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Recent comments from Shell Nigeria about vandalism and crude-oil theft in the Niger Delta is beginning to raise concerns about the state of things in the region.

How to tackle oil theft, pipeline vandalism in Niger Delta

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As an organization we are meant to support people in conflict areas, our partnership with Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) is focused on the North-East and Niger Delta areas of Nigeria says Eloi Fillion, Head of delegation and mission at ICRC.

ICRC’s Eloi Fillion speaks on partnering with Tony Elumelu Foundation

Nigeria’s oil minister will visit the Niger Delta this week in a bid to stave off a threat of more insurgent attacks in the area, and said that without more investment it would be a struggle to ease tensions and develop its main crude producing region.
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The Niger Delta Avengers, whose attacks on energy facilities in the region last year helped push Africa’s biggest economy into recession, said on Friday it had ended its ceasefire in its campaign for more of Nigeria’s oil earnings.
“We’re constrained by cash,” Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu, the minister of state for petroleum, told Reuters in an interview on Monday when discussing efforts to develop the Delta. “We’ve scurried around for some money just to begin the process.”
He said he would meet representatives of the militants and other stakeholders during a visit to the region on Nov. 9.
The minister said the government needed to develop its oil and economy to deliver on promises of more cash for the Delta, which rights groups say has long suffered from pollution and poor investment despite being the source for much of Nigeria’s oil output of around 2 million barrels per day (bpd).
Kachikwu said a return to violence by the militants would be “mutually destructive”, adding: “I am sure that like they did the last time, when they see a concrete action plan they would listen.”
Attacks in the oil producing region drove Nigeria’s oil output down to close to 1 million bpd. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting granted Nigeria an exemption from a global deal to curb output to help it recover.
In its race to rebuild, Kachikwu said Shell and Eni should press on with developing oil prospecting licence (OPL) 245. The $1.3 billion award of the block in 2011 is subject to corruption investigations and court cases. The firms deny wrongdoing.
“It’s been allocated, and there are development plans for it (the block) and those development plans should go forward,” Kachikwu said. “The development of assets should not suffer because we are dealing with a legacy transparency issue.”
The minister said he intended to launch a “roadmap” in January inviting investors to fund repairs and upgrades to pipelines and oil depots, mirroring efforts that aim to draw $1.5 billion to $2 billion into Nigeria’s ailing refineries.
Kachikwu said the plans would not involve selling state-owned stakes but attracting private capital was essential.
“We don’t have the resources, and we don’t have the time to raise the resources, to revamp the sector,” he said.
On changes in the industry, the minister said revisions to oil contracts and operations at state oil company NNPC had saved money, citing deals to exchange crude for fuel, dubbed “direct sale, direct purchase”, that saved the state $1 billion.
Nigeria has called for early talks to renew oil licences held by Shell, Total and others. Licences for several key fields expire in two years and oil firms are typically reluctant to make big investments without long-term assurances.
Kachikwu said such talks could be concluded by the first quarter of next year, although negotiations that are handled by the Department of Petroleum Resources had not yet started.
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Writing by Libby George; Editing by Edmund Blair
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More oil cash needed in Nigeria’s Delta to avert new conflict: Minister

