Daniel Kanu
Activist and Secretary-General, United
Niger Delta Energy Development Security
Strategy (UNDEDSS), Comrade Tony Uranta,
has urged the Federal Government to show
more concern to the neglect of the Niger Delta
region even as he expressed regrets at what is
playing out at the Niger Delta Development
Commission (NDDC). He made the remarks
and more in this interview.
Recently, the United Niger Delta
Energy Development Security
Strategy (UNDEDSS), where you
are the Secretary-General has
continued to raise the alarm concerning the Niger-Delta neglect…
(Cuts in) We are worried. In a sense, the
Federal Government seems to have forgotten
the Niger-Delta. I used the word “forgotten”
because the Federal Government is basking
in a false sense of euphoria that makes them
relax their need to pacify or encourage positive
actions and reactions in all the zones of the
country but especially the Niger Delta. The
Niger Delta is the cash cow but neglected to
perish. Let me begin with the recent statement
by the Minister of Finance. She said Nigeria is
too big for the government to control. I did not
ever expect that I will ever hear that kind of
statement from any leading member of the government, let alone a Minister of finance who is
supposed to be in charge of the economy and
its management. This is especially relevant to
us in the Niger Delta being the ones that have
been the cash-cows of the country and especially now that, that doomsday we had always been
talking about is on us in Nigeria and the Niger
Delta especially due to the reduction or virtual
cancellation of value in the oil industry. But
we want to state that Nigeria as we have often
been saying but which the people have been
over-looking, is really a gas-rich country that
has been over-focusing on the oil. The Niger
Delta is still rich in gas and remains relevant
any day. So, while oil prices have plummeted,
we must not forget that gas prices have risen
even within this period, so the Niger Delta
will remain a cash-cow of the nation for the
foreseeable future. Therefore, nobody should
disregard the importance of that region to the
extent of tampering with the economy because
of the multiplier effects that will impact the
national economy disproportionately once the
Niger Delta is badly handled or the management of the economy of the Niger Delta which
is the: environment, the people and the goods
and services available to the Niger-Delta, in
a sense of allocation, management, etc. if
anybody misuses or misapplies the opportunities available to the region, we will end up
facing a worst downward spiral in the economy
than we are facing at the moment. We must
remember that Nigeria is definitely going to
enter into a recession; we cannot avoid it with
the COVID-19 hitting all nation; even major
developed countries are going to spiral into
a recession, so it is with that in mind that we
now must do those things that are supposed to
keep the region robust and in temperate conditions such as to keep the economy, the political
economy stable. This is why it is disheartening
to realise that when the Federal Government
has been disbursing stimulus packages recently,
they have neglected Rivers State, Bayelsa, and
Delta states and these are key states in the
development of the economy of Nigeria, which
has caused the River State governor to take
up a belligerent attitude towards the Federal
Government. The Federal Government in its
reaction, for example, has taken supposedly the
powers of the management of the COVID-19
from the state government and invested it in
the Commissioner of Police. That is ridiculous
for you to say a Commissioner of Police is now
in charge of managing such a health disaster,
a pandemic that could envelop a major state
as the Rivers State just because of political reasons. It is not in the interest of Nigerians or
of the Buhari administration to persist in this
stand-off with Governor Wike. Gov. Wike has
the support of Niger Deltans and the Federal
Government is ending up making him become
the leader of the region by default because
everybody now sees him as the champion of
Niger-Delta issues. So, the Federal Government if it continues in this way will end up
imbuing Gov Wike with certain mystic powers
such as it did to Nnamdi Kanu of IPOB by
persecuting him, making him a martyr of sort
and strengthening his position for the South
Easterners as a speaker for the masses.
It becomes necessary to ask: Why is the
government dragging its feet concerning the
remediation of the environment in the Niger
Delta. There has been no action so far as to
the beginning of remediation in other parts of
the region apart from Ogoni Land and even
though, in the much orchestrated Ogoni land
situation, there is little or nothing to show for
the supposed action that has been claimed to
be going on since 2015 to date in Ogoni land.
The Ogonis are becoming restive and they have
been letting leaders of the region know that
there might be a backlash against the Federal
Government from Ogoni land. This is in a season when nearly all the states are determined
to get the Federal Government to be more alive
to its responsibilities in the region.
Another crucial issue is not relocating the
dry dock to its proper place, which is in the
Niger Delta region. We still have the dry dock
which is the biggest dry dock in Africa lying fallow in the waters of Lagos State, whereas this
was supposed to be taken straight into the Niger Delta, ostensibly, originally into Delta state
next to the Maritime university so as to provide
a ground for practicals for students in that University. The idea of the dry dock was initiated
through NIMASA, under the Akpobolokemi
management in the last administration and
when the dry dock was ready, Nigeria refused
initially to pay the balance of monies due to
the manufacturers who were supposed to build
and transfer the dry dock to us. It was meant to
be located in Okerenkoko next to the Maritime
University; it will be the biggest investment in
the Niger Delta by this administration. It will
open up the area, generate both employment
and huge revenue from the maritime sector for
the government but it is being frustrated. We
demand that before the end of the next quarter, this dry dock be moved and permanently
installed and commissioned within the Niger
Delta. We cannot keep holding our people back
from reacting because it is their property in a
sense, and the pain of not having that property
increasing the positive economic outlook of the
region is real; that pain being real, the people
are beginning to complain and we cannot keepstifling their cries. So, when you say the people
are complaining because of non-evidence
of progress in Ogoni land remediation, the
people are complaining about non-evidence of
any other remediation in the Niger Delta; the
people are complaining of non-action in the
movement, installation, and commissioning of
the shipbuilding dry dock in Niger Delta; we
have too many complains building up and it
is just common sense to know that if you have
pressure building from different directions,
the greatest possibility for an explosion or
implosion, in this case, becomes very high.
