PERSPECTIVE
In his latest podcast to Niger Delta stakeholders and the Nigerian public, Minister of State, Petroleum, Dr. Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu speaks on the rationale and details of the Buhari administration’s 20 point plan for resolving the challenges of militancy in the Niger Delta
Militancy in the Niger Delta is the biggest challenge facing the oil sector. At the highest point of the disruptions in 2016, we were producing about 1.2million barrels. That means we were losing literally one million barrels of oil per day. Jobs were out, pipelines were strewn all over the place, refineries couldn’t work to capacity, environment was degraded, we couldn’t even meet our contractual international obligations and the economy basically suffered.
The Niger Delta issue is an old problem which has defied attempts by successive administrations to resolve. But the Buhari administration is taking steps headlong to resolve it once and for all. We have defined and outlined 20 strategic actions to help us to realize that objective.
Engagement Town Hall Meetings
The first strategic action is engagement, engagement, engagement. Beginning soon, we will be facilitating Town Hall Meetings once every two months. In these meetings, we will have the state government, the military, the oil companies, and the stakeholders. The objective will be to drill down on issues that affect the particular state, isolate the issues that are causing problems, and identify practical ways to deal with them.
Ring Fenced State Approach
Part of the problem with resolving the militancy problem in the Niger Delta is that it has been dealt with more as a broad national issue without drilling it down to the specifics. We intend to change that. Those who have kept the peace should also be given incentives. To achieve this, each state must develop a fit for measure solution. I will be working with state Governors to identify the peculiarities of every state and what we need to do to bring a solution to that state. Once we do that, the opportunities in contracting, securing the pipelines and other business opportunities within that particular state coming from the oil sector would go to that community substantially. The result is that indigenes of the state can protect themselves from incursions by criminal elements coming in from other states to cause confusion.
Peace and Investment on State Basis
If you have peace you have investment. If you don’t have peace you cannot have investment. The federal government would collaborate with states to propel investments to come into those areas that can guarantee peace. If they don’t provide the peace, they lose the jobs, the contracting that will enable the state to grow. So we are going to be launching a Peace & Investment Initiative on a State Basis so we can incentivize those states, who are able to maintain the peace.
Core Business Focus (Modular Refineries, Plants, Refineries)
At the heart of militancy is economics. That is why over time people have hijacked it from what was a real concern movement to crisis entrepreneurship. So we need to focus on bringing businesses into the region to create employment.
To this end, we are going to focus on modular refineries. Our plan is to target one modular refinery per each of the oil producing state working with respective oil producing states and private investors.
We are also going to look at gas processing plants and floating filling stations to address from a core business analysis the needs of a particular state. If you create the business you will create the jobs, you create an appreciation of the environment and take people away from core militancy.
Jobs: 100,000 Target across Each State over The Next 5 Years
This will be done using a public and private sector approach. I will be working with state governments to try and drive this initiative working with consultants and prospective investors.
Incentive for Peace Scheme
Under this scheme, the federal will drive international investment focus to states who are able to create peace. We’ll be looking at different structures to realize this objective. One of them is creating gas clusters and industrial parks export gas or oil parks which will enable them set up of investment areas that investors can come in on the basis that peace would be guaranteed. The peace will not only be guaranteed by the government of those states but by the youths and stakeholders who are really the major beneficiaries of such a scheme.
Massive Civil Infrastructure Revamp – Schools, Hospitals, Skill Centers Etc
This is not only for the states. The reality is that all our pipelines are old. Most of our gas transmission and distribution systems are old. Our depots are hardly functioning. We will work with NNPC to source third party funds to massively carry out an infrastructural revamp of the assets that are required in the industry. The collateral effect of this is that lots of jobs would be created in the region.
But in addition, we want to target specific investments in these areas. One specialist school per state. One Specialist hospital per state. One Specialist Skill Center per state. We need to pull people away from militancy, put them back into schools, and put them back into areas where they can have the kind of facilities that will make them proud of their areas.
Clean Up Our Mess
The President started strong with the launch of the Ogoni Clean Up Campaign. The process has begun. But there are a lot more clean ups like he said that needs to be done. We will continue to closely work with the federal ministry of environment to begin the work on cleaning the environment. It will be structured such that every state has a program for clean up working with the oil companies that operate in the communities. Clean up means work in the hands of people who are involved, it means better environment, it means they can begin to focus on agriculture.
Domesticate Oil Business Activities
Nothing is as sad as for people who produce resources as not having access to those resource opportunities. So as we begin to look at the marginal fields grants, refinery revamps, we are going to be creating opportunities for indigenes of those areas to participate but not to the exclusion of other Nigerians.
Niger Delta Devt Fund Initiative
Previously, some of these areas pay a big price for producing oil for the country. We need to find a way to attract foreign investors working with foreign investors, state and federal governments to create a fund initiative to address long term cross border, cross state type of investment.
Militancy to Education Initiative
The key focus will be to move children from militancy to education. We will provide incentives in school. The federal government’s school feeding program will be introduced. We will create additional scholarship opportunities. Parastatals such as PTDF will be expanding scholarship schemes to some of these communities alongside oil companies so people will have an incentive to go back to school instead of engaging in criminal activities.
State Amnesty Programme
Amnesty has been a successful federal program in terms of what it has done to suck out people. A lot of the people who today work with us are ex militants. But the federal government cannot continue to fund amnesty on its own given the present financial condition.
So I will be working with the Amnesty program Director, General Boroh to look at possibilities of instituting state amnesty programs. Youths involved in militancy will be pulled out, put in the amnesty program which will help them find work and train them under the support of the federal amnesty program.
Policing for Peace – The Security Apparatus
The first obligation of any government is to maintain the peace. We cannot continue a consistent pattern in which militants hold the federal government to ransom. It will not happen. The President we have is very focused, very direct and very experienced in this. We are going to try in our way to help equip the security apparatus to help them monitor and do their work better.
Conclusion
To be able to roll out this 20 initiatives, I have appointed a Special Adviser who will work in my office to make sure that we are keeping an eye on the ball, delivering on these results that are very critical. The time is very critical. We cannot continue to bleed. This country needs all the money that it can get. It needs all the stability that it can get in a period where we are going through a recessive environment.
