[allAfrica.com] Hostages in Niger Delta Daily Champion (Lagos) EDITORIAL January 31, 2006 Posted to the web February 1, 2006 Lagos The emergence of a hitherto unknown group, Movement For The Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND), which, a few weeks ago, kidnapped four Shell oil workers of different foreign nationalities, has, will-nilly, raised the security stakes in the nation's oil-producing region of the Niger Delta. Precisely, on January 11, four Shell oil workers from America, Britain, Honduras and Bulgaria were abducted during violent breach of their production locations in the Niger Delta for extra economic and political purposes. MEND had threatened to kill the foreign hostages if two Ijaw leaders, Alhaji Asari Dokubo and the deposed Bayelsa State Governor, DSP Alamieyeseigha, currently undergoing criminal prosecutions for treason and money laundering respectively were not released. The group's additional ransom demand of 1.5 billion U. S. dollars for the environmental devastation of Bayelsa State adds immediate economic motive to the MEND's apparently political demand. The capture and hostage-taking of these four foreign nationals working for Shell have so far elicited reactions from their governments notably the United States of America which has called for their release and warned her citizens against travelling to Nigeria because of its insecure status. Until the January 11 attack on Shell's installations in Bayelsa, the nation had witnessed numerous other attacks and kidnappings in the Niger Delta region, most of which had been reactive and tied to general demands that the area, which provides much of the nation's wealth, be reciprocally catered for and developed, rather than being treated as a passive cash-cow. In Odi, Warri, Bonny, and all around the Niger Delta since the 1990s and even before, violent agitations, all geared towards attracting national and international attention to the sheer physical despoliation of this oil producing areas, have become more or less the norm. The January 11 case may be the first time that private individuals working for a multi-national oil company in Nigeria have been abducted not for any general reasons, but for the specific purpose of pressurizing the Nigerian government into making political concessions in matters the authorities deem purely criminal in nature. Without prejudice to the rightness or otherwise of the cause which MEND is pursuing in the Niger Delta and their methods of doing that, their objective use of foreign hostages to press for purely domestic, political demands appears flawed in the circumstance. For one thing, even though Shell is an influential player in Nigeria's oil export market as testified by the drop of 226,000 barrels from Nigeria's daily oil production output and the rise to about $64 per barrel in global price of oil, the hostages held by MEND are private individuals without much stake in the global oil company, SHELL. For another, since their grouse is with the Nigerian government, the use of foreign nationals who merely happen to be employed in the country merely raises a lot of diplomatic problems should the hostages die advertently or out of sheer neglect or accident. History has consistently shown, as in the case of Middle East where hostage taking has become a fine art, that in the end, it does not achieve much but instead complicates an already complex set of problems. Over the years, government has done as much as it deems fit to address the clear and present devastation of the Niger Delta which oil exploration, exploitation and sales have caused in the area through the setting up of intervention agencies to attract development to the area. But development has so far eluded the region. Their lot has been pollution, acid rain, mass dislocation of local populations due to oil spills and general man-made poverty of a political nature. While it is acknowledged that government has done some things to alleviate the ravages of oil extraction in the Niger Delta, the same cannot be said of the efficacy of those measures which end up being snaffled by some self-centred leaders of the region. Government's set-pattern of dealing with such emergencies like the present hostage taking also falls short of expectations. To believe that only a military solution as was contemplated through troop build-up in the area, will solve the Niger Delta problem is also frightfully short-sighted. The cost both in human and material terms of military invasion as was done in Odi in 2000, is just not commensurate with the results. Against the mind-set of might in government's conflict resolution strategy in the Niger Delta, a new thinking that would incorporate the genuine and legitimate demands of the people in the region is called for. To arrest the growing threat of anarchy in Niger Delta which has adversely affected the nation's capacity to export its life-line of petroleum, an accommodation has to be found for the innocent communities in the area who bear the brunt of the escalating crisis and were reported to be fleeing the area for fear of government reprisals . The Niger Delta militants are also better advised not to cut their noses to spite the face of the federal government. This is because death or harm to the foreign hostages will do little to advance their cause, as, ultimately it is the needed pressure from these international community that will persuade federal government to offer a better deal to the Niger Delta people. It is heart-refreshing that the hostages have finally been released without any harm to them. We commend all those who worked tirelessly to ensure the release of the hostages and hope that both their captors and the government would have learnt some lessons by this very embarrassing and unfortunate incident.   ===============================================================================  Copyright © 2006 Daily Champion. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). ===============================================================================