Nigéria et l'Interface Economique de la France

La République fédérale du Nigeria, en Afrique occidentale, compte quelque 150 000 000 d'habitants, ce qui en fait le pays africain le plus peuplé. La superficie de son territoire est de 925 000 kilomètres carrés et sa masse continentale s'étend de la pointe orientale du Golfe de Guinée jusqu'aux profondeurs des savanes occidentales. 

Le Nigeria est bordé à l'est par le
Cameroun et à l'ouest par la République du Bénin; au nord se trouve le Niger, et au nord-est le Tchad. Le pays qui soit très riche en ressources humaines et minérales, compte pour un sixième de la population du continent sur à peine un trentième de sa surface (environ 3%). 

Bien que plus de 75% de la population vive dans les zones rurales, au moins 24 villes comptent plus de 100 000 habitants. La variété de coutumes, langues et traditions des 250 ethnies composant le pays lui confère une riche diversité.

La structure de PIB au Nigeria en 2010, traduit le poids écrasant de l'agriculture dans la production de richesses. Le secteur agricole a contribué à hauteur de 42% du PIB nigérian (l'agriculture emploie encore 70 % de la population active), contre 18% pour les industries extractives (pétrole et gaz essentiellement), 18% pour les services, 17% pour le commerce de gros et de détail, et seulement 4% pour l'industrie manufacturière.

Classé parmi les premiers producteurs mondiaux de denrées agricoles, telles que les arachides ou le cacao, ou encore de produits miniers, comme le charbon, le pays s'est désormais entièrement voué à l'exploitation pétrolière, depuis que la prospection de gisements s'est intensifiée à partir des années 1970 (le Nigeria concentre 35% des réserves de brut du continent africain, et près de 80% de celles de l'Afrique subsaharienne).

L'économie Nigerian demeure ainsi l'une des plus dynamiques du continent africain. Toutefois, «la crise internationale a fait sentir ses effets par une baisse significative du prix du baril de pétrole (divisé par trois), une raréfaction du crédit et un secteur financier fragilisé par des actifs toxiques : le compte d'excédent pétrolier, excédentaire lorsque le baril se situe au-delà de 45 dollars US, ne reçoit plus de recette dans le contexte actuel.

Malgré tout, le climat général est favorable aux investissements, alors qu’un ample mouvement de privatisation a été engagé depuis la fin des années 80. En raison de ce qui précède, beaucoup de nations occidentales considèrent le Nigeria comme un associé véritable dans leur recherche du développement mutuel et la croissance. 

Comme le Nigeria célèbre son cinquantième anniversaire, une des nations avec des liaisons historiques fortes à son passé et l'engagement appréciables au son avenir est la France. L'historicité économique entre ces deux grandes nations date du début du 20ème siècle et continue à fleurir à la tournure de chaque siècle.

Depuis plus de 100 ans, les entreprises françaises sont actives sur le marché Nigérian. Dès 1902, un comptoir commercial a été créé a Lagos par la Compagnie Française de l’Afrique Occidentale (CFAO), implantation suivie rapidement par celles d’autres sociétés dans des secteurs variés. 

Aujourd’hui, ce sont plus de 120 firmes françaises qui participent au développement du Nigeria. La présence dans le monde industriel est forte : Bic et Nexans (câbles électriques) possèdent plusieurs unités de fabrication dans le pays et sont parmi les leaders sur leurs marchés. 

Air Liquide, par ses installations sur l’ensemble du territoire nigérian, fournit des gaz industriels et l’oxygène utilisé dans les hôpitaux. Peugeot est encore actionnaire à Kaduna de sa plus importante usine d’assemblage en Afrique subsaharienne. Lafarge est l’un des deux plus importants producteurs de ciment du Nigeria. Sanofi-Aventis a ouvert un bureau commercial en 2007 et projette une implantation industrielle a Lagos. 

Avec la demande sans cesse accrue en produits pétroliers et la croissance continue des secteurs gazier et pétrolier, dans lesquels Total joue un rôle majeur, des entreprises françaises conçoivent, fabriquent et montent tout un éventail d’équipements spécialises.

