Ending the Niger Delta Crises: Exploring Women’S Participation in Peace Processes
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
WARN POLICY BRIEF NIGER DELTA CRISIS August 15, 2009 ENDING THE NIGER DELTA CRISES: EXPLORING WOMEN’S PARTICIPATION IN PEACE PROCESSES Author(s): Chukwuemeka Eze, Bridget Osakwe, Bukola Akosile, Evelyn Mere Editor/quality assurance: Takwa Zebulon Suifon and Ifeanyi Okechukwu Address enquiries to: National Network Coordinator, WANEP-Nigeria, 3, Soji Adepegba Close, off Allen Avenue Ikeja, Lagos, Nigeria. Tel/Fax: 234-1-5556805, 8198282 (website: www.wanepnigeria.org) ………………………………………….WANEP © 2009………………………………………………………... 1. INTRODUCTION WEST AFRICA EARLY WARNING NETWORK (WARN) The Niger Delta question predates the The West Africa Early Warning Network (WARN) is an independence of Nigeria and has continued integral part of the West Africa Preventive Peacebuilding Program co-ordinated by the West Africa Network for to stick out like a sore thumb in the nation. Peacebuilding (WANEP). Through its WARN Program, WANEP is setting the stage for a civil society-based early The present administration’s renewed warning and response network in Africa with emphasis on human security. search for an effective solution to this WARN covers the entire Economic Community of West protracted problem is based on the fact that African States (ECOWAS) sub-region including Cameroon and Chad. Our focus was initially the Mano it is part of President Yar’Adua's Seven River Basin countries of Sierra Leone, Guinea, Liberia, and Côte d’Ivoire. We have since expanded to cover the Point Agenda, and thus a critical index in entire West Africa sub-region. measuring the success of the administration Since 2002, WANEP entered into an agreement with as well as the country's march towards ECOWAS through the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in the framework of capacity Vision 2020. The strategic importance of the building in Conflict Prevention. One of the goals of this agreement is to interface WARN with the ECOWAS Early Niger delta to the socio-economic well being Warning Systems to optimize early warning conflict prevention in West Africa. In view of this development, of Nigeria can never be over emphasized; WANEP has been operating a liaison office located at the ECOWAS Secretariat in Abuja, Nigeria since April 2003. the creeks and swamps in the region sit on one of the world’s biggest oil reserves with about 54 billion barrels of oil. The oil explored in the region accounts for over 85% of government revenue and 95% of the nation’s 1 foreign exchange . In addtion, the World Bank has reported that the region has the tenth largest proven gas reserve in the world.2 However, the country’s continued dependence on oil and gas revenues generated from this region strikes at the core of stability for the nation. Moreso when the full implementation of the 2009 budget is already affected by 1 UNDP Human Development Report, 2000-2001 Millennium edition. 2 Tunde Obadina, “Nigeria Alone Could Provide the Power Needs of All West Africa”, from Africa Recovery, Vol.13 #1 (June 1999), page 16 (part of article, “Nigeria in Focus”) shortfall in revenue from oil production as result of militancy in the region. A common root cause to the instability revolves round the issue of resource control and socio economic development of the region. However the plight of indigenous women in the face of intractable violence has largely been ignored. The just suspended armed engagement between the Joint military Task Force and various militant groups in the region has created several negative consequences for women and children which is subsumed under the bigger issues of violence. This policy Brief explores recent dynamics in the Niger Delta conflict in the context of the amnesty granted to militants, release of Henry Okah and the plight of the vulnerable groups in all the efforts geared towards resolving the conflicts. This paper attempts to bring the ‘women perspectives’ into the fore of events in the region. This brief specifically: . Analyzes the recent violence and its impact on women and children; . Critically examine the roles of different social groups in the life of the conflict; . Highlights women not just as victims but as a group with the capacity to make both positive and negative contributions to the dynamics of the conflict; . Explores the accelerators as well as resources for peace; and finally . Proffers options for response. BACKGROUND TO THE CONFLICT: The upscaled military action of the Joint Task Force in Gbaramatu Kingdom of Delta State on May 13, 2009 in response to the alleged killing of an army officer (a Lt.Colonel) and the attack on eleven others by Militants in the region highlights part of the tragic history that has befallen the Niger Delta since the discovery of oil in the region in 1956. A timeline analysis shows that as early as as 1966, Isaac Adaka Boro embarked on a twelve day revolt in 1966 to protest inequality and injustice experienced by the minorities in the Eastern