The distribution of assets, income, revenue opportunities and projects among the federating units that form the Nigerian state has remained the central focus of discourse in the country, in recent times. There has been a renewed clamour for increase in the level of equity in access to productive assets and distribution of the proceeds of production.
With Nigeria anchoring all budgetary revenue on the accruable proceeds from oil exploration from the Niger Delta, there are expectations of a commensurate economic development in the region to justify the huge sacrifice. However, the Niger Delta, nay Nigeria, is caught in the web of fundamental contradictions, linking global oil politics, that oil is mostly located in parts of the world different from where it is desperately needed.
This accounts for why the rustic Niger Delta communities from which oil is extracted rarely have access to it. Rather, the predominant feature of the Niger Delta has been unremitting pollution of the natural environment, agitation and conflicts. Thus, the Niger Delta has remained comparatively irrelevant in the main activity of wealth creation as a result of inactivity in oil production.
It is in contention of these sad realities that the recent disclosure by the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timpre Sylva, a Niger Delta son, that the Federal Government would conduct fresh oil block bid in 2020 has continued to generate reactions among critical stakeholders. While many applaud the decision as a bulwark to the development of the Nigeria oil and gas sector, others consider the decision as belated, given the fact that many oil blocks in the country have remained forlorn, while the ones mostly allocated were done based on vested interests and political patronage.
Pundits, therefore attributed the stunt in oil production and revenue generation in the country to these snags and imbalances in the allocation of oil blocks.
Although, the minister did not disclose the oil acreages that would be put out in the expected rounds, or processes to be adopted, he explained that the decision was not only to increase oil revenue but to also expand the space in the oil and gas sector by getting more people involved in the industry.
In apparent reaction to the planned oil blocks bid by the Federal Government, some stakeholders in the Niger Delta have advised the Federal Government to use the opportunity to address what they refer to as conspicuous denial of rights of indigenes of the oil rich region to own oil blocks.
A group known as Host Communities of Nigeria Producing Oil and Gas (HOSTCOM) in a reaction, cautioned against a repetition of the skewed processes that characterised previous allocation of oil blocks in the country, particularly during the military era, which it noted, “undermined the principles of due process and competitive bidding”.
National chairman of HOSTCOM, Dr Mike Emuh, who spoke with The Tide in an interview, said the Federal Government should allocate oil blocks to indigenes of the Niger Delta in the next rounds of bidding, to assuage the injustices and the brunts of oil politics which the people have suffered over the years.
He said: “despite the huge sacrifices the Niger Delta has made in the development of the Nigerian economy through their natural resources, the region still wallows in gross poverty and underdevelopment. The people of the Niger Delta are denied participation in the oil and gas sector through denial of oil blocks ownership, this negates the principles of natural justice. I am using the opportunity to call on the Federal Government to allocate oil blocks to the people of the Niger Delta as part of measures to address issues of under-development in the Niger Delta”.
Another stakeholder in the oil and gas sector and indigene of the Niger Delta, Comrade Inimgba told The Tide that the new bidding process should be able to address the anomalies in the allocation of oil blocks in the past.
He recalled that oil blocks allocation under the military era was not representative of the collective interest of all Nigerians because of the centralised command and discretionary system.
Inimgba, who is the chairman of the Port Harcourt branch of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association (IPMAN), said discretionary system of allocation of oil blocks amounted to the concession of the nation’s treasures and common wealth to few individuals.
He said: “The politics of oil blocks allocation in Nigeria has been highly contentious as it has not reflected the principle of equity and justice. Most of the people that benefited from the allocation in the past got their allocations on share compromise at the expense of other Nigerians, particularly the Niger Deltans. The idea that the people of the Niger Delta are not technically fit or experienced enough to play key roles in the oil and gas sector is totally erroneous and deceitful”.
He added that the Niger Delta has people who are qualified technically and otherwise to operate oil blocks.
In her views, an activist, Ann Kio Briggs, also raised concern over the injustices perpetrated against the Niger Delta in oil politics.
She said that the Niger Delta had always been at the receiving end of the oil economy, as the dorminant activities of oil production are carried out in the region, noting however, that the indigenes play barely, “passive roles while billions of petrol dollars are carted away from their land to develop other parts of the country”.
She pointed out that such politics of “exploitation, deprivation and exclusion” amounted to gross injustice and urged the Federal Government to give due consideration to the Niger Delta in the planned allocation of oil blocks.
Also in a reaction to the planned allocation of oil blocks by the federal government, human rights activist and fiery lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN), said it was unconstitutional to allocate the nation’s oil blocks to a few individuals.
Quoting section 16(2)(c) of the 1999 constitution as amended, Falana in a letter to the presidency said the constitution prohibited the concentration of wealth in the hands of few individuals or group.
He noted that majority of the owners of the oil blocks belonging to the Nigeria people usually sublease them to offshore companies as they lack the fund and technical expertise to develop the oil and gas industry, and called for the revocation of such oil blocks and marginal fields.
The letter which read in part stated: “By merely collecting huge rents, the oil blocks owners become stupendously rich, while the federal, state and local governments, depend on loans and bail outs to pay salaries and carry out basic infrastructural development”.
Also, former Minister of State for Petroleum, Ibe Kachikwu, while speaking at the Nigeria oil and gas fair in Yenegoa, early this year, lamented that crude oil production in the country had been hovering around 1.9 million barrel per day over the past years.
Kachikwu noted that despite been a major oil producing country, Nigeria was yet to lead investors and producers that are operating across Africa, and emphasised the need for the country to explore its capacity to produce four million bpd of crude oil and abundant gas reserves to generate power.
Report shows that more than 50% of Nigeria’s oil and gas blocks remain untapped even as crude oil production continues to hover around 1.9 million bpd. Out of 390 oil blocks in the country, 211 are reported to be lying untapped due to non allocation by the Federal Government.
With many other countries are increasing efforts to ramp up their oil and gas production and reserves, industry experts have expressed concern over the lack of oil licensing rounds in Nigeria since 2008.
According to the institutional regulator of the petroleum industry, the Department of Petroleum Resources, (DPR), 179 blocks have been allocated as at December 2017, comprising 111 oil mining leases and 68 oil prospecting licenses.
It could be recalled that previous efforts to hold licensing rounds for major and marginal oil fields during the tenure of Dr Ibe Kachikwu as Minister of State for Petroleum Resources were not successful, as the recommendations were reportedly turned down by President Buhari.
Nigerians, however, look up to the planned allocation of oil blocks by the Federal Government in 2020 as an opportunity to address perceived imbalances in the oil economy.

Taneh Beemene