Global 'best practice' approach to Niger Delta crisis
By Ade Ogidan, Business Editor
PERHAPS, besides the 30-month-old civil war in the country, no other crisis has impacted gravely on the nationÕs economic well-being more than the Niger Delta debacle, which indeed midwifed the militantsÕ saga and touched at the nerve centre of the nationÕs conscience.
For over 52 years, the Niger Delta region had been guzzling the proverbial black gold, which, with the fading of the fiscal federalism in 1967 and eventual enthronement of unitary system of governance, even under the present civil rule dispensation, emerged the mega foreign exchange earner for the country.
The phenomenal contribution of the region to the nationÕs economic well-being cannot be over-emphasised in the countryÕs chequered history, even as the goose laying the golden egg remained paradoxically battered, deprived and assailed in terms of development, resource allocation and governance, especially at the constituent statesÕ level.
The amnesty deal, initiated and executed by the Federal Government, appeared on the surface level, to have doused tension in the region. While celebrations continued in government circle over assessed success of the initiative, concerns appeared to be growing among some stakeholders, over sustainability of the expensive package, in ensuring desired peace in the oil-rich region.
To some analysts, the amnesty deal which came as a bolt from the blues, evolved without adequate consultations with the generality of the people within the region, some of who might not have been part of the militant struggle.
Essentially, the deal was assessed to be too selective in its application, with the Federal Government apparently assuaging some identified leaders of the armed struggle, without addressing the core issues at stake.
While the expenditure profile of the deal remained under wraps, the effectiveness of the monetary dole-outs may have elicited fresh concern, moreso as the crux of the deprivation saga, which brought about the crisis in the first place, was still begging for attention.
A top government official, who spoke to The Guardian on condition of anonymity, pointed out that what had been expended so far to assuage the feelings of some of the militants could have, ever since, been used to address development challenges in the oil-rich region.
According to him, agitation against phenomenal deprivation of Niger Delta State did not start with the current administration. ÒRight from the period Late Adaka Boro raised his voice on the crisis, to the indefatigable efforts of late Ken Saro Wiwa and the escalation of militancy in the region, the government had been acting like the proverbial osrich, burying its head in the sand, as if the other parts of its body were invisible.Ó
He added: ÒRather than allow itself to be blackmailed, so to say, to submission by the militants, the government could have been proactive in judiciously ploughing back equitable measure of resources from the region, for its development.
ÒThrough such strategy, the administration would have effectively short-circuited militancy against it and ensured that the much required equity and justice enthroned lasting peace in the region.
ÒWith the current situation on the ground, the government has set in motion, an endless cycle of ransome dole-outs, as unemployment and undevelopment crises in the region will always germinate demands from certain individuals, which would compromise resource inflow for the development of the region.Ó
Prophetically, Henry Okah, one of the prominent militant leaders, allegedly, ÒsettledÓ to embrace the amnesty deal, may have infected migraine in the psyche of some top government officials with a veiled threat that peaceful resolution of the crisis in the region, could be a mirage afterall.
In an on-line interview with AFP recently, Okha, who was freed in July by Federal Government after two years in jail for high treason and arms trafficking, while admitting that Òthe government was walking in the right direction,Ó warned of imminent resumption of hostilities if the oil-producing regionÕs concerns were not resolved.
He stressed that arms alone was no guarantee of lasting peace in the restive region, as government has to Òcorrect decades of injustice in the Niger Delta.Ó
Okah, in non-committal posture, said he Òwill not be involved in disarming those who have decided to hang on to weapons until the entire region comes to agreement with the Federal Government on the points of agitation by the people of the Niger Delta.Ó
As the efficacy of the amnesty deal appeared to the failing the test of time, the search for effective option may have begun, especially as the three month ceasefire, self declared by Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND), ends today.
Without discounting the probable effectiveness of planned negotiation between MENDÕs appointed team, led by Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka and Federal Government, a globally accepted approach to resolving natural resources Ð based conflict resolution, may have become a ready made alternative agenda, being canvassed by experts.
The model, which has been domesticated by a research effort initiated by the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG), has as its central theme, an all-inclusive dialogue, structured to:
Improve understanding and trust among stakeholders;
promote foreign and domestic investment by creating an enabling environment for business development;
improve the socio-economic life of indigenes in the Niger Delta region;
reduce the cost of doing business and governance in the region; and
result in shoring-up NigeriaÕs oil production and consequently, national revenues, which have recently declined sharply.