Les entreprises françaises sont également actives dans nombre de secteurs industriels, dont celui du développement des infrastructures. Ainsi, Bouygues a figuré parmi les principaux bâtisseurs de la capitale fédérale, Abuja, dont la première pierre a été posée il y a 30 ans, tandis que les grands « électriciens » français (Alstom, Schneider Electric, Areva, Clemessy, ou Legrand plus récemment) renforcent les capacités énergétiques locales. 

Alcatel et Sagem se sont impliquées respectivement dans la création d’un réseau de téléphonie GSM et dans la production des cartes d’identité nationales sécurisées.

Le secteur des services compte lui aussi des acteurs français dynamiques : Accor étend son offre hôtelière, Air France-KLM reste le premier transporteur aérien pour les liaisons internationales et Bollore Africa Logistics est l’un des leaders en transit et logistique. 

Ces entreprises françaises ont, au cours des années, investi fortement pour représenter un stock total de plusieurs milliards d’euros, largement supérieur a celui dévolu au reste de l’Afrique Occidentale. Cela ferait de notre pays, selon les dernières données, le 2eme investisseur étranger au Nigeria après les Etats-Unis.

Les échanges entre la France et le Nigeria reflètent cette forte présence. Les chiffres du commerce bilatéral franco-nigérian communique par les Douanes françaises pour les 6 premiers mois de 2010 font état d’une progression de 23% par rapport a 2007, qui avait marqué un ralentissement après 2 années fastes, ou nos ventes avaient successivement progressé de 37% (2005) et de 17% (2006, année où le milliard d’euros d’exportations était franchi pour la première fois).

Récemment, le Nigeria a retrouvé la place de 1^er partenaire de la France en Afrique sub-saharienne qu’il avait brièvement occupée en 2006. Pour les 6 premiers mois de 2008, les exportations françaises en direction du Nigeria ont ainsi totalisé une valeur de €587M, a savoir 21% de plus qu’en 2007 à la même période.

Les douanes françaises ont notamment constate un triplement des vents de biens intermédiaires, avec une progression de €155M des métaux et produits métalliques et de €43 M pour les composants et produits et électroniques. À l’inverse, les produits de l’industrie automobile reculent de 41% en perdant €24 M, tout comme les ventes d’hydrocarbures raffinés. 

Traditionnellement dominés par les hydrocarbures (93% en 2007), les achats français en provenance du Nigeria ont également enregistré une hausse durant les 6 premiers mois de l’année 2008. De ce fait, le différentiel de quelque €174M enregistré par les importations françaises alourdit mécaniquement le déficit commercial, qui s’établit à €320M.

À ce stade, le Nigeria qui a rattrapé l’Afrique du sud comme 1^er partenaire de la France en Afrique sub-saharienne est a l’échelle du monde le 43eme fournisseur et le 47eme client de la France. Le Nigeria est un vaste marché où les entreprises françaises ont su établir leur notoriété en participant avec succès au développement de l’économie locale.

Comme elle entre gracieusement à l'ère d'or, le Nigeria et la France continueront à découvrir que leurs aspirations partagées à la grandeur monteront en flèche sur les ailes de coopération économique accrue et la compréhension mutuelle de leur cultures respectives et le développement de leurs formidables potentiel humains.

Atâyi Babs

Moderator's Brief for July 2011

Good day Honourable Members,

I bring you fraternal greetings from the EXCO of Project IGALA. In line with the need to further broaden communication channels in this forum, the EXCO, through the Moderator’s Monthly brief, will be reaching out to all members on a monthly basis with a view to engendering unfettered access and openness in our engagements, interactions and disposition.

It is indeed heart-warming to note that God has already seen us to the seventh month of this year and it is my prayer that he will continue to keep us to the very end. The past six months have been very crucial in the life of this Organisation as significant activities; achievements and discoveries have been made. It is therefore my hope that we will build on these stepping-stones in the coming months.

