Oil minister says there is nothing to show for $40bn spent in Niger Delta over 12 years

PETROLEUM minister Dr Ibe Kachikwu has revealed that a whopping $40bn has been spent on Nigeria's oil-rich Niger Delta over the last 12 with very little to show in terms on socio-economic development.

 

Despite being the nation's cash cow, the Niger Delta has traditionally been one of the least developed parts of Nigeria as oil spills have devastated the local communities. Unemployment is also rife in the region, while infrastructure is lacking and other environmental menaces like gas flaring have left the region impoverished and under-developed.

 

This has all fuelled militancy as local youths have taken up arms protesting the neglect they have suffered from successive governments. In a desperate bid to address the problem the government of former president Chief Olusegun Obasanjo introduced a derivation formula under which oil-producing states will receive 13% of all receipts.

 

In addition, the Niger Delta Development Commission was also established to develop infrastructure in the region.  However, according to Dr Kachikwu, the Niger Delta is yet to feel the impact of all these programmes and the money spent through the various intervention agencies that has been pumped into the region.

 

Speaking yesterday at the Petroleum Trust Institute Conference Centre in Warri in Delta State yesterday, Dr Kachikwu said he is yet to see any justification for the expenditure. At the meeting, he was addressing prominent leaders from the coastal states, involving representatives of the various ethnic groups including the Isoko, Ijaw, Urhobo, Itsekiri, Ibiobio and others.

 

Dr Kachikwu said: “I’ve been to the creeks myself and discovered that there was no meaningful development of the riverine communities as expected by the federal government despite the huge amount disbursed to the region. I think we need an audit because it will not be wise to have agitation of this kind and after each agitation we come back again to demand for the same thing when intervention funds have made no impact on the lives of the ordinary people."

 

 At the occasion, the minister also used the forum to assure leaders of the zone that President Muhammadu Buhari was not thinking of using the military to resolve the crisis in the region. He maintained that the president was desirous of using dialogue to find a lasting solution to the problem.