While Crisis Management and Reputation Management are Public Relations functions, Conflict Management is another process of limiting the negative aspects of conflicts while increasing the positive aspects.

An interesting feature of President Muhammadu Buhari’s cabinet and in fact his ruling party, All Progressives Congress (APC) is the amalgamation of good fighters and good managers.

The fighting skills as well as managerial expertise of some of the members catapulted the party to victory in the last general elections. For instance, Rotimi Amaechi aided the emergence of the Buhari government when he successfully initiated a fight, as the Governor of Rivers State, against President Goodluck Jonathan. He tactically joined forces with other members of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), including Senator Bukola Saraki of the National Assembly and Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso of Kano State among others in fighting the government. This helped to bring PDP down to its knee after 16 years as the ruling party.

Rotimi Amaechi, even as the current Transport Minister has never stopped been a good fighter. He recently took on his counterpart, Petroleum Minister of State, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu on Niger Delta issue. The two Ministers are the unique faces of good fighters and managers in the Buhari administration. While Amaechi, as a politician believes in taking decisive actions on critical issues, Kachikwu is an advocate of managing any issue to a logical conclusion rather than through confrontations.

At a recent Federal Government Town-Hall meeting at Uyo in Akwa Ibom State, Amaechi defended the decision of the Muhammadu Buhari administration to scrap the Maritime University project on the ground that the previous administration of Goodluck Jonathan had paid too much to acquire a land for the university.

Describing the project as a “misplacement of priority”, Amaechi said: “My argument about Okerenkoko is that the land alone is N13 billion. If you give me N13 billion, I will buy half of Lagos. That N13 billion has built the university already.”

He added that anti-corruption agencies should be mandated to recover the N13 billion already paid for the land, then he would build the university for the Niger Delta region.

Like a bull in China shop, Kachikwu rose to defend the university project adding that he would source for the money to complete the project.

Kachikwu said; “I disagree with the Minister of Transport. Any facility that is located in the South-South we should work closely to develop it. I don’t care the circumstances under which you are placed. It’s not in my position to determine whether land was valued at N3 billion or N10 billion. The appropriate institution, which is at the costing system, will determine that. That has nothing to do with development of infrastructure. And as far as I know, so much has already gone into the university.”

The drama must have generated heated debates but the great lesson is that we can fight some of the time to win but we should also devise ways of managing victory. Skilled managers rather than good fighters are required for political stability and economic growth.

Amaechi started his political fighting from the University of Port Harcourt, when he fought his way to become the President of the National Union of Rivers State Students (NURSS) after fighting for students’ rights. After his graduation, he joined Pamo Clinics and Hospitals Limited owned by Dr. Peter Odili, his political godfather who became Governor of Rivers State and facilitated Amaechi’s election into the Rivers State House of Assembly where he emerged the Speaker in 1999. Their harmonious relationship was truncated when Amaechi launched a campaign against the State government, and fought Odili in an effort to succeed him as Governor in 2007. When his name was substituted as winner of PDP’s primaries for Rivers Gubernatorial election that year, Amaechi fought his way to the Supreme Court where he was pronounced the rightful candidate of the party and became the Governor on 26 October 2007. He was re-elected for a second term of four years in April 2011 with less fight.

Meanwhile, Dr. Kachikwu has never been a typical Nigerian politician who can fight his way to power and reckoning. He is an outstanding manager who has proved his worth in the media, academics and corporate world. Apart from bagging a first class degree in Law from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka and Nigerian Law School with multiple awards, he also obtained outstanding Masters and Doctorate Degree in Law from Harvard University. He had worked with the Nigerian/American Merchant Bank, Texaco Nigeria Limited from where he joined Exxon-Mobil where he rose to the position of Executive Vice Chairman and General Counsel of Exxon Mobil(Africa).

Apart from his deep involvement in the politics of Niger Delta, Amaechi as Transport Minister has succeeded in the extension of rail lines across Nigeria and the completion of ongoing rail projects initiated by the previous administration, especially the Abuja-Kaduna route that is likely to be commissioned in July 2016 by President Muhammadu Buhari.

Meanwhile Kachikwu as Petroleum Minister and GMD NNPC was able to cut operational losses, deregulate the downstream sector, initiate a creative means of meeting the Joint Venture (JV) contributions and ensuring prompt payments of revenue to the federation account among others.

Kachikwu’s endorsement of first class engineer and thoroughbred bureaucrat, Dr. Maikanti Baru, as the new Group Managing Director of NNPC, is quite encouraging as the Minister now chair the NNPC Board of Trustees to oversee the complex oil sector and undertake critical consultations with stakeholders towards political and economic stability.

While we urge the fighters and managers in the cabinet of President Buhari to work closely and collectively towards political stability, national security and economic advancement, they should limit the negative aspects of their conflict and increase the positive aspects of the struggle. What Nigerians want now is more focus in managing the economy and security situations rather than in-fighting and internal-agency rivalry.

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Tompolo of Niger Delta: Between Dialogue and Confrontation

By Yushau A. Shuaib
“NEMA Registers 3500 Displaced People in Warri”

The above quotation was the title of a press release I issued as the spokesperson of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) on June 25, 2009 after the completion of our assignment in setting up Internally Displaced Person’s (IDPs) camp in Gbaramatu Kingdom, Warri South West, Delta State.

