← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · Sertorius

Nigerian rebels occupy oil fields over leader arrest

Thread ID: 20405 | Posts: 4 | Started: 2005-09-26

Wayback Archive

Sertorius [OP]

2005-09-26 00:55 | User Profile

Sunday Herald - 25 September 2005 Nigerian rebels occupy oil fields over leader arrest From Fred Bridgland in Johannesburg

IN what looks like a re-run of the saga of Ken Saro-Wiwa, the Niger River Delta human rights campaigner hanged in 1995 after years of non-violent campaigning on behalf of his people, the government of Nigeria has arrested and charged with treason the latest delta leader.

The arrest of Alhaji Mujahid Dokubu Asari, after he called for the break up of the Nigerian state, comes at a critical time for the most populous country in Africa and for the entire international community.

Asari, the self-styled “Lord Of The Creeks”, has been leading a guerrilla campaign for independence for the oil-rich delta. Nigeria is the world’s eighth largest producer of oil. But although it is all pumped to the surface in the delta and from waters offshore, the five delta states receive only 13% of the oil revenues, and their 22 million people live in dire poverty among widespread pollution which environmental groups say has been created by companies such as Shell and Chevron.

Armed guerrillas began shutting down oil facilities in the delta following Asari’s arrest last week in Abuja, Nigeria’s federal capital. [B]They threatened to blow up oil installations across west and central Africa, a region which now supplies an estimated 25% of America’s oil needs, unless their leader was released from detention.[/B]

Fighters in Asari’s 6000-strong Niger Delta People’s Volunteer Force set a deadline of this weekend for his release before the group unleashes what it called, in a statement, “violence and grave mayhem never before reported in the history of the Nigerian state”. The statement went on: “We will kill every iota of oil operations in the Niger Delta. We will destroy anything and everything. We will challenge our enemies in our territory and we shall feed them to the vultures.”

Residents in the main delta city, Port Harcourt, described the situation there as “unbelievably tense” as bandana-wearing guerrillas, toting automatic weapons and machetes, arrived in speedboats from the swamps and began unloading boxes of dynamite and weapons. Many wore special charms as a sign of their belief in the Ijaw god of war – Igbesu – which they believe makes them impervious to bullets. The Ijaw are one of the biggest of the delta’s many tribes.

Foreigners living in Port Harcourt were advised to leave by the guerrillas, who said they would destroy petroleum facilities if 41-year-old Asari, the son of a high court judge, is not released. Two installations belonging to Chevron have already been overrun, but Shell, which produces nearly half of Nigeria’s 2.4 million barrels a day output, is also evacuating non-essential staff.

Together with Hurricane Rita in the Gulf of Mexico, the Niger Delta crisis is stoking the escalation in world oil prices.

Asari is a heavyset, flamboyant convert from Christianity to Islam, who has two wives and six children. He drives an elegant black SUV and carries a heavy walking stick, a traditional symbol of authority in Africa. He attracts fanatical support from thousands of delta inhabitants, tapping into a deep vein of anger against the federal government for its failure to deliver services such as power, education and healthcare.

“Asari is a rich man who could retire for the rest of his life, but he doesn’t because he is a freedom fighter,” said Aigbekhai Godwin, an Asari loyalist in Port Harcourt, the hub of Nigeria’s oil industry. Western oil industry executives, however, argue that Asari’s group runs a lucrative protection racket in Port Harcourt, extorting large fees from companies under threats of violence.

Asari first attracted international attention last year when his threats against the oil industry drove world oil prices above $50 a barrel for the first time. He fought sporadic gun battles with the army for several months before President Olusegun Obasanjo invited him for talks in Abuja, where Asari signed a peace deal. But in the months following the pact, Asari moved back to his sumptuous Port Harcourt house and held rallies to demand independence for the vast Niger Delta wetlands.

Asari has never embraced the peaceful tactics that made the execution of writer Ken Saro-Wiwa’s so terrible and widely condemned. “It is only violence that brings tyrants to their senses because tyrants survive by violence,” Asari said in a recent interview. Asari could, however, share Saro-Wiwa’s fate if convicted of treason, for the offence carries the death penalty in Nigeria. Whether Asari is a freedom fighter or a mere bandit, there is little doubt that the people who live in the delta’s vast rainforests and mangrove swamps have genuine grievances against the central government.

The oil from their region provides 80% of the federal government’s annual revenue while they suffer from acute poverty, unemployment and an almost total collapse of their infrastructure and traditional industries, such as fishing, which has been destroyed by oil pollution.

Many of the delta’s destitute – including Asari’s loyalists – have turned to oil theft, siphoning oil from the pipelines that criss-cross the region onto barges which then ferry the product to rusting Albanian and Ukrainian tankers lying offshore, chartered by Lebanese middlemen.

By some estimates, this illegal trade is worth more than Colombia’s entire drug trade and it has spawned scores of well-armed gangs. Nalaguo Chris Alagoa, who runs the Nigerian branch of Pro-Natura International, a Paris-based conservation movement working on community development projects with the people of the delta, gave a grave warning about the latest crisis.

“Nigeria is like a country sitting on a keg of gunpowder. The delta’s resources are what supports the whole country. The fuse is getting shorter and shorter and the day the keg explodes Nigeria will go to pieces,” said Alagoa.

Dr Mofia Akoba, Nigeria’s former Oil Minister, is now an environmental activist in the delta. “The people who live among this oil don’t have anything to show for it,” he said from his ramshackle home in Port Harcourt.

“It’s not like Saudi oil where the oil is in the desert far away from the people. Here they live among the pipelines and rigs and all they get is air and land pollution. They are prepared to do without oil for two or three generations until a humane government is in place that uses the revenues in a responsible way.”

Copyright © 2005 smg sunday newspapers ltd. no.176088 [url]http://www.sundayherald.com/print51904[/url]

Howard Campbell, Jr.

2005-09-26 04:06 | User Profile

25%!! I would have guessed under 5%...

Time for Junior to kiss up to President Chavez. :wink:

Sertorius

2005-09-26 05:04 | User Profile

Howard,

Yep. The best thing Bush can do right now is to shut the hell up about invading other countries and mind his own damn business. We have a full plate as things stand.

Angeleyes

2005-09-26 18:01 | User Profile

[QUOTE=Howard Campbell, Jr.]25%!! I would have guessed under 5%...

Time for Junior to kiss up to President Chavez. :wink:[/QUOTE]The American Petroleum Institute (API) cited Nigeria's share as about 10% last time I looked. I don't think they have much reason to lie.

[QUOTE]Asari has never embraced the peaceful tactics that made the execution of writer Ken Saro-Wiwa’s so terrible and widely condemned. “It is only violence that brings tyrants to their senses because tyrants survive by violence,” Asari said in a recent interview. Asari could, however, share Saro-Wiwa’s fate if convicted of treason, for the offence carries the death penalty in Nigeria. Whether Asari is a freedom fighter or a mere bandit, there is little doubt that the people who live in the delta’s vast rainforests and mangrove swamps have genuine grievances against the central government. [/QUOTE]Standard African "leader." If he takes over, it will be yet another case of "meet the new boss, same as the old boss."

AE