region of Nigeria. His revolt kickstarted the chain of various degrees of violent protest which over the years was suppressed by the military government. A significant turning point to the struggle was the formation of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) inspired by Ken Saro Wiwa in 1990 to protest the environmental degradation. In response the military government of General Sani 2 Abacha set up the Rivers State Internal Security Force to ‘deal with’ them as he considered their actions as an uprising. The subsequent violent abuses and political intrigues led to the death of Ken Saro Wiwa and indigenes of Ogoni land. Another significant threshold in the historical timeline was in 1999 when the Federal Government under the leadership of Chief Olusgegun Obasanjo ordered a military engagement to the village of Odi in response to percieved acts of violence by restive youths in the community. During the onslaught, women and girls were brutally raped and killed by the military officers and subsequently displaced without provision for trauma healing, reintegration and reconciliation. With the turn of the new millenium the agitation took a worse distabilising dimension as clusters of youth groups organised themselves into militant groups to violently agitate and seek for various group interests often coated with a facade of regional or communal positions. Groups such as the Niger Delta Volunteer Force and the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) embarked on campaigns of sabotage, destruction of oil installations, kidnapping/hostage taking for ransom and oil bunkering. These acts have had devastating effects on the country’s economic performance, causing huge loss of petroleum output and revenue. At present, more than 1 million barrels per day are lost to shut in and force majure by oil multinational companies while not less than USD $500 billion have been lost in the five years. Kidnappers and hostage takers have also reportedly pocketed over $100 million between 2006 and 2008 alone from the over 128 persons kidnapped during the period3. The victims of these kidnap incidents moved from men to include women as mothers, wives and very young daughters made victims due to their relationship with targeted men. At one stage, the kidnappers diverted their attention to kidnap of little girls; for whatever motive but the effects were traumatizing for their families especially mothers of the kidnapped children and other mothers who are gripped with fear of safety of their own safety and that of their children. The JTF otherwise referred to as Operation Restore Hope has been the most recent military response by the Federal government to the militia activities and criminality in the Niger Delta. Composed of the Nigerian Army, Air Force, the Police (MOPOL) and State Security Service and deployed in the Niger Delta Region in August 2003, it was tasked 3 ‘Kidnappers pocket N15bn’, Thisday Newspaper, Wednesday April 1, 2009 pg 8: 3 primarily with securing the region from total descent into anarchy. The 13th May 2009 military bombardment of ‘Camp 5’ regarded as MEND stronghold at Oporoza in Gbaramatu Kingdom of Delta State has also sparked off incursions into other communities in the Kingdom with suspected militant operations such as Kurutie, Kokodiagbene, Kunukunuma, and Okerenkoko communities. With the upsurge of violence in the region, national and international attention has been focused on the level of human rights abuses as result of militant and military activities in the region. However, little attention has been placed on a group considered as the most vulnerable in the crises which is women and children.Though women in the Niger Delta constitute the economic bedrock of their communities through traditional sources of livelihood such as fishing, farming and trading, they are most affected and abused in the litany of violence that has pervaded these communities. KEY ISSUES AND QUESTIONS IN THE CONFLICT: A critical analysis of the present situation in the Niger Delta highlights the following questions: • With the level of peacebuilding resources inherent in them, could it really be said that the women groups in the Niger Delta communities are powerless to agitate for what is right by campaigning for the use of right approaches and strategies or are they also complacent? • What sort of protection exists for women, girls and children in the midst of conflict and barrage of attacks and counter-attacks? • What are the coping mechanisms and or strategies that these women are currently engaging to survive? • Women’s capacity to continue their role as provider of the everyday needs of their families in times of displacement; • Are women included in formal discussions or are their views and concerns assumed to be taken care of by the ‘all knowing men’? • What is the role and position of women in the recent amnesty package granted by the Federal Government 4 Analysts have alluded to the fact that women are not just victims, but also beneficiaries as mothers, sisters, lovers, wives etc.