Pipeline Surveillance: Activist Flays Campaign Against Tantita 

Sylvester Idowu in Warri

A Niger Delta activist, Comrade Preye Tambou, has appealed to ethnic champions in Delta State calling for the cancellation of the pipeline surveillance contract awarded to Tantita Security Services Nigeria Limited to desist from such warning, adding that it is not a good step for all ethnic nationalities in the state.

Preye, in a statement in Warri Sunday, noted that the current gains in the oil and gas sector since Tantita took over the job were visible before all eyes.

He said before now, the nation’s oil production quota was in its lowest, stressing that it only came up after the private security firm got the job.

Preye said those agitating for the cancellation of the pipeline surveillance job awarded to Tantita over ethnic grounds should discontinue such a puerile position, stressing that they were setting dangerous trends among ethnic groups in Delta State and beyond.

“When agitation shifts from ‘fix the system’ to ‘cancel it if I am not in charge’, it stops being justice and becomes elite competition by protest. The loudest agitators on the matter today are not proposing transparent bidding frameworks, independent oversight, or performance audits; they are proposing cancellation or redistribution to themselves. That is not reform; it is a replacement.

“Criticism is legitimate, but ethnic hate is not. No leader is above scrutiny, no contract beyond audit, and no system is 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,” he said.

Continuing, Preye said a critical issue as securing the nation’s oil facilities on the water ways is  something awarded on grounds of merit and competence to capable security bodies.

He also warned against fragmenting pipeline surveillance jobs among communities, noting that it would create proliferation of light weapons and also threaten national security.

The statement titled ‘On Tantita, pipeline surveillance, amnesty and the intellectual fraud behind the collective wealth argument – Separating Emotion, Ethnicity and Entitlement from Governance, Law and Reality’ read:

“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.

“Ethnic framing is not a justice argument; it is a political weapon. Turning this matter into Ijaw versus Urhobo versus Isoko versus Itsekiri is not liberation but divide-and-loot politics. Ask honestly: if an Urhobo-owned or Isoko-owned company wins a federal security contract tomorrow, would the argument suddenly become ‘merit’?

‘This outrage is selective, not principled. The same voices shouting today were silent when OMS handled surveillance, when PINL expanded operations, and when politically connected non-Ijaw firms received contracts. Justice that only awakens when one ethnic group succeeds is not justice; it is envy dressed as ideology.

“The idea of ‘community guarding pipelines’ is a security nightmare. It sounds attractive until one thinks like a state. Who coordinates intelligence across states? Who resolves inter-community disputes? Who is accountable when sabotage occurs? Who prevents pipelines from becoming bargaining chips? Pipeline vandalism is organized crime, not petty theft. Fragmenting surveillance into hundreds of community fiefdoms would militarize communities, encourage extortion, create parallel armed structures, and collapse national energy security. No serious country operates this way; security is centralized for a reason.

“Wealth display is not evidence of criminality. Owning a Rolls-Royce is not proof of theft; spending dollars is not proof of corruption; hiring PR firms is not illegal. If lifestyle were evidence, politicians across Nigeria would be guilty. Instagram, Nollywood stars would have to explain their mansions, and past governors would refund their convoys. If corruption exists, produce court-tested evidence, not gossip, screenshots, or ‘my source told me’. Nigeria is governed by law, not vibes.

“Oil theft reduction is the metric that matters. Before Tantita and allied surveillance frameworks, Nigeria was losing hundreds of thousands of barrels daily, production fell below one million barrels per day, and the country was bleeding revenue. After surveillance reforms, output rebounded, theft routes were disrupted, and illegal bunkering became riskier. Is theft eliminated? No but security success is measured by reduction, not perfection. If the contract were useless, a revenue-obsessed Nigerian State would have cancelled it already.

“Agitation is not automatically moral. History matters, but it must not be abused. Agitation birthed amnesty and amnesty reduced violence, but agitation is a tool, not a virtue. It can liberate or blackmail. When agitation shifts from ‘fix the system’ to ‘cancel it if I am not in charge’, it stops being justice and becomes elite competition by protest. The loudest agitators on the matter today are not proposing transparent bidding frameworks, independent oversight, or performance audits; they are proposing cancellation or redistribution to themselves. That is not reform; it is a replacement.

“The real conversation should be about strengthening oversight, publishing performance metrics, creating structured employment and training for Niger-Delta youths, and periodically reviewing contracts for efficiency. None of these require ethnic warfare, cancellation theatrics, international embarrassment campaigns, or burning down a working system because it is imperfect.

“Not every injustice is solved by cancellation, not every wealth display is theft, and not every successful Niger-Deltan is an enemy. A society that criminalizes structure and romanticizes chaos will never prosper. Reform failure, prosecute corruption, expand inclusion intelligently but destroying a security architecture without a viable alternative is reckless, and reckless revolutions always end with the poor paying the price.”