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| Buhari goes on his knees as Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) reduce Nigeria's crude production by 90,000 barrels. See the demands of NDA |
Buhari, who only few weeks ago boasted he would decisively deal with the freedom fighters, surreptitiously went to one of his aides from the region to call the Niger Delta Avengers for negotiation.
According to Chevron, the new damage on its facility has reduced its production levels by 90,000 barrels a day.
The company said the attack on an offshore platform that serves as a gathering point for production from several fields will affect its production levels for the days to come.
As a result of this, the Special Adviser to Buhari on Niger Delta, Brig General Paul Boroh (rtd) on Friday disclosed that the Nigerian Government is open to discussions with Niger Delta Avengers over their grievances.
Boroh, who is also the Coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, made this disclosure in Abuja while speaking with reporters.
According to him, “Pipeline vandalism is an avoidable self-inflicted agony. It is unreasonable to engage in such criminal activity not only because of the resultant economic effect on the country but particularly as it also negatively affects the Niger Delta environment.
“The act of vandalising pipelines is counter-productive apart from it being a crime against the state. Those involved in this nefarious activity are economic and environmental saboteurs. It will do well for them to refrain from it, as my office is always open to dialogue regardless of their grievances.
“The federal government already has in place a well-structured reintegration programme for youths of the region, which has helped in maintaining the peace and stabilising security of the region.
“The Amnesty Programme has made militancy unattractive in the region mainly because of the government’s sincerity and commitment to the programme. The proper thing is for those behind such activity to embrace dialogue.”
This placatory stance of the Nigerian government is contrary to Buhari's comments few weeks, when he threatened to deal with the freedom fighters as Boko Haram terorists
Even before the recent strike on Wednesday night, Nigerian oil production had fallen below 1.7 million barrels a day for the first time since 1994, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
“This is some very, very sophisticated brazen attack. It is a resurgence of militancy. These guys don’t seem to be after money. They just want to frustrate the government,” Dolapo Oni, head of energy research at Ecobank Transnational Inc. told Bloomberg.
The resurgence of the attack poses a threat to Nigeria's shattered economy. The facility breached is coming at a time when Nigeria’s oil production levels is falling below the expectations of the country’s 2016 budget, as signed on Friday, Cable reports.
The budget will be facing a new challenge due to production cuts. The budget placed an oil benchmark of $38 per barrel with a production level of 2.2 million barrels per day.
In five months, Nigeria has produced about 400,000 barrels less than the set benchmark, and these figures may escalate to 600,000 barrels before the end of May, following the Okan facility shutdown.
Chevron said it shut down its Okan offshore facility after it was “breached by unknown persons” and had sent “resources to respond to a resulting spill.”
Okan facility, which feeds crude and gas into Escravos, one of the country’s largest export facilities, is jointly owned by the US company and the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
The attack was claimed by a group of militants calling itself the Niger Delta Avengers.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) said in April that Nigeria could lose an estimated $1 billion in revenue by May, when it expects repairs on Forcados to be completed.
Ibe Kachikwu, minister of state for petroleum resources, said in April that the Forcados terminal may not restart until June.
The demands of the Niger Delta Avengers
Among its 11 demands for peace in the region, NDA demanded for:
The immediate implementation of the report of the 2014 National Conference organised by former President Goodluck Jonathan.
The group also demanded the immediate release of the detained leader of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB), Mr. Nnamdi Kanu, as directed by the courts.
It said: “We are a group of young Niger Deltans who have support from other parts of Nigeria, namely Northern, Western and Eastern parts.
“We have watched with keen interest, the way and manner in which the President Muhammadu Buhari-led APC government runs the affairs of this country, and we are not pleased with the way things are going.
“For instance, the so-called anti-corruption fight is directed at perceived enemies of the government, and those who are sympathetic to former President Goodluck Jonathan. We wonder why these persecutions, despite the peaceful manner Jonathan handed power over to the All Progressives Congress.”
“So far, the only two governorship elections that were conducted under this government were and still remain the most controversial elections in the history of this nation,” it said.
The group further demanded that: “The ownership of oil blocks must reflect 60 percent for the oil-producing people and 40% for the non-oil producing people. The only Nigerian Maritime University sited in the most appropriate and befitting place in Okerenkoko must start the 2015/2016 academic session, immediately.
“The Minister of Transportation, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, should apologise to the Ijaws and the entire Niger Delta people for his careless and reckless statements about the siting of the University.
“The Ogoniland and indeed, all oil polluted lands in the Niger Delta must be cleaned up and compensation be paid to all oil-producing communities”.
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