The flyovers, skyscrapers, and – a rarity for Nigerian cities – relatively freely flowing traffic of Abuja, the model capital, feel a long way from the creeks and villages lost in the muggy depths of the Niger Delta.

But it is in Abuja that Umaru Yar’Adua, the president, hopes to find the key to ending a conflict more complex than the network of pipelines and flow stations tapping the region’s billions of barrels of crude.