The NEMA’s intervention followed a clash between the military-led Joint Task Force (JTF) and Tompolo-led Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) which had claimed responsibility for the deaths of some soldiers and displacements of citizens.

Even though the military endorsed our passage to the creek in May 2009, some of us were scared stiff of the possibility of being captured by militants on a suspicion of being government’s spies. Surprisingly we were well-received by community leaders and local government council officials which was then under the Chairmanship of younger brother to Government Tompolo, the most wanted Militant Leader . To our amazement, we discovered some Hausa-Fulani folks within the hinterland who had adopted Ijaw-land as home away from home, speaking the local dialect fluently and even enjoying the locally brewed gin!

It was a scary adventure for NEMA responders as we persuaded women and children to come out from their hideouts in the bush. Their plights were better imagined as we had to close down some schools and health centres and converted them to IDP camps. Some pregnant women delivered babies in the thick forest; their men languished in the bush and stayed on water as thousands other displaced persons had scattered into the neighbouring states of Bayelsa, Edo, Ondo and Rivers.

While the Nigerian troops were still hunting for the militants, NEMA’s reports and intelligent information from other sources, persuaded the peace-loving President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, a Muslim Northerner from Katsina State to endorse the Amnesty Agreement.

The elusive Tompolo and other ex-militant leaders emerged from their hideouts and agreed to the Amnesty programmes in the Presidential Villa  as they surrendered their sophisticated weapons and were eventually pardoned by Yar’Adua’s government.

The risky decision of President Yar’Adua in embracing dialogues and approving the Amnesty for the Niger Delta militants rather than confrontation through military might, quickly stabilised the region, boosted the volume of crude oil production, steadied supply of gas to electricity power stations, increased revenue to the Federation Account and ensured engagement of many youths of that region in various productive ventures including capacity building programmes at home and abroad.

Precisely seven years after, we are back to the old story as militants have staged a resurgence of hostilities through a new group, Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) which is attracting global media attention by destructions of oil facilities in the region. This unfortunate development is coming at a period when Nigerian troops are contending with Boko Haram menace in the North-East.

The activities of NDA and other similar groups are reminiscence of Pre-Yar’Adua’s Amnesty when the militants engaged in abductions of oil workers, especially the expatriates; rampant sea-piracy; destructions of oil facilities and killing of ordinary citizens and security personnel.

There are concerns expressed by some ex-militants that the Amnesty Programme may soon be jettisoned by Buhari’s administration as the Coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, Brig. Gen Paul Boroh (rtd), recently disclosed that the programme is very expensive and cannot be sustained in perpetuity.

Coupled with that fear are the unfounded allegations that the current administration is after ex-militant leaders who supported Goodluck Jonathan in the last presidential election. Some are even claiming that the prosecution of Tompolo by Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over corrupt practices is political witch-hunting.

There are certainly those that are not comfortable with military threats to ‘crush’ Niger Delta militants like Boko Haram Terrorists considering the fact that Nigerian troops are already overstretched as they engage in war on terror in the North-East. The Niger Delta creek is also precariously impenetrable terrain. Such threats, according to some critics, portray the government as adopting confrontational stance rather than diplomatic approach at addressing the youth restiveness.

In the face of military threats to crush the vandals, it is the unidentified militants that are currently ‘crushing’ and crippling Nigeria’s economy through the destructions of oil installations that provide gas for domestic power generation and crude oil for export. For instance, after the attack on the Nigeria Gas Company’s pipeline in January 2016, the Minister of Power and Works, Raji Fashola announced that the country was losing N470m daily. On the other hand, the Minister of State for Petroleum and Managing Director of NNPC, Dr Ibe Kachikwu, also disclosed that Nigeria losses 800,000 barrels of crude oil daily  due to pipeline vandalism which easily translates to the revenue loss of over N7bn daily.

And just recently the Ad-hoc Committee on Crude Oil Theft Prevention and Control of the National Economic Council (NEC)  revealed that the Federal Government does not have adequate operational vessels to patrol and secure the network of pipelines in the Niger Delta.

While we must condemn the destruction of oil facilities by the Niger Delta militants, the government should tread a political line through dialogues. President Buhari should ignore any misleading advice as some zealots would rather want our President to act like a no-nonsense cowboy in Hollywood movies. At over 70 years, President Buhari does not have that youthful strength and excessive power of military dictatorship to re-enact forceful compliance to orders because of democratic ethos.

As the father of the nation, Buhari should employ humane and thoughtful strategies that would not exacerbate the already tense political and economic situations in the country. He should demonstrate exemplary leadership qualities through compassionate disposition and diplomatic overtures to the belligerent militants whose sponsors are yet to be identified.

Since the most wanted Niger Delta militant, Government Tompolo, has issued Open Letters , appealing to President Muhamadu Buhari to intervene on his plight, the government should temper justice with mercy and capitalise on that and woo other leaders in the region for amicable solutions to the crises.

After fruitful dialogues government should work out concrete structures that would permanently address the plight of people whose environment provides the chunk of our national revenue. The government should also pursue aggressive economic diversification programmes for other geopolitical zones towards economic self-reliant and sustenance.

Yushau A. Shuaib
www.yashuaib.com
yashuaib@yahoo.com
Abuja

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