Nigeria: When Oil Finishes

ISSUES about oil are always heated. The gusty debates are more so in Nigeria where the politicians have their teeth dug deep into revenue from oil.

They are ready to put their lives on line to defend sharing of oil revenue, in a manner they consider favourable. This attitude is the fulcrum of the disputations that feature in efforts to resolve the famishing effects of oil exploration in the Niger Delta.

In the Niger Delta, despoliation of the environment, the short-circuited future of the youth, ravaging illnesses and excruciating poverty that rates among the worst nationwide, have foisted a new breed of agitators on Nigeria
Solutions are more difficult because the festering sore was unattended to for years. In place of sincerity, abuses, subterfuges, and sheer mockery, called palliatives, are thrown at the people.

Acrimonious exchanges fly over matters affecting the region. The insensitivity of most parts of Nigeria is built on distance from the choking gas flares, destructive acid rains, devastating oil spillage, death of agricultural production and creation of settlements where drinking water, education, electricity and hospitals are alien.

The stories have been told for too long. The promises have run their full course. What does this administration want to do about the Niger Delta, for the sustainability of the area, not merely to ensure undisrupted access to the oil and gas? How would it be different from what past administrations did or did not do?

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Nigeria has to discover the political will to repair the Niger Delta now. Once oil runs out, the region will be a wasteland, of the worst type seen anywhere, since oil and gas exploration in these parts have minimal considerations for the people, and the environment.

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