In the last one week or so, the Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO) has been watching with shock disbelief the JTF Military Onslaught on Gbaramatu Community of Delta State on the orders of the Yar Adua Administration. We had held our peace hoping that the government will quickly see the futility of such action in the name of rescuing hostages, and retrace its steps, but apparently, we had hoped in vain. At a time when high level authority seek to silence opposition by equating the voices of dissent with disloyalty, we in the CLO have decided to speak against this Military intervention because we believe with Dante that the hottest places in hell
are reserved for those who in the period of moral crisis maintain their neutrality.

We have chosen to move against this avoidable carnage because our conscience leaves us no other choice. A time comes when silence is betrayal. And that time has come in relation to the Niger Delta question.
The present activity of the JTF in Gbaramatu Kingdom is uncalled for. For a government that sworn to defend the constitution, and provide for the security and welfare of the people, and for a government that just recently declared amnesty for militants, it is the hypocrisy of the highest order. The irony of it all is that innocent citizens rather than the targeted militants are the ones caught in the crossfire. Reports available to us show that thousands are already displaced and many have become refugees in their fatherland. Homes are been razed down. Hospitals and Schools are been burnt down and even harmless Youth Corpers posted to those
areas have become unfortunate victims of a government gone mad on war. The militants and Criminal Elements that the government claims to be flushing out are nowhere to be found-it is law abiding and peaceful residents; primarily women and children that have become the victims resulting in a needless humanitarian
 crisis. Humanitarian Aid is badly needed there now for the displaced people. We must contain this crisis now.

We must not allow the situation to degenerate to that of Darfur before acting to end this bloodbath. Nigeria must learn from the tragedies Odi, Zaki Biam and others. It is not a good thing that most Nigerians outside the Niger Delta region are responding cynically and blaming the victims of the crisis. We need to move beyond
the tendency to simplify, stereotype and amplify the negative to the point that it distorts the reality of the Niger Delta Question and thus cloud the real issues involved. We must understand that so many of the disparities in that region today resulted from gruesome legacies of marginalisation bequeathed by an earlier generation. It is not enough to pin the blame on others or deplore the facts that we face. We must ultimately come to realise that whatever directly affects any part of this country indirectly affects all. It is true that we may have been forced to live together through the amalgamation of January 1914, but we are together now in the same boat; and, if any part of that boat sinks, we will all eventually go down. So let us stick together and maintain unity; for we either go up together or go down together. Let us therefore be concerned about the Niger Delta.

We have to understand that though all sections of the nation have suffered neglect, no section of this country has been this marginalised and unfairly treated as the Niger Delta. For fifty-three long years, her oil has been exploited and plundered and for these fifty-three years, the nation doesn’t have the sense to share its
wealth with her. She has nothing show for it except wasted ecology, destroyed ecosystem, ravaged farmlands and polluted waters. Even monies legitimately due the region (e.g. monies statutorily owed to the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC) are now mysteriously defined by government as “expired”. We must not allow these injustices to continue unchecked. Injustice to one part is injustice to the whole!

The Niger Delta issue is not a sectional issue. It is not even a partisan issue or a legislative or legal issue alone. We are confronted with a moral issue; it is a national issue and adequate steps must be taken to address the genuine demands of the people. We cannot just stand idly by in our various States of residence and
carry on as if it isn’t our business. The oil which is Nigeria’s mainstay comes from the nine-oil producing states of Abia, Awka-Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Edo, Imo, Ondo and River. Lagos is the only other state that makes a substantial contribution to the Nation’s Coffers from the sea ports, customs and vats. All the other 26 states and Abuja the federal capital territory survive on the money in the ten states mentioned above.

It must be noted that the six states of the Niger Delta (Delta, Edo, Akwa-Ibom, Cross River, Bayelsa, and Rivers) account for 95% of the oil revenue. Among the six, Delta state is the highest producer with about 40% of the total revenue. Yet Delta only gets about one-tenth of that 40% revenue. The money diverted from Delta state and other oil producing states is spent to develop non- oil producing states.. That is the major reason why the economy of the Niger Delta is so poor that most professionals and investors migrate to favoured cities to do business.

As a result of the exploitation described above, poverty is very rampant in the Niger Delta region. There are no goods roads, water supply, electricity, schools.  There is malnutrition and poor health care. The average annual income per head in the Niger Delta is around $300 or N46, 000. If the income of the rich is removed, the average will be as low as $70 or N10, 000 per head. This is insufficient to cater for the basic needs of a person let alone a family. In places such as North and South Korea, it is $10.000 or N1.6 million. The
people in the Niger Delta, region are some of the most wretched human beings on earth. This situation is unacceptable because on a daily basis, the income Nigeria generates from oil and gas resources in two of the local councils in Delta state or Bayelsa state is higher than the annual budget of countries like Sierra Leone and
the Gambia. The tragedy in the Niger Delta constitutes the worst form of human rights abuse. If the people living in these disaster zones were born in places like Kuwait, Qatar, Dubai or Libya, they would enjoy free education and health services, subsidised daily meals, and children’s allowance for parents. They would live in modern cities as beautiful as Florida, New York, and Hong Kong.  Mecca in Saudi Arabia is so
developed that Nigerian Muslims pilgrims flock there as much as twice a year to enjoy facilities in medical services, computer-operated amenities, transportation, good water and electricity supply that never fail. But in Nigeria, the few scholarships given to Niger Delta indigenes are half-baked. Why is there no safe water supply in the Niger Delta? Why is there no good electricity supply? Why are there insufficient schools and unsafe learning environment? Why are there no good roads?  Why are the twin cities of Warri and Effurun in Delta State the most dirtiest and chaotic cities in the world? Nigeria is no longer under military rule, yet armed policemen and soldiers are stationed in all the highways throughout the Niger Delta region.  Despite the provocation, the Niger Delta region is still the most peaceful oil-producing district in the world. In 53 years of oil production, no oil company has lost any of its foreign personnel to violence.

