OIL CRISIS LOOMS IN NIGERIA
If the statement made by the Youth leader during the ongoing National Conference is anything to go by, then the country should be preparing for another round of oil crisis in the Niger Delta Region which of course would be too hazardous for the nation to manage considering the fragile nature of the security system at present. While addressing the newsmen in Warri Delta State, the youth leader, Mr. Ozobo was affirmative when he said, “Except the demand for resource control is approved, there is going to be another oil crisis in the Niger Delta region.” This came as a result of the call by a Northern leader sometime ago, Mr. Junaid Muhammed, for a reduction of the current 13 per cent derivation to five per cent, scrapping of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, and Ministry of Niger Delta. The question therefore is, how would the Deltans react to this if the proposals of the Northern leaders are in the long run approved in the face of the devastating effects of oil exploration in the region?
We would recall that prior to the discovery of oil in 1956, the country was known to be highly dependent on agriculture sector which contributed over 70 percent of our export earnings before 1970’s. Since then however, agriculture has stagnated given way to crude oil exploration and exportation. The country now export over 2.5 million barrel per day. Although a great feet but the price which the oil communities have had to pay for this development is immeasurable. Often times, the region has to cope with the incessant gas flaring, oil spillage, pollution among other things. The Niger Delta Region today is popular for its unprecedented restiveness often times escalates into violence while in part a response to poor environmental degradation resulting from the activities of the multi-national companies in the area. Oil extraction has since impacted disastrously on the socio-physical environment of the region especially the oil bearing communities threatening the subsistent peasant economy and the environment, hence, the entire livelihood and basic survival of the people. The UN report of 2006 identified water related diseases as the most critical health problems in the Niger Delta accounting for at least 80% of all reported illness in the region.
Suffice it to note however that various harmful and toxic organic compounds when introduced into the natural environment during oil extraction such as during seimic work, oil spill, gas flares and several other forms of pollution, changes the geo-chemical composition of the soil, river and other components of the environment. This in turn affects agriculture and leads to a drastic decline in output in both fishing and farming activities. Isn’t it ironical that the energy is poor in a region that provides one-fifth of the energy needs in the United States? There is an almost total lack of roads in a region whose wealth is funding gigantic infrastructural development in other parts of Nigeria. Now, demanding not only for the reduction of 13% derivation but the total scrapping of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, and Ministry of Niger Delta of such people would not breed anything good but a bad taste of war in the country.
Meanwhile, the Deltans knowing fully well that the environmental sustainability and poverty reduction will be hard to achieve given the continual extraction of oil and gas resources in the region believed that the only way to this problem is through resource control since government at all levels have failed to provide a lasting solution to this deadly trend.
In view of the foregoing however, I am certain that the only thing Nigerians will not want is witnessing another insurgency in the Niger Delta region as many are yet to even recover from the loss that accompanied the activities of the defunct Militant Group. Government should therefore be sensitive to this fact, consider the issues of oil exploration and exploitation in the Niger Delta seriously and come up with a policy that will be people centered.
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