By Akanimo Sampson
These are certainly troubling times for the Nigeria. There are battle fronts everywhere, and the government under the watch of President Muhammadu Buhari, a supposed progressive of the All Progressives Congress (APC) appears to be overwhelmed. After his seeming failed political intercourse with the defunct All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), one of the coalition parties in the APC, Buhari jumped ship and adorn a progressive toga on the platform of the defunct Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), also one of the coalition parties he founded.
Sheikh Ahmad Abubakar Mahmoud Gumi, a seeming radical Islamic scholar based in Kaduna, told The Sun in an interview that the insecurity situation in the country today, “Every single Nigerian is feeling the brunt. It is very treacherous, anything can happen anytime, anywhere. It is widespread, if it is concentrated on a localised place, it would have been curtailed. But generally, lack of institutional infrastructures and poverty in the land are responsible for insecurity in the country.’
Continuing, he said, “I don’t believe so much in conspiracy theory, these things (security situation) started long time before the advent of this administration. The Fulani herdsmen menace and its repercussion, I have seen it growing slowly before this government came to power. It became saturated because of the economic factor, suddenly the economy came into stagnation, and the people became desperate. So the economy blew out, and the security apparatus lacks adequate manpower and instruments to control the situation. It was a gradual thing and the economy bears the main point. You could see children under the age of 15 planning to kidnap, to get what? Money because poverty is too widespread. So when you don’t get the economy right, you are going to destroy everything.’’
Gumi spoke as leaders of Kula, a large community comprising Offionama, Belema and Ngeje, in Akuku-Toru local government area of Rivers State, one of the big oil states in Nigeria, and easily the oil and gas capital of the country, are insisting that the licence the authorities gave to the Anglo-Dutch oil and gas major, Shell, must be revoked and the oil company vacates the location.
Before the Rivers uprising, (Igbimo Agba Yoruba), Dr Kunle Olajide, the Secretary General of the Yoruba Council of Elders, had said that the six states of Western Nigeria as well as Kwara and Kogi states will soon have a common law banning nomadic cattle.
Olajide, who spoke in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, said, there was no grazing routes any longer in Yorubaland, pointing out that the presence of Fulani herdsmen in Ondo is bad and a dangerous signal that Western Nigeria is indeed, not safe. “It is totally unacceptable. Not even now that there is mistrust across ethnic nationalities. In the six South-West states as well as Kwara and Kogi states, we will jointly outlaw nomadic cattle breeding’’, he said.
The Aare Ona Kakanfo of Yorubaland and National Coordinator of the Oodua Peoples Congress, Chief Gani Adams, had similarly warned that the OPC will not tolerate herdsmen vigilantes in Yorubaland. “We will not accept the use of herdsmen either for private or public security in the region. We are not threatening. It is not our style. Any member of the OPC that threatens is not a genuine member. But we are saying this is our position on the matter. A Yoruba man cannot wake up in the North to do this. There is no single Yoruba in Civilian JTF in Maiduguri, Borno State,’’ he said.
In a seeming bid to douse tension in his home axis, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo on Tuesday in Osogbo, the Osun State capital said that the Federal Government will explore community policing and neighbourhood watch programme to tackle growing insecurity in the Western part of the fractured country.
Osinbajo who made these disclosures while briefing journalists at the Osun State Government House, Oke Fia shortly after the end of consultative stakeholders’ meeting with traditional rulers, maintained that government through the relevant security agencies and stakeholders will collaborate effectively with the traditional rulers to further strengthen the security at the local level.
According to him, “The theme of our discussion is security and we spent quite a lot of time to understand the security architecture of the state and also to identify where the difficulties may lie. You know that we have already held consultation with all the state governors, including governors from the South West. We have also held consultation with the service chiefs. But, this stage of consultation with the traditional rulers is very important because they are key to architectural security of the state, particularly because of the plan we have for community policing, which is one of the methods we have adopted.’’
Osinbajo said, “I am sure you have heard about the IG’s plan about recruiting policemen locally in their local government and the policemen would work in their local government so that they would better understand the terrain and neighbourhoods. Of course, we also expect that they would be involved in working with the neighbourhood programme and in addition as a matter of fact the traditional rulers are the interface between the state government-owned security architecture and the neighbourhood watch and community policing. Obviously, we are trying to look at how all of this would work effectively. We would need more money and men on the ground. We need more security personnel.’’
