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C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 LAGOS 000074 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
STATE PASS NSC FOR BOBBY PITTMAN 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/25/2016 
TAGS: PGOV PREL PM EPET ECON KDEM NI
SUBJECT: NIGERIA: IJAW YOUTHS "TAKE BACK THE STRUGGLE" AT 
YENAGOA MEETING 
 
REF: A. REF: LAGOS 066 
     ¶B. 08 LAGOS 479 
     ¶C. 08 LAGOS 475 
     ¶D. 08 LAGOS 449 
     ¶E. 08 LAGOS 386 
     ¶F. 08 LAGOS 385 
     ¶G. 08 LAGOS 367 
     ¶H. 08 LAGOS 328 
     ¶I. 08 LAGOS 313 
 
Classified By: Consul General Donna M. Blair for Reasons 1.4 (B,D) 
 
¶1. (U) Summary: Over 3,000 Ijaw youths, led by Dimieri von 
Kemedi and other drafters of the Kaiama Declaration, met in 
Yenagoa, the capital of Bayelsa State on February 6 to "take 
back the struggle" for solutions to the problems of the Niger 
Delta.  According to Kemedi, the youths issued a strong 
communique (posted on the Ijaw Youth Council Website 
www.iycworldwide.org) stating that any Ijaw youth who failed 
to depart the militant camps within three months would be 
considered a criminal.  The Federal Government has not 
responded to a proposal, submitted by Bayelsa State five 
months ago, to disarm the militants (who Kemedi defined as 
youths with weapons) and to grant them amnesty.  In light of 
the Federal Government's failure to act, Bayelsa State will 
assist the youths by providing a program reorienting them to 
life in civil society and providing them with jobs; because 
there is no guarantee that the security agencies will not 
arrest militant youths attending the programs, youths who 
have never taken up arms will also participate.  Like Delta 
State, which has enjoyed an extended period without conflict, 
Bayelsa State appears to have established a workable proxy 
for amnesty that will allow militants to abandon criminality 
and become gainfully employed.  It remains to be seen whether 
the efforts of state governments, in the absence of Federal 
Government commitment to amnesty, a viable program of 
disarmament for militant youths and demilitarization of the 
Niger Delta via withdrawal of the JTF, will be sufficient to 
bring peace to the Niger Delta.  End Summary. 
 
¶2. (SBU) Over 3,000 Ijaw youths from every state in the 
South-South gathered in Yenagoa, capital of Bayelsa State on 
February 6, to "take back the struggle" for solutions to the 
problems of the Niger Delta, Dimieri Von Kemedi, Director of 
the Bayelsa State Office of eGovernance and Public 
Procurement, told Pol-Econ Chief on February 7.  Organizers 
of the meeting included Kemedi, Felix Tuodolo and other Ijaw 
youths who drafted the Kaiama Declaration in 1998, many of 
whom he had not seen in some time, Kemedi said.  In 
attendance for the opening ceremony were representatives of 
the Niger Delta Ministry, and Bayelsa State Governor Timipre 
Silva, who gave the opening speech, according to Kemedi. 
(Note: A February 4 article about the planned conference in 
the Guardian, listed, in addition to Tuodolo, other key 
figures in the Kaiama Declaration: T.K. Ogoriba, Asari 
Dokubo, Oynifie Jonjon, Dan Ekpebide, Were Digifa, Kingsly 
Kuku, Udengs Eradiri, Mike Wemebowei, Ebelo Jeremiah, Maxwell 
Oko, Sam Ogbuku, Demieri Von Kemedi, Famous Daunemigha, 
Patterson Ogun, and Jude Tabai.  A February 3 article in the 
Business Times said Asari Dokubo, at a rally in Buguma, 
Rivers State, urged Kalabari youths to give up violence, 
kidnapping and other criminal acts, and asserted that neither 
the Niger Delta People's Volunteer Force (NDPVF), which he 
heads, nor the Ijaw Youth Council, engage in criminal 
activities.  End Note) 
 
