After more than fifty years of the nationalisation of the ownership and management of liquid minerals, particularly oil, and gas, it is time to change the policy and revert to the principle of derivation to stop the mismanagement, lack of accountability, lack of transparency, massive exploitation and embezzlement of the oil wealth. Nationalisation of mineral resources has been an abject failure since oil and gas are nationalised while solid minerals are not subjected to the same stringent standard of nationalisation in violation of the decrees, acts, and laws that Nigerian authorities have passed.
It should be recalled that during the First Republic (1960 -1966), the principle of derivation was the principal means of owning, controlling, and managing mineral resources in the country. This meant that each region had the constitutional authority to explore and manage its resources and share a percentage of the revenue generated with the national government. As a result, the regions were able to utilise the wealth generated from their natural resources for the infrastructural and economic development of their regions.
Perhaps, as an instrument of war to deprive Biafran authorities from gaining financially from the oil wealth as well to secure the oil wealth for the prosecution of the Nigerian civil war, the military regime of Gen. Yakubu Gowon initiated a policy change and nationalized the ownership and management of mineral resources, particularly oil and gas in the country. Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo and subsequent military regimes and civilian administrations followed suit with the policy of nationalisation. As a result, various regimes passed the following decrees and or acts: (1) The Oil in Navigable Waters Act of 1968; (2) The Petroleum Act of 1969; (3) The Oil Pipelines Act of 1969; (4) The Associated Gas Reinjection Act of 1969; (5)The Offshore Oil Revenue Decree of 1971; (6) The Petroleum Production and Distribution Act of 1975; (7) The establishment of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation on April 1, 1977 to control, regulate and manage petroleum and gas production in Nigeria; (8) The Exclusive Economic Zone Act of 1978; and (9) The Land Use Act of 1978.
Most of these decrees were passed during the military regimes of Gen. Yakubu Gowon and Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo. The inhabitants of the Niger Delta/South-South and some sections of the Southeast zones lost ownership, control, and management of oil and gas in their zones as the Federal Government assumed total ownership, control, and management of the two major resources. The inhabitants of the oil region tolerated the change as far as the intention was to ensure the effective and efficient management of the resources as well as support the development and modernization of the infrastructure and the economy across the board without discrimination or favoritism.
Perhaps, to ensure even-handedness and equity, the military under the caretaker regime of Lt. Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar enacted the 1999 Constitution, which nationalised all minerals in the country. The constitution vested the ownership and control of Nigeria’s mineral resources in the Federal Government. Additionally, the Nigerian Minerals and Mining Act of 2007 was enacted to replace the Minerals and Mining Act #34 of 1999. It vested the ownership and control of solid minerals in the Federal Government. With this act, Nigeria completely nationalised the ownership and control of all minerals in the country. One of the conditions of this act is that “No person shall search for or exploit mineral resources in Nigeria or divert or exploit or impound water for mining except as provided in this act” (https://www.lawnigeria.com/LFN/N/Nigerian-Minerals-and-Mining-Act.php).
Based on the principle of nationalisation, all minerals in the country are supposed to be owned, controlled, and managed exclusively by the Federal Government of Nigeria with no exception. However, the operationalisation or functionalization of total national ownership by the Federal Government has been problematic, resulting in massive exploitation, marginalization, deprivation, and discrimination against the nationalities in the oil region. Why?
Because, while petroleum and gas are nationalised to the extent of rendering the rightful owners of the resources helpless and poor, solid minerals are not. As a result, individuals and cooperatives have been allowed by the Federal Government to mine solid minerals for decades without the authorities taking any decisive action to stop them. Evidently, individuals are allowed to mine solid minerals and earn income to take care of their families and enrich themselves in Adamawa, Bauchi, Benue, Bornu, Jigawa, Kaduna, Katsina, Kebbi, Kogi, Kwara, Nssarawa, Niger, Oyo, Osun, Plateau, Sokoto, Taraba, Yobe, and Zamfara states (Isenyo, 2016, April 7) while the citizens in Abia, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Edo, Imo, Ondo, and Rivers State cannot explore and refine oil to earn income to take care of their families and enrich themselves.
As part of the double standard in nationalising mineral ownership in Nigeria, not until March 2024 did the Federal Government announce a plan to inaugurate mining marshals to combat the illegal mining of solid minerals in Nigeria (Idoko, 2024, March 2). On the other hand, the Federal Government deployed the Nigerian military in 2002 to secure the oil region for oil exploration. Thus, the Niger Delta/South-South is under military occupation while the solid minerals regions are not under military occupation. Even in 2025, the mining marshal’s plan has not been activated for private mining of solid minerals.
Likewise, the wealth generated through oil and gas exploration from the Niger Delta/South-South has been primarily responsible for the infrastructural enhancement of Lagos, the development of Abuja from the ground up, the construction of major roads and railway lines in other parts of the country, the financial pipeline for maintaining and sustaining the national government, 36 states, and the Federal Capital Territory of Abuja for about five decades now.
While Nigerians are told that all minerals belong to the Federal Government, most oil blocks are privatised and owned by highly connected individuals from the non-oil-producing regions, while the owners of the oil wealth are left to scramble to pick the crumbs (Eguzozie, 2021, August 2). This is why tension is always high in the oil region as the ethnic groups compete for the crumbs left behind by the looters who feast insatiably on the oil wealth. Even the Nigerian masses do not benefit from the oil wealth, contrary to the expectation that nationalisation would result in effective management of the oil wealth to the benefit of the entire country.
