- A Onduku, ‘Environmental Conflicts: The Case of The Niger Delta,’ paper presented at the One World Fortnight Programme organised by the Department of Peace Studies, University of Bradford, UK, 22 November 2001, 3.
- A H Ehrlich, P Gleick and K Conca, ‘Resources and Environmental Degradation as Sources of Conflict,’ paper presented at the 50th Pugwash Conference on ‘Science and World Affairs: Eliminating The Causes of War,’ held at Queens’ College, Cambridge, UK, 3–8 August 2000, 14.
- Between 2000 and 2004, oil accounted for about 79.5 per cent of total government revenues and about 97 per cent of foreign exchange revenues. Oil and gas alone have generated 40 per cent of Nigeria's national gross domestic product (GDP) over recent decades.
- See UNDP-Nigeria, Niger Delta Human Development Report (Abuja: UNDP, 2006), p 10.
- Human Rights Watch, The Price of Oil: Corporate Responsibility and Human Rights Violations in Nigeria's Oil Producing Communities (New York: Human Rights Watch, 1999), p 53.
- The 2006 UNDP Niger Delta Human Development Report notes that the area is native to an estimated 13,329 settlements in the region, 94 per cent of which have populations of less than 5,000 people.
- These are: Abia, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross Rivers, Delta, Edo, Imo, Ondo and Rivers States.
- O Djebah, ‘Tackling The Niger Delta Conundrum,’ August, 2003 at www.nigerdeltacongress.com/tarticles/tackling_the_niger_delta_conundr.htm accessed 25 September 2006.
- D A Oluwagbami, ‘The Niger Delta Development Commission and the Future of Petroleum Industry in Nigeria’ (2001) 5(3) Modern Practice Journal of Finance and Investment Law 393.
- Crude oil was first discovered in commercial quantities in Oloibiri Community in what is now Bayelsa State, about 90 kilometres west of Port Harcourt in 1958. When pumping at full capacity, Nigeria produces an output of around 2.5 million barrels per day, making it the world's eighth largest oil exporter.
- S Booker and W Minter, ‘The US and Nigeria: Thinking Beyond Oil,’ Great Decisions, January 2003, 44 at www.africaaction.org/featdocs/nig2003.pdf accessed 25 September 2006.
- E Marquardt, ‘The Niger-Delta Insurgency and its Threat to Energy Security,’ Terrorism Monitor, vol 4, Issue 16, 10 August 2006, p 2.
- The Ogoni people are one of the many indigenous peoples in the Niger Delta region of south-east Nigeria. They number about a half million people and live in a 404-square mile homeland, which they also refer to as Ogoniland.
- The Ijaws are the most populous indigenous inhabitants of the Niger Delta and constitute the fourth largest ethnic group within the borders of Nigeria. They reside mostly in the forest regions along the Niger River delta and number about 14 million.
- Human Rights Watch, n 5 above, at 15–16, 123–155.
- C Ukeje, ‘Youths, Violence and Collapse of Public Order in the Niger Delta of Nigeria’ (2001) 1–2(xxvi) Africa Development 342.
- Human Rights Watch, n 5 above, at 75–79.
- Under ss 134 and 140 of the 1960 and 1963 constitutions respectively, 50 per cent of revenue from agriculture and natural resources was returned to the states in which they were derived. Under the 1999 constitution, the derivation formula stands at 13 per cent of oil revenues, which the Nigerian Supreme Court has ruled in the case of Attorney General of the Federation v Attorney General of Abia State 8c 35 Ors (2002) 6 NWLR [Pt763] 264 applies to revenues from onshore oil only. See also D Dafinone, ‘Supreme Court's Verdict on Resource Control: The Political Imperatives,’ The Guardian, 5 May 2002, pp 7–8.
- Cap P10LFN, 2004.
- Cap L5 LFN, 2004.
- Cap N47 LFN, 2004.
- P S Torulagha, ‘The Case for Resource Control’ at www.unitedijawstates.com/resource_control.htm accessed 10 October 2006.
- Ann Talbot, ‘Nigerian government launches assault on civilians in Delta region,’ at www.wsws.org/articles/2004/oct2004/nige-o04.shtml accessed 17 February 2007. The first significant militant operations within the OPCs occurred in the 1990s in Ogoniland. The military government promptly clamped down on the Ogonis and hanged nine of their minority rights activists, including Ken Saro Wiwa purportedly for ‘coup plotting’ thereby effectively weakening the Ogoni resistance. For details, see ‘Movement For The Survival Of The Ogoni People’ at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/movement_for_the_survival_of_the_ogoni_people accessed 25 September 2006.
