IRIN Focus on the simmering conflict in the Niger Delta //Yearender//

In the past decade the situation in Nigeria’s oil belt - the Niger Delta, has been characterised by restiveness among the local communities. The over seven million people in the region - source of most of the oil that is the lifeblood of Nigeria's economy - feel cheated of the wealth pumped from their soil. They also feel aggrieved that they often have to bear the negative environmental consequences of more than four decades of oil operations in the region. When communities in the volatile region were not in conflict with oil multinationals over land rights or compensation for environmental damage, they were in dispute with government over more access to oil wealth, or locked in conflict with one another over claims to ownership of areas where oil facilities and accompanying benefits are sited. The record of such incidents in 2001 varied only in terms of scale. Relatively fewer violent incidents were reported during the year, mostly revolving around current efforts by both the federal and regional governments to deal with the problems in the area. In sharp contrast to the bare-knuckled repression unleashed during years of military rule, the civilian government elected in 1999 has made significant efforts to calm frayed nerves, even if these efforts may be largely symbolic as alleged by critics of President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration. In January, the Human Rights Violations Investigations Commission (HRVIC), set up to revisit past violations and seek national reconciliation, held sittings in the oil industry capital of Port Harcourt. This provided a forum for the Shell oil company to reconcile with the Ogoni ethnic minority of the Niger Delta. The Ogoni people had been aggrieved since a campaign against alleged pollution and environmental degradation that they began in the early 1990s led to the execution in 1995 of nine of their leaders, on the orders of late military ruler, General Sani Abacha. The nine had been convicted of murder by a military tribunal. Obasanjo's government apologised to the Ogonis through the HRVIC for "the sordid and sad events that took place". But these peaceful developments did not prevent militants of the Ijaw ethnic group from attacking drilling facilities of the US oil company Chevron Corporation in the western part of the Delta to press demands for jobs and amenities. The attack by youths from 10 Ijaw communities also affected oil service firms Giogio Ltd and Westminster Dredging and Marine. By May, tension in the Niger Delta was heightened by several oil spills which, in combination with communal and industrial disputes, disrupted crude oil production by three transnationals. The Nigerian subsidiary of the US transnational ExxonMobil Corporation shut its Qua Iboe oil export terminal, after it was besieged by protesters from the local Eket community who accused the company of neglecting the environment. About the same time, Chevron reported that a faulty valve on one of its pipelines had caused the leakage of an estimated 140 barrels of crude near its Escravos operational base in the western part of the Delta. The company denied allegations by several coastal communities that it was responsible for an oil slick that caused massive fish deaths in areas adjoining Escravos. Before that - on 29 April - the year's biggest oil spill occurred at Royal/Dutch Shell's Yorla oilfield in Ogoniland, where crude oil released by a burst well-head shot several metres into the air before raining down on surrounding farms and vegetation. The spill was only brought under control many days later when a team of experts was flown in from the United States to cap the well-head. Similar accidents, which Shell attributed to improperly shut facilities during its forced withdrawal from Ogoniland in 1993, led to a number of spectacular fires. Although no lives were lost, massive damage was done to the environment. Apart from differences with the oil companies, there were also violent incidents between communities in the region. Soldiers were deployed at Warri in the western delta in June to curb renewed violence between the Urhobo and Itsekiri communities over counter-claims to ownership of the oil town. Several people died in fighting between two Ijaw communities, Odimodi and Ogulagha, over ownership of land on which Shell was building a gas-gathering facility. Violence reported in the Kalabari and Ikwerre communities in Rivers State was attributed to a similar cause. Among the key developments in the region in 2001 was the adoption by governors of states in the Niger Delta of a longstanding demand by activists for control of the oil resources, which were under the exclusive control of the federal government. The governors also contested the central government’s decision to remove income from offshore oil production from the 13-percent share of revenue the constitution guarantees the oil region. With both sides hardening their positions on the matter, the federal government filed a suit in the Supreme Court, seeking an interpretation of the constitutional provisions on the matter in its favour. The case was still pending as the year drew to a close. But with the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), set up to redress the decades of neglect suffered by the oil region, finally gearing up to make its impact felt, the government has also been implementing a policy of strengthening its military presence in the region. Key oil facilities in the Niger Delta are now under the protection of troops - a move aimed at ending the disruption of oil exports by angry communities and militant youths. To further strengthen this policy, government set up in October a Presidential Special Committee on Oil Producing Areas, headed by Army Chief of Staff, Lieutenant-General Alexander Ogomudia. In December, the NDDC organised an international conference supported by UNDP with the aim of creating a consensus on the strategies necessary for rapid development in the region. "The main departure point is that we want a master plan to provide a framework for the things we want to do," NDDC chairman Onyema Ugochukwu told IRIN. "It is not only necessary to harmonise activities for other agencies involved. Part of the process itself involves consultation with the people. Often people do development on people, but it's not something you do to people; you do it with people." Critics of the government’s Niger Delta policy allege that while the change of fortunes which it has promised the region's inhabitants has been slow in coming, the government has been quick to tighten its grip on the area's oil resources. "Signs of discontent are once more beginning to emerge in the region where expectations that Obasanjo will make a difference to the decades of neglect have largely been disappointed," Obudu Waritimi, an environmental activist, told IRIN. "Many communities in the Niger Delta think it's time to go back to renew the battles with the government." But they may well find a government as ready to fight as it is to talk.