Agenda 2011

In line with our cardinal principles of catalysing sustainable People-Development, facilitating and shaping the exercise of political and socio-economic power, refining the intercourse of private life in Igala land; and raising the intellectual tone of the Igala society, cultivating the public mind, purifying the Igala taste while supplying true principles to popular enthusiasms and fixed aims to acceptable aspirations as well as giving enlargement and sobriety to the ideals of Igala renaissance, we have invited honourable Members of this Forum to contribute ideas, workable strategies and programmes that will take Igala land to the next level. This invitation, which goes in tandem with recent requests by members for inputs in the governance of our land, is currently running on the forum and it is our hope that we will all contribute those worthy ideas of ours before the window closes.

State of the Committees

Education:

The Project IGALA Committee on Education was reconstituted on the 20^th of May 2011 with the

following as Members: Hon David Abutu (Chairman), Esther Ojochogu Opaluwah, Hon Benjamin Ikani Okolo, Baba Ojonugwa, Evang. Vera Olive Otini, Engr. Abdul Audu, Eleojo Yusuf Okolo, Emmanuel Odugbo, Abalaka Ogbadu, Samson Haruna and Henry Agbonika (Secretary). The committee has already set in place machineries for the accomplishment of its mandate as well as the performance of its statutory functions. The committee was also actively involved in the recent commissioning and donation of school furniture and Project IGALA branded notebooks at Ogane-Inigu. The committee is already primed to replicate this in Okpo and other rural communities in igala land. Charles Obera has already picked the gauntlet for his own community and more expressions of interest are being awaited from members of this forum.

The committee is equally on the verge of establishing workable collaborations with relevant bodies like the Kogi State Ministry of Education, UNICEF, ActionAid, and the Civil Society Action Coalition on Education for All (CSACEFA). This is with a view to achieving the objectives of the “Education For All” (EFA) goals in Igala land. The EDUCOM members are also committed to conducting their usual round of scholarship disbursements across Igala land this December and both old and new sponsors are invited.

Igala Economic Summit Steering Committee

Following the dissolution of this committee and several interventions by Members of this forum, Igala UK & Igala US, the Exco is currently exploring credible ways of moving ahead with the 1^st Igala Economic Summit and members will be briefed accordingly in due course.

Health Committee

The Project IGALA Committee on Health was constituted on the 25^th of March 2011 with the following as Members: Dr Ali Onoja (Chairman), Dr Siaka Alhassan, Hon Benjamin Okolo, Sule Abah, Pharm. Ugbede Ibrahim, Dr. Sam Alfa, Negedu Emmanuel, Dr. Zakari Usman, and Hajiya Halima Yakubu-Audu (Secretary). This committee has since held its inaugural meeting and it is on the verge of fulfilling its mandate. The Committee also anticipates the active sponsorship and participation of all Members in its activities and programmes, which will be rolled out soon.

Pending Committees

Expressions of interest into Environment, Sports and Information Committees are still on as their immediate constitution rests squarely on the response level of interested Members.

Project IGALA Forum on Prime FM Lokoja

The Forum remains grateful to all those who came to the rescue of this programme on Prime FM Lokoja particularly Blessing Agada, John Oyidh, Akubo Adegbe, Hon Ben Okolo, Hon David Abutu, Evang Vera Otini, Dr Ali Onoja, Engr Abdul Audu and Ojochide Akpa for their contributions so far. The programme sponsorship has kicked off in earnest and members of this forum are invited to send in written or oral contributions as well as topical issues for discussion on the one-hour programme slot sponsored by Project IGALA. Note that this programme sponsorship is to last for 24 months in the first instance.

Call to Service

Project IGALA remains resolute in its drive to provide ample opportunities for useful interface between the rulers and ruled in Igala land as part of our aggregated efforts at galvanising workable and 21st century-driven ideas and strategies into the governance of our land. This, we believe, is not achievable without disagreements and agreements, but a conscious effort on our part to put our rulers to task by asking relevant questions, commending them where necessary, critiquing policies and actions with a view to proffering workable solutions, and condemning in no less stronger terms, actions/disposition/policies of the Government that tend to augment the miseries of our people will all go a long way in entrenching the desired change in the land which we all seek.

