PROJECT ON THE TOPIC

Niger Delta Conflict:
Why the violence still burning?

National University Of Study and Research in Law, Ranchi
BIT Polytechnic Campus
Ranchi
2011

TABLE OF CONTENTS Topic Page no. 1. Introduction....................................................................................................................3 2. Government’s response and its outcome........................................................................4 3. Why the conflict burning despite the government’s effort today...................................5 a. Selfish Nigerian Government...................................................................................4 b. Criminalization of the Delta.....................................................................................6 c. Poverty.....................................................................................................................6 d. Role of oil Companies..............................................................................................7 4. Conclusion......................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
The conflict in the Niger Delta is complex, a crisis involving local patriots and freedom fighters. The Niger Delta is rich in mineral-petroleum and gas. The Nigerian state formulated fiscal policies and laws such as the Petroleum Act, which gives the Federal Government the exclusive ownership of oil resources in Nigeria; the Land Use Act which vests the ownership of Lands on State Governments; The exclusive Economic Zone Act by which the federal Government has exclusive right over all resources within 200 nautical miles from the coast to the sea. These laws and their operation are perceived by the ethnic group owners, particularly the Ogoni and the Ijaw of their territories to be oppressive, derivational, and alienating. These views and experiences form the basis of agitation for demand for resource ownership and control by the peoples of the Niger Delta.
This conflict in the Niger Delta is driven by a powerful mixture of corruption, underdevelopment, poverty and violence. Low intensity inter- and intra-ethnic conflicts on a local scale have always been part of life in the Niger Delta. However, the vast wealth available to those who control the power structures of the state and the increasing polarisation of society has led to a significant shift in the underlying conflict dynamic. The people of Nigera Delta even wanted to get rid of the agents that were polluting their environment.
The natives who are fighting for the emancipation of the Niger Delta are organized in several groups which include Ijaw Peoples Assembly (IPA) led by Mr. Asu Beks; The Niger Delta People Volunteer Force (NDPVF) cum People Solution Force (PSF) led by Alhaji Mujahid Dokubo-Asari; The Federated Niger Delta Ijaw Communities (FNDIC) led by Chief Bello Oboko; Movement for Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) etc with Chief Government Ekpemupolo alias Tompolo as leader of camp 5, alleged to be the centre of kidnapping, hostage taking and killing of JTF soldiers. The parties in the conflict do not involve only the federal government and the Niger Deltans but also the oil multinationals.

GOVERNMENT’S RESPONSE TO THE CONFLICT AND ITS OUTCOME:
The grievances of the Niger Deltans have involved three closely interrelated, but analytically distinct issues: firstly, that all laws relating to oil exploration and land ownership be abrogated; secondly, the issue of natural resource control and self-determination and thirdly, that appropriate institutional and financial arrangements should be put in place by the Nigerian nation state and the oil multinationals to compensate the oil producing communities for the developmental and environmental problems associated with oil exploration and exploitation.
The raising of voice for the emancipation of this region began very peacefully, but if we go back to the history we will find that the government has always tried to handle the issue with violence. The harmonious protests were replied with gun shots and even killing the family of the protesters.
It was because of these reasons that the conflict took a violent shape on both sides. The people participating in the movement started stealing oils, collecting guns, kidnapping people and even killing people. Due to this approach towards the conflict the Nigerian Government could not get any result out of its efforts of suppressing, because you can suppress the person participating but not the conflict because the major issue still remains as, as the government not even for once agreed to give to the Nigerian people which were already theirs.
After this failed approach the government tried to give them amnesty and even agreed to give them a little share in what already belonged to them. The people are not satisfied with this and want more out their government mainly because of the response it got earlier and today the conflict stands unresolved and more violent on the side of the localites than on the government. This led to the decrease in the export of oil due to the disturbed condition on the country.