- These operations are embodied in the Kaiama Declaration, which set out four strategies to harmonise the disparate positions of the micro-ijaw oil communities in their relations with MOCs and the Nigerian State. The strategies include: Operation Climate Change (shutting down oil installations and extinguishing gas flares), Operation Lunch (protest marches against hunger and poverty), Operation Reach Out (reconciliation of warring neighbours) and Operation Warfare, involving counter-reprisals by the youths in response to real or anticipated military attacks from whatever quarters.
- Wikipedia, ‘Conflict in the Niger Delta’ at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conflict_in_the_Niger_Delta accessed 25 September 2006.
- L Polgreen, ‘Blood Flows With Oil in Poor Nigerian Villages,’ New York Times, 1 January 2006.
- See Chapter 5 of the Niger Delta Human Development Report, n 4 above, for details of the spate of hostage takings.
- Cited in Niger Delta Human Development Report, n 4 above, at 29–30.
- These include: Niger Delta Development Board (NDDB) in 1961; Niger Delta Basin Development Authority (NDBDA) 1976; Oil Mineral Producing Areas Development Commission (OMPADEC) 1992; and the current Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).
- D Biriye, ‘Resource Control, Beneficial to Nigerian State,’ www.webmaster®nigerdeltacongress.com accessed 22 February 2007.
- UNDP notes, in the Niger Delta Human Development Report, that OMPADEC, for example, was profligate and extravagant; it awarded contracts in anticipation of funds, with the result that when it folded, OMPADEC owed its contractors billions of naira and left the Niger Delta with numerous abandoned projects.
- F Brume, ‘Oil-Pipeline Vandalization in the Niger Delta: The Way Out,’ available at www.waado.org/Environment/OilPipelines/BrumeOnPipelineVandalization.html accessed 27 February 2007.
- Niger Delta Human Development Report, n 4 above, at 30.
- Brume, n 33 above, ibid.
- D Oronto and O Doifie, ‘Nigeria: Defending Nature, Protecting Human Dignity—Conflicts in the Niger Delta’ at www.conflict-prevention.net/page.php?id=40&formid=73&action=show&surveyid=42 accessed 27 February 2007.
- Biriye, n 31 above, at www.nigerdeltacongress.com/rarticles/resource_control.htm accessed 27 February 2007.
- See Niger Delta Development Commission (Establishment, etc) Act 2000, Cap N86, LFN, 2004.
- Brume, n 33 above, ibid.
- Niger Delta Human Development Report, n 4 above, at 31.
- Ibid. By November 2002, the board reported having awarded contracts for more than 650 projects worth over N35 billion or US$271.3 million in the nine states of the delta region.
- Section 14 of the NDDC Act.
- J Ajani, ‘Niger Delta Fund Initiative: NDDC: Fresh Facts Indict FG, Oil Companies of Defaulting in Payments,’ Vanguard, 19 August 2003. The NDDC is severely underfunded and there are reports that the government and MOCs are not fully paying their statutory contributions of 15 per cent from the federation account and three per cent of annual budgets respectively to the fund.
- Omitted from the 1990 and 2004 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria having been spent.
- Repealed by the NDDC Act 2000.
- The NDDC board is a 20-member board in which one person represents each of the nine oil-producing states and there is one representative each from the Federal Ministries of Finance and Environment and the oil companies.
- B Ekuerharey, ‘Development Options For The Niger Delta Region’ at http://199.236.119.nddc040803.htm accessed 9 February 2007.
- African Network For Environment and Economic Justice, ‘Oil of Poverty in Niger Delta’ (2004) at www.boellnigeria.org/documents/oilofpovertyinNigerDelta.pdf accessed 9 February 2007.
- Ibid.
- R N Okoh, ‘Conflict Management In The Niger Delta Region of Nigeria: A Participatory Approach’ at www.accord.org.za/ajcr/2005-l/AJCR2005_pgs91-l14_okoh.pdf 10 accessed 27 November 2006.
- In Atunbi v Shell Petroleum Development Company (Unreported) Suit No UGH 48/73, of 12 November 1974, the plaintiff s claim for damages for the defendant's negligence in allowing oil, gas and chemicals to escape from its pipelines, which destroyed fishes in his lake and his farmland, was dismissed on the ground that the plaintiff could not prove that the defendants were negligent.
- (1868) LR3HL330.
- (Unreported) Suit No HCB/35/89 of 27 May 1997.
- (Unreported) Suit No FHC/B/CS/53/2005.
- R N Okoh, n 49 above, ibid.
- These come in the form of community development projects such as construction of roads, jetties, health centres, electrification, science equipment and employment and scholarship schemes for indigenes of OPCs.
- For details, see Human Rights Watch, n 5 above, at 75–79.
- For details, see Human Rights Watch, Vol 14 No7 (A) October 2002, 26–31.
- See Attorney General of the Federation v Attorney General of Abia State & 35 Others (2002) 6 NWLR [Pt 763] 264.
