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
response, the federal side initially reacted by seeking to seize all
revenues from off-shore oil production by excluding such revenues
from the calculation of 13% derivation. This in some cases, cut the
revenue accruable to some litoral states of the Niger Delta by as much
as 80%.
A second reaction of the Federal Government to the rhetoric of
resources control put forward by the Niger Delta has been to counter
with the rhetoric of transparency. In doing this, the federal
government consistently accuses state governments generally and
Niger Delta governments in particular of being financially profligate.
This is to the effect that a former Minister of finance, Mrs. Nenadi
Usman, had to publicly accuse state governors of using financial
allocations to their states to buy foreign exchange, which they then
take outside the country. The federal government also insists that
Niger Delta governments have generally misused the huge revenues
they have been getting as a result of the 13% derivation.
The second dimension of the rhetoric of rights is the argument
by Niger Delta governors that Niger Delta peoples have a right for
better living condition than is on offer presently, and available data
seem to justify this claim. Petroleum derived form the Niger Delta
accounts for about 50 percent of Nigeria’s GDP, 95 percent of foreign
exchange earning and 80% percent of all budgetary revenues. This
amounts to nearly $20billion annually or about $54 million daily.
Compared to this enormous wealth, the social situation in the Niger
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