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

Egbadju Obukohwo Abraham
oil has effectively replaced agriculture in revenue yield for the country.
In fact, oil has turned the country into a mono-cultural economy; as
the country has since relied on oil for her overall economic growth and
development.
The oil in question is nature’s endowment to the Niger Delta
region of Nigeria. That means, the Niger Delta region is blessed with
oil. Revenues from oil have brought about significant expansion to the
Nigerian economy. However, due to oil policy and politics, the Nigerian
government has not been able to use a fair share of the oil money to
cause “adequate” structural development in the Niger Delta region; a
situation which successive administrations in Nigeria have worsened
due to their inconsistency, languid enforcement, and implementation
of oil policy (Owolabi and Okwechime, 2007). Today, the oil industry
and the people of host oil-bearing communities are enmeshed in
serious crisis arising from the actions and inactions of the oil
multinational corporations in the Niger Delta oil-producing region on
the one hand and have expressed, and continue to express their
grievances against the Nigerian state on the other hand.
The politics of land and the manner of acquisition of land for
use by the oil companies lie at the heart of the unending crisis in the
Niger Delta region. Land, from which the local communities derive the
means of livelihood, is very scarce. Yet, for over four decades of oil
industry activities in the region, the environment of the host oilproducing
communities have been degraded, with little or no regard to
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