The Nigerian government faces a new challenge from spiralling crime in the oil-producing Niger Delta but wants to avoid turning Africa's oil heartland into a battleground, Energy Minister Edmund Daukoru said.
Violence surged in the delta in 2006, forcing thousands of foreign workers to flee, and has worsened this year. Armed groups are holding 38 foreigners hostage while two expatriates and many Nigerians have been killed in gunfights and robberies.
"There are a lot of copycats out there who don't share the philosophy of developing the region," Daukoru told Reuters in an interview late on Tuesday. He was referring to the proliferation of kidnappings for ransom, a lucrative business in the delta.
"Dealing with the purely criminal element is the new challenge. But government will prove equal to it. I can assure you that criminality will not be brooked," he said, offering no details on the new crime-fighting strategy.
On Sunday, at least 50 militants stormed police headquarters in the delta's main city, Port Harcourt, freeing one of their leaders and 125 other prisoners after a four-hour gunbattle.
Asked what government could do to curb the rising mayhem, Daukoru said it would offer the region "a little stick and a lot of carrots". Simply increasing the number of security forces could aggravate an already volatile situation, he said. "We are in a domestic situation, we are not fighting a foreign enemy. We don't want to turn the place into a battleground," he said.
"There are a lot of assets out there and if you turn it into a battleground the cost would be incalculable, so government is taking a measured approach." The world's eighth largest oil exporter is already suffering huge losses because of violence in the delta.
Royal Dutch Shell has yet to reopen operations in the western delta shut down last February after militant attacks. It is losing about 500,000 barrels per day. The drop in oil production resulted in a $4.3 billion shortfall in the federal government's budget last year.
Authorities have acknowledged that poverty and neglect lie at the root of many of the delta's problems, and last year President Olusegun Obasanjo announced a series of measures to try and foster development in the region.
But this failed to quell discontent in the delta. Now oil unions are saying members in the main oil companies operating in the delta want to strike from February 5 over insecurity.
"They want to withdraw their services because they no longer feel safe. They are angry because they feel government is not listening," said Peter Esele, head of the PENGASSAN oil union. Daukoru met late on Tuesday with union leaders and senior managers of the main oil companies to try and reassure them that government was serious about tackling violence in the delta.
"They are naturally worried about their security as I would be," Daukoru said after the meeting. "We have agreed to hold a high-powered stakeholders' forum sometime." The unions have been asking for such a forum since they staged a warning strike over insecurity in September. Their leaders expressed disappointment after Tuesday's meeting with Daukoru, complaining that a date had still not been set.