Taking your hope where you can find it, Part One

Some measure of peace - or at least less war - may be coming to Nigeria, an October 1 Associated Press report says.

Abuka, Nigeria - A militia leader who threatened "full-scale" war in this country's oil-rich Niger Delta agreed Friday to a tentative deal to disarm his fighters, but said he would keep up a political struggle for regional autonomy and a greater share of oil wealth.

President Olusegun Obasanjo also issued a statement after talks with Moujahid Dokubo-Asari, saying the warlord had agreed with other armed groups to disband his militia, disarm and cease hostilities. ...

"We've agreed tentatively to disarmament, but all the issues must be taken together, including the demands for self-determination and control of our resources," Dokubo-Asari said after the talks. "I am happy with the agreement we reached with the government, because for the first time, the Nigerian government has agreed we can campaign to control our resources and ... self-determination." ...

Ateke Tom, who leads a rival militia group, the Niger Delta Vigilante Force supported by government, also agreed to disarm, Obasanjo's office said in a statement. Tom's fighters are believed to be supported by the government. ...

[Dokubo-Asari] is seen as a folk hero by many poor residents of the southern delta region who complain they have never shared in the country's vast oil wealth.

Despite that hopeful news, the shadow of the underside of the oil industry continues to hang over Nigeria, and not just in non-producing areas. AllAfrica.com, quoting The Vanguard (Nigeria) said recently

[f]ive oil producing communities, Obianga, Ogbogbo-Uti, Ebun Okolo, Okolo-Idim and Otu-Onin, in Eastern Obodo Local Government Area in Akwa Ibom State, have cried out over the degradation of their environment by the multi national oil companies that have been operating in the area in the last 40 years.

The communities complain that despite being the first areas in the state to produce oil, their needs have been consistently neglected by government at all levels. Now, a major new project is planned in the area and, they say, the Environmental Impact Assessment

failed to address the environmental and economic concerns of the communities, even though they stand to be most directly and negatively affected by the Amenam/Kpono Oil and Gas Export project.

That is, they have been ignored again. If President Obasanjo's attempts at peacemaking are to be taken seriously, they have to consist of more than words, more even than disarming the militia that supports him. He has to address the concerns and needs of those who have been left out or done in by corporate exploitation of Nigeria's resources. If he doesn't do that, he will have gained not an end to the blood and despair in Nigeria, but only a lull.