WHY THE CONFLICT BURNING DESPITE THE GOVERNMENT’S EFFORT TODAY
The degree of violence has surely come down but from the side of the people but has not ended as they are still not satisfied. The author here tries to explain a few of the reasons.
The selfish Nigerian Government: The kind of conflict which emerged in the Niger Delta is a very common and an inevitable one. The government began forcing them to abandon their land to oil companies without consultation, and offering negligible compensation. This is further supported by a 1979 constitutional addition which afforded the federal government full ownership and rights to all Nigerian territory and also decided that all compensation for land would "be based on the value of the crops on the land at the time of its acquisition, not on the value of the land itself." The Nigerian government could now distribute the land to oil companies as it deemed fit.
If the resources are scarce it is obvious that it is impossible to give everyone abundant of it. Making an oil company in this region is not what the government did wrong in, the government did wrong in not acknowledging the claims of the natives living there for years. People in such a condition do deserve a fair compensation but as the history says they have been deprived by the government before in such a similar case then how could the people trust the government again. That is the reason that the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) militants have offered to stop attacks on oil production facilities if Mr. Carter (of the US) intervenes.
The response of the government and the oil companies proved the fear of the people right. They not only did try to suppress the uprising by killing the men but they also looted their house, raped their women and sisters and killed the children. They showed inhuman attitude towards them just to save them of their “useless expenditure” on compensation.
A person named Saro Nkesi participated in nonviolent protests against Shell Oil’s operations in the Niger Delta’s Ogoniland. He sought to evade the Nigerian government forces that would sweep into Rivers State to suppress the popular resistance to decades of oil exploration unhampered by environmental, developmental or humanitarian concerns. But on one fateful occasion, he said, instead of finding him, “they saw my wife and they killed her.”
In May 1994, nine activists from the movement were were arrested and accused of incitement to murder. They denied the charges, but were imprisoned for over a year before being found guilty and sentenced to death by a specially convened tribunal, hand-selected by General Sani Abacha, on 10 November 1995. The activists were denied due process and upon being found guilty, were hanged by the Nigerian state. “This” for the government was a more easy and correct way.
When you loose faith in the government for more than once it is impossible to trust them back, and that is the reason that the people today is not happy with the schemes taken up by the government.
Criminalization of the Delta: The reason for the growing violence in the Delta region is obviously the stone hearted attitude of the government towards the people in the 90’s. But in the present day also the violence is ongoing but this time the reason is not just the emancipation movement but for profits and no other intention. People doing it for the sake of the betterment of the Native Land now realised that the profits that they can have alone by committing such crimes can be more fruitful than actually having a fair share from the oil company and government proceeds. This lust for money has given them the driving force to do it and the reason for being a part of the movement has given them a very fair and moral excuse to commit such crimes. This is one of the important reasons that the native Niger people won’t quit violence.
Poverty: Poverty is often a cause for conflict in any of the uprising but in this case it stands as a very strong reason because the stronger central government over the Delta region acts as a catalyst to it. Omoyele Sowore, a Nigerian journalist with Sahara Reporters, and a former student activist in Nigeria, said that the Delta’s population has no easy access to hospitals, paved roads or other infrastructure one would expect from a region which yields between an estimated 85 to 90 percent of Nigeria’s export earnings.
Oil accounts for about 90 per cent of Nigerian exports and more than 80 per cent of government revenue. Despite being the richest geopolitical region in terms of natural resource endowment, the Niger Delta’s potential for sustainable development however remains unfulfilled, and is now increasingly threatened by environmental devastation and worsening economic conditions. In spite of the large number of skilled, well-paid Nigerians who have been employed by the oil corporations, the majority of Nigerians and most especially the people of the Niger Delta states and the far north have become poorer since the 1960s.
The Central government exports the oil to the American companies, as Nigerian and earns profits out of it and in return the Delta region gets nothing. It is because the policies of the local government there is weak and has no mind of its own and simply follows what is told to them by the Central Government. It is obvious in such a case that having no resort by the government for them the people will have to take up the matter in their own hands.
The people were given the option of amnesty by the government but not because of the responsibility the government had for them, but because of the ongoing conflict and the government could not have its way out through violence. The schemes were such that the people had to accept it not because they had faith in them but because they were living so much in poverty that there was not a way out for them and few took it after they got tired after fighting back to a stubborn government. This is the reason that the violence after this scheme rose rather than reducing because people were made to feel more helpless. The Amnesty has been there more around four years now and little has changed in the economic fundamentals facing youth in the Niger delta region. And even less has changed with the prospects of improved poverty alleviation schemes, socio-economic development and cleaning up the devastated Niger Delta environment.
Role of Oil Companies: Oil companies have been accused of increasing this conflict dynamics by favouring host communities over others and making direct payments to the most troublesome elements in society to maintain peace in the short term. the oil companies have refused to pack up from the region in spite of the several ultimatums given them by civil groups due to the huge profit they derive in the oil business in the region and the Niger Delta people have now become more organized in their demands for ‘development’ something that has been denied them for a long time. These goal-blocking behaviours leave much to be desired and have jeopardised conflict prevention mechanisms.
Chomsky also discussed Wiwa v Shell, the lawsuit brought against Royal Dutch Shell for human rights abuses under the Alien Tort Statute and the Torture Victim Act in an American court by Ken Saro-Wiwa’s son and other Ogoni plaintiffs. In 2009, after 14 years, Shell, without admitting wrongdoing and before going to trial, settled for $15.5 million. Environmental damages were not a part of the suit, but Chomsky said that through the legal process of discovery, the plaintiffs’ attorneys were “able to read what corporations were thinking and doing from their own documents.”
One of the most important Oil Company as a part of the conflict is Shell. One of the leaked US cables show that Shell Oil has been paying tens of millions of dollars to militants in Nigeria, which have been used to buy weapons and fight government forces that often are also on Shell’s payroll. In one particularly egregious practice, Shell forked over cash to whichever faction controlled the town of Rumuekpe. The ensuing conflict led to the destruction of the town, killing over sixty people. Across the delta, thousands of Nigerians have been killed or displaced, and with Shell pumping in tens of millions of dollars to both sides each year, there is no end to the conflict in sight.

CONCLUSION
In view of the dramatic worsening of the environment of the Niger Delta, it remains to be seen what could be the starting point for a return to normal peace for the Niger Delta but it is imperative that efforts to preventing a violent conflict in the region should be based on the aspirations and interests of the people. Genuine peace effort in the Niger Delta can be achieved by participation, equitable distribution of resources, appropriate development, and environmental sustainability. Therefore, it is obvious that, for any development action, an understanding of the institutional conditions in which the action will take place should be a priority. All the stakeholders should forget about the past and lay a solid foundation for the future by embracing options for positive peace which revolves around addressing the issues of poverty, environmental devastation, political, economic and social injustice, low level of literacy and unemployment.

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