OPINION: Tintinnabulations of Termination for Tantita and Tompolo, By Enewaridideke Ekanpou

By: Enewaridideke Ekanpou

It appears a vibrant association of liars has been formed. The focal point of this union is to cunningly distort known facts and sow seeds of confusion, contract-termination, disunity and disorientation in hitherto calm regions.Their joy seems to rise from the confusion of people; part of their joy also stems from getting themselves confused. They are the vectors and viruses of disorientation and confusion in Nigeria when the discourse centres on oil theft and pipeline vandalism.

By an irrational habitual indoctrination and paranoia, some individuals and groups have pathologically morphed into authors of satanic verses against TANTITA and Tompolo in every dimension.Those who verbally devise ways to kill Tantita through misaligned tintinnabulations of termination prescriptions, whose survivalist existence evilly depends on the death of the amazing transformer called Tantita, are the vampires ideologically glued to the satanic sucking of the ‘performance’ blood of TANTITA like leeches that suck dry and dead the lumberjack hosting them while at work on a canal, though the verbal and performance counter forces everywhere in the Niger Delta carry vibratory frequencies too high for the vampires to outrival.

Crude oil theft and pipeline vandalism are a threat to the high productivity of oil and gas resources in Nigeria. Low yield from oil and gas resources adversely affects the performance of the Nigerian economy as it prevents government from full execution of the annual budget that specifically gives a catalogue of meaningful projects earmarked to be completed in different parts of the country as part of steps towards the attainment of unbiased all-round development of Nigeria.

The Federal Government of Nigeria sheds tears profusely whenever the oil and gas sector bleeds from crude oil theft and pipeline vandalism. Government often does everything within its power to avert oil theft and pipeline vandalism as these activities are economically viewed as suicidal attempts that weaken the capability of government to fulfill its responsibilities to the citizenry in the areas of execution of development projects and provision of social amenities for the people.

In governance everything is done to gain the confidence of the people in the government of the day. To ensure that the government does not fail in its sacred obligations to provide economic security to the citizenry, contracts to stop oil theft and pipeline vandalism are only given to companies and individuals with a proven capability to tackle oil theft, pipeline vandalism and the allied challenges in the upstream sector of the economy. Contracts on eradication of oil theft and pipeline vandalism thrive on professional competence and proven capability. ‘Who-know-whoism’, ethnicity and indigeneship to a given geographic region don’t feature as a prerequisite for being awarded pipeline security contracts. In recognition of these crucial factors the Nigerian Government had awarded pipeline security contracts to different companies on different occasions and changed her contractors whenever better job-execution signals were beamed out by a given security company in its letter of interest to handle pipeline security contracts. Statistics indicate that companies not owned by Ijaw persons had been given pipeline security contracts even when the contractor had no roots buried in the communities contractually covered as areas of operation.These companies and individuals got such pipeline security contracts on the wings of competence and proven capability.

Records indicate that while these pipeline security contracts by non-Ijaws lasted, no Ijaw person or group wrote to the government to get them terminated based on puerile claims of ethnicity and indigeneship.The communities and the persons in the areas contractually covered by these contractors only co-operated with them in the execution of the contracts.The corresponding co-operation from communities and people in the contractually covered areas was the ideal and template for execution of security contracts. This ideal or template should be unconditionally extended to any company or individual certified by the Nigerian Federal Government Government to execute pipeline security contracts in any part of Nigeria, particularly in the Niger Delta region.

Sadly, it becomes a public drama of envy, malignancy, vindictiveness, selfishness, clannishness and ethnic jingoism when this known template is cunningly tampered and replaced with sponsored press releases, opinion articles and overdramatised protests because it involves TANTITA Security Services Nigeria Limited and Tompolo known for being competent and uncompromising in the execution of pipeline security contract in Nigeria.

Seasonally, pipeline security contracts do journey from companies to companies based on signals of competitive competence. On its own terms the Nigerian Government routinely awards pipeline security contracts to companies and individuals because individuals are the faces behind the contracts. By providence, competence and proven capability, TANTITA was awarded a pipeline security contract by the Tinubu-led Nigerian Federal Government to end oil theft and pipeline vandalism in geographically specified areas in Nigeria.