In addition, most of the private wealth accumulated by individuals in Nigeria is generated from the oil and gas resources from the Niger Delta/South-South. They do so through the ownership of oil blocks, contracts, oil blending refineries, fuel imports, and the domination of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL), and oil and gas companies. The sad part of the oil and gas business in Nigeria is that most of these privileged Nigerians who have commandeered the oil industry are from the non-oil-producing regions, while most Nigerians from the oil-producing region wallow in extreme poverty, neglect, and dehumanisation.
Nigerians are told that oil and gas are national resources, yet a substantial part of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL) has been privatised to the advantage of the few and the disadvantage of most Nigerians. The NNPCL, controlled by an invisible cabal, seems more powerful than the Federal Government to the extent that it does what it wants without accountability and transparency in its operations.
While the Niger Delta/South-South lays the golden egg that maintains and sustains Nigeria, the region is utterly neglected in national infrastructural development and modernization projects. Hence, the East-West Road, the major transportation artery in the oil region, has been neglected by the Federal Government for decades. As a result, it is a death trap for the citizens of the oil region, especially during the rainy season when some sections of the road become impassable. While the oil region is neglected in infrastructural development, Nigeria spends the oil wealth massively on the infrastructural development of other regions and expects the citizens in the oil region to keep quiet, suffer, and smile in silence.
All the major government agencies responsible for controlling, regulating, and managing oil and gas resources in Nigeria are dominated by Nigerians from the non-oil-producing regions. Most of the high-level positions in these agencies and corporations are held by Nigerians from the non-oil-producing regions. As a result, only a few individuals from the oil region gain employment in the oil industry, even though the industry is located in their region.
All the major oil companies have their headquarters outside the oil region. This means that they pay taxes for their operations elsewhere and not to the oil-producing states. Thus, the Niger Delta/South-South is treated like a colony of Nigeria and not as part of Nigeria. Nigeria’s ruling elites exploit the resources of the region for the accumulation of their private wealth, the infrastructural development and modernization of their regions, and creating businesses in their regions to generate wealth while utterly neglecting the oil region.
Since 1957 when commercially viable oil exploration began in Oloibiri in Bayelsa State and continuing up to the present day, Nigeria has never embarked on any measurable environmental cleaning operation of the massive oil pollution and gas flaring that have devastated the Niger Delta/South-South zone. Pollution has destroyed farmlands and fishing waters, thereby devastating the traditional economic activities of the people of the oil region.
Additionally, the massive environmental pollution has led to the emergence of devastating medical conditions that afflict people with incurable diseases. The Federal Government seems unconcerned about the special health care needs of the inhabitants of the oil region as they bear the brunt of toxic chemicals generated by oil and gas operations. Due to gross negligence and corruption, even the Ogoni clean-up that the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) recommended is done haphazardly and disinterestedly. The only thing national decision-makers seem to care about is increasing the quantity of oil production to increase the wealth generated to offset foreign debts incurred through reckless borrowing and spending.
The Federal Government militarily occupies the Niger Niger/South-South like a colonial power by stationing the Joint Task Force Operation Restore Hope (JTF) to prevent individuals from engaging in the refining of oil while the Federal Government is not interested in creating a JTF to prevent individuals from illegal mining of solid minerals.
Indeed, the reckless exploitation of oil and gas in the oil region is an existential threat to the survival of the people of the Niger Delta/South-South. Therefore, the Federal Government should take the following steps to remedy the situation:
1. Nationalise solid minerals the way oil and gas are nationalised.
2. Establish the Nigerian National Solid Minerals Corporation (NNSMC) to carry out effective ownership, control, and management of solid minerals in the way oil and gas are owned, controlled, and managed through the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL).
3. The Board of Directors of the NNSMCL must come from the six zones of the country.
4. Establish a military Joint Task Force (JTF) to stop illegal mining of solid minerals the way illegal refiners are prevented from doing so in the Niger Delta/South-South.
5. Revenue generated from the mining of solid minerals must go directly into the Federation Account.
6. The funds must be shared in the way the oil wealth is shared through the Federation Account to the Federal Government, states, local governments, and the Federal Capital Territory.
7. The Federal Government must set up a proactive pollution-cleaning program to clean the oil region.
If these steps are not taken to nationalise solid minerals, then Nigeria must denationalise petroleum and gas. This means that the citizens of the oil region should be able to explore and refine petroleum the way Nigerians mine gold and other solid minerals. In other words, failure to operationalize the nationalization of solid minerals should result in automatic denationalization of oil and gas in the Niger Delta//South-South. This further means that if the Federal Government continues to look the other way and allows individuals and cooperatives to mine solid minerals, then the indigenes of the oil region should be allowed to explore and refine petroleum and gas.
Indeed, Nigeria must stop the double standard in controlling, regulating, and managing mineral resources in the country. The double standard creates the impression that the oil region is a colony because the inhabitants of the region are not power-wielding groups in Nigeria and, hence deserve to be exploited and deprived of their natural rights to make use of resources in their territory while solid minerals are mostly found in the regions of the power-wielding groups, hence, the citizens of those regions can mine and create individual and family wealth from solid minerals exploration.
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