Hon. Famous Daunemigha is a former Bayelsa state governorship candidate on the platform of the defunct Congress for Progressive Change (CPC). He is a prominent member of the Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF). In this interview with BODE OLAGOKE, he speaks on the proposed plan by the federal government to dialogue with militants in Niger Delta, activities of the Niger Delta Ministry and why government relates with PANDEF among others.
President Muhammadu Buhari was quoted as saying that the federal government is ready to negotiate with the militants in the Niger Delta. How did you receive this statement?
The statement by Mr President is political. Mr President is somebody I respect so much. But I’m a very frank man, being an activist. The president is not to dialogue with the militants. He is to dialogue with the people of Niger Delta. The agitators are not agitating for themselves. They are agitating for a region. So, when the president’s team is ready, they will meet the leadership and the people of Niger Delta. That impression needs to be cancelled immediately. When he made the statement that he is to negotiate with the Niger Delta militants, there is no direction in that. The Niger Delta militants have listened so far by their appeal to the people of the Niger Delta. They should know that the Niger Delta agitators are under the elders, leaders and the pioneer agitators in the region. So, that needs to be clear. He is not to negotiate with the Niger Delta militants.
If that is the case, which group will the president negotiate with?
Few months ago, we had a team of selected leaders across all political grounds; APC, PDP, APGA or whatever. It has no binding with politics. And we formed a body called Pan Niger Delta Forum which became an umbrella body. Other bodies do exist in the region but PANDEF is an umbrella body that is now a mouthpiece of the area. We paid a courtesy visit to Mr President and presented some 15-point discussion areas which are not all-inclusive, but it contains almost everything that we need to address because government cannot solve all the activities in the region. But it can do up to 50, 70 percent of the appeals of the people.
So, PANDEF is now a mouthpiece of the area. It’s a body that government knows. It is this body that secures the ceasefire that we enjoy. If a body has secured ceasefire for production to go up from 1.3 to almost 2 point something million barrels a day, which other body is the government looking for? It is a body with a cream of people capable of addressing the issue.
As an insider in the Niger Delta amnesty package for the ex-militants, what is the state of the stipends being paid to them?
They are creations of our agitations. Every structure has its own phase. It went through intellectual phase. The government didn’t listen. Then, it went into the armed part of it. But it came from the armed part of it to the amnesty which the government is not even managing well. When people talk about stipends being paid to ex-agitators, they look at it as if it was what was bargained for. That is not what was bargained for. Amnesty has other phases which government has never touched. One of them is the payment of stipend pending the time they get jobs. The major part of it is the issue of development, the infrastructural part of the amnesty programme. The government has never attempted to do it. But when we make this statement, people say the NDDC and the Niger Delta ministry are there. No, they are not part of the amnesty. They preceded amnesty. The NDDC was there before amnesty came on board.
But the Niger Delta ministry was created before the amnesty programme?
Even if it was created, it has its setbacks as well. You set up a ministry, but the ministry is under-funded. So, you are not sincere in addressing the issue. Nigerians must go back to the mathematics. As a people, they should calculate how much revenue is generated from that region in terms of oil. And how much is being spent on the region? Let’s start with the question of 13 percent that is being paid. If you operate true federalism, I’m not going to pay 87 percent tax to the federal; no, I’m not going to do that, I will pay probably about 20 or 30 percent.
We agree that there is mismanagement of the 13 percent by our governors. But that is not an excuse for the federal government. They should be liable for their responsibilities. They must carry out what they want to do. So, they underfund the NDDC. The government has not fully kept part of their bargain by funding this agency.
The Niger Delta people are contented if the government fulfills its promises. The Calabar-Lagos coastal rail project is a welcome development. If that project is genuinely tackled, the mere mobilization of materials will douse tension. People will say the government is actually doing something. It’s easier to make statements.
You know that the Goodluck Jonathan government made statements that excited the people. But at the end, they didn’t do anything. So, the issue of amnesty is beyond the stipend they are paying. The stipend cannot remain forever. What we need is the development of the area which will lead to job creation and self-employment by those trained via amnesty programme.
You said the dialogue statement is political with no direction. How do you want the president to go about the issue?
By my own understanding, there is no sincerity.
What is the way forward?
The way forward is that the Niger Delta people have come to meet you. We said we would appeal to the agitators to listen to us. So, they give us 30 days ceasefire. What the government should have done is to tell us to appeal to them to keep the peace, while they come up with a negotiation team within two, three weeks. The government cannot say vaguely that we will bring a team. When? It’s going to almost three months, you have not set up a team. How long does it take you to set up a team?
Don’t you think that the presidency is confused about who to meet? What has PANDEF done to warrant it being the representative?
I have just stated it here that PANDEF gave two weeks ceasefire. PANDEF appealed and got 30-day ceasefire. Let any other group come if they have respect from the agitators. We have the likes of Obong Attah, Edwin Clarke, Timi Alaibe, myself, the Olu of Warri and many other kings from Rivers, Cross River and across the region that make up PANDEF. Who else can speak if these people cannot speak for the region?
The issue of the team to discuss with the president is not the government’s problem. The problem with the government is that they must select their team and let the region come out to say they cannot produce a team to discuss with them. Then, the buck goes back to the region. It’s not enough for government to say it doesn’t know who to talk to.