Consistent with the given contractual mandate, Tompolo had meaningful engagement with all stakeholders and employed competent persons from the communities contractually covered and began his widely applauded uncompromising advocacy against oil theft and pipeline vandalism. As a tested security czar grounded in the sociology, psychology, geography, geometry, engineering, morphology, phonology, semantics, radiology anatomy, physiology, mathematics and ‘astrophysics’ of oil theft and pipeline vandalism, he extended his engagement to communities contractually outside the demarcated area of operation.This is professionally done to attain the best results different from sister contractors similarly contracted by the Federal Government of Nigeria. From the communities of Ijaw, Itsekiri, Urhobo, Isoko and many others, many hands are engaged and placed on monthly salaries consistent with their labour.

Strategic engagement of different stakeholders is consistently done by TANTITA and Tompolo as a necessary part of the pipeline security contract. With the strategic engagement of stakeholders in the various communities, the advocacy war against oil theft and pipeline vandalism is meaningfully executed with a non-kinetic approach. Amazing results came shortly after TANTITA was contractually engaged. From a very low crude oil production per day, the Nigerian daily crude oil production has moved close to two million barrels per day.

Endlessly, Tantita and Tompolo have been thunderously applauded for this feat within a very short period. This feat points to the fact that High Chief Dr Tompolo is a professor in his non-kinetic advocacy against oil theft and pipeline vandalism because he deploys the resources at his command in a manner strategically different from others.

Tompolo has not failed in the engagement of the right stakeholders, nor has he failed in the production of results for the Nigerian Government.Tompolo’s competence and professionalism in security matters have been marked by the impressive results in Nigeria’s present crude oil production. From all observers of the Nigerian upstream oil sector cascade praises and commendationds upon TANTITA and Tompolo. These commendatory cascades are clear indicators of unsolicited encores for job-continuity till the eschatologically awaited second coming of Christ.Yet some individuals and groups have recently created narratives weighted to instigate the Nigerian Government to terminate the pipeline security contract of Tompolo based on the misconception that such contracts should ideally be given to some identified individuals from some of the communities contractually within the operational jurisdiction of TANTITA .

The contract-termination narrative anchored on ethnicity and communal indigeneship has been steadily promoted by some ethnically jingoistic individuals and groups through press releases, sponsored articles and protests. Instigatory calls for contract-termination only sound reasonable when anchored on incompetence and non-performance. All Nigerians agree that TANTITA and Tompolo have performed excellently and this is attested to by Nigeria’s daily crude oil production figure. The contract-termination dance spearheaded by dark-hearted individuals and vampires is an exercise in futility because the daily results of TANTITA positively counter and contradict the evil plot of ethnic jingoists and vampires.

The individuals and groups that have pioneered the contract-termination

dance and narrative of TANTITA Security Services Nigeria Limited are apostles of confusion whose mission is to disorientate the minds of the people and instigate the Nigerian Federal Government to rebel against TANTITA as an avenue for their preferred contractor to claim the pipeline security contract of TANTITA through the back door without the needed professional competence and proven capability as the rudiments for successful execution of security contract.

The activists, apostles and authors of negative narratives appear more confused than those they labour to confuse because the contract-termination narratives, rhetorics and theatrics did not create the much desired impact envisioned to achieve their target. Emblazoned everywhere are stories of the statistics of Urhobos, Itsekiris, Isokos, Ijaws and many others massively engaged by TANTITA and Tompolo in the areas of operation to execute the pipeline security contract in a manner that daily showers smiles on the faces of the people. Historically, the authors of negative narratives on TANTITA and Tompolo have become the rudderless purveyors of confusion in Nigeria but who have ended up more confused than those they strive to confuse with false narratives on TANTITA and Tompolo because the performance statistics tell a believably indestructible story of truth and contractual commitment.The widely applauded performance chronicles of Tantita and Tompolo command the radiance of the moon and the sun with their vibrations thrown on the planet earth like ashes healthily dispersed.

It is however interesting to note that feelers from some quarters reveal some of the creative authors of false narratives on TANTITA and Tompolo have already embraced the path of retraction and apology having woken up epistemologically to the falsity and fruitlessness of their campaign coupled with the barrage of denunciations from the Urhobos, Itsekiris and many other great thinkers who are familiar with the performance history of TANTITA and Tompolo. On their current path of retraction and apologies, may the deliberately formulated negative narratives on TANTITA and Tompolo become the nunc dimittis of those who see themselves as vectors of demeaning narratives on TANTITA and Tompolo – even with the knowledge that their wrong narratives have already metastasised in the Niger Delta and beyond.

Ekanpou writes from Akparemogbene, Delta State