Omolade Adunbi | University of Michigan
The rise of ethnic and religious nationalism in Nigeria in the last decade has led to such high levels of tension that it’s prompted people to ask if it will survive as a country. Or if Nigeria is on the brink of another civil war.
What’s behind the growing tensions is unequal distribution of the country’s wealth. Inequality has caused mistrust among ethnic groups. This, in turn, has led to conflict and violence.
Nigeria has in fact been at war with itself for some time – a war that has become intensified in the last two decades.
A number of events illustrate this. For instance, militancy in the oil rich Niger Delta region started after the 2003 general elections where arms and ammunition were purchased by some politicians and handed to young people in an attempt to influence the elections. But after the elections, many young Nigerians, angered by high rates of unemployment, turned the weapons against their sponsors and the Nigerian state.
Another example is the role played by the Oodua Peoples Congress, a group that advocated for an autonomous region for the Yoruba speaking southwest Nigeria. The congress started its agitation in 1994, a year after the annulment of the 1993 presidential election won by M.K.O Abiola, a member of the Yoruba ethnic group. Their dominant message was the alleged marginalisation of the Yoruba ethnic group.
And in 2009 the Boko Haram insurgency erupted after the brutal murder of Mohammed Yusuf, an Islamic cleric based in Maiduguri who had started a movement seven years earlier to push for an end to corruption and action against inequality. He also supported Islamic practices in the northeast region of Nigeria. Yusuf was arrested by the police and died in custody in 2009. Many members of his sect immediately staged a peaceful protest. Protests later became violent when they started targeting police offices and police posts across the North.
Now there is a resurgence of opposition in Biafra. It echoes back to 1967 when the then military governor of the Eastern region of Nigeria, Col. Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu declared the Igbo speaking East independent from Nigeria. This followed Igbos in the North being targeted after the first military coup d&#8217;etat that ended Nigeria’s first republic. The 1966 coup, mostly led by military officers from the Igbo speaking east of Nigeria, was perceived by many in the North to have specifically targeted and killed many Hausa/Fulani politicians from the Northern region.
Economic inequality cannot be separated from the root of all these developments. Nigerians are frustrated because they can see economic inequality growing at a faster pace than ever before and no one seems to be doing anything about it.
Will these agitations lead to an outright war in the scale of the 1960s civil war? There is no categorical answer to that. But I doubt that there will be another civil war on the scale of 1967-1970, although there may be large scale violence.
<h2>A history of violence</h2>
Violence has always been part of the history of economic and political marginalisation in Nigeria.
Examples can be drawn from the mass violence that led to the 1967-70 civil war as well as the ethno-religious violence of the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and the 2000s. These included the Zango Kataf conflict, Maitatsine riotsin the North between 1980 and 1985, the Agbekoya farmers uprising in the West 1968-70, the first iteration of the resurgence of Biafra by the Ralph Uwazuruike-led Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra in 2000 and the national protests against the annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election won by Chief M.K.O. Abiola.
Many of these mass actions started as protests against perceived injustice. But they were aggravated by the forceful response of the Nigerian government. The protests all paralysed state activities. But none threatened the survival of the Nigerian state more than the oil related conflicts in the Niger Delta.
Beginning with the state murder of Niger Delta rights activist Ken Saro Wiwa in November 1995 and crystallising in the insurgency against oil corporations and the state, protest action in the Niger Delta have affected the production and sale of oil which is the mainstay of the Nigerian economy.
<h2>How Nigeria got here</h2>
The resurgence of ethno-religious protests in Nigeria can be traced to the fact that wealth circulates among a small group of elites. Although they come from all ethnic and religious groups, they resort to fanning ethno-religious sentiments when they feel there’s a threat to their wealth. Cries of marginalisation becomes the dominant cry when they’re out of power.
The election of President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015, triggered new tensions. This is because he is considered a member of the Northern elite. Immediately after his election protests began supporting self-determination or secession by various groups from the South. These included the Indigenous People of Biafra in the South East as well as groups such as the Niger Delta Avengers in the South-South.
Control of Nigeria’s oil resources in the Niger Delta always comes into the mix. Recent clashes involving the Biafra group in Port Harcourt – capital city of oil rich Rivers State – must be understood in that context. It is no surprise that once again, the Niger Delta is at the heart of the current clamour for secession just as it was between 1966 and 1970 when oil extraction started taking root in Nigeria.
But there are important differences between today’s protests and those staged earlier in Nigeria’s history. The main ones include the fact that people are mobilised differently, and the way in which information is disseminated and consumed.
News travel faster than it used to and unfounded rumours spread like wildfire. Fuelling the tensions is the fact that hate speech is rife. The state is as guilty as the agitators. Voices of reason and objective analysis are lost in the noise especially now that everyone with a smart phone has become a ‘journalist’. In the confusion, the road to anarchy looms large over Nigeria.
<h2>What’s to be done</h2>
An inclusive economic and political system is the only solution. The current public discourse is focused on political restructuring along ethnic lines. The calls for a political arrangement where major ethnic groups will have control over their geographical areas as well as resources therein might help. The danger is that rather than unify Nigeria, it would further divide the country along ethnic and religious lines.
What’s missing in the conversation is the fact that the environment for violence and oppression of most Nigerians has come about because of the way in which the country’s economy is structured. The elitist economy cuts across all ethnic groups. The disenfranchisement, marginalisation and exploitation defy ethnic colouration.
For restructuring to be meaningful, Nigeria must create an inclusive economic and political system where ethnic and religious affiliation will no longer be a defining factor in economic and political participation. What Nigerians need, and are clamouring for, is a country that will accommodate them regardless of ethnic or religious creed. Political, religious and ethnic tolerance is the key to economic and political success, therefore economic and political inclusivity must account for greater tolerance for it to be effective.

