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

Chapter X: The Politics of Interventionist Policies and the Niger Delta Crisis
in Nigeria: Impacts and Challenges
taken the form of a well articulated mass action such as the KIAMA
DECLARATION of the All-Ijaw Youths Conference of December 1998
and the ASABA DECLARATION by South –South governors and
legislators (Darah, 2001:20-21), (which in fact heralded the struggle
for Resources Control), or the form of organized crime of hostage
taking, kidnapping, mindless killings and irrational destruction of oil
installations.
Of great concern really is the level of response and reaction on
offer by government to the plight of the region especially with respect
to the overall development of the region on one hand and the dousing
of the escalating violence and militancy in the region on the other. No
doubt, some measures were taken in the past to redress the
inequality and injustice suffered by the Niger Delta Region. What is
doubtful is the effectiveness of such remedial measures. For example,
in the first post-independent development plan, the Niger Delta
Development Board was set up to focus attention on the development
problems of the region. Worthy of note is that as much as the Board
was charged with the responsibility of carrying out a systematic
survey of the possibilities of the area as a whole for the production of
rice, timber and fish, it had no executive powers to implement
programmes (Niger Delta Development Act 1962).
With the failure of the Niger Delta Development Board to
achieve its purpose by 1976, the Board was transformed into the
Niger Delta Basin Development Authority. With the establishment of
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