On last week’s violent protests in Abuja by members of the Shiites Muslim movement, Osinbajo said “I am sure you have heard what the President said about it already and the instruction given to the Inspector General of the Police. Some of these issues we are thinking ahead about it. I am very sure that given a lot of what has been done and what the IG is doing, they would be able to contain some of these security challenges.’’
In an interactive session with journalists, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, the Ooni of Ife, said the government had given the commitment to commence aerial monitoring of all the forests in the South West to tackle all forms of criminality. “We had a closed-door meeting that was very successful. The Presidency can now feel the concern of traditional rulers. We also believe that the programme the government has put in place can work’’, he said.
The monarch added, “We are very happy about the programme of neighbourhood watch and community policing, which we have been talking about for a very long time. And, without community policing, we can progress that much. We as Kings and monarchs of various communities would work for hand in hand with security agencies. What the government is now putting in place is aerial monitoring of all the forests in the South West on a routine and occasional basis. We got a commitment from the government concerning aerial monitoring of forests. They will deploy more security personnel to the South West so that all the concern and fear of the citizens would come down.”
“This would give our subjects, especially those in the diaspora that their input is very significant to their various communities because they are afraid now to come home. With what is happening now, we need them to start coming home. We need to assure them that we have a positive programme in place. We would monitor those programmes closely for implementation. It won’t be a regular talk show. We want them to work the talk.’’
Also at the meeting were Oluwo of Iwo, Oba Abdulrasheed Olawale Akanbi, Ogiyan of Ejigbo, Oba Omowonuola Oyewole Oyesosin, Owa of Ijesaland, Oba Adekunle Aromolaran, Aragbiji of Iragbiji, Oba Abdulrasheed Olabomo, Orangun of Oke Ila Orangun, Oba Adedokun Abolarin among others.
In the mean time, the insistence of the Kula leaders is coming on the heel of the recent shut down of OML 25 operated by Shell, by their communities. Spokesman for Belema community, Fiala Okoye Davies, an engineer, said the operations of Shell since they donated their land to the company in 1980 to build the Belema flow-station has been total failure and nightmare.
Recalling how the alleged ill-treatment of Shell forced the community to embark on protest in 2005 and 2014,leading to shut down of the facility, which ended up in their entering into a Global Memorandum of Understanding (GMoU),which according to him, Shell never honoured till date, Okoye-Davies said they were glad in 2013 when Shell said it wanted to divest its investment in OML 25,but were disappointed when the oil company named Crester, allegedly owned by Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) retirees and its former staff as the new operator.
He said “The heartless operations’’ of Shell in Kula necessitated their resolve that the federal government should revoke its operational license and hand it over to Belemaoil Producing Limited, which he claimed has been doing well in the area of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in its three year-management of OML55.
While describing the Rivers State Government’s intervention in the matter as ill-conceived, he called on President Buhari to set up a fact finding committee to visit Kula,with a view to ascertaining the level of neglect by Shell to a community that has hosted the company for about 40 years.
On his part, Chief Ibiosiya Nath-Sukubo, spokesman for Offoinama community, said the community’s position is that Shell hands over the flow station to Belemaoil which he said has a good track record in corporate social responsibility as it has displayed in managing OML55, and accordingly described the MoU signed by some of their chiefs in the Government House, Port Harcourt as a document “shrouded in mystery’’.
While warning that the Kula communities of Offoinama, Belema and Ngeje will not hesitate to join Bayelsa State where they technically belong, he said, ‘’the overbearing intervention of the state government had further exacerbated opprobrium and amounting to sadomasochism acrimony and chaos in the community. Some of our chiefs were hoodwinked by the Secretary to the State Government (SSG) to sign a MoU that is shrouded in mystery.’’
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According to Nath-Sukubo, “Our demands are as follows: A major project as the road from Degema to Kula and its adjoining communities should commence. Monies recovered from corrupt politicians are more than enough to secure such project by a reputable contractor. The right of first refusal should be given to the community on the divestment of OML25 or the operational right given to Belemaoil Producing Limited.’’
Meanwhile, King Kroma Eleki, the Paramount Ruler of Kula, has said that though he was part of those who signed the MoU at Government House, Port Harcourt, “I, however, stand by the position of my people on the replacement of Shell with an indigenous company, preferably Belemaoil Producing Limited.’’
