Let's get a few things straight here. I may have been retired for a few years now, but I do know that little or nothing has changed in the Niger Delta. It is the major contributor to Nigeria's wealth but despite receiving an additional share of the oil revenue, sees little benefit because it is stolen by corrupt politicians at all levels of government, from ministerial to the very lowest levels.
However, inflammatory posts from the likes of the barely literate, childish olualu who makes contradictory statements in succeeding posts, or Epihany who obviously knows nothing of Nigeria but seems to be of the opinion that it's okay to shoot at unarmed civil helicopters flown by civilians with civilian passengers (the majority of whom are actually also Nigerians) are not what should be tolerated on here - open forum or no. As a matter of FACT, the helicopter which was hit on Friday was crewed by two national pilots. I have many pictures sent to me by friends in the Delta of the damage caused in the last few days, including many photographs of the dead bodies of terrorists (because that's what they are). Do you think just because this is an open forum it's a good idea to post them here? I most certainly don't. Most of the thugs in the training camps in the delta creeks are just thugs using terror as a weapon to protect their criminal activities of stealing oil, often themselves causing the pollution they emotively try to blame the oil companies for. The oil companies do cause pollution and Shell will be held to account for this very soon in the courts of the USA where they can most effectively be punished - in their pockets.
The present destruction going on in the Delta will be exploited by both sides twisting the facts whichever way they wish to support their case. The militants will try to find bodies of innocent civilians caught up in the fighting and declare that the government has only killed innocent women and children, but leaving the triumphant militants to fight another day. The government will display photos of dead thugs and captured caches of weapons and say that they did their very best to avoid any collateral damage to civilians, but that the evil of the militants finally needed to be brought to an end. As always, the truth will lie somewhere in between and the victor will write the enduring pages of history. The reality is that the problems that successive governments, both civil and military have had with unrest in the Niger Delta will not disappear until they do what they should have done many, many, many years ago. Look at the facilities provided for the people on the Shetland Isles by money provided by their local councils, courtesy of levies made on the oil companies. This problem will only be solved when the basics are provided for the people: free healthcare for all, free education, potable water and a stable power supply to allow industries to be set up to give employment to the masses.
Remember also that with the exception of NLNG, all foreign oil companies in Nigeria are minority stake-holders in joint ventures with the monolithic, corrupt and inefficient NNPC or its arms. Through NNPC the government owns 60% of everything, but NNPC rarely meets its financial obligations as a partner in terms of investment and the oil companies effectively make 100% of the investment with 100% of the risk, but only get a proportion of the revenues.
As the one who started this thread I'd like to ask olualu and Epiphany to remove the more offensive or ridiculous parts of their posts within the next 24 hours before I ask the moderators to do so. Failing that, as the one who started the thread, I will terminate it. I think it would be sad if I have to do that as the number of posts on it and the number of views it has had over the years are possibly a testament to how useful or interesting people may have found it.
Mama