मिनिस्ट्री ऑफ़ नाइजर DELTA

MINISTRY OF NIGER DELTA?

Do we need a Federal Ministry to develop the Niger Delta, rehabilitate the land, and provide electricity and water? Do we need a ministry to repeal the Petroleum Act, the Land Use Act and other obnoxious laws that have been working against the interest of the region? Do we need a Niger Delta ministry to check erosion menace, ocean surge, and environmental degradation or to stop gas flaring and the pollution of our region?

One is not being pessimistic but just skeptical that Ministry of Niger Delta would not impact positively on the people of Niger Delta. This ministry is unnecessary. We have Federal Ministry of Works but no roads. Ministry of Power and Energy, no electricity, Ministry of Education and our public school system is getting worse by the day, Water Resources but no potable water. Can anything good come out of Ministry of Niger Delta? For about 48 years since independence, how has the various federal ministries impacted on the lives of Nigerians? The existing ministries, before the creation of the Niger Delta ministry, could have met the needs of the region if there was a political will.

Those celebrating the creation of the ministry are people who are already scheming for one position or the other; looking for contracts and other bogus consultancy jobs on how to develop the Niger Delta. Will the new ministry meet its mandate or fulfill the desires of the indigenes? Will it not turn out to be a conduit pipe to fund the ruling party? And also where contracts for developmental projects would be given to party faithful and cronies; and like most Nigerian government contracts these jobs would be abandoned or shoddily executed. Why did the federal government not embark on the implementation of the Niger Delta Master plan developed by the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC? Have the federal and states governments played their designated roles in making the master plan to come to fruition?

One is not being cynical but I am skeptical that the new ministry would not meet the needs, desires, aspirations and yearning of the neglected people of the region. The huge bureaucracy and money to be spent running the ministry in 10 years would have solved the electricity problem in the region. Unspent budget of the ministry at the end of every year would be shared among the staff and top shots of the ministry like was the case with the Ministry of Health recently. Also the new ministry would encounter the problem of non release of funds or budgetary allocation to the ministry to carry out its projects. How are we sure that budgetary allocation and other funds meant for the new ministry would not expired like the NDDC fund?

Who heads the ministry? It must be a Niger Delta man. Like minister of FCT has become the permanent beat of northerners, this new ministry must be the exclusive rights of indigenes of the nine Niger Delta states, no apologies please. But I would disagree that the staffing of the ministry should be strictly indigenes of the region. If this position is accepted by the federal government the public institutions like the Nigerian Ports Authority should be reserved for indigenes of the catchments areas where these ports are located, so should the Nigerian Railway Corporation and other government institutions and parastatals. You see why I am not comfortable with this idea of Niger Delta ministry: very soon indigenes of the area would be discriminated against during employment in other federal establishments since they have a whole ministry allocated to them. This ministry is cheap blackmail and propaganda to wipe up negative sentiments among Nigerians against the Niger Delta. It is an attempt to paint the Niger Delta and its people as greedy, unappreciative, ungrateful, parochial, ethnic chauvinists, unaccommodative, and intolerance of other Nigerians. If the ministry holds the key to the solution of the Niger Delta crisis, why is there increased violence and sabotaging of oil installations few days after the ministry was created?

One of the aims of the new ministry is to empower Niger Delta youths. I am not comfortable with this idea of empowerment. Empowerment simply means giving handouts to Niger Delta youths, teach a child how to fish rather than give him a fish. The oil companies have been telling us that why they cannot employ indigenes of the region is that they are not qualified to work in the industry as they lack the expertise and technical know how. Let us develop these expertise and workforce. Niger Delta youths should be sent to Oxford, Yale, Princeton, MIT, Harvard to get quality education so that the can come home and get lucrative jobs in the oil and gas industry. An internship programme should be put in place for indigenes of the region to garner skills in the oil industry to prepare them for jobs in the industry. If we embark on aggressive human development programme through quality education, in the next 15 year Niger Delta would be exporting quality human resources to other parts of the world.

We need infrastructural development but what is the essence of providing electricity in a community where the indigenes cannot pay NEPA bills or even connect their houses to the National Grid. Why provide water works in a community where there is no mechanism of sustaining it after the fanfare and photo sessions that accompany the “official commissioning”. Great idea to provide infrastructures and facilities in urban and rural areas but these need to be sustained and managed and trained people are needed. My own idea of development has always been that the human beings should be developed. Any development of infrastructure and facilities without quality human personnel amounts to failure. A wise man once said that success without a successor is failure. Saro-wiwa is a legend in Ogoniland today not because he was the President of MOSOP or because he was killed for the Ogoni cause but because when he was in the Old Rivers state executive Council, he assisted many Ogonis to have education and many are still grateful to him despite efforts by authorities to demonize him.

This ministry is a cheap blackmail so that the enemies of the region can name it among the steps and efforts of the federal government to resolve the Niger Delta crisis and develop the region. It is a public relations stunt. Our public sector has always failed in delivery social service to the people and this new ministry would not be difference.

What is needed is the political will to fast track the development of the region and not the creation of a ministry or setting up interventionist agencies like NDDC. No technical committee, panel, seminar, workshop, conference or dialogue would deliver development to the region without the political will to do so. Until the powers that be and Nigerians from other regions empathize with the situation in the region there will be no show.

Federal Government should repeal all obnoxious laws that work against the interest of the Niger Delta. Give us resource control or 50 per cent derivation. Release money owed NDDC and provides more to develop the region. Even if you create a Republic of Niger Delta without adequate funding and political will it would not impact on the lives of the people positively though it may score a cheap political point.