A Nation’s Headache

Special Adviser to the President on Communications, Olusegun Adeniyi added: “Militants in the region who continue to spurn the peace overtures of the Federal Government must be prepared to face the full consequence of taking up arms against their fatherland in a vain and criminal attempt to overawe lawfully constituted authorities. They must also bear responsibility for the adverse effects of their actions on ongoing efforts by the Federal Government to address the socio-economic problems of the Niger Delta, including the All-Stakeholders Summit scheduled for next month.” Adeniyi further quoted the President as saying that the Federal Government would take all necessary actions to stop criminals from wilfully depriving the region of these indispensable ingredients of development, and wickedly restricting the nation’s ability to garner vital resources for the improvement of the living conditions of its people.

What Mr. President meant about the “ingredients of development” is that Bonga, which is about 120 kilometres off the Nigerian coast, is the operating field common to Shell, Exxon Mobil, ELF, Agip, owned by Britain, the United States, France and Italy respectively. Shell which was mainly affected has an installed capacity of 225,000 barrels of crude oil per day. However, history has shown that jackboot approach to the Niger Delta crisis has always been counter-productive, beginning with Isaac Adaka Boro, who led the Niger Delta Volunteer Service; Ken Saro-Wiwa, founder of the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People, MOSOP; Mujaheedeen Asari-Dokubo, leader of the Niger Delta People’s Volunteer Force, NDPF, and now Henry Okah, who superintends over MEND.

But instead of mending fences with MEND, the Yar’Adua government arrested and subjected him to a secret trial. Okah may be in prison, Time Magazine, in a recent edition wrote, but the organisation continues to wreak havoc on international oil companies in the Niger Delta, sabotaging facilities and kidnapping personnel. Time went further that it is hard “to believe all the stories you hear about Henry Okah: That he smuggled 250,000 weapons into Nigeria, was kept incommunicado for five months in an Angolan jail cell, was murdered by secret service guards while on the way back to Nigeria, and that (once again alive in his own country) he killed two poisonous snakes released into his cell by his captors. One thing you can believe about the social activist-insurgent, however, is that wherever you are in the word, Henry Okah is part of the reason you’re paying more at the gas pump every time you fill up your tank”. To President Yar’Adua, Okah may be a criminal or a terrorist, but to millions of oppressed Niger Delta people and members of MEND, he is a freedom fighter. And to the international community, he is a factor in the escalating oil prices. Why is Okah so much a force? This has to do with his nature of leadership, the network, structure, unique logistics, war chest and the guerrilla war capability of MEND.

Okah, 42, is a native of Amassoma, Southern Ijaw Local Government Area of Bayelsa State. But he did not set foot on his native land until he was 19 years old. That was because his father, a naval officer, lived and worked in Lagos where the young boy had the privilege of attending private schools. His elder brother, Charles, revealed the identity of Henry Okah last year in an interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation, BBC. The fire of revolutionary zeal was ignited in Okah when, for the first time, he visited his home town during the burial of his mother. Charles said: “The way people were living, we did not know people lived like that… Henry began feeling upset about the way people were defecating in the water they drank.”

Henry (Okah) got initiated into the world of guns in the 1990s when, as TheNEWS reported in its 10 March 2008 edition, he secured a job selling licensed guns to Lagosians. Charles told the BBC that Henry worked for the Nigerian Merchant Navy for a long time. “Like any business in Nigeria, he saw an opportunity and had a connection,” Charles revealed. “Henry,” according to him, “was a successful salesman because he would paint a graphic picture of what happened during an armed robbery and customers would hand over their cash. He even sold me a gun. I didn’t want one but he said, ‘can you imagine an armed robber raping your wife?’”

It was, however, when Saro-Wiwa was murdered in 1995 by the late Head of State, General Sani Abacha, that the fire of war was further kindled in Henry. His brother explained further: “We were living in the same area then. It was very depressing for him (Henry). Really, Saro-Wiwa set the standard that he (Henry) tried to surpass.” Henry Okah’s dream of fighting for his people found expression in MEND, which he transformed from a band of ragtag thugs to a well funded guerilla outfit. First, he used a psedonym, Jomo Gbomo. He told TheNEWS on 2 April 2007: “Everyone knows Jomo is not my real name. I am not afraid to reveal my identity which is known to many. I simply do not enjoy being in the limelight.” Two, from his base in South Africa, Henry Okah used the internet and the media to propagate his information and ideals. When they launched their attacks, the information, in a jiffy, flew around media houses across the world.

