Niger Delta advocate lauds Tantita, faults critics, seeks collaboration for greater output

By Joseph Bienbo, Warri

Prominent Niger Delta public advocate Comrade Preye V. Tambou has commended Tantita Security Services Nigeria Limited for delivering on its job specification and standard, arguing that pipeline surveillance is a federal security contract, not a profit-sharing scheme, and being awarded based on merit and performance.

Tambou emphasised that oil is owned by the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and pipeline surveillance is a performance-based security service. He criticized those framing the issue as ethnic or regional, saying the debate is being promoted by enemies of Niger Delta. “The real concern should be strengthening oversight, publishing performance metrics, and creating employment opportunities for Niger Delta youths and criticism for self gains”, he added.

The contract has been praised for reducing oil theft and increasing production, with some stakeholders urging the government to renew it.

He stated, “Criticism is legitimate, but ethnic hate is not. No leader is above scrutiny, no contract beyond audit, and no system perfect but criticism must be evidence-based, even-handed, and free of ethnic bitterness. When activism becomes a tool to dismantle others while shielding one’s own leaders, criminalize competence, and punish success, it ceases to be activism and becomes ethnic jingoism. The Ijaw people owe no apology for surviving, organizing, and succeeding, and history will remember who chose truth over envy.

“Pipeline surveillance is not “common wealth”; it is a Federal security contract. The most dangerous lie repeated in this debate is the deliberate confusion between natural resource ownership and a Federal security service contract. Oil is owned by the Federal Republic of Nigeria, not by ethnic groups, communities, or regions. This is settled law under the Constitution and the Petroleum Industry Act. Pipeline surveillance is not profit-sharing, resource control, and compensation; it is a performance-based security service awarded to entities the Nigerian State believes possess operational reach, local intelligence networks, and the capacity to deter vandalism and theft. You do not share a security contract the way you share revenue allocation; you earn it by capacity, trust, and results. If guarding pipelines were “commonwealth,” then the Navy should share its budget with riverside communities and soldiers should share their salaries with villages near barracks – logic that collapses immediately”, he argued.