Contending Issues in the Niger Delta Crisis of Nigeria - Journal of ...

Olawale Olaopa, Ibikunle Ogundari, Mike Awoleye, and Willie Siyanbola
History of oil Exploration in Nigeria
The history of oil industry, scholar Jean-Marie Chevalier (as cited
by Odiase, 2005) has observed, is the history of imperialism. In 1956,
Shell British Petroleum (now Royal Dutch Shell) discovered crude oil
at Oloibiri, a village in the Niger Delta, and commercial production
began in 1958 (New Oil Stake, 1973). These developments changed
Nigeria's relationship to the global capitalist order. Previously, Nigeria
had been mainly a producer of cocoa, groundnuts, and other
agricultural items. These goods, representing the country's major
source of external revenue, were exported principally to the West.
As the exploitation of oil resources continued in the post-colonial
era, Nigeria became increasingly reliant on oil, and its reputation as
an agricultural producer disappeared. To effect a total influence over
the oil resources and revenue, the then Obasanjo military government
promulgated the Land Use Decree, which vested the ownership of
land and its resources on the Federal Government. The state and
communities from which these resources were exploited and which
suffers the consequences were effectively edged out. Oil revenue now
accounts for 90% of Nigeria's export earnings (almost $300 billion in
the past 40 years) (Olojede, 2004). But the country has been ruled for
much of its post-colonial existence by one of the world's most
flagrantly corrupt political elites. In fact, a recent UN study estimates
that individual Nigerians, in a country with annual per capita income
207