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Niger Delta Stakeholders Warn Tinubu of Looming Conflict Over Pipeline Surveillance Contracts — Say Signs of Crisis Are Everywhere
Niger Delta stakeholders have warned of a return to regional conflict unless the government addresses imbalances in pipeline surveillance contracts.
The fragile peace in the Niger Delta is at risk of unravelling, key regional stakeholders warned this week, unless President Bola Ahmed Tinubu urgently addresses growing grievances over the administration of pipeline surveillance contracts. In a strongly worded communiqué issued after a strategic meeting in Port Harcourt on Wednesday, the Niger Delta Stakeholders' Forum and the Niger Delta Ethnic Nationalities declared that "the signs of conflict that bedeviled the region are all over again."
The groups drew a sharp contrast between the current approach — which they say centralises surveillance contracts in the hands of a few — and the decentralised model that existed under President Goodluck Jonathan. "Under President Jonathan, crude oil production peaked at 2.4 to 2.5 million barrels per day because pipeline surveillance was decentralised and managed by those who knew the terrain," the communiqué read. "Today, despite heavier spending, Nigeria cannot meet its OPEC production quota."
The warning was endorsed by an unusually broad coalition. The communiqué was signed by youth council presidents from the Ijaw, Ogoni, Ibom, Ikwerre, Isoko, Ndokwa, Warri, and Urhobo ethnic groups — a list spanning every major constituency in the oil-bearing delta. The stakeholders appealed directly to President Tinubu to "learn from history; correct the current imbalance; protect institutions of peace from politicisation."
The warning comes at a sensitive moment. The Tinubu administration has made oil production recovery a central economic goal, yet production has hovered stubbornly below target. Any disruption in the Niger Delta — whether from militant activity or community unrest — would not only hit federal revenue but also jeopardise the government's broader economic narrative. The stakeholders have made clear that their patience is finite, and that the memory of past insurgencies remains fresh.
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