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A thorough by-pass of all sentiments, emotions and political inclinations would clearly show that President Umaru Yar’Adua may not be as sincere as he portends in addressing the obvious and pressing concerns in the Niger Delta region.

The president’s declaration at the 2008 budget presentation to the National Assembly, that “Broadly, the 2008 budget provides N444.6 billion for security and the Niger Delta…” was clearly packaged to deceive. The President who went ahead to highlight that the sum represents 20 percent of the total Federal Government budget added a rider that the allocation is a 6.5 percent increase from 2007 allocation.

Maybe we should give the president a standing ovation; after all the government is already doing something towards alleviating the suffering of the battered and agitating people of the Niger Delta. How else can anybody describe this but to say that it was a well calculated attempt maybe by omission to deceive not only the people of the region but the entire country into believing that there is a genuine concern and effort to address some of the clearly identified problems of the region.

The obscured looping together of security and development of Niger Delta in 2008 budgetary allocation unfortunately conveys the impression that the challenge of the region is merely the enforcement of security without an adequate investment in infrastructural development. This obviously cannot be a sustainable solution to the deteriorating situation in the region.

Question for Mr President: Is the agitation of the Niger Delta people for correction of years of development imbalance and resource plundering being treated as an issue of security of oil flow?

The Federal Government’s actual mindset was exposed when the President said: “We will fully provide the following transfers…..Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), N69.9 billion as against N24 billion in 2007.” A quick arithmetic would show that the 20 percent increase in allocation for the interventionist development of the Niger Delta as insinuated by the Federal Government was just a meagre increase in NDDC’s allocation as against the N444.6 billion dangled to the National Assembly as meant for the Niger Delta or rather for the security of Niger Delta oilfields.

In the real sense of it, there is no special provision for the Niger Delta in the 2008 budget other than that which the federal government is obliged under the law to provide under statutory transfers to the NNDC. So where is the development component for the Niger Delta in the N444.6 billion? If this is not deceit, what else can anyone call it?

The same Federal Government in the same budget unknowingly also disclosed that it would spend 444.6 billion on security “to enhance the preparedness of our security services. We have therefore proposed 444.6 billion for the military and the police. We are providing our security services with all requisite force enablers and multipliers, including arms and ammunition, improve information and telecommunications equipment and facilities, riot control equipment…” So where is the development component for the Niger Delta region in the above security details of how the N444.6 billion is going to be spent?

The lumping of security allocation in the budget with development of Niger Delta was nothing but a craftily packaged mischief. In the details of the budget as presented by President Yar’Adua, it was very clear that the Federal Government was more interested in securing supply of oil rather than doing any tangible development project in the area.

It is very surprising that the federal government is yet to realise the fact that it is not the amount of arms and ammunition that you have that will guarantee peace in the region but the level of infrastructural development-human and infrastructural. The issue or rather the solution to the crisis in the Niger Delta is not police, army or navy but infrastructural development- pure and simple.

From the budget presentation, it is clear that the federal government has made up its mind not to do anything that could be described as development intervention in the trouble region. It is the height of insincerity for the federal government to treat with disdain the issue of development intervention in the Niger Delta when over 80 percent of the funding for the proposed fiscal expenditures is expected to come from oil and gas in the region. Haba! As was rightly pointed out by a senator from the region, “the executive must do something and stop embarrassing not only itself but the entire nation.”

If the federal government’s argument is that there cannot be any meaningful intervention in the development of the region without adequate security, then on grounds of equity and sincerity, the Niger Delta development component should take over 70 percent of the N444.6 billion Niger Delta security vote. The people of the area are agitating for tangible development not over-bearing military occupation.

To avoid trading of blames and accusations of misappropriation among the stakeholders including the federal government and NDDC and especially in the spirit of transparency and accountability, the National Assembly should clearly state the exact amount government anticipated to spend in the 2008 fiscal year towards the development of the troubled region.

The National Assembly particularly the Senate owes it as a duty to strengthen out all the grey areas in the expenditure profile especially the thorny issue of the federal government’s promised development intervention in the Niger Delta. Rather than pass a budget which cannot be implemented, the lawmakers should withhold passage of the appropriation bill until clear defined details are provided. If the Senate fails to do that, it should be ready to take the blame for whatever lapses that may be experienced at during or at the end the fiscal year.

The National Assembly particularly the Senate must resolve to urge the Federal Government to muster enough will power not just to fulfill its obligation to the area but to actually implement programmes and projects that people can see and say yes: if government continues like this for 10 years most of the sore issues in the battered region if not comprehensively addressed but at least tangibly touched.  For, it is the lack of such will power that caused the last administration to, till date dump the detailed and laudable report by the Alex Ogumudia panel which understudied the problems of the Niger Delta. Most of the troubles arising from the region today would have been avoided if the Ogumudia report was implemented.