Equally important is the need for us to become agents of the change we all desire. We must make efforts to change ourselves first, change our families, our streets, our communities and then our land. Thankfully, Project IGALA offers a veritable platform for the execution of such self-help, humanitarian and pro-development activities through our various committees which include: Agriculture, Culture & Tourism, Education, Empowerment, Environment, Finance & Appropriation, Health, Information, Infrastructure, Investments & Securities, Judiciary/Human Rights, Women Development, and Youth & Sports and many others.

The most potent question now is "how have we been able to buy into these initiatives for the benefit of our individual communities, needless to mention Igala land as a whole? How many of us have filled our statement of interest forms indicating which committee or committees we would like to be part of? Besides, this forum is run with funds that trickle in from the N12, 000 Project IGALA subscription fee that is attached to the statement of interest form, EXCO sponsorships and public-spirited Members. The statement of interest form is hereby attached, download, fill and return yours today with subscription fee please!

In the past, committees were set-up with the assumed belief that we were all ready to match our words with actions (which most times revolve round attending online committee meetings or responding to committee deliberations online). The reverse was regretfully the case as many of these committees became dysfunctional owing largely to membership inactivity, hence their dissolution. We find it absurd to note that many of us develop cold feet when it comes to taking pragmatic actions aimed at correcting the situation of things at home but suddenly come alive whenever politics, name-calling, crossfire and personality clashes hold sway.

Project IGALA tenaciously believes that the Government alone cannot translate into reality, our dreams of a better life and a promising future for our people in the face of the current contrasting global realities. It is equally our belief that Government at all levels, has failed the Igala nation, hence our aspiration to become the ALTERNATIVE GOVERNMENT in our land! But the inescapable fact remains that we cannot become what we want to be through unparalleled keyboard activism and flatulent online postulations. We can only achieve that through the fusion of our passionate ideas with concrete actions, and by acting with integrity, serving with love, working for communal peace and progress, and believing in what we do by doing what we believe in. We can also achieve it through the instrumentality of our intellect, focal commitment to shared values of healthy progress, and unwavering abhorrence of individual success in the midst of communal failure.

It is by so doing that our contributions and relevance to Igala land will achieve immortality because in the long run, we would have succeeded in raising the intellectual tone of the Igala society, cultivating the public mind, purifying the Igala taste, supplying true principles to popular enthusiasms and fixing aims to popular aspirations as well as giving enlargement and sobriety to the ideals of Igala renaissance.

Challenges before Project IGALA

The challenge therefore is for us to rise above our present limitations and do SOMETHING! The imperatives of pragmatic actions in our present-day Igala land can never be overemphasised as we live daily with barefaced realities of poverty, neglect and backwardness. A little contribution of your widow’s mite can go a long way in helping Project IGALA to achieve the following communal imperatives:

· Installing a borehole for an Igala community that negotiates daily rendezvous with river blindness, diarrhea, cholera and other water borne maladies.

· Providing mosquito-treated nets for communities that are ravaged by malaria

· Sending or keeping an orphan in school.

· Donating drugs, clothing, medical equipment and sundries to needy homes (such as Ministry of Mercy Otutulu, Ochadamu Leprosarium, Ika Mission Hospital, Unyi Abune, Okpo, Old Peoples homes, Dispensaries, Clinics and Hospitals in Igala land

· Providing vocational training and skills acquisition opportunities that will dissuade our brothers and sisters at home from taking the trip to the desolate wastelands of thug-related fantasies and prostitution.

· Deploying TV, Radio and Billboards to sensitise and enlighten our parents, brothers and sisters at home against patronising quack medical practices and fake drugs that presently find their way into Igala land from Eastern Nigeria.

· Sponsorship of the school fees of a minimum of 30 students (at N3, 500 per student) in any school/community of your choice through Project IGALA.

·

· Increasing our people’s economic power by providing opportunities for group activities and interactions that will improve their access to technologies appropriate to their skills, incomes and environments.

· Establishing sports, movie and tourism academies to yank thousands of our talented youth from hopeless badlands of idleness and joblessness.

