States in the Niger Delta are set to attract national limelight again as the government plans to deliberate on the report of the national conference held last year.
The Niger Delta, which comprises the nine oil producing states, is in the vortex of Nigeria’s politics and social structure.
Correspondent Sam Nwokoro reports that the political temperature tingling with the elections offers the region the last chance to get its final deal.
Nigeria’s structure has been skewed since independence. The independence Constitution of 1958 was about the only article of faith that bound the different ethnic nationalities in a less troublesome architecture.
The nation was divided into regions with some measure of autonomy in the 1952 Constitution, which also recommended a new derivation formula of 50 per cent for mineral producing areas. This was implemented until Nigeria attained independence.
When the First Republic failed via the 1966 coup, a counter coup occurred the following year and the military entered into politics and jettisoned regional autonomy.
Since then, 50 per cent derivation has remained the catch line of Niger Delta agitation. That is the least they will accept or else they want a separate nation-state.
The Second Republic civilian government led by Shehu Shagari restored derivation allocation to oil producing states at 3 per cent. But that was short-lived as the military came back in 1983, reversed to the satus quo, then increased it to 13 per cent in 1995.
This was after the killing of Saro Wiwa, an Ogoni rights activist famous for his agitation against environmental pollution in the Delta Niger.
Since then, efforts have been made by various administrations to get the area developed and pacified. But none has sufficiently addressed the needs of the area which has suffered years of degradation since oil was discovered in commercial quantity in Oloibiri in 1958.
The manner the resources of the Niger Delta have been used has caused a lot of problems in Nigeria’s economic and political growth process. It also has produced social jargons, such as “marginalisation”, “resource control”, “derivation allocation”, “minority areas”, “Nigerian Project”, “rotation of Presidency”, “militancy”, “hostage ransom”, et cetera.
Pacifist measures devised by Nigerian leaders have fallen short in the eyes of the world in remedying more than half a century of exploitation and degradation of a peoples’ homeland.
Nigerians want to see if the implementation of the report of the national conference can assuage agitation in the oil producing states which regard themselves as the “real owners of Nigeria”. Oil accounts for over 70 per cent of national revenue.
Genesis of a pain in the neck
A thesis titled “Derivation Principle Dilemma and National (Dis) Unity In Nigeria: A Polycentric Planning Perspective” by Professor Damian Ayosope of the Canadian Centre For Science Education published in the institution’s Journal of Sustainable Development, noted that “military incursions into Nigerian politics unilaterally abrogated derivation principle that existed before the discovery of oil in commercial quantity and imposed an authoritarian and centralised fiscal system.”
Ayosope, a Nigerian social researcher, traced the misery in the Niger Delta to three factors – bad policies, inadequate funding of environmental projects, and corruption and low public morality among government officials who have managed oil resources since 1960, especially during military regimes.
“The centralised fiscal system has acted as set back on the progress of Niger Delta where most of the country’s revenue are derived. As expected, agitations for inclusiveness on the part of the people has led to several crises.
“In order to resolve the challenge of derivation and governance crises in Niger Delta, the American type federalism is worth borrowing from,” he canvassed.
He said recent indications showed robust chances of true federalism being practised in Nigeria.
In 1958, the federal government controlled 40 per cent of national revenue, the regions got 60 per cent, councils zero, special projects zero, while derivation allocation was 50 per cent.
Ten years later, during the war, the federal government took control of 80 per cent, regions 20 per cent, councils zero, special projects zero.
Derivation was slashed to 10 per cent based on the motion moved by the then Finance Commissioner, Obafemi Awolowo, during debate on derivation that “oil mineral resources belong to the whole nation and so the point of the Niger Delta indigenes about the derivation removal was invalid.”
Derivation remained 10 per cent into the 1990s in spite of the oil boom of the 1980s.
1977 – federal government 80 per cent, states (22 per cent), councils (3 per cent), special projects (zero), derivation (10 per cent).
1982 – federal (55 per cent), states (32.5 per cent), councils (10 per cent), special projects (2.5 per cent), derivation (10 per cent).
1989 – federal (50 per cent), states (24 per cent), councils (15 per cent), special projects (11 per cent), derivation (10 per cent).
1995 – federal (48.5 per cent), states (24 per cent), councils (20 per cent), special projects (7.5 per cent), derivation (13 per cent).
2001 – federal (48.5 per cent), states (24 per cent), councils (20 per cent), special projects (7.5 per cent), derivation (13 per cent).
The figures confirm what scholars on development have argued that dependence on oil receipts is largely responsible for Nigeria’s many failed development policies, raunchy politics, and endemic corruption made worse by the absence of institutional checks.
Mammoth environmental problem
The nine Niger Delta states – Bayelsa, Delta, Rivers, Abia, Imo, Ondo, Edo, Akwa Ibom, Cross River – share monumental environmental degradation.
The problems include water pollution, destruction of aquatic creatures, denuded soil, harassed or extinct wildlife, gully erosion, decapitated and increasingly homeless population, air pollution from gas flaring, epidemics, and marginalisation of the population compared to other regions.
A recent study conducted for three years on the ecological situation in the Niger Delta by the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) court said oil spills will cost $1 billion to remedy.
The court said Shell and other oil firms contaminated 386 square kilometres of Ogoni with disastrous consequence to human health and wildlife.
The comprehensive report, the first of its kind, found among other things
• Drinking water is polluted with dangerous concentration of benzene and other pollutants.
