The Niger Delta Question has been a pressing issue for the past 40years, but was given force of expression in the reawakening of Democracy in 1999. It is an enquiry into what has caused fierce agitations emanating from crude oil exploration in the region. This Question has three key players who must find answers viz; the Federal Government, International Oil Companies and the various ethnic groups (community leaders and people) who live within the region.
In 1958 the Wilink Minorities and Fiscal Commission Report recommended that the Niger Delta Region be accorded special development attention because it required particular economic assistance in commensuration with its contributions to national economic development. Since then, the region has grown to become the major revenue earner in Nigeria.
Agitations by the people of the region to get fair treatment have equally sustained over the years. The agitations are in various forms; from street protests, intellectual advocacy to arms struggles, leaving the region in dire need for basic rehabilitation, and the country in fluctuating economic growth. These have kept the region in a state of severe environmental pollution and colossal waste of human life and property. National economy has also been badly hit, with incessant oil facilities vandalization causing a downturn in the quantity of crude oil sales per day, leaving the region a very difficult terrain in many ramifications.
In the quest to answering this Question environmental activists notably Ken Saro-wiwa and his friends made unsuccessful attempts to take on the intellectual path of answering it but were stopped by the firm hand of the supreme military government of Gen. Sani Abacha. Activism failed because it was not strong enough a force to contend with the enormous challenge that the Question is.
In the quest to answering this same Question, prominent militant groups (comprising various ethnic groups in the region) like the Niger Delta Avengers (2016), Red Egbesu Water Lions (2016), Joint Niger Delta Liberation Force (2016), Niger Delta Red Square (2016), Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (2004-2014), Niger Delta People's Volunteer Force (2003-2009), Niger Delta Liberation Front (2005-2014), Joint Revolutionary Council (2004-2014) and the Niger Delta Vigilante (2004-2009) have given us one side of how people have tried to answer this question. Still, militancy is making things worse as arms struggle is interpreted by the government as a direct affront on its powers and sovereignty. Hence, militancy has complicated issues and will never answer the Question.
The Federal Government on its part has employed several means to answer the Question. It has created the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs (MNDA), the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) and Amnesty Office in the Presidency, which have attempted to bridge the gap in infrastructure and human capital in the region. These agencies are existing to develop the social, infrastructural and human capital of the region. This is tending towards improving the capacity of the region in ways that would be practically sustainable. This seems to be a better avenue to answering this Question. But more is desired of them in the implementation of their mandate.
While the Amnesty Programme is a palliative that will soon be scrapped, the mandates of the MNDA and NDDC are the only available means that can sufficiently and adequately answer the Niger Delta Question.
The solutions lies in the MNDA ministerial offices of Pastor Usani Uguru Usani and Professor Claudius Daramola, as well as the Board of the NDDC which they now supervise. Like Usani spoke when inaugurating the new board of the NDDC; the narrative of the Niger Delta must be rewritten.
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