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Niger Delta: The struggle for the soul of federated Nigeria

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Nigeria is a so called Federal republic living on the principles of unitarism. what the Niger Delta is fighting for, is what all other regions of Nigeria should fight for; the right to be a people. In Nigeria, the 13% derivation, the actual control of mineral resourse by the federal government, the sharing of revenue according to the number of local government areas, the imposition of three major languages on the rest of the country and the quota system of the federal character commission are the monsters that are tearing the country apart.these are th root of all our evils.for Nigeria to become a true federal democracy she most come to terms with the fact that her peoples all have thier own unique identities which must be respected.get rid of these problems and the giant of Africa will wake.Deltachild 15:47, 6 March 2007 (UTC)Deltachild[reply]

Deltachild - Could you point us in the direction of more information about MEND and it's plight? To know is to understand.

I edited "against the exploitation and oppression" to reflect a more neutral view by changing it to "against the alleged exploitation and oppression" --72.51.158t.160 19:54, i6 July 2007 (UTC)

I don't see how the addition of the word "aleged" is POV neutral in this context. Analogously, in an article about the Warsaw ghetto uprising against the Nazis', would you edit the line "attempt to liquidate the remains of the Warsaw Ghetto in Poland" read "alleged attempt to liquidate the remains of the Warsaw Ghetto in Poland"? Similarly, would it be more "neutral" to refer to the the gas chambers in Auschwitz as "alleged gas chambers" or to speak of the "alleged holocaust", or to speak of the "alleged moon landings"? I think not. I am not sure what credible human rights organization disputes the characterization of the Nigerian government's treatment of the people of the Niger delta as "exploitation and oppression" and clearly this is what the rebels believe they are fighting against. You don't have to agree with their actions but I think this basic precipitating fact is beyond reasonable dispute. --Betamod 04:29, 12 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Anyway, I have left your "alleged" line in, though I reiterate that it is superfluous in the face of the preponderance of evidence. I have also left in the notice re disputed POV, though I don't agree with it. However, I have removed a similar notice re POV in the section, "Constituency and Organization" since this largely consists of information reported about the organization and the sources are identified. If there is contradictory information that has not been included then please provide it. --Betamod 05:22, 12 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Style Improvement Discussion

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I concur that this page needs to be cleaned up. I have expanded it quite a bit by contributing information I have found from press on MEND but its pretty messy and I would like to collaborate with someone to clean it up since this might involve deletions. I don't feel comfortable being the soul editor of any page. That seems too unilateral.--Betamod 09:50, 8 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

As a former hostage of MEND I was held for 21 days in a camp in Bayalsa state by the section led by the leader "Youth Shall Grow" who is the grand son of Adaka Borro's adjoint, I would like to cocure the the "alledged" is quite supefulous. I was shown the villages inn th region and I have personnally seen the destructioncaused by the irrwssposible laying of terrrestrial pipe lines. The region produces enourmous wealth, one pipe line alone ( which I was involved in laying at sea) pumps over 10 000 000 dollars of crude per day, yet much of the delta is still in the stine age, Port Harcourt should be on par with Dubai. Theft exploitation and abuse are self evident and would I thought be considered matters of fact rather than opinion--Freeoyibo (talk) 14:28, 26 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]

MEND

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I am new to the subject, but has anyone found out where the funding for MEND has come from? With the hired mercenaries, boats, and weapons, they seem to be very well financed. I'm not doubting their motives or the basic need for change on the delta, but who is behind MEND? One must always question what is placed before him.Sfidelis (talk) 13:14, 25 April 2008 (UTC)sfidelis[reply]

in reply- the reading i've done on the topic says that "bunkering", the practice of tapping an oil pipeline and stealing oil from it, raises hundreds of millions of dollars for all types of groups in Nigeria, from corrupt government officials to corrupt businesses to criminal groups to terrorist groups to those who appear to have a legitimate grievance like MEND.- scott, april 26, 2009