Okah, with a sense of history, knew that guerrilla attacks were better than conventional warfare in the peculiar circumstance of the Niger Delta. Guerrilla war, according to Ademola Adeleke, a lecturer at the Department of History and Strategic Studies, University of Lagos, “refers to military or paramilitary operations conducted against an occupying power, or a government considered hostile by partisans who are often indigenes of the territory”. He referred to Carl Von Clausewitz, the Prussian war philosopher who, in his book, On War, gave the fundamental factors for a successful guerrilla operation. These are popular support, waging the war in the interior of a country, and “locating the force in a broken, inaccessible terrain…”

T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia), in the words of the University don, promoted the principles of mobility, speed and surprise attack as basic ingredients of a successful guerilla campaign. “Remote and inaccessible terrains,” as Adeleke wrote, “offer attractive base conditions for guerrilla operations. Choice terrain includes forests, mountains, jungles and marshes…” In the case of MEND, the honeycombs of creeks of the Niger Delta are their launchpad. To prosecute a guerrilla campaign successfully, Okah knew that he needed a massive war chest. How did he do this? There are conflicting explanations, some savoury, while others are uncharitable.

John Robb, a writer, posted a highly critical essay, entitled “Global Guerrillas” on the Internet on 28 February 2008, where he claimed that Henry Okah, to fund his guerrilla forces, connected the Delta to a global market place. Robb argued further: “To accomplish this, he set up a ecosystem of private entrepreneurs, many of whom were local politicians, to steal oil (bunker) from the pipelines of the major oil companies operating in the Delta. Groups would siphon off barge loads of oil and ferry them out to Henry’s leased freighters waiting offshore (which leveraged his experience with Nigeria’s merchant marine). In return, the groups were given cash, top of the line western consumer products, and a huge number of weapons (which leveraged Henry’s experience as an arms salesman) from the best global manufacturers. Billions of dollars in merchandise were exchanged through this simple system over the last few years. The Delta is now awash in high-end weaponry.”

But Henry Okah denied this in an interview with TheNEWS in the April, 2007 edition: “We are not engaged in oil bunkering. It is impossible to sneak in a tanker to load oil. Oil is not like diamonds.” Rather, he argued, oil bunkering is carried out by the military which is supposed to be securing the waterways, and assisted by locals who are paid stipends. “If the Nigerian government believes our source of funding is bunkering, why has it refused to stop this practice or at least, prevent tankers from entering such areas to load?” Okah asked rhetorically.

There are other critics who claimed that one Chief Government Ekpemupolo is the financier of MEND. Waving this idea off as ludicrous, Okah challenged whoever cares to carry out some investigation of the individual or whoever was making the claims to form an independent opinion. But he maintained in that interview that he was “not at liberty to explain our source of funding”.

This leads to the third thesis of Okah’s source of funds: alleged international gun running or ammunition dealership which his detractors claimed led to his arrest in Angola on 3 September 2007. But MEND countered this claim by saying that Okah travelled to Angola, accompanied by one Captain Atatah of Ghana, “to inspect a tanker ship he was interested in purchasing”. With his media blitz, international connection, weapons logistics, committed band of guerrilla soldiers, and mastery of the creeks, Okah’s MEND launched some successful campaigns.

When Sogboma George, one of MEND’s field commanders was arrested and detained in Port Harcourt by the police for a traffic offence, MEND stormed the place with speedboats, AK47 sub-machine and general purpose rifles and dynamite. When they bombed seven police vehicles, cops on duty quickly voted with their feet. The group was able to rescue George. Few months later, MEND seized eight foreign workers and detained them for 24 hours. One oil pipeline in Brass and two in Akassa, Bayelsa State, were attacked by MEND on 8 May 2007. The group cut power to a facility run by Agip. Late 2007, the group bombed two pipelines carrying gas to Egbin, Lagos and Afam, Rivers State power stations, throwing the two states into darkness. However, Henry Okah was arrested at Luanda airport, Angola, when he wanted to board a flight to his base in South Africa. The Angolan government accused him of trying to purchase firearms illegally in Angola, but that country did not charge him to court.

