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

Clement Odiri Obagbinoko
Delta presents a mammoth discrepancy and is generally worse than
the situation in most parts of the country. Available figures show that
there is one doctor per 82,000 people, rising to one doctor per
132,000 people in some areas, especially the rural areas. Only 27
percent of people in the Delta have access to safe drinking water and
about 30 percent of households have access to electricity both of
which are below the national averages of 31.7% and 33.6%
respectively. Only 6% of the population of the Niger Delta have access
to telephones while 70% have never used telephone. Poverty remains
widespread worsened by an exceptionally high cost of living created by
the petro-economy.
In response to the argument of welfare and right to
development, the federal side counterpoises the rhetoric of peace and
security, arguing that the main factor militating against the
enjoyment of the right to development in the Niger Delta is violence
perpetuated by the people in the Delta against themselves, oil
companies and the Nigerian state. Repeatedly, examples of
vandalization of oil installations, kidnapping of oil workers and
communal conflicts are cited as antinomies of development.
Having discovered that most of the rhetoric spewing from the
presidency were couched in hypocritical tenor, the region once again
relapsed into an internecine strife and the disruption of the main oil
business. This has taken the form of incessant inter-ethnic conflicts
in the Niger Delta region which now poses a great challenge to the
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