Former President, Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People, Mr. Ledum Mitee, speaks with TOBI AWORINDE on ways to find lasting peace in the Niger Delta
What are the top three issues of concern to people of the Niger Delta?
The Presidential Amnesty Programme is something that needs to be dealt with within the framework of our scope. When I chaired the Niger Delta Technical Committee, we produced a report and the component of that presidential amnesty was the Disarmament Demobilisation and Reintegration. Part of what we dealt with was that there would be critical infrastructural and economic development of the Niger Delta, including environmental remediation. Unfortunately, in carrying that out, only the disarmament and demobilisation components of the DDR programme was implemented. The issues of reintegration, environmental remediation, as well as the infrastructural interventions, were not implemented.
It seems to me that there is a need to revisit that programme, because we are thinking: How do you now fit those you have trained into the current economy? How do you reintegrate them into the society, so that they can migrate effectively to free them from dependency on stipends so that their skills would be of benefit to them and their community? That is an important thing that needs to be done quickly; otherwise, we will continue to give stipends to people, who will end up doing nothing. I think that is something we need to deal with. I also think that there are some outstanding law and justice issues; there are communities that believe that they are being persecuted and those are issues that need to be dealt with.
There is also the question of infrastructural intervention. For instance, when you look at the East-West Road, there are certain critical aspects that makes those (residing) in Port Harcourt to spend, sometimes, six hours to cross from the popular Eleme junction to Onne junction. That’s the section that has the petrochemical, oil and gas routes, first and second refineries. Considering the pressure on that road, the N1bn voted for its rehabilitation last year, was not sufficient especially when infrastructural work has continued in other parts of the country, most notably Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. But nothing has happened in the the Niger Delta areas.
There are several issues and that is what we had in mind when we submitted a 16-point agenda to the President, so that we can look at these matters that can give us the necessary goodwill for peace and, at the same time, can be affordable within the repressed economy that we run now.
What strategies do you propose to tackle these issues?
The Federal Government should provide the platform for dialogue. Three top government officials should be mandated to speak with leaders of the Niger Delta on how to bring about peace. One of the tasks of that dialogue team is to be able to ascertain how much we are losing to the lack of peace in the Niger Delta. Then we ask ourselves how much we are spending by the military build-up that we have put in that area.
I sit in my village in Ogoni as I talk to you, and every day, I see aircraft flying all over the place. I heard that they bombed some boats carrying crude oil and the whole river in this place is polluted. I don’t think that can solve the problem. Do we need all that when we can dialogue? Are we losing more by thinking that military solution is enough, instead of spending that money on some critical areas? That dialogue can then produce some framework which all stakeholders can speak to and we can find the way forward. I think that what many people do not imagine is the level of compromise between those you involved in these oil thefts and pipeline vandalism and even the security agencies.
It is far more profound than can be imagined. these are the frameworks that I want to see happen. The last time the Pan-Niger Delta Forum met, the statement they issued out was that they were ready for a dialogue. Most of the militant groups have said, ‘Talk on our behalf.’ MEND (Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta) said, ‘We have a negotiation team.’ The Avengers said, ‘Talk to our leaders.’ Now, the Federal Government has not done that. What I heard from the President’s speech was that ‘now, we are ready to talk with militants.’ I don’t know how they want to do that. Do they want to go to the creeks and start talking with the militants?
Again, they say they want to talk about the framework ‘for how we’ll share the resources of the country.’ I don’t think that is a conversation you need to have with only militants. I think that we should not believe that the only way to solve the problem is through appeasement because that is why we are where we are. We have always felt that we need to appease, so we have not thought we should deal with those fundamental problems that led to militancy in the first place. Militancy is not the problem of the Niger Delta. It is, rather, an extreme expression of frustration — the lack of solution to the problem of the Niger Delta.
What would be the implication of a speedy clean-up of Ogoniland and other areas affected by the devastating degree of oil spillage?
It’s an issue that some of us have spoken about and we are getting tired. So, I have decided not to talk so much about that. We’ve did a ceremony to flag off (the clean-up) since February, which, as far as I am concerned, was a show. After that, there is nothing on the ground to tell me that anything is being done. I have not benefitted from being part of any conversation nor has anyone informed of what is going on, apart from what is read in the papers. In my community that produces 65 per cent of the oil in Ogoni, many people here do not even know what is going on. They have not been told.
