I was taken to the heads of the different military units in that neighborhood and on the roads. I deliberately arrived at a ‘settlement amount’ with all the different unit heads but two. It was easily discernable from the discussions I had with the two that did not readily acquiesce to my offer that their fear stemmed from their doubt in me and nothing else. They confirmed they were into the deal but needed some clarifications before flagging me off. I was asked to come back but I never did. It was obvious that if I was a genuine buyer, the deal was as good as done. While I negotiated, however, different tankers laden with stolen crude oil passed.

This is not a strange development in Nigeria, though. In Bayelsa and Delta states, soldiers partner or, maybe, collude with alleged militants to build illegal refineries. They jointly siphon the oils which comprise diesel, kerosene, and, most times, crude oil. With the heavy military presence in the Niger Delta region, it is only commonsensical that these illegal refineries and black-market crude oil trading would not be possible without the blessing of the military, albeit this article is not premised on commonsense but fact. Even before the advent of this alleged militancy, the Nigeria Navy had always made it a policy to impose an amount per liter on every oil related transaction that entailed the passage of the product through our water ways. As a matter of fact, ‘bunkerers’ went to the office of the Navy to pay this money.

Alhaji M Asari Dokubo, a militant according to the government, once indicted the authorities in Nigeria for beguiling the public. According to him, the armed forces are in complicity with the militants in the sale of crude oil to foreign or international buyers. Substantiating this indictment, Asari Dokubo explained that all foreign buyers who come to buy crude oil from Nigeria are required by international standard and convention, and ,also, by Nigerian laws to stop at a specific nautical mile in the sea away from the shores when they enter the territorial waters of Nigeria. Legitimate sellers are expected to take the product to the international buyers in the sea at the point where the buyers are required to stop. This is a security measure. All sellers, therefore, have to go through security protocol with the Navy who patrol the waters between the specified nautical mile and the shores of Nigeria. Thus, how do these alleged militants get stolen crude oil to international buyers anchored in deep sea, beating the patrol and security protocol of the Nigerian navy? The possible explanation: complicity.

However, the armed forces are not alone in this aberration. Politicians are even more culpable than the soldiers. While the Nigeria police declared George Soboma wanted, the then governor of Rivers State, Peter Odili showered him with government contracts including the renovation of the Rivers State civic center. After Soboma’s gang broke federal jail and forcefully released him, Odili influenced or, rather, ensured he was allocated a dispense pump in the NNPC mega station on Aggrey road. Again, after Soboma was forcefully released by his heavily armed gang from the State Headquarters of CID, Rivers State, Odili, who was the governor of Rivers State then, compensated him for the losses he claimed he incurred during the entire brawl he had with security operatives. The officers who braved the arrest of Soboma George faced disciplinary measures on the ground that they asked for bribe from him. How ridiculous that a most common practice of the Nigeria police force would suddenly be a ground for punishment. Again, while George Soboma was declared a most wanted criminal in Nigeria by the Nigeria Police in the print and electronic media, the same police guarded him wherever he went to with an entourage of armed policemen in police vehicles. While he ( Soboma Geoge) was wanted, the police blocked the two sides of Aggrey road leading to the church Soboma alleged he was worshipping after he claimed to have repented. Yet, in the 2007 general elections, he terrorized with arms for the PDP in Rivers State after his alleged repentance.. Again, while the police declared Ateke Tom a wanted militant and criminal, during his father’s burial, there was heavy police presence. The police was there protecting him and allegedly maintaining order. The Rivers State government sent gifts and representatives to the burial of a wanted militant’s father at the instance of the wanted man. As a presumed fugitive, Ateke Tom was always at the residence of the former minister of transport, Dr. Abiye Sekibo. The Rivers State government armed Ateke Tom and Pitched him against Asari Dokubo when they fell out with Asari Dokubo; and, again, pitched Soboma George Against Ateke Tom when they fell out with Ateke Tom. This was how they continued to arm different youths until the region slid into anarchy. Today, Peter Odli is still a hero and force in PDP. The former government of Rivers State is not alone in this evil. Only recently, the current governor of Bayelsa State admitted in the Hard Truth newspaper that he pays hundred million naira to militants monthly. In Bayelsa State, militants have a share in government. In Delta State, the governor admitted in several dailies that he gave militants in his state slots to nominate persons to be made commissioners on the State Executive Council. This is the extent to which politics have been criminalized in Nigeria. It is a shame. Providence will bring these wicked politicians to judgment some day.

Surprisingly, except for a few media houses (print media), most of the media houses avoided delving into this very inflammable issue of the criminalization of politics in Nigeria for one reason or the other. So, when the actual cause of the conflict that led to the current military onslaught on the Niger Delta was scarce in the reports of the media, I was not surprised but disappointed. Upon investigation, it was discovered that the soldiers who were sent to the Niger Delta to protect oil pipelines and maintain peace were doing business with the militants against whom they were sent. On this occasion, the soldiers went to hire a vessel to load crude oil from the militants on credit. The militants objected saying they had no paid for the previous hires. In the course of altercation that ensued, the soldiers threatened to shoot the militants and, so, the militants opened fire first and a few soldiers died. As a result, the federal government descended on the region bombarding and barraging communities in the name of fighting militants thus causing massive displacement of locals and large scale humanitarian catastrophe.

Today, most of these communities in the Niger Delta are in serious disarray. Our country has so deteriorated to the point that militants and their buddies now hold leadership positions in our politics. Where are we headed? And to make matters worse, he government systematically stifles the media save for some wholly independent ones like SaharaReporters that still reports the facts undiluted. We appreciate the precariousness of the conditions under which the media operates in Nigeria but they should yet strive towards independence and disinterestedness of reporting since they are among the very few institutions that may salvage our sinking country.                       



 

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