Countries should seek solutions through peaceful matters and resolving conflict should be of utmost priority.
UNITED KINGDOM -- The issue of Niger Delta has been discussed earlier today during the UNSC press conference. Countries have insisted their stance on setting up peacekeeping forces to resolve conflict in ethnic minorities while others stated that they will fight against any rebel groups that is not in the interest of Nigeria.
The conflict in the Niger Delta first arose in the early 1990s over tensions between foreign oil corporations and a couple of Niger Delta’s minority ethnic groups who feel that they have been exploited. As the tension increases, competition for oil wealth has developed into violence between ethnic groups. Buhari’s government has stepped up military presence in the region, however was proving ineffective due to the complex geography of the delta. Although it is an easier approach to just relocate oil industries to other areas, one worry is that oil industries cannot be totally removed from the picture since they contribute largely to Nigera’s Global Domestic Product (GDP). There is no doubt that a viable resource conflict strategy based on an alternative framework of multilateral cooperation is necessary for resolving and preventing a recurrence of future conflict in the Niger Delta region. The countries thus met to discuss possible mitigation strategies.
In the Conference, Belgium repeatedly enforced their stance towards promoting peace and resolving conflicts. They mentioned that “citizens are (their) utmost priority so (they) should be involve in the issue”. They proposed solutions such as the set up of peacekeeping forces. Poland then backed up Belgium’s statement by agreeing and stating that “Nigeria should place the safety of civilians over long term problems of environmental issues”. They elaborated that “UNSC is a security council thus should resolve the human rights violation conflicts first”.
However, there were also other countries which strongly rooted for mitigation of environmental issues first. Countries like Germany brought up that the fact that resolving the oil spill problem is of utmost priority. They stated that “oil drilling has caused a lot of danger” and is the root cause of the dispute. Quoting them, “we understand that oil is the root of much conflict, and fixing the oil issue can cascade to alleviating the violence”. Therefore, they feel that if environmental concerns are settled, tension between ethnic groups will also loosen.
United Kingdom escalated the discussion by bringing in the factor of corruption of the Nigerian government. They outrightly pointed out that Nigerian government is “screwed up” which is the major cause of lack of aid being sent to conflict areas. To UK’s statement, many other
countries expressed their outrage and pointed out the inappropriateness of the stance. Equatorial Guinea stepped out to mention that “stating that Nigeria is corrupted essentially hinders UNSC’s progression” and that any discussion should not bring up the topic of corruption since that is not the consideration of UNSC.
Not to mention, there were also countries like Russia who decided that the whole discussion should not have even taken place with the stance that “UNSC should not interfere with domestic issue”.
The discussion came to an overall understanding that short term solutions such as tracking down rebel group and exerting laws on them should be carried out immediately to prevent further casualties but at the same time, long term self sustaining solutions relating to human rights should be implemented so as to mitigate conflicts in a long run. Discussion of possible solutions is still in progress.
UNITED KINGDOM -- The issue of Niger Delta has been discussed earlier today during the UNSC press conference. Countries have insisted their stance on setting up peacekeeping forces to resolve conflict in ethnic minorities while others stated that they will fight against any rebel groups that is not in the interest of Nigeria.
The conflict in the Niger Delta first arose in the early 1990s over tensions between foreign oil corporations and a couple of Niger Delta’s minority ethnic groups who feel that they have been exploited. As the tension increases, competition for oil wealth has developed into violence between ethnic groups. Buhari’s government has stepped up military presence in the region, however was proving ineffective due to the complex geography of the delta. Although it is an easier approach to just relocate oil industries to other areas, one worry is that oil industries cannot be totally removed from the picture since they contribute largely to Nigera’s Global Domestic Product (GDP). There is no doubt that a viable resource conflict strategy based on an alternative framework of multilateral cooperation is necessary for resolving and preventing a recurrence of future conflict in the Niger Delta region. The countries thus met to discuss possible mitigation strategies.
In the Conference, Belgium repeatedly enforced their stance towards promoting peace and resolving conflicts. They mentioned that “citizens are (their) utmost priority so (they) should be involve in the issue”. They proposed solutions such as the set up of peacekeeping forces. Poland then backed up Belgium’s statement by agreeing and stating that “Nigeria should place the safety of civilians over long term problems of environmental issues”. They elaborated that “UNSC is a security council thus should resolve the human rights violation conflicts first”.
However, there were also other countries which strongly rooted for mitigation of environmental issues first. Countries like Germany brought up that the fact that resolving the oil spill problem is of utmost priority. They stated that “oil drilling has caused a lot of danger” and is the root cause of the dispute. Quoting them, “we understand that oil is the root of much conflict, and fixing the oil issue can cascade to alleviating the violence”. Therefore, they feel that if environmental concerns are settled, tension between ethnic groups will also loosen.
United Kingdom escalated the discussion by bringing in the factor of corruption of the Nigerian government. They outrightly pointed out that Nigerian government is “screwed up” which is the major cause of lack of aid being sent to conflict areas. To UK’s statement, many other
countries expressed their outrage and pointed out the inappropriateness of the stance. Equatorial Guinea stepped out to mention that “stating that Nigeria is corrupted essentially hinders UNSC’s progression” and that any discussion should not bring up the topic of corruption since that is not the consideration of UNSC.
Not to mention, there were also countries like Russia who decided that the whole discussion should not have even taken place with the stance that “UNSC should not interfere with domestic issue”.
The discussion came to an overall understanding that short term solutions such as tracking down rebel group and exerting laws on them should be carried out immediately to prevent further casualties but at the same time, long term self sustaining solutions relating to human rights should be implemented so as to mitigate conflicts in a long run. Discussion of possible solutions is still in progress.
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