- E E Osaghae, ‘Managing Multiple Minority Problems in a Divided Society: The Nigerian Experience’ (1998) 36(1) Journal of Modern African Studies 1–24, cited in R N Okoh, n 49 above, at 11.
- For instance, soldiers and mobile policemen have been sent into communities by both military and civilian regimes to raid, rape, kill, maim and set villagers’ houses on fire. The most significant of such raids was the November 1999 Odi massacre, codenamed ‘Operation Hakuri II’, where a town on the bank of the famous River Nun populated by an estimated 60,000 Ijaws of the Niger Delta was invaded by military battalions on a genocidal mission, in retaliation for the abduction and murder of six policemen by some lawless elements within the community on the orders of President Olusegun Obasanjo. The then Minister of Defence, General T Y Danjuma, revealed to a Ministerial Conference on 25 November 1999 that ‘Operation Hakuri II was initiated with the mandate of protecting lives and property—particularly oil platform flow stations, operating rig terminals and pipelines refineries and power installation in the Niger Delta’. For details of the incident, see University Of Pennsylvania, African Studies Center, ‘Nigeria: Odi Massacre Statements, 12/23/99’ at www.africa.upenn.edu/Urgent_Action/apic_122399.html accessed 27 November 2006.
- Notable cases include: Elf (Nig) Ltd v Sillo & Anor (1994) 6 NWLR [Pt 350] 258; SPDC v Farah (1995) 3 NWLR [Pt 382] 148; John Eboigbe v NNPC (1994) 5 NWLR [Pt 347] 649.
- Section 7 of the NDDC clearly indicates that the NDDC is a policy-making and development body established for the Niger Delta and does not have powers to resolve conflict by any means.
- Human Rights Watch, n 5 above, at 156–158.
- Ibid. Youths are regularly arrested and detained without formal charges whether or not they are involved in alleged crimes. Those detained naturally assume that the assaults and detentions are on the orders of MOCs, thereby fuelling the crises.
- See SPDC v HRH Chief GBA Tiebo VII & 4 Ors (1996) 4 NWLR [Pt 445] 657; SPDC v Chief Uzoaru & 3 Ors (1994) 4 NWLR [Pt 366] 51; Elf (Nig) Ltd v Sillo & Anor (1994) 6 NWLR [Pt 350] 258. These cases were in court for periods ranging from four to nine years from causes of action that arose as far back as 1987, 1972 and 1967 respectively.
- See SPDC v Farah (1995) 3 NWLR [Pt 382] 148.
- See Arbitration and Conciliation Act, Cap A18 LFN, 2004.
- T W Walde, ‘Mediation/Alternative Dispute Resolution in Oil Gas and Energy Transactions: Superior to Arbitration/Litigation from a Commercial and Management Perspective’ (2004) 1(1) Transnational Dispute Management www.Transnational_Dispute_Mangement.com accessed 25 October 2006.
- See generally M Alario, ‘A Turn to Scientific Analysis and Democratic Deliberation in Environmental Policy: Political Risk, Legitimation Crisis or Policy Imperative?’ (2001) Theory and Science available at www.icaap.org/.
- See the Petroleum Act 1969 and its supplementary Petroleum (Drilling and Production) Regulations; the Oil in Navigable Waters Act; the Oil Pipelines Act 1965; the Associated Gas (Reinjection) Act 1979; the Land Use Act 1978; the Federal Environmental Protection Agency Act 1988; the Environmental Impact Assessment Act 1992, etc, now respectively Caps P10, 06, 07, A25, L5, F10 and E12, LFN, 2004.
- Section 44(3) of the 1999 constitution and s 1 of the Petroleum Act confer ownership and control of ‘all minerals, mineral oils and natural gas’ and ‘the entire petroleum in, under or upon any lands’ within Nigeria on the federal government.
- This is in line with Principle 10 of the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development 1992, which provides inter alia that environmental issues are best handled with the participation of all concerned citizens, at the relevant level and that states should facilitate and encourage public awareness and participation by making information widely available and provide effective access to judicial and administrative proceedings, including redress and remedy.
- L A Atsegbua, Oil And Gas Law in Nigeria—Theory And Practice (2nd edn, Benin City: New Era Publications 2004), p 8.
- We do not subscribe to private ownership of resources as a solution to the developmental and environmental problems of the Niger Delta because private ownership is fraught with problems that are potentially worse than those created by the monopoly of the federal government.
- Ajani, n 42 above, ibid.
- N Ashton-Jones, S Arnott and S Douglas, The Environmental Rights Action Handbook of the Niger Delta (Benin City: ERA, 1988) cited in I Okonta, ‘The Lingering Crisis in Nigeria's Niger Delta and Suggestions for a Peaceful Resolution’ available at www.cdd.org.uk/ accessed 14 October 2006.
- Okonta, n 77 above, ibid.
