The Proposed Niger Delta Summit – Any Hope For A Breakthrough?

By

Abubakar Atiku Nuhu-Koko

aanuhukoko@yahoo.com

 

 

The yet another in the endless series of summits on the Niger Delta region’s unresolved grievances is expected to provide President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua’s administration a synthesis of the already known grievances and solutions (remember, there is already a comprehensive Niger Delta Region Master Plan and an implementing statutory agency; the Niger Delta Development Commission – NDDC on ground) regarding the lingering Niger Delta conundrum.

 

It is a known fact that over the past 50 years or so, and particularly in the immediate past eight years (1999-2007), the overall physical, social and economic development problems and challenges facing the people in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria have been “over diagnosed” and   solutions have been proffered to each and every problem found.

 

To arrive at this stage we are today regarding the Niger Delta problems, numerous diagnostic processes were carried out by the successive Nigerian governments in the search for sustainable development solutions for the region. Hence, huge sums of money, human intellects and time were committed since the early 1950s to date. Paradoxically however, as with any development problem or challenge in Nigeria, there are no tangible dividends to benefit from all these invested and committed scarce resources over the years.

 

The irony is that, rather than transforming the region from the nation’s most neglected and abused backyard economy into Nigeria’s most priced and envied “golden triangle” (a natural delta is physically triangular in shape) that produces the most attractive and most sort after “golden eggs” use for the transformation of the totality of Nigeria, the place has been turned into the fastest breeding ground for militants and militant activities; second only to Iraq.

 

There are a number of yet to be explained questions now facing concerned Nigerians on this very important national issue.  Two of the most important of all the probable questions on these issues are: a) why most there be another Summit before the Yar’Adua’s administration and all other partners involved with this problem start to do what is expected of them? b) Why most the federal government allows itself to be engrossed in an unnecessary controversy regarding who chairs and or coordinates the proposed summit? In other words, why most Ambassador Professor Ibrahim A. Gambari, the United Nations (UN) Under Secretary for Political Affairs be the one to direct the conduct of the summit?

 

The answer to the first question is very simple and straight forward. It all boils down to unnecessary waste of public funds for the sole purposes of massaging the egos of the so-called leaders, academicians, civil society barons  and other hangers-on in the corridors of power. It is an integral part of the new Jamboree culture that has now become well entrenched in our national psyche.

 

One of the problems with us, Nigerians, is that, what can simply be done using the existing statutory arrangements for public consultations as provided for under our democratic dispensation (i.e. elected representatives at the local, state and national levels); we always want to do using extra-constitutional ways. These alernative routes are usually chosen because they are juicer (i.e. allow for free flow of patronage and rent-seeking activities) and grandiose (i.e. open to abuse and corrupt practices) than using the statutory provisions.

 

I am not against convening of conferences, summits, retreats, seminars and workshops per se. Actually, I enjoy participating in them. However, what I am not comfortable with, is the amount of wastes associated with such grandiose Jamborees whose outcomes more often than not, end up gathering dust on tables or locked up in secret cabinets.

The answer to the second question regarding the controversy already generated with the invitation extended to His Excellency Ambassador Gambari to chair and or coordinate the proposed summit is also a simple one. Gambari’s choice is a bad one for all the good reasons advanced by all the concerned stakeholders for his rejection. For any intervention or mediation in conflict situation to succeed, some of the minimum requirements are trust and confidence in the whole process by all the parties in conflict before a neutral arbitrator. Therefore, it is in light of this basic principle that I view the objection to Gambari’s appointment. It is not personal but a professional, moral and ethical dilemma. Thus the Niger Delta people need to have an absolute trust in any individual that is charged with any responsibility throughout the summit.

Thus my understanding is that Professor Gambari is being rejected not because he is a bad person but for the role he played during one of the trying period of our history – the hanging of late activist Ken Saro Wiwa (May his gentle soul rest in evergreen peace, Amen). He might have his own justification for the role he played. However, that role, of necessity, disqualifies him from the very important role he is being invited to play in the proposed summit on the Niger Delta. The two roles are diametrically opposite!

 

The Presidency is been unnecessarily misadvised on this very important and sensitive issue. Many Nigerians are in agreement with those asking Ambassador Gambari to withdraw his acceptance of the invitation to chair or coordinate the proposed summit in respect of the good and aggrieved peoples of the Niger Delta region and in the spirit of national reconciliation over the past sad episodes. I hope and pray that he will use his wisdom and do so in good faith. Nigeria is still proud of his excellent works at the UN and will continue to support him as the nation’s highly regarded top diplomat.

