No To 'Operation Crocodile Smile' In The Niger Delta

By Dan Amor

To all intents and purposes, the reported mobilisation of soldiers to Cross River State and other states in the South South geopolitical zone in a military jamboree code named "Operation Crocodile Smile", is needless and avoidable. Unfortunately, Niger Delta youths who call themselves militants have once again played their much-abused region which, ironically, produces the wealth of the nation, into the willing hands of the establishment under the watch of a central government with an unstated or hidden agenda to totally exterminate the goose that lays the golden egg from the face of the earth.

 Even while the region was yet relatively peaceful, when the reawakened restiveness had not reached fever-pitch, President Muhammadu Buhari, even in his inaugural speech alluded to how he would combat and defeat Boko Haram and Niger Delta militants. One can then safely assume that the current war is directly or indirectly orchestrated by the powers that be just to create room for them to execute their plan against the region.

Niger Delta And The National Question

By Dan Amor

To all intents and purpos­es, the raging war in the South South geopoliti­cal zone between irate militants and the security forces is needless and avoidable. Unfor­tunately, Niger Delta youths have once again played their much-abused region which, ironically, produces the wealth of the na­tion, into the willing hands of the establishment under the watch of a central government with an un­stated or hidden agenda to totally exterminate the goose that lays the golden egg from the face of the earth. Even while the region was yet relatively peaceful, when the reawakened restiveness had not reached fever-pitch, President Muhammadu Buhari, even in his inaugural speech alluded to how he would combat and defeat Boko Haram and Niger Delta militants. One can then safely assume that the current war is directly or in­directly orchestrated by the pow­ers that be just to create room for them to execute their plan against the region.

(pix: amnesty)

Yet, a fact too potent to be dis­puted, is that the deepening grouse of the people of the oil rich Niger Delta has largely gravitated to the growing consciousness that what the Nigerian state and the international monopoly oil com­panies take from their soil is not commensurate with what they give in terms of provision of social amenities, quality of life and the maintenance of a delicate balance between the human being and the natural environment. While not supporting the wanton destruc­tion of major oil installations in the Niger Delta and its concomi­tant degradation of the national economy, reason, no doubt, re­sides in this claim of neglect, which has further been justified and accentuated by the preda­tory disposition of some of the oil companies with the collabora­tive instincts of successive Nige­rian governments over the years. Most of these governments were military dictatorships lacking the requisite legitimacy, sufficient political will and constitutional mandate to protect the people and their environment.

As at Tuesday this week (May 31, 2016), the Senate and House of Representatives joint commit­tee on Niger Delta Development Commission, (NDDC), had is­sued bench warrant on seven oil companies operating in the Niger Delta region for failing to appear before a public hearing to defend themselves over allegation of non-remittance of statutory funds to the commission for the develop­ment of the region. That is how the multinational oil companies have been treating with levity is­sues relating to the development of the region due to their disdain for the laws of the land. Attitudes of successive Nigerian govern­ments actually created a dan­gerous class-a totally frustrated population- who now see the multinational oil companies and government as conspirators in the unholy and rapacious plot to drive them permanently out of their an­cestral homes in order to have free reign out the oil. Former president Olusegun Obasanjo was spend­ing N200million daily to maintain the Joint Task Force in the region whereas the people were dying from hunger and want. The per­sistent Niger Delta crisis is there­fore an economic process caught in a political web.