Onset of militancy in the Niger Delta

The Niger Delta region moved closer to full blown armed hostilities with the resurgence of militancy and attacks on oil installations and infrastructure by a new militant group that called itself the Niger Delta Avengers. Last week, the Niger Delta Avengers blew up Chevron Valve Platform in Abiteye, Warri North local government area of Delta state. They had earlier in the year blown oil pipelines in the state promising to devastate oil installations in the region and other parts of the country.

Before then, and since the inception of the Buhari administration and the attempt to clamp down on erstwhile militant leaders, there has been tension in the region with various youth groups promising to wreck havoc on the oil installations and infrastructure and bring the economy to its knees on fears that they may no longer enjoy the largess they had enjoyed under previous governments.

  Earlier in the year, a youth group loyal to Government Ekpemupolo alias Tompolo launched a series of attacks on oil and gas pipelines in the creeks of Gbaramatu and Ugborodo areas of Warri South West and those in Egbema, North local government areas respectively of Delta state apparently following Tompolo’s ordeal at the hands of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and following an order by a federal high court for the arrest of Tompolo in connection with an alleged N34 billion fraud. According to media reports, the attacks were launched with General Purpose Machine-guns by youth in several boats. Already, the attacks have taken its toll on oil production as it knocked out over 90, 000 barrels a day of output – the lowest drop in about 20 years.

Expectedly, the President has come out spitting fire and threatening to crush the militants. He has quickly followed that promise by given a fresh order to the military crackdown on militant groups attacking oil installations.

We feel the issue of youth militancy in the Niger Delta is one that the government should handle with utmost care and wisdom and not by issuing threats and spoiling for war. Clearly, the government and security forces are stretched and as all military strategists will say, an army should avoid fighting a war on two fronts. The current war against Boko Haram is progressing well in the Northeast of the country and the government must not be in a hurry to open another front in the Niger Delta. Beyond the issue of inadequate resources to successfully prosecute the two wars successfully, the country risked being bogged down by a protracted war with frustrated and determined militants in the Niger Delta and from experience, it is the country that will suffer the consequences. Government must find creative and peaceful ways of handling the genuine grievances of the people of the region and managing the excesses of the youth.

Besides, the issue of youth militancy in Nigeria’s Niger Delta is a mixture of politics and economics.  Violent insurgency in the delta is shaped by the politics of extraction and rent seeking. Most of the youth leading the so-called struggle are trapped in the vortex of ‘youthness’ due to the difficult economic situation such that even when they grow older they continue to appropriate the space of youth as a means of accumulation. What is more,  remaining a ‘youth’ even when one is old is essential to remaining relevant as violent youth groups have supplanted local or community elders as real sources of power in the oil producing communities. So long as there are no means of youth becoming adults, so long as the dominant political system prevents the youth from actualising their potentials, these youth will continue to use violence as a potent means of extraction of their due from the Nigerian state.

The best way to tackle this menace therefore is not an all out declaration of war against such recalcitrant youth. Nigeria has gone through that route before and we know the consequences.

Besides, not a few Nigerians are surprised that the President found his voice quickly when the lifeblood of the country was threatened. Many are quick to contrast his response to the Niger Delta militants with the rampaging Fulani herdsmen that have been on a killing spree all over the country – a phenomenon the President said he was handling ‘silently’.