Ijaw Youths To Quit Camps 
------------------------- 
 
¶3. (C) Kemedi said that he was pleased that the Ijaw youths 
agreed on the issues and ratified the strong language of the 
communique issued at the conclusion of the conference.  Ijaw 
youths will leave the camps within three months, Kemedi said, 
and anyone found within the camps after the close of the 
three month period will be considered a criminal.  However, 
these youths have guns ("the generally understood meaning of 
militant", Kemedi said), and will need a way to dispose of 
them.  Five months ago, Bayelsa State presented the Federal 
Government with a fully articulated plan for disarming the 
 
LAGOS 00000074  002 OF 003 
 
 
youths, but the Federal Government has not responded.  In the 
absence of action by the Federal Government, Bayelsa State 
will take the initiative to help the youths who walk away 
from the camps, he said.  The State is not able to undertake 
a formal disarmament program, which can only be conducted by 
the Federal Government, according to Kemedi.  Nonetheless, 
Bayelsa State has prepared a program through which religious 
leaders, trained in 2008 by an NGO called ALPHA from the UK, 
will work with the youths to help them to reorient themselves 
to life outside the camps. (Ref E)  Without assurances from 
the Federal government on amnesty, however, there is no 
guarantee that the state security agencies will not arrest 
youths as they go through the program.  As a result, Bayelsa 
State plans to include both youths coming out of the camps 
and others who have never been in the camps in each training, 
making it more difficult for the security services to 
identify former militants, Kemedi said. 
 
"Even I Had a Hard Time Sorting Out MEND" 
----------------------------------------- 
 
¶4. (C)  In a conversation during Poloffs February 4 visit to 
Yenagoa, Kemedi said that even people like himself, "who 
should have known what was going on", had had a difficult 
time sorting out just who was in the Movement for the 
Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND).  Now he knows that 
MEND is just an email address, Kemedi said, and he believes 
that erstwhile MEND spokeserson Jomo Gbomo is Henry Okah, a 
professional arms dealer, whose sole purpose was to create an 
atmosphere conducive to his business, and who seduced others 
by offering them a credit line with which to buy arms. 
(Note:  Okah is currently in jail and suffering from kidney 
ailments.  He also took up arms dealing as part of his 
overall activities with MEND.  End Note)  With Okah in jail, 
it appears "Jomo Gbomo's" words are not as dramatic, nor as 
well-chosen as in the past.  Moreover, whereas in the past 
Jomo Gbomo used to predict events, which would then take 
place, now the person using that name is able only to issue 
pronouncements after events occur, Kemedi said.  (note:  We 
do not not know if Kemedi's prediction that the Jomo Gbomo 
was Okah is correct and if this is correct, we do not know if 
one or several people have taken his place as the reported 
MEND spokesperson.  End Note) 
 
Claims No Attacks on Oil in Bayelsa Since 2007 
--------------------------------------------- - 
 
¶5.  (C)  In the February 4 conversation, Kemedi said that, to 
his knowledge, there have been no attacks, with the exception 
of the attack on Bonga, on oil facilities by militants in 
Bayelsa since 2007.  This was the result of what Kemedi 
called "a very untidy process".  (Comment: Kemedi is likely 
referring to payments by Bayelsa Governor Silva to militant 
leaders in the state. (Ref F) End Comment)  Attacks on oil 
installations in Rivers State are down as well, he said, 
because the emphasis has shifted to kidnappings for ransom 
(by militants and criminals), and to offshore piracy.  On 
kidnapping, Kemedi said, the views of the people in the 
villages have changed.  In the past, they helped the 
militants by hiding their kidnapping victims within the 
villages; they no longer do that, and instead cooperate with 
the security agencies because they see the kidnappings as a 
threat to the community.  Because attitudes have changed, the 
militants are unable to recruit as easily as they did before. 
 
