We can't change this by changing the leadership. It's the culture.
Privilege
May 2, 2009: Despite the thousands of additional police, soldiers and sailors sent to the Delta region, most of these security personnel are assigned to guarding oil facilities. The dozens of gangs that have grown prosperous stealing oil, are free to rape, rob and kidnap without much fear of capture. Kidnappers have a large number of wealthy targets, including retired politicians and army officers (especially generals, who get the most bribes). The military, as a result, is under a lot of pressure to do something about the growing crime rate.
The army has responded by trying to make it more difficult for highly visible gangs in the Niger Delta, like MEND, to operate openly. Camps, and other locations where MEND members openly congregate, are being raided by platoon or company size units of heavily armed troops, and MEND has not got the numbers, firepower or training to resist that kind of force. But the larger and better organized gangs have taken to ambushing army and navy patrols. The patrols usually consist of one speedboat, or slightly larger craft, with half a dozen soldiers or sailors on board. While heavily armed, the military personnel can be overwhelmed by four or five speedboats full of gunmen. So far, these attempts to wipe out patrols have been thwarted by the better discipline and accuracy of the soldier's fire. But it's getting more dangerous for the military in the thousands of kilometers of waterways in the Niger Delta.
A bribery trial in the U.S. led to convictions, and the admission that the American firm, KBR, paid $180 million in bribes to Nigerian government officials between 1995 and 2004, to facilitate the construction of a $6 billion gas liquefaction plant. Some of the bribed officials are still in office, and the government has demonstrated great reluctance in pursuing the matter. In comparison, kidnapping is believed to have yielded about $100 million in ransoms over the past three years.
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