The November 1, deadline by the Pan-Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) to the Federal Government to address its 16-point demand refocuses attention on the enduring interplay between politics and instability that defines issues about the region. The ultimatum appropriately mirrored exasperation with the lukewarm and unenthusiastic response to demands which both sides accepted as recipe for stability in the region that shoulders the nation’s economy.
Addressing the press conference in Abuja, former Information Commissioner in the military administration of General Yakubu Gowon and the PANDEF leader, Chief Edwin Clark said the ultimatum became necessary following lack of response to the 16-point demand for stability in the region earlier submitted to the Federal Government by the body.
The demand was presented to the acting-president during his fact-finding visit to the Niger Delta earlier in the year.
The PANDEF, which is an umbrella body of elders, leaders, traditional rulers and youths in the region, threatened to pull out of talks with the Federal Government (FG) if it fails to comply with its demand by November 1, 2007. It expressed dissatisfaction with the fact that after a year since it was submitted, the FG has refused to implement the demand, lending credence to the allegation of insincerity about addressing issues of development in the region.
The leaders also condemned the rejection of devolution of powers by the National Assembly (NASS), during the voting on proposed constitutional amendment. Condemnations from different segments of the society trailed the action of the NASS.
At the conference, which was addressed by the elder statesman and foremost Ijaw leader, the body suggested a return to the 1960 independence constitution, noting “that anything else will be obnoxious and totally unacceptable to the peoples of the Southern and Middle Belt areas of Nigeria”.
The position of the PANDEF, especially as regards the need to revert to the independence constitution, which the country unjustifiably jettisoned, tallies with a similar recommendation by the Interim Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), and former Governor of Osun State, Chief Bisi Akande who said that the country would not achieve progress with the 1999 Constitution.
The forum regretted that despite assurances by Acting-President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo to implement the proposals during his fact-finding tour of the Niger Delta, precious nothing has been done since. Clark said that leaders of the forum had received series of phone calls and text messages from youths in the region, stressing the fact that they lost confidence in the ability of PANDEF to negotiate for peace and development in the region.
“Human endurance has a limit, beyond which one cannot predict what outcome will be. If, at the expiration of the November 1, 2017 ultimatum, the Federal Government fails and/or refuses to accede to these lawful and legitimate demands of the Niger Delta people, PANDEF may consider pulling out of on-going peace process in the Niger Delta,” Clark announced at the conference.
Some of the issues in the 16-point agenda, include relocation of oil companies to the region; the take-off of the Nigerian Maritime University in Okerenkoko, among others. The political rascality of blaming instability, instead of mischief, for the failure to relocate oil companies to areas of operation, was equally condemned by the forum.
“As a consequence of the Federal Government’s casual and sluggish approach to the immediate resolution of the current Niger Delta crisis, the patience of the youths and other critical stakeholders in the region was running out,” the body of elders, leaders and stakeholders said.
Reasons advanced by the forum for the latest action cannot be faulted. Available evidence supports the conclusion that Nigeria has been grossly unfair to the Niger Delta considering that it has almost single-handedly supported the country’s development since independence.
In spite of its stupendous oil wealth, which has created plutocrats and funded lavish development in other regions, the Niger Delta stands out in abject under-development. To worsen matters, massive environmental degradation through mindless oil exploration and exploitation robbed and impoverished aborigines of traditional occupations, notably fishing and agriculture.
After years of denial, the promised remediation of the degraded environment became subsumed in intense politics.
According to the forum, it is supreme irony that the Federal Government was compelled by the United Nations to admit that mindless oil exploration and exploitation damaged the environment and impoverished the people in the region.
The need to maintain the status quo of peace and stability in the Niger Delta cannot be emphasized. Even before the country slipped into recession, forcing the Federal Government to resort to compulsive borrowing to fund development, it was imperative to sustain peace and stability in the region for many reasons.
Fresh instability in the region will, no doubt, spell disaster, hence the need for all parties in the dialogue to demonstrate transparent responsibility. Simultaneously with demonstrating genuine remorse for sustained neglect in the region, it is imperative for the FG to also show it is willing and sincere about making amends.
On its part, the forum should also not be weary of playing the moderating role it has always played by sustaining the appeal to the youths to maintain restraint. Doing so is the only opportunity it can offer the government to demonstrate its good intentions for the region.
There is no alternative for both sides than to sustain dialogue. Sufficient innocent blood has already been spilled to wash development from the deeply-scarred creeks. And the financial desperation of the FG will definitely be deepened if fresh instability erupts in the region.