Economic inequality lies behind growing calls for secession in Nigeria

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Nigeria&#8217;s Lawmakers and stake holders are at loggerheads over proposed amendments to the NLNG Act. The amendment seeks to make the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Company pay 3 per cent of its total annual budget to the Niger Delta Development.

Nigerian lawmakers disagree over amendment of NLNG Act

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) &#8211; Anglo-Dutch oil major Royal Dutch Shell has started gas production from the second phase of the Gbaran-Ubie project in Nigeria&#8217;s Niger Delta, the company said on Wednesday.
The project is an expansion of the Gbaran-Ubie development, which opened in June 2010.
Shell, through its Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria subsidiary, said the project would reach peak production of around 175,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day in 2019.
Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria is the operator of a Nigerian joint venture between state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Total E&amp;P Nigeria and ENI subsidiary Nigerian Agip Oil Company.
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Reporting by Karolin Schaps, editing by Louise Heavens
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Shell says starts gas production at expanded Nigeria project

Nigeria will legalise currently outlawed mini refineries in the Niger Delta oil hub by the end of the year and supply them with crude at a reasonable price, the presidency said on Thursday, fulfilling demands from community leaders.
On Monday, Niger Delta leaders threatened to pull out of peace talks with the government unless their demands were met by Nov. 1.
&#8220;The Federal Government has started the process of replacing illegal refineries in the region with modular ones,&#8221; the presidency said in a statement as Acting President Yemi Osinbajo met Niger Delta community leaders in Abuja.
Each of the Niger Delta states would receive two modular refineries to start up in the fourth quarter, the statement said.
The community leaders welcomed the outcome of the meeting.
&#8220;The meeting was excellent. We met with Mr Acting President and the discussion was very honest, truthful, forthright. We are very, very satisfied. No more ultimatum,&#8221; Edwin Clark, head of the community leaders, told reporters.
The government has been in talks with community leaders since last year to end militant attacks on oil production facilities, which cut the OPEC member&#8217;s output by 700,000 barrels a day for several months last year.
But a military crackdown on thousands of illegal refineries in the southern swamps, which process crude oil stolen from oil majors and state oil firm NNPC, has raised tensions.
The refineries process stolen crude in makeshift pipes and metal tanks hidden in oil-soaked clearings deep in the southern swampland&#8217;s thick bush land.
The Niger Delta leaders had presented President Muhammadu Buhari a list of 16 demands last November to drag the southern swampland out of poverty. The militants then halted attacks to give the talks a chance.
The presidency said it was also discussing with oil majors to move their regional headquarters to the Niger Delta, another demand from communities complaining they do not benefit from the crude in their region.
&#8220;There is more consensus,&#8221; Oil Minister Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu said after the meeting, without elaborating. &#8220;Today was an environment of peace, calm, friendliness, and mutual dialogue of issues.&#8221;
Osinbajo was appointed by Buhari to head Nigeria while Buhari is on medical leave in Britain for an undisclosed ailment.
Oil exports are now set to exceed 2 million barrels per day (bpd) in August, the highest in 17 months, from as little as just over 1 million bpd at certain points last year, thanks to a steady decline in attacks on pipelines.
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Reporting by Felix Onuah; Writing by Ulf Laessing; Editing by Grant McCool and Andrew Hay
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Nigeria to legalize mini refineries, supply them with crude