· Acquiring/renting an office facility for Project IGALA in Anyigba, Dekina LGA

· Donating textbooks and writing materials to libraries in public Primary and post-Primary schools in Igala land

· Providing furniture and materials to schools in Igala land

· Sponsoring the production of Specially Designed Educational Notebooks to be distributed to indigent students in Igala land through the Project IGALA Educational Scheme with your name/Organisation imprinted boldly.

· Sponsoring the purchase and distribution of textbooks and other handy educational materials to indigent students in Igala land.

· Sponsoring/Providing Land/Accommodation/Computers/Furniture or Electronics for the establishment of an Information & Communication Technology (ICT) Centre in any part of Igala land in collaboration with Project IGALA

· Sponsoring Teacher-Training Seminars for Teachers of Primary and Post-Primary Schools in Igala land in collaboration with Project IGALA

· Instituting a worthy Prize for the best graduating student of any of the faculties in Kogi State University Anyigba and Kogi State College of Education, Ankpa in collaboration with Project IGALA.

· Establishing a Community Education Trust Fund in any community of your choice in collaboration with Project IGALA

· Establishing a Community radio station in Igala land

· Constructing ultra-modern Classrooms for Primary schools in Igala land

· Sponsoring free eye surgery campaigns in Igala land

These and many we can do if we elect to match our words with the requisite action. Even Karl Marx, at the twilight of his intellectual prognosis, blurted out, “ philosophers have only interpreted the world, the point is to change it.”

The onus is now on us, for CHANGE MUST COME TO IGALA LAND, and it must start with you and I, and the time is NOW!

Attached herewith are copies of statement of interest form, Project Sponsorship Card and Fact File. Fill them and give Project IGALA the privilege of taking the stress of logistics, publicity and human resources off your shoulders as we actualise your dream of giving back to the land of your noble birth!

Yours in eternal service,

Atâyi Babs

MODERATOR

Nigeria and The Imperatives of French Revolution

Today, the 14th of July, is ‘Bastille Day’. This is the French ‘Fête nationale’ which originally commemorated the ‘Storming of the Bastille’ marking the beginning of the French Revolution and the subsequent fall and demise of Louis XVI and the French Monarchy. Bastille Day is celebrated on 14^th July each year. In France, it is called "Fête Nationale" ("National Holiday"), in official parlance, or more commonly "quatorze juillet" ("14th of July"). 

The French national holiday commemorates the storming of the Bastille, which took place on 14 July 1789 and marked the beginning of the French Revolution. The storming of the Bastille is seen as a symbol of the uprising of the modern French "nation", and of the reconciliation of all the French inside the constitutional monarchy which preceded the First Republic during the French Revolution.

The Bastille was a prison and a symbol of the absolute and arbitrary power of Louis the 16th's Ancient Regime. By capturing this symbol, the people signaled that the king's power was no longer absolute: power should be based on the Nation and be limited by a separation of powers. Although the Bastille only held seven prisoners at the time of its capture, the storming of the prison was a symbol of liberty and the fight against oppression for all French citizens. Like the Tricolour flag, it symbolised the Republic's three ideals: Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity for all French citizens. 

It marked the end of absolute monarchy, the birth of the sovereign Nation, and, eventually, the creation of the (First) Republic, in 1792. Bastille Day has such a strong signification for the French because the holiday symbolises the birth of the Republic. As in the US, where the signing of the Declaration of Independence signalled the start of the American Revolution, in France the storming of the Bastille began the Great Revolution. In both countries, the national holiday thus symbolises the beginning of a new form of government.

The significance of this day cannot be lost on Nigeria as both countries, just revving up after a peculiarly hectic transition processes that ushered in brand new leaders, are presently enmeshed in an intrinsic drive for rebirth, re-direction and restoration in the face of extensive socio-economic and political challenges of epic proportions. 

This commonality of experience is further enhanced by the geographic forces of history, which localised Nigeria in the matrix of four francophone African countries namely Républiques du Benin, Niger, Chad and Cameroon. 

There is no gainsaying the obvious that this singular fact underscores the importance which France attaches to Nigeria as it is also conscious of the fact that Nigeria, with its gregarious population which constitutes one fifth of the total population of Africa south of the Sahara, inhabits an area almost twice the size of France.

