Lagos lawyer and mediation advocate, Mr Valentino Buoro, says the conflict in the Niger-Delta can be resolved through effective mediation.
Buoro, the Director, Standing Conference of Mediation Advocates (SCMA), Lagos, said respected nationalists and professional mediators should be engaged by the Federal Government to solve the crisis in the Delta.
The SCMA is a multi-disciplinary cross-professional association of practitioners established to promote and deliver best practices in mediation advocacy through individual and corporate training.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the conflict in the Delta arose in the early 1990s over tensions between foreign oil corporations and a number of minority ethnic groups in the area who felt they were being exploited, particularly the Ogoni and the Ijaw.
Ethnic and political unrest has continued throughout the 1990s despite the return of the country to democracy in 1999 with the inauguration of President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Orgañised violence has since hit the nation’s oil industry with piracy and kidnappings. In 2009, a presidential amnesty programme accompanied with support and training of ex-militants was inaugurated by the late President Umaru Yar’Adua.
After four decades of oil production, Nigeria has become completely dependent on petroleum extraction economically, generating 60 per cent of its GDPC as at 2008 and abandoned agriculture.
The Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) was established in 2000 by Obasanjo with the sole mandate of developing the oil-rich region in Southern Nigeria; a Ministry Ministry of Niger Delta has also been created.
In March 2016, a militant group — The Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) — publicly announced their existence, and have ceaselessly attacked oil facilities in the delta, causing the shutdown of oil terminals and a fall in Nigeria’s oil production to its lowest level in 20 years.
The nation’s economy and the 2016 budget of over N5 trillion mark, the highest since independence, have been hampered.
President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration had in June launched the clean up of the delta.
Buoro told NAN: “The future of mediation in Nigeria is very bright but we are not there yet. The Niger-Delta crisis for example can be solved through effective mediation.
The underlying issues which are the cause of the agitation such as environmental degradation and poverty need to be addressed.
On the Niger-Delta issue, individuals who could be respected nationalists can be brought to the mediating table.”
Shuttle diplomacy between the president and the people can be used because the unity of Nigeria is not negotiable, but how we remain as a people is negotiable.”
The lawyer disclosed that career opportunities abound in mediation for individuals willing to be trained by SCMA.
He said:“We tell our students who are non-lawyers that they can remain and work within their chosen professions.The lawyers are referred to as mediation advocates while the non-lawyers are referred to as mediation advisors.”
On the challenges facing mediation in Nigeria, Buoro identified lack of awareness of its wide ranging benefits.
The major challenge that mediation advocates currently face is a lack of awareness.
It is ingrained in a lot of people that once a dispute arises, the first thing to do is to hire a lawyer and head to court.
There is insufficient awareness that there is an alternative route to getting an amicable resolution to disputes and that is by hiring a lawyer trained in mediation advocacy.
Also, the profession is still new and because people have not understood the principles of mediation, clients are not ready to pay what is commensurate with the services rendered.
“In developed countries, lawyers have mediation centres in their law offices as mediation centres do not have to be within institutions like the Lagos State Multi-Door Courthouse and the Citizens Mediation Centre,” he stressed.
Buoro said as a mediation advocate, he had brought “value and satisfaction’’ into people’s lives.
I have gained a lot of satisfaction in my career because I have been able to bring value to people’s lives by helping them to rethink their positions on some fundamental issues.
This has enabled us to reach a win-win situation for all parties involved.”
The SCMA is a multi-disciplinary cross-professional association of practitioners established to promote and deliver best practices in mediation advocacy through individual and corporate training.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the conflict in the Delta arose in the early 1990s over tensions between foreign oil corporations and a number of minority ethnic groups in the area who felt they were being exploited, particularly the Ogoni and the Ijaw.
Ethnic and political unrest has continued throughout the 1990s despite the return of the country to democracy in 1999 with the inauguration of President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Orgañised violence has since hit the nation’s oil industry with piracy and kidnappings. In 2009, a presidential amnesty programme accompanied with support and training of ex-militants was inaugurated by the late President Umaru Yar’Adua.
After four decades of oil production, Nigeria has become completely dependent on petroleum extraction economically, generating 60 per cent of its GDPC as at 2008 and abandoned agriculture.
The Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) was established in 2000 by Obasanjo with the sole mandate of developing the oil-rich region in Southern Nigeria; a Ministry Ministry of Niger Delta has also been created.
In March 2016, a militant group — The Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) — publicly announced their existence, and have ceaselessly attacked oil facilities in the delta, causing the shutdown of oil terminals and a fall in Nigeria’s oil production to its lowest level in 20 years.
The nation’s economy and the 2016 budget of over N5 trillion mark, the highest since independence, have been hampered.
President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration had in June launched the clean up of the delta.
Buoro told NAN: “The future of mediation in Nigeria is very bright but we are not there yet. The Niger-Delta crisis for example can be solved through effective mediation.
The underlying issues which are the cause of the agitation such as environmental degradation and poverty need to be addressed.
On the Niger-Delta issue, individuals who could be respected nationalists can be brought to the mediating table.”
Shuttle diplomacy between the president and the people can be used because the unity of Nigeria is not negotiable, but how we remain as a people is negotiable.”
The lawyer disclosed that career opportunities abound in mediation for individuals willing to be trained by SCMA.
He said:“We tell our students who are non-lawyers that they can remain and work within their chosen professions.The lawyers are referred to as mediation advocates while the non-lawyers are referred to as mediation advisors.”
On the challenges facing mediation in Nigeria, Buoro identified lack of awareness of its wide ranging benefits.
The major challenge that mediation advocates currently face is a lack of awareness.
It is ingrained in a lot of people that once a dispute arises, the first thing to do is to hire a lawyer and head to court.
There is insufficient awareness that there is an alternative route to getting an amicable resolution to disputes and that is by hiring a lawyer trained in mediation advocacy.
Also, the profession is still new and because people have not understood the principles of mediation, clients are not ready to pay what is commensurate with the services rendered.
“In developed countries, lawyers have mediation centres in their law offices as mediation centres do not have to be within institutions like the Lagos State Multi-Door Courthouse and the Citizens Mediation Centre,” he stressed.
Buoro said as a mediation advocate, he had brought “value and satisfaction’’ into people’s lives.
I have gained a lot of satisfaction in my career because I have been able to bring value to people’s lives by helping them to rethink their positions on some fundamental issues.
This has enabled us to reach a win-win situation for all parties involved.”
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