Vandalism

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Regarding the Hurricane Barbarossa "oil war" someone either didn't read their source or there was a malicious edit. From every account I've read MEND and it's affiliated militant groups/gangs/cults were extremely successful in crippling oil production over the weeklong war and ended combat without significant losses or a tactical defeat. I'd check the link to the stub on the actual operation to see where the edit came from- Scott April 26 2009 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 209.23.162.51 (talk) 09:23, 26 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

The Econimist Quote

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This is a quote from the second paragraph of the article:

" The Economist has described the organization as one that "portrays itself as political organisation that wants a greater share of Nigeria’s oil revenues to go to the impoverished region that sits atop the oil. In fact, it is more of an umbrella organisation for several armed groups, which it sometimes pays in cash or guns to launch attacks." "

The Economist quote does not add to the content of the article and makes little sense, as being "an umbrella organisation for several armed groups" in no way contradicts being a "political organisation that wants a greater share of Nigeria’s oil revenues to go to the impoverished region that sits atop the oil." If MEND organizes attacks, then it is a poitical organization. Its stated goals are not contradicted by launching attacks either. The above quote needs to be removed from the article.--189.121.184.119 (talk) 00:21, 14 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

NPOV Dispute

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Basically I feel that this entire article is biased towards the MEND.

"The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta ("MEND") is a militant indigenous people's movement dedicated to armed struggle against the exploitation and oppression of the people of the Niger Delta and the degradation of the natural environment by foreign multinational corporations involved in the extraction of oil in the Niger Delta and the Federal Government of Nigeria."

This was the opening sentence and the words "exploitation", "oppression", and "degradation of the natural environment" are not neutral words and are almost sympathetic towards the MEND.

"From the point of view of MEND, and its supporters, the people of the Niger Delta have suffered an unprecedented degradation of their environment due to unchecked pollution produced by the oil industry. As a result of this policy of dispossessing people from their lands in favor of foreign oil interests, within a single generation, many now have no ability to fish or farm. People living in the Niger Delta have found themselves in a situation where their government and the international oil companies own all the oil under their feet, the revenues of which are rarely seen by the people who are suffering from the consequences of it.

Kenneth Roth, Executive Director of Human Rights Watch, has said of the situation, "The oil companies can't pretend they don't know what's happening all around them. The Nigerian government obviously has the primary responsibility to stop human rights abuse. But the oil companies are directly benefiting from these crude attempts to suppress dissent, and that means they have a duty to try and stop it."[5] Eghare W.O. Ojhogar, chief of the Ugborodo community, said: "It is like paradise and hell. They have everything. We have nothing... If we protest, they send soldiers."

Once again this section also is very biased towards the MEND. Also, there has been no proof or cited sources of these actions.

Richardkselby (talk) 01:11, 14 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Having done some research on MEND and other east African insurgent groups since my first edit in late April, I'd be happy to see legitimate counterarguments against MEND's activities. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find any; it really does look like this is a situation where they are the "least bad" of multiple organizations doing questionable things and I think the article should represent that. We shouldn't shy away from discussing what they do wrong (armed insurrection for one, kidnapping and holding of innocent hostages for another) but the fact that Shell is up against the Alien Tort Law in US courts right now for the alleged despoiling of the Niger delta might yield better information as to this issue as it wends its way through discovery and trial. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 209.23.162.51 (talk) 08:36, 20 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]

On the front page

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This article is horribly POV and a total mess. Worse yet it's on the front page at the moment. The article was started by what appears to be a biased set of editors and it never got fixed. Now the MEND is in the news and this article has just been thrown on the front page without review. It's embarassing.

I reworded a sliver of the intro paragraph and added a ref that could be mined for a lot more information. I don't have the time to any thing else right now. I hate to be a drive by editor but real life calls. An experianced editor is needed, please help until I can get back around to this! TomPointTwo (talk) 18:22, 14 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Possible Addition

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I believe that it would be beneficial for this article to discuss MEND's support of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People. The Ogoni have been long and vehement opposers of the oil corporations and governmental action at play in the Niger Delta. You correctly stated that the resistance movement gained much support after the execution of the Ogoni activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, and a reference to MOSOP would give a more in depth history of the Ogonis' activism within this issue. Ginnysomers (talk) 19:12, 10 October 2016 (UTC)[reply]

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