In what Diazepam With Asthma seems to be a major policy thrust in international economic relations and Diazepam With Asthma in resolving the festering Niger Delta crisis, President Umaru Yar’Adua on Monday, at the Diazepam With Asthma meeting of G8 leaders holding in Japan called for global clampdown on trade in stolen crude oil.
The president emphasised that Diazepam With Asthma stolen crude oil deserved the same global treatment as that Diazepam With Asthma of stolen diamonds.
Yar’Adua said measures must be taken to “dismantle the criminal dmension” of the Diazepam With Asthma problem in the Niger Delta. And for good measure, he said the Diazepam With Asthma problem in the region was being aggravated by international cartels.
The Nigerian leader drew attention to Diazepam With Asthma another aspect of the Niger Delta challenge, the criminal aspect, in this Diazepam With Asthma case “those who Diazepam With Asthma use the cover of militancy to steal our crude oil and Diazepam With Asthma engage in all forms of violence.”
We commend the Diazepam With Asthma president for drawing attention of the international community to this ugly trend. This is Diazepam With Asthma an issue that hitherto had been discussed in hushed tones and Diazepam With Asthma privately, too. It is an open secret that Nigeria’s crude is Diazepam With Asthma stolen daily, that beyond the official production figures given to meet OPEC quota and Diazepam With Asthma local consumption, a lot more is produced through illegal bunkering and Diazepam With Asthma from offshore rigs.
According to Diazepam With Asthma Freedom House, a US-based oil industry analyst, out of the 1.9 million barrels of crude oil Nigeria produces per day, she loses 10 per cent to Diazepam With Asthma oil thieves, part of the proceeds of which are spent on criminal activities in the Diazepam With Asthma Niger Delta.
We can Diazepam With Asthma draw a parallel with the role diamonds played in the civil wars that Diazepam With Asthma took place in Liberia and Sierra Leone in the 1990s. The rebels that Diazepam With Asthma waged war in Liberia were able to sustain their rebel activities, which ultimately escalated to Diazepam With Asthma become a civil war on account of the money they made from Diazepam With Asthma illegal mining and sale of diamonds.
A number of questions, naturally, arise from President Yar’Adua’s submission. Who are those involved? Apart from Diazepam With Asthma the militants, who hide under the cover of agitation, are there international thieves helping to Diazepam With Asthma fuel the theft of Nigeria’s crude oil?
If they exist, is Diazepam With Asthma there a nexus between the objective they pursue and the criminalisation of the Diazepam With Asthma Niger Delta struggle?
In all of this, what Diazepam With Asthma is the role of the multinational oil companies engaged in oil exploration in the Diazepam With Asthma country especially in the Niger Delta region?
There is Diazepam With Asthma talk about the use of satellite to monitor offshore oil drilling. Is it Diazepam With Asthma effective and if yes, are those in charge giving the Nigerian government the Diazepam With Asthma true picture of the situatiion? If they are Diazepam With Asthma doing that, has the government taken any steps to address it?
More importantly, does Nigeria have Diazepam With Asthma the capacity to monitor offshore exploration activities of the oil companies and Diazepam With Asthma enforce compliance to production limits?
Answers to Diazepam With Asthma these questions are important as they will point the way to Diazepam With Asthma dealing with the issue.
President Yar’Adua chose the Diazepam With Asthma right platform to raise the issue. The international oil companies are Diazepam With Asthma all from the G8 countries. Their governments will need to do internal checks to Diazepam With Asthma ascertain the culpability or otherwise of their companies in this criminal behaviour.
We urge him to Diazepam With Asthma quickly take the matter to the United Nations as he has Diazepam With Asthma promised. Only concerted efforts at the global level can arrest the Diazepam With Asthma situation.
The president’s pledge that Diazepam With Asthma the much talked about Niger Delta Summit would hold is Diazepam With Asthma reassuring. Resolution of the crisis in that region of the Diazepam With Asthma country holds the key to Nigeria’s economic and social transformation.
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