All Party Parliamentary Group on Nigeria Annual Report 2009
4. Danger and Opportunity in the Niger Delta The APPG was once again unable to visit the Niger Delta region owing to security concerns. This is greatly regrettable as the APPG believes that international attention, engagement and mediation are needed in the Niger Delta. The Chair of the Group met with a delegation from Delta State in November 2008. It was clear from this meeting that there is a will, among many in the Niger Delta, to enable a return to a peaceful environment. This is dependent, however, on a tangible change in people’s circumstances in the Delta region. They need to see development. However, in order for development to happen there needs to be security. At present the situation in the Niger Delta remains little changed. Oil workers remain potential targets for kidnapping by militants and all Nigerian civilians are at risk from violence and kidnapping by armed criminal gangs. Many people make a distinction between the militant groups, particularly the most prominent Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), and criminal gangs, but this line appears to be increasingly blurred as profit supplants politics as motivation. However, MEND, a loose affiliation of leaders of armed groups, remains the most visible and apparently well-organised group when it comes to conflict politics and attacks on oil installations and workers. It has also shown its dominance by intervening in the activities of criminal gangs operating in the area. The crisis in the Niger Delta will take great efforts by multiple parties to resolve. Without a unified effort to date by federal, state and local government, oil companies, the international community, international NGOs and the people of the Niger Delta, it is unsurprising that there has been little progress. However, while progress is slow, the region’s most vulnerable people face daily insecurity, perhaps the risk of violence and most certainly the costs of poverty. The APPG hopes that the Minister of the Niger Delta will be able to undertake this task of bringing the various actors together to enable some kind of coordinated effort to move forward. The Group also believes that the UK could play an important role as convener and mediator. There are practical steps that could be taken now to help ameliorate the situation in the region. In 2008 President Yar’Adua asked for assistance in reaching international agreements to have bunkered oil classified as ‘blood oil’. This would help to prevent profiteering from the theft of oil for sale on international markets, and thereby reduce the flow of illegal arms to the region. Once the technology for crude oil finger-printing is ready, the APPG believes that the British Government could take a lead role in trying to bring about an international agreement on the classification of ‘blood oil’. This important step would, however, require the support and cooperation of other governments as well as international oil companies. At the same time as trying to end crude oil theft for major profit, there needs to be investment in infrastructure and social projects in the region, with the goal of creating jobs. In the APPG’s report Chair: John Robertson MP * Portcullis House London SW1A 2LW * Contact: edonnelly@chathamhouse.org.uk
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