Don't Blink When It Comes to Nigeria

Sid posted this article in the comments the other day. I've look around, few are talking about it, but we should be. Iran was able to raise the price of oil from around $55 to over $100 a barrel in less than a year by shooting off their mouth with empty rhetoric. In this case, Nigeria is one of the top 4 exporters of oil into the United States, and this isn't empty rhetoric.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) yesterday vowed to cripple oil exports from the Niger Delta region by providing arms including anti-aircraft gunships to the leader of the Niger Delta Vigilante Movement, Mr Ateke Tom in what it said was a renewed bid to counter any possible offensive by Federal Government's Joint-military Task Force against it.

Specifically, the support, MEND said, would be in form of providing him their fighters and making available heavy duty war machines including anti-aircraft to ensure that they present a formidable front to counter Federal troops.

They, therefore warned that "Civilians inside capital cities in the Niger Delta states of Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Delta, and Rivers are advised to avoid milling around army check points and armoured personnel carriers as they have become targets for attacks by explosive devices".

Make no mistake, this is by definition a political insurgency. The US has no military presence in Nigeria, nor are we likely to anytime soon, and even during the best of times the relationship between Nigeria and the US is strained at best. MEND has established a specific objective, and if they succeed you will almost certainly feel it in your wallet.

MEND commended their men within the armed forces ofthe country for their infiltration of the intelligence channel which enabled the leakage of the document prepared on how to annihilate them. "We salute our agents inside the Armed Forces for ajob well done! The leakage of classified information meant to annihilate us during a fraudulent peace initiative has prepared us for the bloody fightin 2008. Our goal remains to paralyse 100 percent of Nigeria's oil export in one swoop" they boasted.

The fighting has been bloody, very bloody. A few months ago reporters in Nigeria attempted to get an exact figures of casualties by Nigerian government troops fighting MEND, and the number was well into the hundreds, with the actual number never confirmed. The Nigerian government has been resolved in the past to handle this situation themselves.

We will not see a public US politician discuss this issue, or I'd expect we wouldn't, but it is a very important issue nonetheless. Every political candidate who debated on Saturday night talked about helping middle class this and fighting terrorism that, big plans for this and that etc etc..

If MEND is successful, it will impact the average Americans wallet more than any campaign issue discussed by the candidate gaggle. From home heating oil to driving to work, events in Nigeria matter more to the average American than the vast majority of crap coming from candidates for US President, and if MEND is successful in cutting off Nigeria's oil output you'll hear all about it, after it is too late.

Makes one wonder what actually got loaded on HSV Swift before it deployed. I think it would be a shame if it wasn't something in response to this recent announcement.