The Rampaging Confusionists of Nigeria By: Enewaridideke Ekanpou

Something strange has suddenly struck the land. Upon the land is a verbally instigated cloudburst.The land has actually been gripped by disturbing clangours from the sudden cloudburst. The disturbing clangours originate from a deadly realignment of forces ideologically linked by a common resolve to devour institutions and personalities using narratives riddled with lies.

The likelihood of an ideologically based formation has just been spotted by keen observers of developments in Nigeria. The likelihood centres on the fact that a vibrant, ideologically solid but vague association of liars appears to have been formed.The fulcrum of this association is to steadily denigrate institutions and personalities and insidiously sow seeds of confusion, contract-termination, disunity and disorientation in territories hitherto governed by order, calm and peaceful co-existence.Their joy seems to emanate from deliberate indoctrination, disorientation and confusion of the people; part of their joy and self-fulfillment also emanates 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. Fittingly, they are both the confusers and the confused of Nigeria.

Driven 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.

No avenue must be created for Nigeria to shed tears.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.

Good governance demands the creation of confidence-building structures so that the citizens don’t complain and weep themselves out over deprivations. Interestingly, 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 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 contract. 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.

Evidence from 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 contract in any part of Nigeria, particularly in the Niger Delta region.

Shamefully, 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.

Statistics excavated reveal that, 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 pipeline security contract by the Tinubu-led Nigerian Federal Government to end oil theft and pipeline vandalism in geographically specified areas in Nigeria.

Operationally 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.

Towards excellent execution of its contractual mandate, TANTITA and Tompolo don’t ignore meaningful engagement of people. 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 .

Loudly echoed everywhere without stop, 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.

Failure does not exist in the dictionary of Government Oweizide Ekpemupolo.Indeed, Tompolo has not failed in the engagement of the right stakeholders, neither 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.

Unsolicited praises have become part of the performance landmark of TANTITA and Tompolo. 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 . A very sterile and pernicious thought it is from minds in progressive stages of decomposition!

Championed by mentally endangered mortals, propagandist contract-termination narratives have begun to journey around the world. 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.

It is not difficult to know when people are confused and rudderless . 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.

Undoubtedly, confusion breeds its own confusion in a way one cannot define with terminological exactitude.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.

Traceable feelers of anagnorisis from the apostles of confusion have already begun to invade every space of the earth . 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.

The verbal troublers of Nigeria have chosen a new path, a new path over which I have already prayed for consistency. They are the apostles of negative narratives on TANTITA and Tompolo. On their current path of retraction and apologies, may the deliberately formulated negative narratives on TANTITA and Tompolo which gaudily portray the pioneering apostles of denigration as purveyors of confusion, 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.

Dr. Ekanpou writes from Akparemogbene, Delta State