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

Dr. Lere Amusan
of the oil companies; if not for other reasons, but at least to receive
unperturbed rent, royalties and political stability support as
discussed below.
Government initiatives to promote Oil Multinationals’
exploitation in the Niger Delta
As the spinal cord of the Nigerian economy from 1970s, every
government in country, as discussed above has always liked to find a
catholicon to the restiveness of the people of the Niger delta to ensure
unperturbed flow of fossil fuel to the international market. The 1969
Petroleum Act gave the oil multinationals a blank cheque to protect
the state’s oil without a need to consider the environmental effects of
their activities. "Continued atrocities to our people and their wicked
reluctance to improve the lot of the people they were bound to be
associated with for long" (Maier, 2000: 124) and environmental
degradation of the Niger delta, with emphasis on the Ogoni land
brought about the formation of an Integral WXYZ movement (the
Movement). Also formed was the Movement military wing, Niger Delta
Oil Council (the Council) with the aim of forcing the oil companies to
pay for damages perpetrated in the region.
Federal government, going by the insurrection in the Niger delta
realised the need to concentrate on the development of the area
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