 
¶6.  (C)  However, the militants are only half of the problem 
in the Niger Delta;  the other half is the military, he said. 
 The military wants to remain in the Niger Delta because they 
profit enormously from money charged for escorting illegally 
bunkered crude and from money extorted in the name of 
providing security on the roads.  The Joint Task Force (JTF) 
foot soldiers are not the only ones who profit; the 
Commissioner of Police, the Director of the State Security 
Service, the military all line up at the Governor's door 
asking for "favors", Kemedi said. 
 
FG "Not Interested" In Resolving Niger Delta Crisis 
--------------------------------------------- ------ 
 
LAGOS 00000074  003 OF 003 
 
 
 
¶7.  (C)  The Federal Government is not interested in 
resolving the crisis in the Niger Delta; there are too many 
powerful people benefiting from the crisis to have it end, 
Kemedi said.  There is no money in the budget to develop the 
Niger Delta.  No effort has been made to address the problem 
of illegal bunkering; the ships that come in to pick up the 
crude are not small, and could easily be identified and dealt 
with if the Federal Government wanted to do so, Kemedi said. 
In response to the report of the Technical Committee on the 
Niger Delta, the Federal Government has set up yet another 
committee to report on the report.  This is why the 
South-South itself must do everything in its power to bring 
an end to the crisis, Kemedi said. 
 
States Find Ways Around FG Failure on Amnesty 
--------------------------------------------- 
 
¶8.  (C)  As a result, the states will find a way around the 
question of amnesty, which only the Federal Government can 
grant.  What the states can control is employment, he said. 
Once the states create employment opportunities, militants 
and non-militants alike will be able to take advantage of 
them.  Kemedi himself says he is no longer interested in the 
percent of derivation that goes to the states.  Bayelsa State 
has done a study that shows that the state has the potential 
to earn as much revenue from shrimp and fisheries projects as 
it does from oil, Kemedi noted.  Bayelsa is sending 50 youths 
to Denmark for seamanship training, and has purchased a 
number of Danish ships which will be shipped to Bayelsa to 
help create employment. 
 
¶9.  (C) Comment: That it took Kemedi, who with hindsight says 
he "ought to have known", let alone the Ijaw youths in the 
creeks, time to figure out how they had been misled and 
manipulated is not surprising; television and internet access 
is available only in Bayelsa's larger towns, and cellphone 
access is intermittent at best, especially in the destitute 
riverine villages.  Notwithstanding, they have had it figured 
out for some time; we have reported since August 2008 that 
the militants were ready to lay down their arms, and the 
Bayelsa State proposal went in to the Federal Government 
months ago, according to Kemedi.  The Federal Government's 
failure to act, like its failure to develop the area 
economically, and its failure to interdict the ships that 
carry stolen crude, lends credence to the contention that the 
Federal Government does not want to solve a problem from 
which many high level people benefit. 
 
¶10.  (C) Comment Continued:  The Federal Government's failure 
to respond on the issue of amnesty has forced Bayelsa State 
to contrive a proxy for amnesty that allows militant youths 
(by Kemedi's definition, "youths with guns") to leave the 
camps, reorient themselves to a life in civil society and, 
alongside youths who have never taken up arms, begin one of 
the new jobs the state is creating for them.  Delta State has 
had a similar proxy for amnesty in operation for some time. 
Militant youths have jobs patrolling the creeks as part of 
the Delta Waterways Commission, or in one of the projects or 
local offices established by the Delta State Oil Producing 
Areas Commission (DESOPADEC) (Ref A).  Job creation, coupled 
with the election of an Ijaw local government chairman for a 
Warri local government area, has led to a comparatively 
peaceful period in Delta State.  It remains to be seen 
whether the efforts of state governments, in the absence of 
Federal Government commitment to amnesty, a viable program of 
disarmament for militant youths and demilitarization of the 
Niger Delta via withdrawal of the JTF, will be sufficient to 
bring peace to the Niger Delta.  In Ambassador's February 10 
meeting with the new Niger Delta Minister, it appears 
unlikely that the Federal Government is getting its act 
together to better address Niger Delta issues anytime soon. 
End Comment. 
 
BLAIR