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

Dr. Lere Amusan
the existence of OMPADEC, it was known as the most fraudulent
Commission established by the Babangida government as majority of
the contracts awarded by it turned out to be elephant projects. This
could have contributed to a position of the majority of the Niger
deltans that "although oil pollution can be cleaned up, the pollution of
the community cannot." This point to the level of corruption where
millions of dollars from the government and the oil companies over
the years on dubious schemes and on compensation ended up in the
pocket of the elite that would never stay in the community, but could
be found in the cities of Abuja, Lagos and Port Harcourt. All the
projects embarked upon by government and the oil companies did not
focus on poverty alleviation nor solve the problem of landless people
in the region
As political succour for the suffering masses of the oil producing
states in the country, the Obasanjo government came up with a bill
sent to the National Assembly in June 1999; almost a month he got to
power in a bid to solve the Niger delta crisis. His intention was to
address the lapses of the OMPADEC and replace this with Niger Delta
Development Commission (NDDC) with capital outlay of $500 million
as reparation for environmental damage to the region. Expectedly, the
people of the oil producing areas were sceptical about this
development and pass this gesture as another means of enriching a
few elites within the communities. In November of the same year,
Obasanjo’s waterloo came with the Odi massacre, which received
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