The Angolan government allegedly intimidated Okah’s first lawyer, Ludmila Sousa from Rui L. Ferreira and Gulhermina Prata Law Firm, forcing him to withdraw. The government allegedly threatened to withdraw the company’s licence to practice as a law firm. This prompted Azuka, Okah’s wife of Igbo extraction, to fly to Angola to choose another firm, Jao Gourgel and Paolo Rangel, to represent her husband. The lawyers were also intimidated by the Angolan authorities. Another South African attorney, Nadia Do Santos, had to leave the case in similar circumstance.

There is, however, no extradition treaty between Nigeria and Angola. Indeed, Article 27 of the Constitution of Angola stipulates that: “The extradition of foreign citizens for political motives or for charges punishable by the death penalty under the laws of the applicant country shall not be permitted. Article 53 makes provision for the Angolan courts to function as a sovereign body, independent of the government. Article 27 further stipulates that the Angolan courts should be fully appraised of the charges against such foreign citizen before his extradition.”

When Okah’s family members knew that in spite of this law, Angola was prepared to extradite the activist to possibly face death sentence, they sought the assistance of the South African Embassy in Angola through a representative, MR. P.J. Du Plesis. Mrs. Sherene Sampio, an official of the embassy, who was shown necessary documents that Okah was a South African resident, however, did nothing; neither did the South African Department of Foreign Affairs.

In spite of all these efforts, the Angolan government extradited Okah to Nigeria on 14 February 2008. He was reportedly flown in at night. MEND, therefore, released a pre-emptive press statement, charging that Okah had been killed through “what his interrogators claimed was an accidental discharge”. This prompted the Nigerian government to issue a counter-statement, acknowledging that Okah was in detention in Nigeria. “I know Henry Okah is alive. He is in safe custody,” Adeniyi, government spokesman, said. Thereafter, Okah’s lawyer, Femi Falana, filed a suit at the Federal High Court, Abuja, accusing the government of illegally detaining Okah and denying his family access to him. Falana prayed the court to, apart from allowing his people to see him, compel the government to give Okah an open trial. That application was granted by Justice Babs Kuewumi.

The federal authorities accused Okah and his group of trying to wage war against the legitimate government of Nigeria. They were also alleged to have, between January 2005 and September 2007, supplied 250,000 rifles, machine guns, rocket launchers and assorted bazookas to NDPVF, the Icelandic cult and MEND to levy war against the Federal Government of Nigeria.

Apart from being accused of terrorist acts against major oil installations, Okah was alleged to have managed and assisted in the management of an unlawful society (MEND), “a society engaged in the commission of acts of violence, intimidation, kidnapping of people and destruction of property in the Niger Delta region…” However, critics, argue that since these arms were allegedly procured from Nigerian military sources, why has the Federal Government concentrated on the alleged buyer not the sellers? Meanwhile, MEND recently released an 11-point proposal for peace to reign. Among them are:

Henry Okah must be held in good condition, with unfettered access to his legal representatives, family, pastor and independent international observers, including the International Red Cross. In return, Henry will assist the new peace process in the Niger Delta. MEND will also declare a period of grace in which it will halt all militia action in the Niger Delta. In return, the armed forces will halt all actions and no further troops will be deployed in the Niger Delta.

During the grace period, a demobilisation plan will be agreed between the militia, the Federal Government of Nigeria and international observers, with emphasis on education, rehabilitation, counselling, training, apprenticeship, employment and small/medium scale business opportunities that will constructively engage the militia. The Federal Government of Nigeria will begin a phased military withdrawal from the Niger Delta; in return MEND will commit itself to a disarmament commensurate with the military withdrawal from the Niger Delta. In the interest of public safety, the Federal Government of Nigeria will match military withdrawal with an increase in police wages, training, orientation, equipment and improvement in living conditions.

This, according to MEND, will assist in moving Nigeria from a military regime to a true democracy with a civilian government. The Federal Government in conjunction with the state governments of the Niger Delta region will announce details of a plan to deliver greater transparency in revenues from Federal Government to state governments and on to local governments, and application of those funds to relieve the suffering of villagers (through improvement in health services, provision of potable water, etc.) and give hope (through stimulating local economies, providing teachers wages, etc).