As I said, I am in the village. Community people ask me, ‘What is going on about the clean-up?’ Unfortunately, I know nothing. One of the best ways of not solving a problem is to exclude the people affected by it in what you are doing to providing a solution. Who is government carrying along? As I speak to you, they (government) have promoted the clean-up in Ogoni as if it is something that will provide jobs, give people contracts, and pay people money, which in my view is not what the United Nations Environment Programme report is all about.
It is wrong to raise people’s expectations when one’s promise is unachievable. I believe there is so much political interference in that process. The people have not yet been told what to expect and how they can participate and be part of the programme. There are fundamentals about what the UNEP asked to be done, one of which was: ‘You must stop people from drinking the polluted water that is about 900 times contaminated above the level allowable anywhere and you must provide an alternative means of water supply for these people.’ In fact, fines should be put that people should not drink or fish.
As I speak, that is what people are doing right here because they don’t have any alternative. There must be a means by which we decommission some of the existing Shell facilities that still spill oil. There must be a need to make sure that those who are against what they call the illegal refineries are provided alternative means of livelihood. These are some of the things that the UNEP recommended. I have yet to see how those things are being done. I don’t know if they are doing something, but we need the people to be aware of what they are doing. I am afraid to say, I am talking to you from my village and 99 per cent of those in this village don’t know what is going or what next to expect.
What measures do you think will enable international oil companies in the region be more responsible in their oil exploration activities?
We have not applied our laws strictly; the (oil) companies have been too big for laws to be applied against them. You will know that through their pollution, people have died. It (the law) doesn’t care whether someone shoots another dead or poisons someone’s air or water and a person dies. A death is a death. So, if people are proven to have been killed through these means, then the head of that company should also face the same processes as a person who shot another and the victims died. If the environmental laws of this country say ‘This is what you should do to clean up a place when there has been a spill,’ let them be made to do that. If oil companies are not made to face the consequences of their actions, it will continue. But now, you see that we can deploy our resources to protect the companies, even their operations. The Army and the Air Force would be there. But who protects the community against their pollution? Who protects us? These are the terms of injustice that creates an environment for the sort of instability that we find in this area.
How can security of the waterways in the Niger Delta be improved?
This is the issue of what is called militancy as militants. There is also the issue of piracy, that is, theft on the waterways. I am not discounting the role of the security agencies doing their work in dealing with these issues. But I think that must be complemented by the people’s involvement in the processes of solving the problems. And that’s why the dialogue must be part of the process because the fine line between militancy and piracy when it comes to waterways security is very thin. It is therefore important to have these conversations — that dialogue which I have always advocated should make the people part of the process.
Once the people know they can benefit from the resources of their land, they will become allies with the Federal Government and the oil companies for the purposes of checking security on their lands. But when the people find that they are just being exploited, resources are taken away and they are not part of it. So, even when they see militancy or piracy on their waterways, especially if it is taken against the oil institutions, then they become passive. That is reinforced when the local people realise that there is more to the interface than the public knows between these people and the security agencies. It is a holistic process of conversation, which I think we must engage in. Otherwise, we will keep coming back to the same position — when one group goes, the other comes.
Education is believed to be ignored in the region, for the most part, compared to other parts of the country. How can government turn the situation around?
Education must be taken in a broad sense. One is formal education: there are some communities, especially those in the hinterlands with so-called schools that are no schools at all—no buildings, children are just sitting under the trees, teachers are not even posted to those communities. There are several schools I know that can only boast of three teachers against 500 pupils. That cannot be a school. I therefore feel that you must be able to invest in schools.
The second issue is to give people a functional education because people can just go through class one to class five and they’ve learnt nothing. What do you teach them that they would know? And even when they’ve been taught, how is it relevant to their environment in today’s world where the West African Examinations Council and the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board conducts exams on the computer? Then there are schools that have not seen anything like a computer. And you call it a school? Is that the type of education we’re talking about?
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