The oil companies pollute the environment with gas flaring and drilling activities. They destroy the ecology, which negatively impact on farming, fishing and other economic activities. Thousands of able – bodied men and women are displaced and forced to migrate to rat – infested urban centre to seek jobs that are not
available. The Nigerian law states that 100% of junior staff and 75% of intermediate staff of oil firms should be indigenes of the oil producing communities.  These laws are not obeyed by any of the companies including the Nigerian National  Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). While the Federal Government and the Companies are
committing these human rights abuse, they insult the Niger-Deltans by referring to them as “restive” and “violent” forgetting that it is these injustices that drove the youths to taking up of arms. The victims of violence are now the ones being accused of violence. The countries of industrialised economies that owned these oil
companies do not tolerate human rights violation at home, yet they are indifferent to the calamities their firms are causing in the Niger Delta region.

When the issue of revenue allocation based on derivation was tabled during the so-called National Political Reform Conference of the Obasanjo Civilian Administration, it was treated with so much disdain by the other regions with the exception of the South West. The insensitivity displayed by the other regions made
the Niger Deltan Delegates to walk out of that Conference. The argument by the other regions was that the 13% derivation currently being given to the Niger Deltans was not being judiciously used. This argument is fundamentally flawed.

Somehow, this madness must cease. The Yar Adua Administration must halt this military expedition now. We speak as children of God and brothers to the suffering poor of the Niger Delta. We speak for those whose land is being laid waste, whose homes are being destroyed, whose culture is being subverted. We speak for the poor of the Niger Delta who are paying the high price of smashed hopes, deferred dreams
and broken promises. We speak as lovers of our country and patriots of our nation: the great initiative in this war is the government; the initiative to stop it must be the government.

If this continues, there will be no doubt in our mind and in the mind of the World that the Yar Adua Administration has no honourable intention in the Niger Delta. If the JTF do not stop this genocide, we will be left with no alternative than to see this as some horrible, clumsy and deadly game that the government has decided to play. We believe this is fatal as the nation is clearly on the edge of a precipice and if something drastic isn’t done and done in a hurry, the aftermath will be too great a burden to bear as it may eventually lead to another civil war which in turn could result in no less than 20 million refugees which will submerge the West
African Sub-region, comatose the African Continent and threaten World Peace.

In order to end this nightmare, we demand the following of the Yar Adua Administration:
·         Stop all military campaign in Gbaramatu and other parts of the Niger Delta
immediately.
·         Declare a unilateral cease-fire with the hope that such action will create
the necessary atmosphere for negotiation.
·         Take immediate steps to prevent other battlegrounds in the Niger Delta by
curtailing the military build-up in that region.
·         Take proactive steps to separate the criminality aspects from the
legitimate demands of the militants destroying the sympathy built up over the years
in the Niger Delta struggle.
·         Commit deeply to honest and thoughtful dialogue and follow through on
promises made especially that of amnesty.
·         Realistically accept that the genuine political Activists and Groups in
the region have substantial support and must play a critical role in any meaningful
negotiation.
·         Start the rapid demilitarisation of the region and set a date for
withdrawal of all troops from the region.
·         Commence rapid rehabilitation (based on the amnesty recently granted) of
genuine militants caught up in the frustrations of the region, and kick-start the
massive development of the region {True Compassion is more than flinging a coin to a
beggar. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars (Militants and
Criminal Elements alike) needs restructuring}.
·         Release immediately a White Paper on the Implementation of the Ledum Mitee
led Presidential Technical Committee on the Niger Delta.
 
Finally, let us as a nation begin to explore other untapped resources in this nation while not abandoning oil. The South for instance has one of the largest deposit of bitumen globally specifically in the Ondo/Ekiti area while the North has one of the world’s largest deposit of Solid minerals in Nasarawa. Let us begin to do something
about them. Let us also look at how we can revive our cocoa, oil palm, rubber plantation in the South as well as the Groundnuts, Cotton and Soya beans in the North. Most importantly, let us develop our greatest resource-Human capital by investing massively in education and by returning to true Federalism.  It will not
be easy as there will be great opposition from those who profit from the present system. But we can do it if we muster the necessary will. Let us not yield to a politics of despair. Let us summon a new spirit and commit ourselves to the common good of all Nigerians, instead of letting our diversity become an issue. Our strength as a people and as a nation can only come by the unity we make of our diversity.
 
 
Comrade Eneruvie Enakoko
     Chairman



Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO), Lagos
13, Soji Adepegba Close, Off Allen Ave,
Ikeja/Lagos. Tel: 234-1-08033188864, 4939324-5,
7746694,                                     
Fax: 01-4939324, P.O Box 53328, Ikoyi, Lagos.
Email: clolagosnigeria@gmail.com, clolagos@yahoo.com,
Website: www.clo-ng.org