Friday, June 06, 2008
Analysis: Nigerian militants plan attack
disclaimer: image is for illustration purposes onlyby Carmen GentileAbuja, Nigeria (UPI) Jun 01, 2008Nigeria's leading militant group warned that it is planning a full-scale attack on military bases and petroleum production centers in the oil-rich Niger Delta to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the president's inauguration.
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta said that it would use car bombings and other forms of terror Thursday, marking one full year in office for President Umaru Yar'Adua.
"To commemorate the one year of failure by the government of Umaru Yar'Adua, MEND will carry out a string of deadly attacks and car bombings," the group said in a statement e-mailed to media outlets.
The advance warning, according to the group's statement, was to ensure that civilians avoid milling around oil pipelines so as to "minimize civilian loss of life."
Military officials in the delta said they are ready for a major assault by MEND, and foreign oil firms operating in the region said they would bolster their security as well.
Efforts by the Nigerian president to reach out to the militants, who are calling for a more equitable distribution of oil wealth among the nation's poor, have received mixed reviews over the last year.
Soon after his May 29, 2007, inauguration, Yar'Adua reached out to the militants and called for a truce, during which he promised to work on the problems plaguing the impoverished delta.
However, MEND and other armed groups soon lost patience with the president and waged an assault on the de facto capital of the delta, Port Harcourt, in September.
Since then, several efforts to broker a peace deal with the militants have been largely short-lived and ineffective, with attacks on oil and gas installations and pipelines increasing in recent months.
Nigeria, Africa's No. 1 oil producer, has pumped more than $300 billion worth of crude over the last three decades from the southern delta states, according to estimates. High unemployment in the delta, environmental degradation due to oil and gas extraction, and a lack of basic resources such as fresh water and electricity have angered the region's youth, who have taken up arms, many times supplied by political leaders, and formed militant groups and local gangs.
Despite the continuing unrest, there have been some positive reviews of Yar'Adua's first year in office.
"There is increasingly political stability. We are seeing an emphasis on rule of law and due process, because democracy and rule of law go together. It is very important," Jerry Gana, a leading member of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, said earlier this week.
Gana did note, though, that the Yar'Adua administration still needed to improve social services like water and power supplies in the delta and throughout Nigeria.
But others have less than glowing reviews for the first year of Yar'Adua's presidency.
"Our assessment of the one year of the Yar'Adua presidency is that we are still waiting for him to start," said Victor Umeh, national chairman of the opposition All Progressives Grand Alliance.
"We have not seen the major policy shift that has been geared toward alleviating the sufferings of the ordinary Nigerian."
Criticism aside, Yar'Adua did surprise a number of Nigerians last week when his administration announced it intends to employ the very same militants often blamed for attacks on oil installations in the Niger Delta to guard the region's oil pipelines.
In a surprising and certainly controversial move, defense officials said they would negotiate a possible protection agreement with militants.
"We will engage them to police oil pipelines, but they must first form themselves into limited liability companies for us to discuss with them," Nigerian Defense Minister Yayale Ahmed told federal lawmakers earlier this week.
The initiative, said Yayale, not only would help curtail attacks on oil installations in the delta carried out by armed groups, including rival militants, but also would prevent foreign oil companies from illegally "bunkering," or tapping into rival oil reserves.
"This will check the activities of even oil companies who cleverly engage in oil bunkering. We must fight criminality wherever it exists," the minister said.
Whether that proves true, Nigerian leaders will soon find out.
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta said that it would use car bombings and other forms of terror Thursday, marking one full year in office for President Umaru Yar'Adua.
"To commemorate the one year of failure by the government of Umaru Yar'Adua, MEND will carry out a string of deadly attacks and car bombings," the group said in a statement e-mailed to media outlets.
The advance warning, according to the group's statement, was to ensure that civilians avoid milling around oil pipelines so as to "minimize civilian loss of life."
Military officials in the delta said they are ready for a major assault by MEND, and foreign oil firms operating in the region said they would bolster their security as well.
Efforts by the Nigerian president to reach out to the militants, who are calling for a more equitable distribution of oil wealth among the nation's poor, have received mixed reviews over the last year.
Soon after his May 29, 2007, inauguration, Yar'Adua reached out to the militants and called for a truce, during which he promised to work on the problems plaguing the impoverished delta.
However, MEND and other armed groups soon lost patience with the president and waged an assault on the de facto capital of the delta, Port Harcourt, in September.
Since then, several efforts to broker a peace deal with the militants have been largely short-lived and ineffective, with attacks on oil and gas installations and pipelines increasing in recent months.
