Niger Delta Stakeholders Warn Tinubu: Decentralise Pipeline Contract or Risk Fresh Conflict

The Niger Delta Stakeholders Forum and Niger Delta Ethnic Nationalities have issued a blunt warning to President Bola Tinubu over plans to decentralise pipeline security contracts. The groups say the government is ignoring long-standing grievances — and that history has shown what happens when Abuja gets this wrong.

A history lesson

In a communiqué from a strategic meeting in Port Harcourt, the stakeholders pointed to the Jonathan years as proof that decentralised pipeline surveillance works. Under President Goodluck Jonathan, that approach helped push Nigeria’s crude production to 2.4–2.5 million barrels per day. The current centralised arrangement, they say, hasn’t come close — despite costing more.

The groups want Tinubu to probe the amnesty programme and resolve existing grievances before touching the Tantita and Tompolo-managed pipeline protection arrangements.

The warning

“We speak as leaders and stakeholders who stood for Nigeria when it mattered most,” the communiqué read. “If the current trajectory is not urgently corrected, the consequences may once again be severe, not just for the Niger Delta, but for Nigeria as a whole.”

The stakeholders also want stipends for ex-agitators reviewed upward — they’ve been stuck at ₦65,000 monthly despite years of inflation. They allege that one ex-agitator increased his group’s allocations by over 500 percent in collusion with amnesty programme leadership, and are calling for a full probe of Chief Dennis Otuaro’s tenure.

The Niger Delta has been through this before. Whether Abuja takes the warning seriously this time could shape the region’s stability for years.

Sources: thisdaylive.com, leadership.ng, thenationonlineng.net