This I think should be taken care of by the
Federal Government who still is in control and
determines what should go on there.Are you satisfied on what is going on in NDDC and its auditing by
the Interim Management Committee (IMC)?
What is going on there is annoying and
our people will react if not properly handled
by the government. The interference by the
National Assembly in the executives’ decisions
regarding the region in respect of the Niger
Delta Development Commission (NDDC) and
its interim management committee (IMC) are
very relevant at this time. We were the ones
that kept shouting that people are mismanaging the NDDC and that corruption is endemic
in that system and we wanted the system
probed. The government finally agrees to
probe it and decides that rather than institute
a full board that they will appoint an Interim
Management Committee (IMC) of three
people to be in charge of the forensic auditing
of the NDDC; however, since the inauguration
of the IMC under the leadership at that time
of Barrister Joy Nunieh, there has been very
strong backlash coming from the National
Assembly for two reasons. The National Assembly leadership especially represented by
the Deputy Senate President, Sen. Omo Agege
was the one that proposed the new board and
management of the Niger Delta and gave that
proposal to the president, and the presidency
initially announced the board and asked the
members nominated to be screened by the
senate. However, the region through its many
organs like PANDEF, UNDEDSS, and the
creeks, I used that term to always represent the
restive elements within the region who sometimes agitate with violence or with actions that
could damage the economy. Everybody came
together and said those nominees for the chairmanship and the managing directorship were
not supposed to be from those states because
the Niger Delta region rotates the positions
round the state and based on that, there was
pressure on the government to jettison that list
or at least remove two people especially and
now create a new list going by the convention that has been in place since the inception
of the NDDC. Rather than face politics, the
government chose an alternative way and said
Ok.. before we face all that issue, (fighting among ourselves) that they are going to inaugurate an IMC that will be specifically charged
with primarily ensuring that the forensic audit
is carried out. Now as soon as this IMC came
into existence, the first thing that turned out
was that certain people who are among the
leadership of this same National Assembly
who have selfish corrupt interest are now kicking, ensuring they sabotage good efforts of the
IMC. They will say pay me as a consultant to
ensure that the oil companies contribute their
statutory funds that are due to the NDDC.
But during the time of Alaibe and the other
administrations before this last two administrations of the NDDC, the oil companies were
in fact virtually the only ones meeting up with
the statutory demands, therefore, there was
no need to even ask any department in the
commission to be specifically positioned to
make sure these dues are collected let alone
to give it out as a consultancy to any company.
Now we know that the companies are owned
by some members of the National Assembly
leadership. In fact, Joy Nunieh exposed some
of those behind it, collecting billions monthly
for doing nothing and she cut off some of those
payments and ended those contracts. She
threatened to force those people to pay back
those monies before she was removed.
But should we not also blame
members of the Niger Delta region
for being part of the corruption
link?
Yes you are correct. From now on PANDEF
and UNDEDSS have decided that we want to
also focus on the corruption within the region
itself. We have more than enough corruption
in the federal system and we are aware of it
and how it is negatively impacting the region
but our own people, and our own institutions
run by our people are the greatest defaulters
when it comes to the issue of transparency,
accountability, and integrity. Our representatives in NASS are going to be on focus. We will
be studying, looking at what contributions our
elected public office holders at the national
level make in respect to promoting pro-NigerDelta issues in the National Assembly. So, each
member of the National Assembly from the
Niger-Delta will be x-rayed and we have set up
in UNDEDSS, for example, a team that will be
headed by the UNDEDESS president (Prof. Pat
Utomi) that will be looking at the contributions
of our members in the National Assembly.
There is this uproar about the
Almajirai migration to the South in
recent times which most security
experts say is dangerous? What is
your view on that?
First of all, let’s put it on record that UNDEDSS believes in the right of every Nigerian to
freely move within Nigeria and live anywhere
in Nigeria provided they are moving and living as proscribed by the constitution and the
laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The
unfortunate thing or the scary thing is that
the people who are carrying this movement
now are moving illegally because there is a
shutdown in inter-state movement.
As a member of the Southern and Middle
Belt leaders’ forum, I stand with the forum in
saying that whilst we support movements of
Nigerians freely, we are against these illegal or
illegitimate movements of able-bodied men.
There are stories of the discovery of arms
and ammunition being moved into the Southern states and being intercepted by both the
security and local vigilante. Now who are the
people moving arms into the South? Who are
the people moving men into the South? We
must admit that what is happening is nefarious,
it’s suspicious and we demand that the Federal
Government says something about it. It might
be taken as migration for deadly reasons if the
government continues to keep mute. I see
them as a very mysterious army that connotes
a security risk for Nigeria as a whole and for
Southern Nigeria.