Alex Duval Smith
Hundreds of people have been killed along the Nigerian coast, tens of thousands have been forced from their homes, and oil production – crucial to the country’s economy – has been cut by a quarter by an escalation of unrest that shows signs of civil war.
The conflict began a month ago between impoverished ethnic groups angered by the exploitation of oil in their areas. Last week drilling rigs and oil terminals operated by Shell and Chevron were seized.
The military regime faces a dilemma: should it obey the traditional impulse to crack down, risking international condemnation, or tolerate the secessionist ambitions of the country’s fourth largest group, the Ijaw.
Hundreds of villages are reported to have been abandoned or burnt down in the conflict. New pockets of unrest are emerging daily all along the coast from the outskirts of Lagos to the Cameroon border.
The clashes look increasingly like a more widespread version of the Ogoniland wars: the dispute with Royal Dutch Shell that split the Ogoni community, south of Port Harcourt, and led three years ago to the execution of nine activists, including the author Ken Saro-Wiwa.
The largely inaccessible coastal belt of mangroves and swamps, the home of the Ijaw, an ancient migrant fishing group, has been transformed in the 40 years since oil was discovered: gas flares burn day and night, pipelines have been laid.
The fishing communities say they have not benefited: the changes have brought oil slicks and growing village rivalries as local chiefs try to win favour with the oil companies.
The multinational oil companies have refused to comment on the crisis, but the managing director of the Nigerian company Dubri Oil, UJ Itsueli, warned that armed Ijaw activists could launch terrorist attacks throughout Nigeria. He said: “If poverty is alleviated in these areas, infrastructure is provided, insincere community leaders are discouraged, and lack of trust between government and companies is eliminated, then the problem of ethnic clashes will be a thing of the past.”
The Ijaw warriors say their anger is directed not at foreign oil companies but at the military regime, which has a joint- venture arrangement with them.
The chief of one Ijaw group, Alex Preye, said: “Our demands are very simple. We need dualised [dual carriageway] roads linking oil-producing communities, more local representation, a university or at least some investment in education, and the compensation we are due for years of exploitation. We put the figure at 20- million naira [$200 000]. We are also demanding piped water, electricity, cottage hospitals and telecommunications.”
But Magnus Araulene, a leader of the Ilaje inland ethnic group, which was attacked by Ijaw warriors last month, said: “The Ijaws want to control the entire coast of Nigeria, from Akwa Ibom in the east to Lagos in the west. They have attacked many tribes. The Ilajes are just the latest on their list. The Ijaws want to control all the land where there is oil and then make deals with the oil companies.”
The military regime, which depends on oil for 90% of its foreign exchange, is believed to be considering passing on to local communities a greater share of the levy on oil profits. The share was recently increased from 3% to 13%, and there are reportedly plans for an increase to 25%.
But the measure, which has not yet been discussed with local leaders, may come too late for thousands of people. They are well armed and, it seems, have little to lose.
Ijaw leaders have called on their subjects to boycott the voter registration programme being held before democratic elections in December, January and February.
Last week Ijaw youths seized a Shell oil terminal at Forcados, one of the country’s four main terminals (the others are at Oron, Bonny and Brass). They have also seized at least a dozen of the company’s pipeline pumping stations, and a helicopter belonging to the Italian company Agip.
* More than 500 people scavenging for fuel from a burst petrol pipeline died in southern Nigeria last weekend when a fireball ripped through the area.
The fire was caused by petrol from a pipeline which had been leaking for two days. One oil industry official described it as an act of sabotage.
Reports from the scene of the fire, at Jesse, near Warri, indicated that by the time the fire started, an area the size of a football field had filled with petrol, attracting hundreds of people keen to avoid queuing for fuel.