The fact that the Niger Delta region that produces this revenue is one of the poorest regions in the world may be news especially to Nigerians, majority of whom, outside the Niger Delta do not know the situation on the ground. The Niger Deltans out of frustration have resolved to control their own resources (and rightly so) and they are called militants. If demanding what is rightly yours makes you a militant, then should it not be so? Imagine if this crude oil was in Northern Nigeria, will ‘Derivation’ (Resource Control) not be a major factor in revenue sharing in Nigeria.
All over the world areas with minority (within a country) that produce significant wealth do not have total control over their wealth and it will always be a source of conflict. We would do well if we can apply our senses and be fair and just. We can avoid the impending doom, we can avoid the looming disaster, and we can avoid the senseless chaos and guerilla war if we sit down together.
The Ijaw nation will not achieve total oil resource control- a fair and just sharing of the oil revenue will achieve more for the region and that is more feasible.( Contrast what is happening in Nigeria today with what is about to happen in Iraq. Unless they find a fair way of sharing the oil revenue, there will be civil war once the American pulls out and the winner will maintain control of the oil and they cycle of violence will continue.)
That the Nigerian government has allowed such environmental degradation is shameful. They have taken away the livelihood of the land occupants. These multinational oil companies can never behave like this in any western country. BP paid billion of dollars as compensation for the Alaska oil spill, why can’t the land occupants be compensated in the Niger Delta?
The people of Niger Delta can come together and sue these multinational oil companies for compensation. It is only when they have punitive damages against them, that's when when their behavior will change. MEND's intellectual wing should seek the services of international environmental lawyers and challenge these companies both in Nigeria and abroad.
There is a current effort by the federal government of Nigeria to address some of these issues? What has become of it? Right now the impression is that the militants are causing too much insecurity for the implementation of these programs. The militants may lose public sympathy it they continue like this. These guys need their thinking caps on, they need to approach this issue from several angles.
For the ‘militants’, the statements below say it all:
"No person is your friend who demands your silence or denies your right to grow" ... Alice Walker
“Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure….than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.”
…… Theodore Roosevelt
And to the reprobates that run Nigeria, my advice is to give the Niger Deltans what belongs to them and that is resource control.
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