… Niger Delta groups poised to react
Sharp reactions, particularly from oil bearing communities in the Niger Delta region, are trailing the decision of President Muhammadu Buhari to accent to the Petroleum Industry Bill, PIB.
The President who just returned to the country after being away on medical grounds endorsed the bill passed by the National Assembly.
Henceforth, the law which is being hailed for the impact it would have on the future of the petroleum sector; and criticized for what is seen as the paltry percentage that Nigeria’s oil communities are to receive; would be in force.
Accordingly, the new law would prove to be one of the major barometers for measuring the level of economic activity, driving the extent of Nigeria’s diversification plan, not excluding the regulation of the petroleum sector.
The Presidential accent effectively brings to an end, years of lame-duck attempts by previous administrations, to push the PIB through.
Buhari would thus, enter the history books, as the one whose tenure was able to give Nigeria an encompassing Petroleum Industry Law.
Alfred Rewane, an analyst however said on Politics Today which is fast turning into a must-watch on Channels that the law which has come into effect may not attract immediate investments.
But, he expressed optimism that the nation would be the better for it in the long run.
For 20 years, politics more than anything else has made the passage of the PIB impossible.
It would appear, even as industry experts and other Nigerians rejoice, that the kind of politiking which gave birth to the passage of the law by the National Assembly, would for a long time, influence the kind of reactions that are already emerging in the Niger Delta region and the South.
Chief Edwin Clark who leads PANDEF, a pan Niger Delta pressure group, did not appear to spare the President in his reaction.
Clark said the President’s action in signing the PIB into law was a clear illustration of what he described as the insensitivity of the system.
PANDEF said it was proof that the plight of the people of the mineral producing communities does not matter in any way to the Buhari administration.
As the news spreads across the Niger Delta, there were indications Monday night that anger and frustration, two behavioral reactions which are not in short supply in the region, may be welling up.
Whereas oil has put Nigeria on the map, Observers say the stark realities facing the people of the oil bearing communities has not changed.
These Nigerians live in abject poverty and squalor; their environment polluted and degraded.
They are surrounded by water everywhere, but they have none to drink.
Their settlements are shrinking in size, experts observe, because most communities are either lying below sea level or falling victims of erosion, flooding and subsidence.
Electric power, evidence of growing modernism and development, which should power local economies in the mangrove region separated from civilization by the deltaic terrain, has remained a scarce commodity.
There are similarly no roads in most of these communities, no jobs for the local people and no arable lands.
Oil spillages across vast lands; vast waterways; are signaling danger as the oil curse begins to manifest.
The implication is that fishing and other agricultural activities in these areas have been seriously disrupted while a food crisis is waiting to happen.
Given the mood, no one is sure at this time what shape the reaction of the Niger Delta people would take, or what the posture of the Federal Government might be.
Many in Rivers State and neighbouring Bayelsa State agree with the complaint raised by PANDEF, saying the authorities have not been fair in their judgment.
Many in Abia, Akwa Ibom, Delta, Edo, Imo and Ondo liken Nigeria to a mindless ‘bogeyman’ who cares very little about ‘ordinary everyday people’.
More of those voices are likely to speak up more forcefully in the days to come, according to what we are learning.
Discussions are reportedly going on among youth groups whose members are becoming pillars of the struggle.
These youths who operate under the banners of several ethnic platforms such as the IYC have been agitating for the inauguration of a proper NDDC board.
The Ijaw National Congress, INC, is purportedly studying the situation, dependable sources have told the Port Harcourt Telegraph.
In the meantime, other Nigerians are lending their voices, some in support of those who dwell by the country’s shoreline.
On Channels Television Monday night, Professor Oyebode outrightly condemned the decision to deploy 3% of distributable funds to the development of oil producing communities:
The professor many not be alone in expressing the view that adequate attention was not paid to contending interests.
Many in the Niger Delta want to understand what could have informed the decision to allocate 3% of funds from the pool to oil bearing communities while a huge slice of distributable funds have been funnelled to basin areas outside the region where exploration activities are taking place.
The intervention of the people of Southern Nigeria whose elected representatives now enjoy the luxury of meeting like their Northern counterparts, at least at the governmental level, has been largely ignored by federal lawmakers.
Recall that Southern Governors had earlier asked for the adoption of the 5% proposed by the House of Representatives.
Rotimi Akeredolu, Governor of Ondo State who presented the position of the South said the 3% approved by the Ahmed Lawan led Senate was meagre and unacceptable.
When the bill eventually sailed through, the position of Nigeria’s Senators appeared to have prevailed, especially after representatives of the House who were on their way to take part in a harmonization meeting held at the Senate failed to get there on time.
But Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila in rousing the House to support the passage of the bill spoke of a future that would allow the review of the law.
He said what should be critical in the estimation of lawmakers ought to be the passage of the bill, noting that posterity would recognize their contributions towards making the PIB a reality.
President Muhammadu Buhari did not mince words when he said during the signing ceremony that the new law has tremendous potentials, which could take efforts at diversifying the economy to newer heights.