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Deployment
of US Troops to Nigeria
Published
Friday, June 19, 2004.
After
weeks of frantic denials and double speak by both Nigerian and US
officials, it has now been confirmed that American troops are to
be deployed in the Gulf of Guinea, some 750 kilometers off Nigeria's
southern coast to over watch the country's oil rich Niger Delta.
Although the Minister of Information, Chuwuemeka Chikelu says the
deployment is "normal" and that the American troops who are expected
to carry out joint military exercises with the Army of Sao Tome
will only be confined to international waters, there's more than
meets the eye.
The
troops are obviously being stationed in the Gulf of Guinea to oversee
America's oil interests in the troubled Niger Delta where two of
its citizens were killed recently. The Americans have been more
forthright on the mission. While the Secretary of American Navy,
Gordon England confirmed the plan to send forces to the "ungoverned
regions of Africa", the US Defence Department, the Pentagon says
the deployment of seven aircraft carriers around the world, including
the Gulf of Guinea, was intended to sharpen its capability to defend
American interest world wide against any threat. It is also a way
of sending firm signals to the warring local communities in the
region whose activities have intermittently disrupted oil production
including that at the Chevron-Texaco Tank Farm, for a long time.
Since
the women of Ugborodo, an Itsekiri homestead mobilised their ilk
to take over the oil platform in June, 2002, production at the facility
has witnessed periodic shut downs leading to huge loss of revenue.
Chevron-Texaco, an American oil company whose platform is located
on the Escravos River in Ugborodo, produces 400,000 barrels of crude
oil daily, which amounts to a quarter of Nigeria's total daily production
pegged at 2 million barrels a day by the Organisation of Oil Exporting
Countries (OPEC). Another sister American company, Mobil also operates
from its Qua Iboe terminal in Akwa Ibom State. Other American companies
like Halliburton are also active in the oil services and engineering
sector.
America
has lately been gripped by some frenzy over rising oil prices which
went to as high as $42 a barrel at the international spot market.
The rising oil prices, has been largely informed by a combined effect
of the Iraqi war and the turbulence in the Middle East region which
has become a huge theatre of operation. The ensuing energy crisis
has been unbearable for American citizens who have had to contend
with soaring gasoline prices now selling for as high as $2 a gallon.
Beyond the subterfuge about Saddam Hussein's possession of weapons
of mass destruction and his link to al Queda networks, the need
to bring down oil prices is principally fingered for American involvement
in the Iraqi war.
The
Americans had reasoned that a way to mitigate the vagaries of oil
exports from the volatile Middle East region was to also consolidate
its hold on Africa by ensuring that oil exports to the US from here
is jerked up to 25 per cent of its total oil imports. This informs
the renewed move to prospect for oil almost everywhere in Africa.
And that is why it became expedient for the Americans to end the
protracted war in oil rich Angola by contriving to get their long
time ally, Jonas Savimbi out of the way. After brokering a peace
deal between the Sudanese government of Mohammed El Bashir and the
Sudanese People's Liberation Army SPLA led by John Garang, the Americans
are also spearheading the resolution of the crisis in Dafur region
where thousands have died and more than one million rendered homeless
in order to guarantee stable production of oil in Sudan.
As
part of the effort to consolidate the oil supplies from Africa,
the US has also brokered a chummy relationship with Gabon, Chad,
Equatorial Guinea and Sao Tome and Principe The Guardian of London
of June 17, 2003 had exclusively reported that the American government
was planning a massive deployment of its troops to different flash
points in Africa in order to crystalise a new window for oil imports
outside the troubled Middle East. Although the Nigerian and American
officials would deny this, the deal was the highpoints of the discussion
during the visit to Nigeria by US President George Bush in July
2003. It is not surprising that Nigerians are worried by the deployment
of American troops in their backyard.
American
bases which number about 700 in different parts of the world have
been a source of tension for citizens of their host communities.
The most striking was the raping of a teenage girl in Okinawa, Japan
by American soldiers and the clog in the way of the Japanese government
to bring the offending soldiers to justice. The refusal of the Bush
administration to endorse the trial of any American citizen at the
International Criminal Court ICC also means that American troops
would get away with any salvage act on Nigerian soil. But for the
expose by the international media of the brutality meted to Iraqi
prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison by American soldiers, the Bush
government would have merely papered over this inhuman act of its
soldiers.
The
deployment of American troops on the coast of Nigeria is a signal
to the insipient total subjugation of Nigeria's sovereignty as they
are likely to intervene in our domestic affairs and tear the country
to shreds. If the American government can defy the United Nations
and go to war against Saddam Hussein led Iraq on spurious charges,
nothing will stand in the way of its soldiers if they chose to overrun
the country and dislodge a "recalcitrant leadership" on the pretext
of protecting its interests. It is unfortunate that the regime of
President Olusegun Obasanjo has allowed itself to be brow beaten
by the Bush administration to subvert the 44 year old epic victory
of the Nigerian people against the signing of the Anglo-Nigerian
Defence Pact which should have seen British troops on our shores
after independence on October 1, 1960. Little wonder the deal has
been shrouded is so much secrecy.
What
is needed to assuage the local communities in the Niger Delta which
have grown restive over the despoliation of their environment, as
a result of oil production, is a genuine commitment to develop the
region and provide succour to the people. The resort to increased
militarization of the area will only suffocate the crisis in the
region. Obasanjo should therefore summon the political will to ask
the American troops to leave the country's territory.
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