It is equally noteworthy that relations between the two countries have developed steadily on the economic, political and cultural levels since former President Jacques Chirac’s trip to Nigeria in July 1999 shortly after Obasanjo’s inauguration. A return visit by former President Obasanjo in February 2000 further contributed to giving new impetus to economic relations between the two countries. 

Incontestable statistics reveal that after picking up vigorously in 2005 (increasing by 37,5% and exceeding for the first time €1 billion – attaining in fact €1, 048 million), French exports to Nigeria surged spectacularly by 78% in the first five months of 2006. French imports from Nigeria too, mainly consisting of hydrocarbons, have also grown considerably by 63% since the beginning of 2006. With this record, Nigeria became the second largest client to France in the sub-Saharan Africa and by inference, a significant trade partner of France.

A peep in to the historicity of the two nations unearths an inextricable but active relationship that dates back as early as 1902 with establishment of Compagnie Française de l’Afrique Occidentale (CFAO) in Lagos. Other companies in various sectors soon followed that example. As at now, more than 120 French companies participate in Nigeria’s economic development. 

French presence in Nigeria’s industrial sector is substantial with the establishment of MICHELIN in Port Harcourt, producing unprocessed rubber from its rubber tree plantations, manufacturing tyres and exporting same to 25 countries, Air Liquide supplying industrial gas and oxygen all over the country, PEUGEOT operating the largest assembly plant in West Africa, Cementia Lafarge rolling million tonnes of cement, and TOTAL leading in the vigorous development of Nigeria’s petroleum and gas sector.

In infrastructural development, BOUYGUES pioneers the construction of first-class facilities from Abuja and in electrical engineering; ALSTOM, AREVA, SCHNEIDER and CLEMESSY are major French electrical sector suppliers boosting the local energy capacity. In GSM telephony, ALCATEL and SAGEM are churning out technological mysteries while ACCOR, AIR FRANCE and SDV-BOLLORE are all leading the revolution in the services sector namely Hospitality, Aviation and logistics. 

Over the years, investment by such French enterprises in Nigeria has reached a total stock of about US$ 4 billion, more than in all of the rest of West Africa. Accordingly, in terms of current investment in the country, France ranks slightly behind the United States and ahead of the United Kingdom, our so-called coloniser and Commonwealth brother.

On the cultural plane, Nigeria, being an English-speaking nation surrounded by French speaking nations and constituting with them, a region on its way to integration, the need to learn French can only be compared to the necessity of learning English in France. 

However, Nigeria’s educational sector which has wobbled severely under conscious under-funding by Governments has received appreciable levels of funding from the French Ministry of Education with the establishment of a network of more than 120 secondary schools and 24 institutions of higher learning on a pilot basis and an establishment of three zonal centres (Jos, Enugu & Ibadan) specialising in training Teachers of French language.

Further cultural presence is actualised through the establishment of Ten Alliance Français institutes and Cultural centres and a teacher-training programme run in partnership with the Agence Internationale de la Francophonie and aimed not only at modernising their teaching methods which have gone rusty due to Governmental insensitivity but also at making the learning of French more appealing to Nigerians. 

My experience at the Nigerian French Language Village in 2002 would forever remain evergreen in the aggregated nationalistic efforts at achieving national unity and global relevance through the voice of a common language.

In bringing to bear, the consequences of the French Revolution on Nigeria, there is universal agreement that the political and administrative face of France was wholly altered: a republic based around elected – mainly bourgeois - deputies replaced a monarchy supported by nobles while the many and varied feudal systems were replaced by new, usually elected institutions which were applied universally across France. Culture was also affected, at least in the short term, with the revolution permeating every creative endeavour.

There is no doubt that the revolution permanently changed the social structures of France as Europe was also changed. The revolutionaries of 1792 began a war, which extended through the Imperial period and forced nations to marshal their resources to a greater extent than ever before. 

Some areas, like Belgium and Switzerland, became client states of France with reforms similar to those of the revolution. National identities also began coalescing like never before. The many and fast developing ideologies of the revolution were also spread across Europe, helped by French being the continental elite’s dominant language.

