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

Chapter II: The Niger Delta Crisis: The Political Economy of Fossil Fuels in
Nigeria
proclamation of 1900 and 1910 subjected the power of the emirs in
the Northern Nigeria on the control of land to the wishes of the
colonialists. By 1914, the amalgamation of the Northern and
Southern Protectorate brought about the ownership of land and
mineral resources found in them under the control of the government.
This was concretised through the 1914 Mineral Act which was in
operation till 1969. The Petroleum Act of 1969 replaced the draconian
law of mineral exploitation without any responsibility by the oil
companies mostly on the issue of environmental implications to the
host communities.
To have effective control over the natural resources with more
emphasis on the fossil fuel, government introduced the Land Use
Decree in 1978NCs with their indirect means of controlling federal
government. It was rumoured that the botched coup d’état against the
Murtala/Obasanjo administration was orchestrated by the Shell
petroleum in order to have total control of the finite oil resources. The
Land Use Decree was used to take away the ownership of heritage
land away from the people of Niger delta. Efforts by the oil producing
communities to seek redress from the law court failed because the
judiciary that was expected to maintain equity was part of the three
arms of government which promulgated the Decree. For instance, the
Delta State’s Ivrogbo community’s attempt to employ the services of
the law court to demand compensation for environmental degradation
in form of air pollution through gas flaring and oil spillage met a brick
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