NESG, during the tenure of Mansur Ahmed as its director-general, mobilised experts within and outside the country to draft a scheme, that would ensure lasting peace in the Niger Delta, using the time tested model which had successfully resolved conflicts in other resource endowed areas around the globe.
The experts included Ms Lois Hooge, former Head, Secretariat of Whitehorse Mining Initiative and Canadian Advisor for the KWAGGA mining and mineral programme; Dr. Stephen Roberts, Senior Social and Economic of Watts, Gifhs and McQuat Limited; Dr. Ikenna Nwosu, Chief Executive officer of Mooregate Limited, Nigeria and facilitator of the programme; and Dr. Vin Nwabueze, a consultant with extensive experience working in the Niger Delta region.
The team met with selected representatives of government, the organised private sector and interested Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs).
The initiative, christened Ogula, could be a bold new approach for resolving the current Niger Delta crises, based on the core principles of transparency, equity, fairness, mutual respect and dignity.
The decision to name the initiative Ogula - a word taken from the Ijaw language that refers to a dispute settlement process between two or more communities - was based on the project teamÕs conviction that the people of the Niger Delta Region hold the key to identifying fair and lasting solutions to the problems that currently plague the region.
The Ijaw Ð traditionally called Izon, are a riverine people who make up the largest single ethnic group in the region.
They also happen to be the most militant in their demands for a more local control over how the regionÕs vast oil wealthÕ is distributed.
Building on the fact that the term Ogula means dispute settlement should help send the message that the process is truly intended to resolve the Niger Delta crisis.
Over a period of three days, successive meetings were held in the cities of Abuja, Lagos and Port Harcourt. At each location, Hooge briefed those in attendance on her experience as a key member of the organizing team that designed and administered the WMI in Canada and the KWAGGA programme in South Africa.
Attendees were provided with a detailed description of the background, processes, structures, impacts and benefits of both projects.
Hooge argued that in both cases, government and industry were confronted with the problem of how best to meet the demands of local communities for a more open, transparent and fair system for distributing the benefits and sharing the costs associated with natural resource development.
By creating a policy-making process that gives a voice to key local stakeholders, Canadian and South African authorities were able to create new and positive relationships between the government, the mining industry and affected stakeholders, including labour unions, non-governmental organizations and the host communities impacted by large-scale resource development.
A key objective of the process is to allow stakeholders the opportunity to freely express their needs and aspirations in an open and transparent forum. Participants should come away from the experience with something more than what they started with. Process organizers must recognize that stakeholders will not participate unless they see something Òin it for them.Ó
Scripted to be organised and funded as a Public Private Partnership (PPP), this approach has distinctive characteristics from the previous efforts.
Essentially, costs would be equally shared by OPS, Federal Government and states so that no group can predetermine the outcome, to guarantee transparency.
The entire process would be overseen by an independent secretariat to guarantee neutrality and transparency, while participants exercise joint control over appointment of key personnel. All stakeholders participate as equal parties and the process is organic, such that all stakeholders jointly claim ownership of the process and its outcomes. The process is ÒcollaborativeÓ not ÒconsultativeÓ.
Ogula is an adaptation of an approach successfully applied in Canada (whitehorse Mining Initiative) and South Africa (Kwagga Programme).
In both examples, the initiatives were private sector driven, but they were essentially multi-stakeholder engagements programmes that facilitated broad-based consensus building, leading to a more equitable system of resource revenue sharing.
In the two cases, government and industry were confronted with the problem of satisfying the demands of stakeholders for a more open, transparent and fair system for distributing the benefits and sharing the costs associated with natural resource development.
By adopting a policy-making process and implementation plan that gave a voice to key local stakeholders - especially those previously excluded parties, Canadian and South African authorities were able to create new and positive relationships between the various levels of government, the mining industry, organized labour, non-governmental organizations and the communities impacted by resource development.
These two highly successful processes have since been adopted by the United Nations as global best practice models for the sustainable development of natural resources, and have been successfully replicated by many countries, on all continents, to peacefully and successfully develop their natural resources in a manner that satisfactorily addresses the justifiable concerns of all stakeholders.
Incidentally, the head of secretariat for both projects in Canada and South Africa worked with the NESG Ogula project team, visited the Niger Delta, and has interacted with diverse stakeholders there to appreciate first hand the challenges in the region for purpose of designing the Ogula initiative process.
The initiative requires serious commitment of both time, human and financial resources if it must achieve the desired results.
