…Calls for “Guard Your Pipeline, Make I Guard My Own” Rock Region
…How $1m Car, Obscene Displays, Poured Petrol On Raging Fire
By Emmanuel Olugua
Fresh tensions are building across the Niger Delta as activists, community leaders, and civil society groups warn that the region could slide towards confrontation over the structure and control of multibillion-naira pipeline surveillance contracts protecting Nigeria’s oil infrastructure.
The growing agitation, which cuts across several oil-producing states, is being driven by demands for greater participation by host communities in the protection of pipelines running through their territories, amid allegations that the lucrative contracts have become concentrated within a narrow circle of politically connected operators.
At the centre of the debate are surveillance arrangements currently handled by a network of private contractors, including Tantita Security Services Nigeria Limited, widely associated with former militant leader Government Ekpemupolo; Maton Engineering Services Limited, linked to businessman Matthew Tonlagha, a relative of Tompolo; Pipeline Infrastructure Nigeria Limited, associated with the Olu of Warri, Ogiame Atuwatse III; Grosvenor Limited, linked to an associate of former Delta State governor James Ibori; and Zane Energy Limited, associated with former deputy Senate President Ovie Omo-Agege.
These companies currently oversee surveillance operations across key pipeline corridors that transport crude oil from producing communities to export terminals, a responsibility considered central to safeguarding Nigeria’s main source of foreign exchange earnings.
But critics say the structure of the surveillance system has created deep resentment across the multi-ethnic Niger Delta, where many communities believe they have been excluded from opportunities tied to protecting the oil facilities located on their ancestral lands.
The concerns were formally articulated at a press conference over the weekend by the United Niger Delta Congress, which warned that the region was “sitting on a ticking time bomb” if the current arrangement is not urgently reviewed.
Addressing journalists, the group’s National President, Comrade Julius Malam-Obi, a Delta State community leader and long-time Niger Delta activist, said Nigeria could not continue to rely on oil produced in the Niger Delta while excluding many ethnic nationalities from participation in the protection and economic benefits of the resource.
He said the existing pipeline surveillance structure had become monopolised and inconsistent with the provisions of the Petroleum Industry Act, which recognises host communities as key stakeholders in safeguarding oil infrastructure located within their territories.
Malam-Obi warned that billions of naira had been spent on pipeline security contracts over the years, yet Nigeria’s crude oil production continues to hover between 1.3 and 1.5 million barrels per day, far below the country’s potential output of more than two million barrels daily.
“How can Nigeria be spending billions on pipeline security while oil production continues to underperform?” he asked.
The UNDC said the concentration of surveillance contracts within a narrow circle of operators connected to specific ethnic blocs was breeding resentment and undermining the unity needed to protect Nigeria’s oil assets.
According to the organisation, the Niger Delta is home to numerous oil-producing ethnic nationalities, including Ijaw, Urhobo, Itsekiri, Isoko, Ndokwa, Ogoni, Ibibio, and Efik, and no single group should dominate opportunities associated with safeguarding the region’s resources.
The organisation called on the federal government to decentralise pipeline surveillance contracts across oil-bearing communities in line with the provisions of the Petroleum Industry Act.
Such decentralisation, it argued, would strengthen community ownership of national assets, improve intelligence gathering, create employment for youths, and reduce inter-ethnic tensions across the region.
The UNDC leadership includes representatives from across the Niger Delta, reflecting its pan-regional structure.
Apart from Malam Obi, other national officers include Hon. Emaluji Michael Sunday as National Secretary; Comrade Joe Israel as National Public Relations Officer from Delta State; Comrade Paul Ola as National Financial Secretary from Edo State; Hon. Moses Obi Emeka as Assistant Secretary from Imo State; Kenneth Lawson Osobugha as Organising Secretary from Bayelsa; Hon. B. Danielson as National Vice President from Akwa Ibom State; Comrade Abuja Daddie as Assistant PRO from Bayelsa; Chief Mathias Olowu as National Spokesman from Delta State; Biriai Gustanus William as National Auditor from Rivers State; and Comrade Lion Ogorry as Mobilisation and Publicity Secretary from Cross River State.
Parallel to the UNDC’s intervention, youth activists across the region have begun mobilising around the argument that host communities should be the primary custodians of pipelines passing through their territories.
A Niger Delta activist from Akwa Ibom State, AkanInyene Gibson Umanah, said the time had come for youths of oil-producing communities to demand meaningful participation in pipeline protection.
“For too long, the wealth beneath the soil of the Niger Delta has nourished empires far away while the youths of the host communities watch like strangers to their own inheritance,” he said.
The agitation has increasingly coalesced around a slogan circulating across communities in the creeks and coastal towns: “Guard your pipeline, make I guard my own.”
Umanah argued that no security architecture can succeed if host communities remain spectators while contractors control the protection of oil facilities located within their lands.
He called for the establishment of youth pipeline protection cooperatives that would recruit and train young people from oil-producing communities to work alongside professional contractors and security agencies.
However, even as agitation for decentralisation grows, other stakeholders have warned against any abrupt move to terminate existing surveillance contracts, particularly the deal involving Tantita Security Services.
The Creek to Creek Movement cautioned that cancelling the contract could destabilise the region and trigger renewed crude oil theft and illegal bunkering.
The group argued that the arrangement has contributed to restoring a measure of stability in the creeks and improving oil production since its introduction.
Observers say the surveillance system emerged from Nigeria’s post-amnesty strategy following the insurgency led by the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, under which former militant commanders were integrated into the security architecture of the oil industry.
While the strategy helped reduce attacks on pipelines, critics say it also created powerful patronage networks built around pipeline protection contracts.
Economists warn that the stakes involved are enormous.
Dr Chijioke Ekechukwu said Nigeria could have recorded a major economic windfall from the current surge in global crude oil prices triggered by tensions between the United States and Iran if the country’s oil production were operating at full capacity.
Nigeria currently produces about 1.31 million barrels per day, below its Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries quota of 1.5 million barrels per day, meaning the country is unable to fully benefit from rising crude prices.
While these structural debates continue, a separate controversy has further inflamed public anger across the region.
Images circulating on social media showing the display of an ultra-luxury Chinese limousine during a birthday celebration linked to individuals associated with the pipeline surveillance ecosystem have triggered widespread criticism.
The vehicle, a Hongqi Guoli produced by FAW Group under its Hongqi marque, is estimated to cost more than $1 million depending on configuration and is often compared to high-end models produced by Rolls-Royce and Bentley.
Critics say the alleged display of the vehicle by Matthew Tonlagha during his birthday celebration has been widely interpreted as a tone-deaf show of wealth in a region grappling with poverty, environmental degradation, and unemployment.
Observers note that several prominent figures linked to surveillance contracts, including Tompolo, the Olu of Warri, James Ibori, and Ovie Omo-Agege, have largely maintained a low public profile, apparently conscious of the economic hardship currently gripping the region.
But activists warn that ostentatious displays by individuals connected to the surveillance system risk inflaming public anger and deepening perceptions that pipeline protection contracts have enriched a small elite while many oil-producing communities remain economically marginalised.
With rival interests mobilising and agitation spreading across several states, analysts warn that the pipeline surveillance controversy has become one of the most politically volatile issues facing the Niger Delta.
In a region where economic grievances, ethnic sensitivities and militant histories intersect, they say the dispute could easily spiral into a wider confrontation if not carefully managed.
For now, the creeks remain tense, with many communities insisting that those who host the pipelines must no longer remain spectators in guarding and or benefiting from the wealth flowing beneath their land.