Nigeria&#8217;s acting president will meet again with community leaders from the Niger Delta oil heartlands next week, his spokesman said on Tuesday, in a bid to shore up a fragile truce between militants and the government there.
With Africa&#8217;s biggest economy mired in recession, delegations including Acting President Yemi Osinbajo have held talks since late last year with leaders in the oil-producing states in the southeast.
But the local leaders have said the efforts to secure peace are empty promises, and a return to violence in the area would derail any broader recovery in the crude-dependent economy.
&#8220;Next week there is going to be a follow-up meeting between the acting president and the stakeholders of the Niger Delta,&#8221; said a spokesman for Osinbajo.
The government, including an inter-ministerial committee headed by the acting president, and Niger Delta stakeholders will also issue a report next week, he said.
Osinbajo was appointed by President Muhammadu Buhari to head the country while the leader remains in Britain on medical leave for an undisclosed ailment.
In the meeting next week, the government and representatives from the Delta will discuss key issues such as legalizing illicit refineries and turning them into so-called &#8220;modular refineries&#8221;, which the administration hopes to start from next month.
The contentious clean-up of the heavily polluted Ogoni region and plans to open a maritime university in October, which many community leaders have voiced support for, will also be discussed, said the spokesman.
Oil exports are now set to exceed 2 million barrels per day (bpd) in August, the highest in 17 months, from as little as just over 1 million bpd at certain points last year.
That is due to a steady decline in attacks on pipelines, providing a much-needed injection of cash into Nigerian government coffers.
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Reporting by Felix Onuah; Writing by Paul Carsten; Editing by Hugh Lawson
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Nigerian acting president Osinbajo returns to oil heartlands

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Nigeria&#8217;s oil exports are now set to exceed 2 million barrels per day in August, the highest in 17 months but what impact would unrest in the delta region have on Nigeria&#8217;s economy?