The imperatives of the above and many others on our nation cannot be oversimplified in the light of the urgent need for a revolution that would restructure our bogus federation and an immediate overhaul of our constitution. The past eight years have not only brought out the naked deficiencies of our constitution but have also revealed in its truest shape, the knock-kneed and distended nature of the Nigerian federalism. 

The advent of separatist agitations laced with kidnappings, terrorism and other Mephistophelean luxuries as well as an extant administration that continues to sweep aside all questions of national existence by the simple process of arrogating all powers to itself, small circle of cronies and party faithfuls, has of course further galvanized the thinking, inserting the possibility that one way to ensure that these aberrations are nipped in the bud, is to activate the French revolutionary instinct by way of looking into and modifying the very structures that conveyed us to this sorry pass, for if the unthinkable could happen once, and the internal arrangements of the nation’s democracy are not drastically overhauled and rendered more equitable and accountable, then of course, the temptation to repeat that phase of our history will ever remain with us.

Atâyi Babs

The Niger Delta Master Plan: Another View

Amidst usual banters and self-righteous pontifications, the President launched the most-awaited Niger Delta Regional Development Master Plan (NDRDMP) recently. The master plan, which was facilitated by the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) in collaboration with local stakeholders and international development agencies, 
is geared towards achieving orderly and accelerated socio-economic transformation of the Niger Delta.

With an implementation timeframe of 15 years (2005-2020) in the first instance, the master plan is divided into five areas, like economic growth, under which wealth is expected to be generated in order to reduce poverty, support better living standards, diffuse social tension, and regenerate urban areas. Human and community needs will address the welfare of individuals; the natural environment aspect aims to conserve bio-diversity resources, remediate and restore environmentally impacted sites and degraded resources, and set standards for regulation and control.

At a cursory look, the above which according to its authors, is "unique and represents the veritable road map for concrete development of the region", appears to manage the magic of proffering a comprehensive and pragmatic solution to the Niger Delta conundrum. But for a region that comprises nine states (all under PDP control for 7½ years), 185 local government areas and over 13, 000 communities, and is at the same time home to the livewire of the nation's largely undiversified economy, the plan is not only ill-timed, it sure stinks of socio-economic masturbation and tokenism.

Let’s state the fact in unmistakable terms. Niger Delta today has become a perfect picture of stupefaction with neglect and violence as totemic icons of fluctuating existentialism. Blessed with one of the biggest oil reserves on the planet and with over 34 billion of black gold tucked under its voluptuous belly, the region still shamefacedly flaunts itself as the habitation of some of Africa’s poorest people and probably the region with the worst environmental destruction and degradation on earth.

It continues to attract quantum of attention in national and international discourse due to the fact that whilst other regions in Nigeria share the benefits of enhanced national revenue accrued from oil and gas, only the impoverished people of the Niger Delta bear the burden of hosting the black gold that sustains the nation and at same time lubricates the fantasies of her rulers.

Expectedly, the colossal indifference of successive Governments to redress these anomalies and promote national harmony, peace, justice and fairness in a pluralistic society like ours has created the present situation of disruptive restiveness in the region occasioned by an ever-increasing army of militant Youths with a rabid predilection for violence. This has been manifested through kidnapping of oil workers and expatriates, vandalising oil installations, general insecurity of lives and property, and many other vices.

The dictates of the above behove on any Government worth its salt to tackle these issues firmly, objectively and with all sincerity of purpose by putting first things first as well matching words with action, and not merely adulating in rhetoric and self-derided notion of progress. The act itself, of launching a master plan, rulebook or strategy whose birthday postdates the existence of an act of parliament that legislated its implementer into being smacks of putting the cart before the horse.