Nigeria, Africa's No. 1 oil producer, has pumped more than $300 billion worth of crude over the last three decades from the southern delta states, according to estimates. High unemployment in the delta, environmental degradation due to oil and gas extraction, and a lack of basic resources such as fresh water and electricity have angered the region's youth, who have taken up arms, many times supplied by political leaders, and formed militant groups and local gangs.
Despite the continuing unrest, there have been some positive reviews of Yar'Adua's first year in office.
"There is increasingly political stability. We are seeing an emphasis on rule of law and due process, because democracy and rule of law go together. It is very important," Jerry Gana, a leading member of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, said earlier this week.
Gana did note, though, that the Yar'Adua administration still needed to improve social services like water and power supplies in the delta and throughout Nigeria.
But others have less than glowing reviews for the first year of Yar'Adua's presidency.
"Our assessment of the one year of the Yar'Adua presidency is that we are still waiting for him to start," said Victor Umeh, national chairman of the opposition All Progressives Grand Alliance.
"We have not seen the major policy shift that has been geared toward alleviating the sufferings of the ordinary Nigerian."
Criticism aside, Yar'Adua did surprise a number of Nigerians last week when his administration announced it intends to employ the very same militants often blamed for attacks on oil installations in the Niger Delta to guard the region's oil pipelines.
In a surprising and certainly controversial move, defense officials said they would negotiate a possible protection agreement with militants.
"We will engage them to police oil pipelines, but they must first form themselves into limited liability companies for us to discuss with them," Nigerian Defense Minister Yayale Ahmed told federal lawmakers earlier this week.
The initiative, said Yayale, not only would help curtail attacks on oil installations in the delta carried out by armed groups, including rival militants, but also would prevent foreign oil companies from illegally "bunkering," or tapping into rival oil reserves.
"This will check the activities of even oil companies who cleverly engage in oil bunkering. We must fight criminality wherever it exists," the minister said.
Whether that proves true, Nigerian leaders will soon find out.
Big energy consumers to gather in Japan as oil prices soar
June 5, 2008Eleven nations that guzzle nearly two thirds of the world's energy will hold talks in northern Japan this weekend, seeking ways to secure enough supply and reduce consumption as oil prices hit record highs.
The June 7-8 ministerial meeting in Aomori, some 600 kilometres (370 miles) north of Tokyo, brings together China, India, South Korea, and the Group of Eight (G8) industrialised nations.
Russia is the only big energy supplier among the 11 countries, whose total demand accounts for some 65 percent of what the world's needs, according to data by the Paris-based International Energy Agency (IEA).
Oil prices reached record peaks of 135.14 dollars a barrel in London and 135.09 dollars in New York on May 22, soaring five-fold since 2003 amid turbulence in the Middle East and rising demand in emerging economies.
The Aomori meeting will start Saturday with talks among five nations which consume half of the world energy -- the United States and Asia's largest economies of Japan, China, India and South Korea.
"As crude oil prices continue to rise abnormally, it will be an important opportunity to discuss how we should cope with the situation with a shared sense of crisis," Japan's industry minister Akira Amari said this week.
The five-nation meeting will discuss mainly "energy security," he told reporters.
Climate change will also be on the agenda for the 11 countries, which together release 65 percent of the carbon dioxide emissions blamed for global warming.
The climate will be a major issue when the leaders of the G8 hold a summit from July 7 to 9 in Japan's northern resort of Toyako.
A senior government official said that Japan, as the host of this weekend's meeting, hoped to encourage greater IEA cooperation with China and India, which both lag behind in emergency oil reserves despite growing consumption.
The official also said Japan hoped the meeting will note the importance of countries setting oil prices based on markets, rather than lowering them with subsidies.
"Developing countries such as China and India have been giving subsidies, which doesn't send a message of energy-saving and burdens their state coffers," the official said, requesting anonymity.
India's government on Wednesday hiked fuel prices after its state-run oil companies said they had been hit hard by the soaring global prices while having to sell fuels at heavily discounted prices.
The G8 energy ministers' meeting is set for Sunday, which will be followed by another round of talks later in the day with participation by China, India and South Korea.
The G8 groups Britain, Canada, Italy, France, Germany, Japan, Russia and the United States.
Besides energy security, the agenda at the 11-nation meeting will also include an initiative for international cooperation on energy saving and developing clean energy.
Japan, Europe and the United States have been discussing creating an "International Partnership for Cooperation on Efficient Energy" as a framework for exchanging information on energy-saving practices.
Amari earlier this month said that he wanted oil producers to share in the sense of crisis.
He voiced hope that "oil-producing countries not take an easy-going stance that the higher the prices are the higher their revenue is."