Niger Delta crisis: it’s impact on Nigerian economy

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KINGDOM OF GBARAMATU, Nigeria, July 9 (Reuters) &#8211; The Nigerian government&#8217;s efforts to secure peace in the oil heartlands of the Niger Delta are empty promises, community leaders say, threatening a return to violence that would derail any broader recovery in the crude-dependent economy.
With Africa&#8217;s biggest economy mired in recession, delegations including Acting President Yemi Osinbajo have held talks since February with community leaders in the restive oil-producing states in Nigeria&#8217;s southeast.
Oil exports are now set to exceed 2 million barrels per day (bpd) in August, the highest in 17 months, from as little as just over 1 million bpd at certain points last year. That is due to a steady decline in attacks on pipelines, providing a much-needed injection of cash into Nigerian government coffers.
But ex-militants and local chieftains say that since those &#8220;town hall&#8221; discussions, little has been done &#8211; the government has not followed up on issues raised, is stalling on key demands and has not even appointed a full-time negotiating team.
If the Niger Delta people continue to feel Abuja is ignoring their needs, leaders say they will resort to the only tactic that has ever yielded results: attacks on oil facilities.
&#8220;The people of the Niger Delta can hold this government or any government to ransom because we are the people feeding the nation,&#8221; said Godspower Gbenekama, a chief in the Kingdom of Gbaramatu.
&#8220;This peace is a graveyard peace,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Nobody can assure anybody that nothing will happen in the Delta.&#8221;
A spokesman for the acting president rejected suggestions the government was not doing enough.
&#8220;The government has not reneged and will never renege on any agreement,&#8221; he said, pointing to more spending on an amnesty programme for ex-militants and progress on a clean-up project.
He added it was just a matter of time for other agreements to come to fruition, such as the planned opening of a flagship university in October and of small-scale refineries with community ownership in the fourth quarter.
An inter-ministerial group met regularly with Osinbajo to discuss the Niger Delta and a &#8220;technical committee&#8221; liaised between the government and affected communities, he also said.
Some locals, however, are in no mood to wait. In a sign of their mounting frustration, groups such as the New Delta Avengers and the Niger Delta Marine Force have formed in recent months.
&#8220;Call for resuming attacks when the government is diligent in actualising the terms of the agreements and requests made will not help matters,&#8221; said the acting president&#8217;s spokesman.
&#8220;ALL ABOUT REVENUE&#8221;
That the Delta needs help is not in dispute.
Roads are pitted and scarred. Holes gape in the walls of school buildings and playing fields are flooded. Ramshackle stalls crowd the streets, standing in pools of muddy water and blocking traffic.
Every ten metres are signs offering hope of a different nature: Communion with God; Redemption Ministries; Hope Centre Parish; Success Education Centre; High Flyers House of Bliss Ministries.
But the communities of the Niger Delta also have more earthly demands.
Some want environmental clean-ups from oil spills that have devastated swathes of forest and waterways; others want roads and better power supply; others jobs and the regional university.
Many in the Delta are cynical about the government&#8217;s stated desire to improve the region&#8217;s lot.
The peace talks are &#8220;lies and deceit,&#8221; said Annkio Briggs, a leading activist in the southeastern oil city of Port Harcourt.
&#8220;This latest Osinbajo move &#8230; is all about revenue. How do we get the Niger Delta calm enough that we can continue to derive revenue to sustain our budgets?&#8221;
Others are also bitter that the government only appears to respond to violent action, while peaceful activism and protests have historically achieved little.
The government &#8220;is treading on a path that is disastrous&#8230; setting a precedent that they will only negotiate with the Delta when they start blowing stuff up,&#8221; said Richard Akinaka, who represented the youth in Rivers state for a meeting with Osinbajo.
He dismissed the meeting with one word &#8211; &#8220;bogus&#8221;.
The communities have also asked for ownership of oil blocks, and for all states in Nigeria to become fiscally independent &#8211; a move that would see oil revenues pooled in the southeast.
The problems of the Delta may not be easily solved: enmity runs deep between locals and the federal government, violence is often the answer and some of the demands may not be as attainable as community leaders hope.
&#8220;We don&#8217;t have a very big agenda,&#8221; said Gbenekama, the Gbaramatu kingdom chief. &#8220;The general agenda of the Niger Delta people is the political and fiscal restructuring of this nation.&#8221; (Additional reporting by Felix Onuah in Abuja; Editing by Mark Potter)

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© Thomson Reuters 2017 All rights reserved

Peace at risk in Nigeria’s oil heartlands

The World Bank recently approved a total of $961 million to support programs aimed at improving inclusive growth in Nigeria. This aligns with the country&#8217;s Economic Recovery and Growth Plan. CNBC Africa&#8217;s Christycole Popoola spoke to Udoma Udo Udoma Nigeria&#8217;s minister for Budget and National Planning to discuss this and funding of Nigeria&#8217;s N7.44 trillion naira budget.

