Give us oil blocks, Niger Delta leaders tell Buhari

Niger Delta leaders have asked President Muhammadu Buhari to allocate oil blocks to natives of the region as a means of ending militancy in the area.

The leaders of the oil-rich region, who were led by Edwin Clark and Alfred Diette-Spiff, made this demand when they met with the president in Abuja on Tuesday.

They made 16 demands which include,‎ “the allocation of oil blocks to Niger Delta natives‎ so as to grant them inclusive participation in the oil industry‎, the end of the militarisation of the region, review of the amnesty programme, proper funding of the Niger Delta Development Commission, stopping gas flaring, and returning the headquarters of oil companies to the region to stimulate development.”

Speaking with state house correspondents at the end of the meeting, Spiff said with the 16 points “quick wins can be achieved and can restore hope and confidence in a region that has grown sceptical of dialogue and engagements that have hardly produced tangible results.” ,

“The 16 points raised included infrastructural development, manpower, human resources and development and of course, welfare of the people. These are the main things,” he said.

“Relocation of the oil companies. One of those things that we pointed out is that these IOCs have their headquarters somewhere in Lekki or Abuja. Even their operational headquarters are not in their area of operation. So, they are very divorced from the whole activity. This is not right because even the pay as you earn tax is not coming to the region. The workers, nobody is engaged locally there. They just come and harvest and go away. In fact one of two of the French companies there fly in people from abroad and the next crew goes on board the next flight going out. It’s as serious as that. Since it’s a federal government controlled thing we cannot do very much, so we have to appeal to the federal to see that this thing is stopped.

“The presence of the military of course, you know has been agitating the boys. That too we said should be reversed. We don’t want to see the place militarised.

“Then you have the university issue which has been resolved. Oron has been there in the last 18 years, it’s going to be made a degree awarding institution. You also have situations where most of our ports, the estuaries are silted. You know cocoa for instance, ships can’t get in there. Escravos have been silted. You have Burutu, Warri, and all those ports. So, they need to be dredged and kept passable. We also have situations where the youths who have dropped their arms and demilitarized are now being sent on training and they come back and they have no jobs. What are you pushing them to. To use their new skills and go back to the creeks? No. So, the engagement is to make sure that they either form into cooperatives to do farming or fishing or doing something gainful.

“So, we really need to engage the youths who have been trained  by the amnesty programme. In addition, the Ogoni situation for instance, is one of many. So,while they are doing the clean up in Ogoni, this should be extended to other parts of the Niger delta.

“And, water supply is very essential because the United Nations environment programme has declared that the water is unfit for human consumption. So, all these are things which add up to what makes the people of the Niger delta. Although the laugh and act and smile. Beneath that frown and smile, they are wearing a frown. So, that is the situation. They are really feeling cheated and short-changed. These are what have been pointed out. The federal government should bring out a key, to go there, have a look see, confirm all that we are saying and see that things are addressed. And they are minor issues that can be done just by the red pen of the president.”

Also, speaking with journalists, Ibe kachickwu, minister of state for petroleum, who brokered the meeting, explained why militant leaders were absent.

‎He said militant leaders were not invited because Buhari wanted to hear from their elder who they were and how to locate the root causes of problem the before taking further action.‎

The minister said with the dialogue crude oil production ‎had risen to as high as 2.1 million barrels, “largely as a result of preliminary negotiations and scaling down of hostilities by militants in the Niger Delta.

On his part, the president promised to study the demands and to cooperate with them in ending the environmental and economic sabotage of the region.

However, he added that their demands did not require quick solutions, but that they needed lasting solutions.