The meeting comes on the heels of a high-level summit in Rome on addressing rising food prices, which have triggered riots in some countries and which experts blame in part on higher energy costs and the growing reliance on biofuels
The June 7-8 ministerial meeting in Aomori, some 600 kilometres (370 miles) north of Tokyo, brings together China, India, South Korea, and the Group of Eight (G8) industrialised nations.
Russia is the only big energy supplier among the 11 countries, whose total demand accounts for some 65 percent of what the world's needs, according to data by the Paris-based International Energy Agency (IEA).
Oil prices reached record peaks of 135.14 dollars a barrel in London and 135.09 dollars in New York on May 22, soaring five-fold since 2003 amid turbulence in the Middle East and rising demand in emerging economies.
The Aomori meeting will start Saturday with talks among five nations which consume half of the world energy -- the United States and Asia's largest economies of Japan, China, India and South Korea.
"As crude oil prices continue to rise abnormally, it will be an important opportunity to discuss how we should cope with the situation with a shared sense of crisis," Japan's industry minister Akira Amari said this week.
The five-nation meeting will discuss mainly "energy security," he told reporters.
Climate change will also be on the agenda for the 11 countries, which together release 65 percent of the carbon dioxide emissions blamed for global warming.
The climate will be a major issue when the leaders of the G8 hold a summit from July 7 to 9 in Japan's northern resort of Toyako.
A senior government official said that Japan, as the host of this weekend's meeting, hoped to encourage greater IEA cooperation with China and India, which both lag behind in emergency oil reserves despite growing consumption.
The official also said Japan hoped the meeting will note the importance of countries setting oil prices based on markets, rather than lowering them with subsidies.
"Developing countries such as China and India have been giving subsidies, which doesn't send a message of energy-saving and burdens their state coffers," the official said, requesting anonymity.
India's government on Wednesday hiked fuel prices after its state-run oil companies said they had been hit hard by the soaring global prices while having to sell fuels at heavily discounted prices.
The G8 energy ministers' meeting is set for Sunday, which will be followed by another round of talks later in the day with participation by China, India and South Korea.
The G8 groups Britain, Canada, Italy, France, Germany, Japan, Russia and the United States.
Besides energy security, the agenda at the 11-nation meeting will also include an initiative for international cooperation on energy saving and developing clean energy.
Japan, Europe and the United States have been discussing creating an "International Partnership for Cooperation on Efficient Energy" as a framework for exchanging information on energy-saving practices.
Amari earlier this month said that he wanted oil producers to share in the sense of crisis.
He voiced hope that "oil-producing countries not take an easy-going stance that the higher the prices are the higher their revenue is."
The meeting comes on the heels of a high-level summit in Rome on addressing rising food prices, which have triggered riots in some countries and which experts blame in part on higher energy costs and the growing reliance on biofuels
FARIDA WAZIRI TO PROBE THE GOVERNMENT AND FIGHT CORRUPTION
WAZIRI TO SENATE: I WILL PROBE THE GOVERNMENT AND FIGHT CORRUPTION
Presidential nominee for the office of the acting Chairman of Nigeria’s anti-graft agency, EFCC Mrs. Farida Waziri has pledged that “there will be no sacred cows in the fight against corruption” during her tenure.
The retired Assistant Inspector-General of Police stated this Wednesday, when she answered questions from members of the Senate Committee on Drugs, Narcotics and Financial Crimes, who screened her today in Abuja.
Mrs. Waziri said that if confirmed by the Senate, she would focus on government ministries, agencies and the local government areas to ''nib corruption in the bud''.
“We will prevent our money from being misappropriated. We will start by preventing crime but when we fail, we will go into prosecution,” she said.
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Waziri said that she would work within the ambit of the law and would consult widely both locally and internationally in order to fight corruption in all its ramifications.
"We are not the ones to prove guilt but the court of law. We will work within the ambits of the law and God will help us never to step on innocent toes,'' she said.
“EFCC under me will never allow the pull-me-down syndrome. We will be transparent and work in accordance with the law.”
She said that she would set up a Monitoring/Intelligence Unit where officers would be trained to nib corruption and other crimes in the bud.
“The monitoring agents would go round to get information. We are going to go on a campaign to sensitise Nigerians on the need to fight corruption,'' she said.
She also commended the former EFCC Chairman, Malam Nuhu Ribadu, noting that the commission under him was a success story.
Other members of the commission also screened by the committee included Mr. Basil Anagoh, Mr. Paul Ogbole, Mr. Banjo Olaniyi, Alhaji Mohammed Jibo and Mr. Emmanuel Akomaye.
The committee is expected to submit the report of the screening to the Senate on Thursday.
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