Nigerian Minister Udoma talks economic recovery

Paul Carsten
WARRI, Nigeria (Reuters) &#8211; Shell is considering whether to invest in a gas project in Nigeria&#8217;s southern Niger Delta energy hub, the managing director of the local unit said on Tuesday.
Nigeria has the world&#8217;s ninth largest proven gas reserves, at 187 trillion cubic feet (tcf).
Osagie Okunbor, managing director of Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC), said it was &#8220;on the verge of making a final investment decision&#8221; on a project in the city of Asa that would have a capacity of 300 million cubic feet.
He declined to specify the sum of money being considered as a possible investment.
Okunbor told journalists Shell was putting more emphasis on gas and reducing the oil portion of its footprint in Nigeria, although he added that the company was &#8220;still a significant player in onshore (oil)&#8221;.
(Writing by Alexis Akwagyiram; editing by Susan Fenton and David Evans)
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Shell Nigeria considering investment in gas project in Niger Delta

An activist group in Nigeria&#8217;s oil-rich Delta region has called for the government to advance plans to allow illicit bush refineries to be converted into legal operations.
Nigeria is pushing to legalise such refineries in an attempt to soothe tensions in the Delta states, where an uneasy peace is now being kept as the government holds talks with local communities, including militants whose attacks cut oil production by as much as a third last year.
Nigeria&#8217;s government depends on oil sales for around two-thirds of its revenue.
The Pan Niger Delta Youth Leadership Forum (PANDLEAF) said in a statement on Monday the government should &#8220;make bold its promises by relaxing all the bottle necks associated with licensing and other regulatory process&#8221; to allow illicit refineries to be converted into modular refineries.
The group also condemned the government&#8217;s move to concession large refineries in the cities of Port Harcourt and Warri to Italian oil major Eni and Nigeria&#8217;s MRS Oil without benefit for the people of the Delta.
The bush refineries, which support tens of thousands of people locally, are makeshift, blackened structures of pipes and metal tanks hidden in oil-soaked clearings, processing stolen crude from oil company pipelines.
Their legalization is one of the main demands of community leaders in talks with the government.
PANDLEAF, in its statement, also raised concerns about the lack of environmental clean-up in the wake of damage caused by oil pollution.
International oil companies should also relocate their Nigeria headquarters to the Delta, the group said.
(Reporting by Tife Owolabi; Writing by Paul Carsten; editing by Susan Thomas)
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Nigeria activist group calls for progress on small-scale oil refineries