Moreover, the Niger Delta is today where it is, not because of the absence of well-articulated plans, strategies and governmental apparatus to serve as veritable engine rooms of growth but because of our seemingly hereditary inability to right historical wrongs, hold aloft the banner of truth and justice, promote equality and fairness to all men, place good of the State of over self, and internalise the mechanisms of ‘Social Contract’ as postulated by Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

For a region that wears the toga of poverty and violence like a crown, a master plan that is supposedly meant to raise the standard of living above the poverty line, and go beyond that to create favourable conditions for social stability, greater productivity and economic prosperity in the rural and urban Niger Delta cannot be said to be a "clearly defined and people-oriented, multi-stakeholder development strategy for the region" as the peoples’ views, hopes and legitimate aspirations as contained in their bill of rights, declarations, and charter of demands which the government continues to treat with utter contempt, were totally disregarded.

Furthermore, the master plan’s capacity to mitigate violence and stop the tide of hostage-taking in the region can only be situated in the fate that befell the much-lauded report of the Ogomodia Special Security Committee on Oil Producing Areas which is presently occupying a pride of place on the shelves of Government, gathering dust!

One wonders the propriety of launching a master plan in 2007 when Government has not commenced the full implementation of the recommendations of the Lt. Gen. Alexander Ogomudia-led Special Security Committee on Oil Producing Areas which submitted its report to the President on the 19^th of February 2002.

Another intriguing thing about this master plan is its distended shyness of the key recommendations of the panel which are: upward review of the minimum 13% derivation to not less than 50%; Training of Niger Delta indigenes for employment in oil companies; Provision of infrastructures such as electricity, water, roads, e.t.c, Repeal of the Land Use Act, Petroleum Act, Gas Re-injection Act and other laws which dispossesses oil producing areas of their land; and the full industrialisation of the Niger Delta region?

Posers on Government’s intrinsic incapacitation to translate into tangible reality, the recommendations of the James Ibori Presidential Standing Committee on the Niger Delta; the NNPC-Niger Delta Youths Standing Committee, the Major Gen. Mohammed Presidential Committee on Peace and Reconciliation in the Niger Delta; and The Niger Delta Peace and Security Strategy (PASS) will further give us a prophetic insight into the expected destination of this master plan: the recycle bin.

It might even suffer a shoddier fate with the coming of the next Government (even if it’s a PDP-controlled one), which may not be under any moral suasion to implement the twilight plan of an administration that had 8 years to cure a national malady.

Hopes that a shared understanding of the plan would go a long way to secure and sustain public faith and participation throughout the plan implementation period as well as help the stakeholders, especially oil companies and international organisations make informed contributions that will enrich the plan can be said to be a hopeless hope as long as the people are shut out from relevance.

Relevance in this case pertains to recognising and accommodating all local interest groups and communal assemblies in any plan that aspires to add meaning to their existence. And at the moment, there is no overstating the unassailable fact that the prolonged mindless incarceration of Asari Dokubo for treasonable felony (which the master plan obviously evaded) constitutes a daring assault on the collective integrity of every Niger Deltan as well as an abhorrent normalisation of selective justice against a people so oppressed. The aggregate opinions in the region points to a speedy and expeditious trial/release for the NDPVF leader as precursor to any further intervention in the Niger Delta.

Also, glorifying and recognising oil companies and organisations as drivers of effective delivery of the master plan negates outrightly, the antecedents and contributions of these bodies in the degradation of the region as well in other parts of the world where there is always an intricate nexus between civil wars and natural resource ownership.

It is a well known fact internationally that wherever there are resources to be plundered we find foreign companies ready to cooperate; often there is the World Bank, Shell, Chevron, Texaco or ExxonMobile to put a smiley face on these atrocities, claiming things would be worse if they did not supervise the corruption and pay a blind eye to the despoliation of the environment.

Similarly, expecting State governments that stashed away monies and other resources accruable to Niger Delta States way in hidden bank vaults and used same to service personal fantasies and phoney presidential ambitions to now “come in through ecological funds and professional funds management in order to ensure improved revenue generation, encourage public-private sector partnership, and special projects” can as well be likened to praying wishes to be horses for beggars to ride. Leopards are not yet known to be chameleonic, at least not in the Niger Delta.

This is hoping that the authors of this plan will look into the aforementioned drawbacks with a view to correcting same as a Niger Delta where peace, prosperity and progress walk on all fours is the wish of every true Nigerian!

Atâyi Babs©