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

Dr. Akpomuvire Mukoro
earnings, its people are among the poorest in the country (Punch
Newspaper 12, November 2003).
Also, in the month of April 2004, the federal government decided to
withhold allocation to the states that created new local government
claiming that the exercise was illegal. If the principles of fairness,
equity, derivation, decentralization and consultation which are the
hallmarks of federal systems have been well applied, the local
governments would not have been going cap in hand begging for
hand-outs from the federal government. In such situations, the
owners of particular resources or endowments have to be put in
knowledge and made to participate on how their God given resources
should be excavated, explored and expropriated. Anything short of
this will continue to generate heat in the polity, create discontent and
strife and encourage secession from a system that has become a
pariah. One major reason underlying the creation of local government
is funding. The Niger Delta States obviously have the financial
muscle. But the majority ethnic nationalities in Nigeria will for all time
stand against the Niger Deltan’s whenever the benefits and advantage
of oil resources comes to the front burner.
Nigeria is a vast and very rich country. There are whole arrays of
resources wasting away in the underbelly of many communities. But
the federal government and the states to some extent, have arrogated
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