A monitoring group composed of officials nominated by the government and the civil society, and supervised by the World Bank, as the model experienced in Chad, will, in the words of MEND, be vouched for transparency. The Federal Government will also announce increased funds to specific programmes in communities aimed at relieving the suffering of the poor and disadvantaged citizens. The Federal Government, the organisation demanded, must “propose a time table for the practice of true federalism in the control of resources by every state in the federation”.

Part of the solutions suggested by Professor Itsay Sagay, a constitution lawyer, is that the Petroleum Act 1969 which gave ownership of petroleum products to the Federal Government should be amended. “Oil Communities should have some measure of control over their own resources. The communities will then determine which oil companies will operate in their domain,” he argued.

Will the Nigerian government play it cool with Okah and his MEND or will it be brash in its approach? The greater worry for Nigerians is that even though Okah remains in captivity peace may still be far away. The prospect of sustained peace in the region as a result of frantic talks involving some Niger Delta governors, military chiefs, top officials of the federal government in Abuja and other stakeholders for most of last week was looking increasingly far-fetched as at last Wednesday. This followed an announcement by the militant groups that they will no longer honour the ceasefire they had declared three days after the attack on the Bonga field. The militant groups said this is in reaction to attacks on some of its camps by men of the Joint Task Force, JTF. “On June 24, 2008, camps belonging to revolutionary and heroic combatants of the struggle for the liberation and emancipation of the Ijaw and Niger Delta territory were bombed by the armed forces of the Nigerian state,” the Joint Revolutionary Council, JRC, which comprises the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, MEND; the Reformed Niger Delta People’s Volunteer Force and the Martyrs’ Brigade said in a statement issued last Wednesday. The group claimed it was able to successfully defend its territory, with men of JTF suffering incalculable casualties. “In furtherance thereof, the unilateral declaration of ceasefire has been called off. The Nigerian state has declared war on the people of the Ijaw and Niger Delta,” JRC added in the statement. MEND has said it will breach the unilateral ceasefire it declared last Sunday due to a blockage of one of its camps by men of the JTF. There were also reports of the death of 15 militants during confrontation with men of JTF last Tuesday.

MEND spokesperson, Jomo Gbomo, said last Tuesday night that the channel leading into one of its major camps has been blocked with eight heavily armed gunboats by men of the Nigerian Army in preparation for invasion of its positions. The group also complained that the Federal Government is yet to begin the process of release of its leader, Henry Okah, who is currently undergoing a 48-count trial, one of the conditions for the ceasefire. “Chief Clark is 80. His age made us concede. However, this is temporary and if issues such as Henry Okah’s release are not addressed, then we will know the whole peace talk is another fraud and this will result to renewed hostilities,” MEND said. The group said it will not hesitate to cripple the entire oil industry across the Niger Delta should its camps be attacked.

However, the JTF Commander, Lt. Colonel Sagir Musa, denied any military confrontation with the militants, adding that the ceasefire was observed. But there were reports last Monday that two naval battleships, NNS Nwamba and NNS Ologbo had been deployed to the Niger Delta, preparatory to an assault on the militants. The choice confronting the Federal Government in the days ahead even as it searches for solution to the Niger Delta crisis will be whether to continue on the path of dialogue or ask the military to take on the militants. So far, the militants have been ambivalent on the issue of dialogue with government. The situation is not helped by the daily increasing number of militant groups in the region seeking attention. Also, with the heavy sums realised from bunkering and ransom from kidnapping activities, it is doubtful if the government can offer the militants enough incentives to drop their guns for more legitimate pursuits. After a special security council meeting was held in Warri last Wednesday, Governors Timipre Sylva of Bayelsa and Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta were reported to have urged the federal government to soft-pedal on the military option. The governors argued that the military option will not only endanger the peace that has been achieved in some parts of the region but also put at risk the lives of innocent people. The governors were also alleged to have given their word to the federal government that they will apprehend the militants in the region. As Nigerians wait to see how far the governors can go, the cold fact, however, is that peace seems a very long way off in the treasure base of the nation.