- See Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Planning For Natural Resources Wisconsin: Department of Urban and Regional Planning, 2002, 62–88 for details.
- Leitch et al, ‘The Role of Science Communication in Natural Resource Planning: A Case Study in the Central Highlands Of Queensland’ www.regional.org.au/au/apen/2001/source/LeitchA.doc accessed 15 February 2007.
- For example, if larger fora are not effective, then issue-sensitive fora should be initiated.
- H Rizvi, ‘Shell Ordered to Stop Wasteful, Poisonous “Gas Flaring” in Nigeria’ at www.commondreams.org/headlines05/1115–02.htm accessed 2 March 2007.
- O A Odiase-Alegimenlen, ‘The State, Petroleum Resource Development and Instability in the Niger Delta,’ paper presented at the 36th Annual Conference of the Nigerian Society of International Law held in Port Harcourt, 14–16 September 2006.
- Section 12 of the Nigerian constitution 1999 makes it mandatory that international conventions or treaties must be specifically adopted, ie ‘domesticated’ by re-enacting same locally before they can be enforced by Nigerian courts.
- UN General Assembly resolution 217 A (III) of 10 December 1948.
- UN Doc E/CN.4/Sub.2/2003/12/Rev.2 (2003).
- Article 23 of the UN Norms defines human rights to include civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights, as set forth in the International Bill of Human Rights and other human rights treaties, as well as the right to development and rights recognised by international humanitarian law, international refugee law, international labour law and other relevant instruments adopted within the United Nations system.
- See paragraph 3 of the Preamble to the UN Norms.
- See Human Rights Watch, n 5 above, at 53–181; ‘Odi Massacre’ is a gruesome reminder of how far the government of Nigeria can go in protecting MOCs operating in Nigeria in flagrant violations of the human rights guaranteed under chapter 4 of its 1999 constitution.
- Article 16 of the UN Norms contemplates external monitoring and verification through existing UN human rights or other national and international mechanisms.
- K O'Hara, ‘Niger Delta: Peace and Co-operation Through Sustainable Development’ (2001) 31 (6) Environmental Policy and Law 307.
- J Bansfield, V Haufler and D Lilly, Transnational Corporations in Conflict Zones: Public Policy Responses and a Framework for Action (London: International Alert, 2003), p 5 cited in A Esan, ‘Preventing Violent Conflicts Caused by Infringements of Indigenous Peoples’ Rights: The Case of The Ecuadorian Amazon’ (2005) 23(4) JERL 544.
- See Art 14 of the United Nations Norms for Business, which requires transnational companies and other business enterprises to assess the impact of their activities on the environment and human health including impacts from ‘the generation, storage, transport and disposal of hazardous and toxic substances.‥’.
- At the annual general meeting for the Shell group in London in May 1996, the group chairman stated that ‘the charge of “double standards” is mistaken, because it is based on the notion that there is a single, “absolute environmental standard”. … As long as we continue to improve, varying standards are inevitable.’ For details, see PIRC Intelligence Vol 11, Issue 3, March 1997.
- DA Taylor, ‘Global Resources: Abuse, Scarcity, and Insecurity’ (2004) 112(3) Environmental Health Perspectives 8.
- Ibid.
- Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, ‘What Is ADR?’ at www.cdc.gov/od/adr/about.htm#facilitation accessed 19 February 2007.
- Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, ‘What is ADR?’ at www.cdc.gov/od/adr/about.htm#mediation accessed 19 February 2007.
- A F M Maniruzzaman, ‘Arbitration of International Oil, Gas and Energy Disputes in Asia: Problems and Prospects’ (2004) 1(1) Transnational Dispute Management at www.transnational-dispute-management.com/samples/freearticles/tvl-l-article-52.htm accessed 19 February 2007.
- Ibid.
- Ibid.
- Arbitration Ordinance 1996; International Arbitration Act 1995; Arbitration and Conciliation Act 1996; and Arbitration and Conciliation Act 1988, Cap A18 LFN 2004 respectively.
- See s 25(1) of Arbitration and Conciliation Act, which provides that the terms of any settlement effected by disputing parties through some other process during the course of arbitration may be recorded as an arbitral award.
- N Schultz, ‘Pursuing a Fair Decision’ at www.beyondintractability.org/essay/ accessed 19 February 2007.
- Ibid.
- Ibid.
- Environmental Resource Managers Limited, Niger Delta Environmental Survey Final Report Phase 1, Vol 1, 258.
- A Onduku, n 1 above, at 3.
- South South Peoples’ Assembly, ‘In Search of a Contextual Framework For Resolving the Niger Delta Question’ www.thenigerdeltan.sspa-na.org/deltan/default2.aspPactive_page_id-452 accessed 14 October 2006.
- Ibid.
Journal of Energy & Natural Resources Law
Volume 25, 2007 - Issue 3: Energy Dispute Settlement