• Heavy contamination of land and underground water courses, sometimes, more than 40 years after oil was found.
• Soil contamination more than five metres deep in many areas.
• Most spill sites which most of the oil firms claimed to have cleaned up are still highly contaminated.
• There is still evidence of oil spill dumping in contaminated soil in unlined pits.
The report added: “Water coated with hydrocarbons is more than one thousand times the level allowed by Nigerian water drinking standard, failure by Shell and others to meet Nigerian or own standard still exists, study wants emergency measures taken to warn communities and to clean up drinking water wells, while Shell and other companies working in the Niger Delta should overhaul the way they operate.”
Achin Steiner, United Nations Under Secretary and an Executive Director of UNEP court said “the oil industry … has been a key sector in the Nigerian economy for over 50 years, but many Nigerians have paid a high price. It is UNEP’s hope that its findings can break the decade of deadlock in the region.
“The study offers a blueprint for how the oil industry and public authorities might operate in Africa and beyond at a time of increasing exploration and production across many parts of the continent.”
Failed interventions
The government has made efforts to tackle the problems of the Niger Delta. But Nigerians know that the funding required is huge. The fact that other areas of pressing national needs have made the present administration appear as not doing enough.
However, Nigerians agree that if past governments had taken environmental remediation of the Niger Delta to heart, the problems would have long been tamed.
The corruption binge of military regimes coupled with their intolerance of Niger Delta complaints provoked more violence, kidnapping for ransom, hostage taking and government’s reactionary repressive measures.
Most often, oil facilities were blocked and investments such as the now flourishing deep off-shore exploration and liquefaction and export of gas were stalled and sabotaged by Niger Delta militants. This led to the setting up of the Oil Mineral Producing Areas Development Commission (OMPADEC).
But the reason for the failure of the agency is identified as the absence of a durable master plan. The Niger Delta development master plan launched in 2006 was meant to tackle an all embracing development of the oil bearing states with support from oil and gas firms and global development partners.
The first effort at solving the Niger Delta problems was the creation of the Niger Delta Board in 1961. But it died with the outbreak of the civil war. OMPADEC too could not do much as it was only used to pacify militants.
Local thugs and Traditional Rulers of Mineral Oil Producing Communities of Nigeria (TROPCON) always hijacked allocations to the commission, using their communities as “paper tigers”. Funds for remedial jobs ended up most times in their pockets.
President Umaru Yar’Adua created the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs in 2010 to checkmate the diversion of funds.
Milestones of NDDC and Niger Delta Ministry
The Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) has been operating as an arm of the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs since 2010 and has made some impact.
It has executed 2,760 projects in the states and the parent ministry is executing 311 projects, mainly provision of social amenities.
Some 17 road projects have been ongoing since 2009, the star one being the East-West 10-lane highway due for commissioning later this year. More than half that number has been completed since 2011.
“Most of those due for completion by 2015 have attained 69 per cent completion,” said NDDC Managing Director, Bassey Dan-Abia.
“Some 27 skills acquisition centres spread across the nine oil producing states and 40 units of 1, 2 and 3 bedrooms apartments in each of the nine oil producing states are still under 12-72 per cent completion.
“Four water projects in Akwa Ibom, Imo, Rivers and Ondo States attained 60 per cent completion as of last year.”
NDDC Finance Director, Jimoh Egbejule, said: “Notwithstanding the vagaries of revenue fluctuations, we have achieved most of the objectives for which NDDC was set up.
“We have been working with an eye on the social temperature of the people under our jurisdiction. And so we are pursuing the issue of developing the area In line with best practice standards.”
National conference and resource control
Agitation for restructuring Nigeria’s federalism became more ferocious in the 1990s, especially with the reduction of derivation to 3 per cent during the military regimes.
Each time any semblance of national dialogue took place, like the one organised by the Olusegun Obasanjo administration, the reports were dumped.
But the Federal Executive Council (FEC) has adopted the recommendation of the national conference held last year to be forwarded to the National Assembly for final adoption. The Presidency has promised to implement recommendations that require action without legislative approval.
Elder statesman, Chukwuemeka Ezeife, said at the time of the national conference that it “is the best thing to happen to Nigeria” because “it gives us time to address all our problems. You have for instance some states up North have 27 local governments while some have only four or eight.
“The real owners of Nigeria who are the ones called minority areas in the South South and Middle Belt areas have been the main source of keeping Nigeria running. Yet you want to regard them as people who are not entitled to rule Nigeria. It is not the right way to encourage development.”
Their stakes
Niger Delta representatives at the national conference canvassed for, among other things, total resource control and abolition of the Land Use Act and creation of new states and councils in their states to equal others in the federation.
Their agitation for 50 per cent derivation was blocked by mainly Northern delegates.
Mujahideen Asari-Dokubo, a former Niger Delta militant, insisted that “it is not in the law of Nigeria to force me to be a Nigerian. If the government will not restructure the country along the lines of true federalism, then the Niger Delta will have no option than to pull out of Nigeria.”
A leader of the Odua Peoples Congress (OPC), Federick Fasehun, said the “implementation of the national conference report is sine qua non to the peace and progress of Nigeria.”
Pundits believe that since Nigeria’s economy still depends on oil receipts, it is better to engage the oil producing states in constant bargaining while the economy is being diversified for other sectors to replace oil as the main foreign exchange earner.