The African Union (AU) is developing a policy designed to hold companies to account by setting down guidelines on how they should conduct business on the continent.
The aim of the policy is to implement a set of guiding principles drawn up by the United Nations. It will provide a roadmap for states, regional economic communities and regional institutions to regulate the impact of business activities on people. The policy also seeks to advance guidance for firms conducting activities in Africa.
The policy has been in the making since 2016 and still has to be adopted by an AU technical committee. Because it’s not a treaty it won’t be subject to ratification by all AU member states.
This “soft law” approach raises questions about whether the policy will ever be implemented. But the fact that the AU has developed one is a major step forward and could help African countries deal with some major rights issues including: land grabs and environmental pollution.
Land grabs
Africa’s agricultural sector has attracted significant investment. This has resulted in massive land acquisitions by local and foreign firms which has enabled them to engage in large scale production. But local agrarian populations have been dispossessed of their land with little to no consultation or adequate compensation.
Chinese businesses have become the face of the growing concern over land grabs on the continent. A 2014 report estimated that about 10 million hectares of agricultural land in Africa belonged to Chinese businesses. But the Chinese aren’t the only ones acquiring massive tracts of land on the continent.
In Tanzania for instance, Sweden-based Agro EcoEnergy acquired 20,000 hectares of land to establish a sugarcane plantation and an ethanol-production site. Local people in the Bagamoyo district in Dar es Salaam were deeply distressed by the acquisition.
Although local communities were consulted, they weren’t presented with any alternatives, particularly around the issue of compensation. Nor was the community given adequate information about the impact of the project.
Environmental pollution
Another major business and human rights challenge has been environmental pollution, particularly in the extractive industries. In many cases foreign-owned companies have been involved.
One of the biggest concerns involve oil spillages and gas flaring from business-related activities in Nigeria. For example, over 100 million barrels of oil was spilled in the Niger-Delta between the 1960s and 1997. In 2014 alone, Shell and ENI admitted to over 550 oil spills in the region.
The United Nations Environment Programme estimates that a cleanup process in the Niger Delta will take between 25 to 30 years.
And some estimates suggest that the impact of gas flaring has significantly reduced life expectancy in the region, from 70 years to about 45 years.
Key aspects of the policy framework
All this suggests that Africa needs to regulate business activities with human rights impacts.
The policy framework builds on the three key pillars of the United Nations guiding principles. These are the state’s duty to protect human rights, businesses’ responsibility to respect human rights, and access to remedies.
States need to ensure that business activities don’t negatively affect the livelihoods of local communities. Governments must therefore ensure agreements are drawn up with home states of multinationals and also with businesses to protect human rights.
For their part, businesses have a responsibility to respect human rights. As such, they are required to desist from activities that will have an adverse impact on human rights. To give effect to this responsibility, businesses are expected to develop human rights policies and make a commitment to implement them.
An example is the Coca-Cola Human Rights Policy. This sets out the company’s commitment to conduct due diligence and to address human rights failures if they occur.
Access to remedies talks to the issue of justice. This means that it has to be underpinned by judicial and nonjudicial, state-based and non-state-based measures to protect victims of business related human rights violations.
Businesses are also required to develop grievance procedures to ensure recourse for affected communities. A practical example of this is the grievance mechanism developed around the Trans Adriatic Pipeline which is being built to transport natural gas from the border of Greece and Turkey to southern Italy.
But it’s important that these procedures should not prejudice the rights of victims to seek justice from judicial systems.
Deepening respect for human rights
The AU’s policy is a right step towards ensuring business upholds human rights. But it’s only the start of a long journey towards deepening a culture of respect for human rights among businesses in Africa.
Only time will tell if the policy framework, once adopted, will in fact be used. But the mere fact that it’s being formulated shows resolve on the part of states to tackle key human rights issues related to business activities in Africa.
A number of key steps need to be taken if the policy is to become a reality.
First, sufficient resources must be made available to make sure its implemented by both states and regional bodies.
Secondly, states must drive policy implementation with the political will to regulate businesses within their territories.
And finally institutions must be strengthened at all levels of implementation including national, regional and continental levels.
But successful implementation won’t be achieved unless there’s cooperation between state institutions, businesses, local populations as well as civil society.

Why the African Union must press ahead with a business and human rights policy

Felix Onuah | ABUJA
Nigeria has almost tripled the budget for an amnesty programme for militants in its oil-producing heartland, the presidency said on Saturday, a key factor in maintaining a tenuous peace in the Niger Delta and supporting crude production.
An additional 30 billion naira ($98.47 million) would be released for the former militants and an extra 5 billion naira added at some later stage, the presidency said in a statement. Until 2016 the annual budget was 20 billion naira.
Funding of former militants under the 2009 amnesty is key to maintaining the relative stability in the Delta and stopping attacks on oil facilities, as it was last year by militants who cut crude output by as much as a third.
Under the amnesty programme, each former militant is entitled to 65,000 naira a month plus job training. But in March a special adviser to Nigeria&#8217;s president said the programme was facing a cash crunch.
<blockquote>&#8220;Currently the Amnesty Office has now paid up all ex-militants backlog of their stipends up to the end of 2016,&#8221; the presidency said in a statement.</blockquote>
Authorities had previously cut the budget for cash payments to militants to end corruption. They later resumed payments to keep pipeline attacks from crippling vital oil revenues.
Last month, former militant leaders in the Niger Delta urged the government to pay out delayed amnesty stipends or face protests.
The government has been holding talks with militants to end the attacks that cut Nigeria&#8217;s output by 700,000 barrels a day (bpd) for several months last year, reducing total production at that time to about 1.2 million bpd. It has since rebounded.
The presidency also said all promises made by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo on recent visits of the Niger Delta to boost development would be kept.
The damage from attacks on Nigeria&#8217;s oil industry has exacerbated a downturn in Africa&#8217;s largest economy, which slipped into recession in 2016 for the first time in 25 years, largely due to low oil prices.
Crude oil sales make up around two-thirds of government revenue.
($1 = 304.6500 naira)
(Writing by Ulf Laessing; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)