 

As I pointed out above, the Niger Delta problems are well known and similarly, the solutions to the problems are equally well known. What are lacking are the political will and the institutional capacity and quality to implement the solutions.  Therefore, if am correct, what the summit most address are these lacunae.

 

The summit should devote time to address the twin issue of political will by all the stakeholders (i.e., federal, states and local governments; oil companies, community leaders, development partners/donors, civil society originations etc) and institutional capacity and quality (i.e., the rot at the NDDC) to implement the Niger Delta Master Plan.

 

For instance, unless the general public is assured that every development Naira budgeted for the execution of the Niger Delta Master Plan is going to be judiciously applied and not misapplied or looted, the political will and resolve by those stakeholders being asked to make financial contributions will be very difficult to galvanize. This is where the implementation problem is rooted. It is not the problem of lack of money. But how the money is going to be used (or looted), if my understating of the political economy dynamics of the stalemate on this vexed issue is correct.

Therefore, the summit most address the central issues of transparency and accountably regarding the use of the multi-billion naira transformative programs and projects encapsulated in the Niger Delta Master Plan. This calls for de-linking of the appointments of the Board and executive management of the NDDC from local, regional and national geo-ethnic and geo-politics. For example, the choice of who becomes the Chairperson/Member or Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the NDDC must be based purely on personal merit, integrity and professional callings among other set criteria.

The appointments must not be based on other primordial political, ethnic and or regional considerations. For instance, if the person has an ambition of becoming a Governor or what have you, and is clamoring to use the NDDC as a stepping stone to achieve such an ambition, then that person or those persons must not be allowed to hold any position of financial responsibility in the NNDC.

Last and by no mean the least, the organizers of the summit and all Nigerians will enjoy the benefits of having the pioneer set of Nigerians, who were tasked by the then Abubakar Tafawa Balewa’s administration of finding solutions to the intractable problems, challenges and development needs of the Niger Delta region more than 40 years ago. These living individuals are: former President Alhaji Shehu Shagari and former Governor of old Rivers State, Chief (Senator) Mel ford Okilo. They toured the entire Niger Delta region by canoe and on foot. After which, they recommended the establishment of the now defunct Niger Delta Development Board (NDDB).

Probably if the civil war did not disrupt the take-off of the defunct NDDB, the situation we are facing in the region as of today will be a different one; not development failures, but enviable human and physical progress in the region. Also, had former President Olusegun Obasanjo allowed former President Shehu Shagari to proceed with the convening of his own initiated comprehensive national summit on Political Conflicts and the Niger Delta in 2001/2002, probably there would have been no need for this very proposed summit. It is interesting to point out that the Shagari’s proposed national conference was endorsed by many of the protagonists of the “Sovereign National Conference”, including the revered and highly respected Chief Anthony Enahoro and the late Chief F.R.A. Williams of the Patriots!

Ironically however, the Shagari’s initiative, after saving former President Obasanjo from the serious threat of impeachment by the then Speaker Ghali Umar Na’Abba-led House of Representatives, was later hijacked by the Presidency and turned into the now infamous National Political Conference. The outcome of that failed conference is now resting permanently in the dust bin of Nigerian political history. The hidden agenda of “Third Term” was killed and dumped with the ill-conceived enterprise.

Therefore, asking these same elder statesmen (i.e., former President Alhaji Shehu Shagari and Chief Senator Mel ford Okilo) to once again, perform the civic duty of chairing and co-chairing the proposed summit will not be asking them for too much. After all, they say: to whom much is giving, more is expected! To cap it all, the duo of highly respected and regarded Ambassador Emeka Anyaoku and Chief Senator Joseph Wayas can be asked to head the Secretariat of the Summit as Director/Secretary-General and alternate respectively.

A quick decision on this issue can resolve the challenge of who should chair or coordinate the proposed summit. The nation and indeed, the good people of Niger Delta will be much happier the earlier all the sticking points militating against the resolution of the Niger Delta conundrum are amicably resolved in the national interest.  

In the short run, the success of the summit will not only bring lasting peace, security and development to the region, but also the camaraderie and solidarity that will come out from such a summit. In the long run, the outcomes of such a summit that brings together all local, regional, national and international stakeholders in search for solutions to the implementation of the Niger Delta Master Plan and related issues will ensure justice, fairness and equity to the long deprived region and its good peoples. These and other goodies are just the minimum expectations that should emanate from the summit and all levels of governments and all other stakeholders commitment to them. In the mean time, there must be cessation of all militant hostile and disruptive activities in the region in order to give dialogue a chance.

 

Abubakar Atiku Nuhu-Koko

Tuesday, June 24, 2008