OFF THE FRONT BURNER?

SPILLAGE AND COMPENSATION DILEMMAS IN OIL COMMUNITIES IN POST-AMNESTY NIGER DELTA

Abstract

Is the Nigerian state suffering from sleep amnesia? If otherwise what explains the failure in not building on the peace she enthroned in the Niger Delta through the Presidential Amnesty Programme; a period the Niger Delta even had the presidency? Are the recent insurgent actions attributable to the actions and inactions of the state in Nigeria? The Niger Delta known for volatility had in the recent past experienced relative peace; often attributed first to the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) for ex-agitators and second the Niger Delta had the presidency which naturally or expectedly assuaged the Niger Delta ethnic nationalities to give the presidency their support. Following these developments, crude petroleum production increased immensely. It is contended here that whereas critical stakeholders like the Nigerian state, oil Transnational Corporations (TNCs) and the ex-agitators basked in their new found friendship, oil communities had continued to suffer untold oil spillage catastrophes and frustrations arising from little or no compensations often stifled by unending litigations with oil Transnational Corporations (TNCs). This paper, relying on the Rentier State Theory (RST) as its theoretical framework, investigates the huge unreported oil spillages, the ensuing litigations and compensation struggles suffered by oil communities in Post-Amnesty Niger Delta. The paper relied on content analysis as method of data analysis while data were secured primarily from secondary sources. The paper discovered that cases of spillages and compensation frustrations arising from litigations are conflict triggers awaiting explosion with probable negative impacts on the nation’s oil industry. It recommends that the Nigerian state should look beyond the euphoria of the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) already waning fast in the oil rich region and genuinely address communities versus TNCs’ litany of litigious engagements arising from oil spillages.