How The Niger Deltans Can Get Their Freedom: The Action Plan! (Part 5)

First, and most importantly, what the N.D. militants and the indigenes need to understand at this stage of the conflict is that these 3 monsters have much more to loose, compared to them, simply because they (the Niger deltans) have neither investments nor costly properties to protect. They have practically nothing else to loose save their precious lives. They are even poorer than the church rats. Secondly, they must understand that they have reached the point of no return in their face off with these 3 monsters. This is a very powerful psychological weapon which the militants must exploit by revealing over and over to the 3 monsters that they (the monsters) have much more to loose compared to them. The militants must announce it loudly and over and over to these 3 monsters that they are at their mercy, and not vice versa, because all their investments and source of revenues are concentrated in the Niger delta. Before discussing about the tactics that need to be adopted by the militants in order to realise their strategy and strengthen their leverage to the maximum, we need to first talk about something that is equally important.

THE MISSION STATEMENT AND OBJECTIVE MUST COME FIRST – BEFORE THE TACTICS AND STRATEGY.

A mission statement could be defined as your reason for embarking on a project or venture. a mission statement is like a statement of purpose. It should not be confused with an objective. For example, the mission statements of the Niger deltans could be the following:

a. To make the Niger delta clean by world standard;

b. To increase the standard of living of the indigenes to world standard;

c. To take part in all oil negotiations and have the veto power or final say over any agreement;

d. To review and renegotiate all oil and gas deals previously entered into by the north on their behalf;

e. To get a fair oil deal for their communities and indigenes;

f. To end political humiliation of their people by the northern government;

g. To end the pogrom of their people by the northern led Nigerian government;

h. To end all economic deprivations by the northern led Nigerian government;

i. To take full control of their resources;

j. To rule over themselves;

k. To bring the capital to the Niger delta;

l. To develop their culture and language.

An objective is what you need to do in order to fulfill your mission. Objective is more about where exactly do you really want to be? When exactly do you really want to be there? Objectives should be concrete and measurable. Your mission statements and objective(s) should precede any strategy and tactics because they help you in formulating your strategy, which in turn helps you to formulate your tactics. Without mission statements, purpose and objective, it is illogical to have a strategy and tactics. Formulating a strategy and tactics without first formulating your mission and objective is like putting the cart before the horse. Acting without a mission, purpose and objective is like not knowing exactly where exactly you want to go and why you are going to a particular place. In such a situation, failure is guaranteed.

WHAT DO YOU GUYS REALLY WANT? DEFINE IT AND STAND BY IT.

The N.D. militants, all along, have been talking about injustice, neglect, marginalization, economic deprivation, etc, but, they are yet to come up with a concrete proposal or objective on how they want to resolve these issues.

Do they have a criteria or benchmark for developing the Niger delta? In my opinion, the N.D. don’t have a ‘clear’ mission and objective. All they want is justice, but they have not really defined how they want to achieve it. As far as developing the Niger delta is concerned, they need to ask and answer the following questions:

1. How many universities must be built in the N.D.? What should be their capacities and quality in terms of level of computerisation, availability of modern well equipped laboratories and technical specialties?

2. How many schools must be built in the N.D.? What should be their capacities and quality?

3. How many kilometers of roads must be built? What should be their quality?

4. How many hospitals must be built? What should be their capacities and quality in terms of equipments, availability of drugs and well trained personnel?

5.How many national and international airports must be built? What should be their capacities and quality?

6. How many factories must be built? What should be their capacities and quality? What kind of factories?

7. How many kilometers of rail lines must be built? What should be their capacities and quality?

8. How many of their indigenes must be employed by NNPC and multinational oil companies? To what position?

9. What should be the minimum number of their indigenes that must constitute senior management positions and overall staff of NNPC and multinational oil companies?

10. How will the education and medical service of the indigenes be financed?

11. What should be the minimum percentage of their indigenes that must be employed in the universities, schools, hospitals, etc,?

12. How much electricity must be generated in the Niger delta?

13. What is the minimum percentage of households that must have pipe borne water in their houses?

14. When exactly will these projects be started and completed? Can the government provide a detailed time-table?

15. Who is going to be responsible for implementing and managing these projects?

16. How are these projects going to be funded?

17. What is the minimum percentage of their people that must be employed in the Nigerian civil service?

Therefore, before going to any summit or sitting down with the northern government, they must have concrete proposals and objective on how they want to develop the region. It will be a fatal mistake on the part of the Niger deltans to wait or rely on the north to provide a blue print for them at the summit. When you have an objective, your task is half solved because you know exactly what you want; why you want it and you start thinking about what you need to do in order to have it. When you have a mission and objective, then you know exactly where you are going, why you are going there, and you start making plans on how to get there. When you have a mission and an objective, you know how to defend your demand and it will be very difficult for anybody to take you for a ride. The danger of getting your mission and objective wrong from the onset is very grave because you will be squandering your limited resources in pursuit of the shadow, and failure is guaranteed even before you set out on your journey.

This is what objective is all about. Therefore, before any summit, they need to provide sincere, concrete and explicit answers to the following additional questions:

1. Do they just want some percentage increase in the oil revenues and continue to remain part of Nigeria?

2. If yes, what percentage will be accepted to them?

3. What arguments do they have to defend the percentage increase they will be asking for?

4. What amendments do they want to the oil deals entered into on their behalf by the north with multinational oil companies?

5. How much of the roughly $60 billion reserve fund do they want?

6. How can they justify the figure?

7. Why do they want to remain in Nigeria and not on their own – rule themselves and concentrate all their resources exclusively on their own development?

8. Is there any benefit for them if they remain in the same country with the north?

9. What have they benefited so far from being part of Nigeria?

10. What would they be loosing politically, economically, militaryly and socially if they remain in the same country with the north – which is made of millions of half-baked specialists, beggars and unproductive retired criminal officers like Buhari, Babangida, Danjuma, Gowon, Mukhtar, etc,?