Nigeria almost triples budget for Niger Delta amnesty

Nigeria&#8217;s military said on Thursday that it had destroyed 13 illegal refineries in the restive Niger Delta oil hub, in an operation in which two soldiers died in clashes with &#8220;sea robbers&#8221;.
Military authorities say there are hundreds of illegal refineries in the region, which process stolen crude from oil company pipelines.
The Nigerian government said last week that it plans to legalise illicit refineries as part of an attempt to bring peace to the production heartland of crude oil, but it is unclear when it will put the plan into action.
Major Abubakar Abdullahi, a military spokesman, said troops &#8220;discovered and destroyed 13 illegal refineries&#8221; on Wednesday while on patrol in the Iyalama Adama axis of Rivers state. The two soldiers were killed in the Ijawkiri general area, in Rivers state, he said.
Makeshift refineries, usually hidden in oil-soaked clearings, support tens of thousands of people locally.
Nigeria&#8217;s navy chief has said that 181 illegal refineries were destroyed last year, 748 suspects were arrested, and crude oil and diesel worth 420 billion naira ($1.3 billion) was confiscated. The military shut down around 50 bush refineries in the first few weeks of 2017.
Tensions remain in the Niger Delta where an uneasy peace is being kept as the government holds talks with local communities, including militants whose attacks cut Nigeria&#8217;s oil production by as much as a third last year.
Crude oil sales provide two-thirds of government revenue.
Africa&#8217;s largest economy fell into recession in 2016 for the first time in 25 years, largely due to low oil prices and the impact of militant attacks. 
($1 = 314.5000 naira)
(Reporting by Tife Owolabi,; writing by Alexis Akwagyiram; editing by Susan Fenton)

Nigeria’s military destroys 13 illegal oil refineries

Nigeria has given contractors 30 days to resume delayed development projects in the Niger Delta oil region or face prosecution, the presidency said on Tuesday.
The government has been trying to build new roads and launch other projects to drag the region out of poverty and create jobs, aiming to give local people alternatives to joining the militants attacking oil facilities.
The government has &#8220;directed that the list of all contractors who have not returned to site within the stipulated period be compiled and submitted to the Ministry of Justice and the Economic Financial Crimes Commission for investigation and prosecution,&#8221; it said in a statement.
Many projects have been delayed due to the collapse in oil revenues or to graft accusations.
The presidency also ordered the ministry of environment to ensure &#8220;progress&#8221; of an cleanup of oil spills in the Ogoniland area, a project delayed for years.
<blockquote>&#8220;The Federal Government has issued a new set of directives in its bid to accelerate the implementation of the (President Muhammadu) Buhari administration&#8217;s new vision for the development of the Niger Delta,&#8221; it said in a statement, referring to the contractors&#8217; order.</blockquote>
The government has been holding talks with militants to end attacks on oil production facilities which cut the OPEC member&#8217;s output by 700,000 barrels a day for several months last year.
But a lack of development and an army crackdown on thousands of illegal refineries in the southern swamps, which process crude oil stolen from oil majors and state oil firm NNPC, have raised tensions.
Militants behind last year&#8217;s attacks called for more of Nigeria&#8217;s energy wealth to go to the Delta.
Crude sales make up two-thirds of government revenue. Vice President Osinbajo, whose office issued Tuesday&#8217;s statement, has visited the region several times this year to calm tensions.
Last year&#8217;s attacks, combined with subdued oil prices, were a major factor in Africa&#8217;s largest economy shrinking 1.5 percent in 2016 &#8211; its first full-year contraction in 25 years. There have been no attacks so far in 2017.
(Reporting by Felix Onuah; Writing by Ulf Laessing; Editing by Greg Mahlich/Pitchford)
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