The claim that because Northern Nigeria occupied 70 percent landmass of Nigeria, it has ownership of all oil mineral deposits in Niger Delta region is pure fallacy.
Dr. Akpo Mudiaga-Odje is constitutional lawyer and facilitator of the Niger Delta Democratic Union, NDDU, declared it so as his argument.
He was countering the position canvassed by a Northern leader, Hon Usman Bujaje, who posited, contentiously, that Nigeria’s oil belongs to the North.
In tearing that position into shreds, Mudiaga-Odje delved into the archive, copiously quoted judicial declarations and constitutional provisions and insisted that the oil in the Niger Delta region belongs no where than Niger Delta region.
Mudiaga-Odje said, “It is axiomatic in land law that aggregation of landmass alone, without the presence of oil within such aggregated landmass, cannot by any stretch of the imagination, confer ownership of oil on such a region in Nigeria, as falsely proclaimed by Hon Usman Baguje.
“In other words, without the physical presence of oil in a landmass, no matter how massive, same cannot be advanced to claim oil resources situated outside that aggregated landmass as between the North and the Niger Delta.
“Exploration of oil from onshore alone does not confer ownership rights over oil resource in the offshore on the onshore state.
"The oil resources in Nigeria are vested by God’s grace within onshore and offshore, in states of the Niger Delta, and not in the North.
"The Chad Basin is still being explored for oil, and if it succeeds, such oil will be situated in the North, and we, in the Niger Delta, will not allege ownership over same.
“It, therefore, beats our imagination hollow how Hon Usman Bugaje arrived at his robust sophistry on using landmass alone to claim that oil belongs to the North.
"Exclusive Economic Zone Act and Territorial Waters Act are all irrelevant in determining ownership of oil in Nigeria.
"Indeed, under international law, the comity of nations has been granted the right to proclaim their territorial waters and exclusive economic zones respectively under the Law of the Sea, International Conventions and Treaties.
“Apart from Russia and the United States that proclaimed a zone beyond the customary 200 nautical miles from a nation’s territorial waters, all others have simply stopped at 200 nautical miles, including Nigeria, by EEZ Act.
"All mineral resources located therein belong exclusively to the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and not to the North. Be that as it may, the EEZ Act has no bearing at all on advancing the asinine postulation that oil in the Niger Delta, belongs to the North.
“Notwithstanding the galaxy of expropriation laws enacted by the Nigerian state to divest the oil-producing communities of their rights to manage and control their resources, these communities still share co-ownership rights over their lands with Nigeria and have exclusive fishing rights, as well as riparian rights over their rivers. This is the impact of the crystalized decision of the Supreme Court in Elf Nig Ltd V Sillo (1994) 4 NWLR (Pt 350) 258.
“That case was argued by the quintessential Dr. Mudiaga Odje SAN, OFR of blessed memory (my late father), and he pontificated the law (which was upheld), that the inhabitants of the rivers of the Niger Delta are exclusively entitled to fishing and riparian rights over same.
"Hammering on this point, in reaction to Dr. Mudiaga Odje SAN, OFR’s faultless postulation above, the learned Adio JSC adumbrated the law at page 209, to wit: The common right of fishery in tidal water is recognized and not affected by the Mineral Act.”
He added: “The principles of derivation under the proviso to section 162 (2) of the 1999 Constitution as amended is evidence of co-ownership of the oil by the people of the Niger Delta, and Nigeria.
"In retrospect, the principles of derivation on mineral as hatched from the Chiks Commission of 1953 and as equally recommended by the Henry Willink Commission in 1957, is a compensation for the sequestration of the ownership rights over the oil of the people of the Niger Delta.
"On that account, they should be recompensed by derivation payments, for as long as Nigeria is exploring her oil resources.
“The Constitution gave it constitutional augmentation in the proviso to Section 162(2) thereof, which in any Revenue Formula enacted by the National Assembly, states that not less than 13% of the revenue accruing from the oil resources, (located in the Niger Delta) should be paid to the state where same is derived from.
“By God’s unmatched providence, I was the secretary of the defense team of Delta state in the onshore/offshore suit at the Supreme Court in 2002.
"The above formed the decision of the Supreme Court on the onshore/offshore dichotomy brouhaha case of AG, Fed vs. AG of Abia & Ors, 2002 6 NWLR (Pt 764) 542
“I was the secretary of the legal team of Delta State and the 10th Delta defendant in that case. His Lordship Ogundare JSC, of blessed memory, upheld Delta state’s counter-claim which was proudly prepared by me, and approved by the defense team, nullifying the hitherto practice of erstwhile President Olusegun Obasanjo, of first paying all first-line charges from the Federation Account, before paying 13% derivation to the states of the Niger Delta.
“The lucid and apposite principle of land law is expressed on the Latin phrase, ‘quid quid plantatur solo, solo cedit’, and accentuates that what is affixed or attached to the land also belongs to the land!
“This means that the oil resources affixed or attached to the lands of the Niger Delta, exclusively belong to the people of the Niger Delta, subject only to the Interpretation Act of 1961 and allied Expropriatory Laws.
"This is the unfortunate consequence of Section 18 of the Interpretation Act, above, which defines land in Nigeria as excluding minerals! And decisively too, Section 44(3) of our Constitution vested ownership and control of all mineral resources in land and water in the Federal Government of Nigeria, but not in the North.
“Landmass is only considered relevant in the distribution of revenue from the Federation Account and not in determining ownership of oil not located within such an aggregated landmass of a state/region.
“The only instance where landmass is considered relevant in Nigeria is under Section 162(2) of the said Constitution relating to sharing revenue from the Federation Account utilizing a Revenue Allocation Formula.
"It is in such an instance, that the National Assembly must have regard to the ‘landmass’ of a state, in sharing revenue to the states from the Federation Account, and not in determining ownership of oil located far outside the North, in the Niger Delta, as mischievously advocated by Hon Usman Bugaje.
“Under Sections 134(6) and 140(6) of the 1960 and 1963 Constitutions respectively, to calculate 50 percent mineral royalty, the continental shelf of Nigeria was deemed to be part of the region that was contiguous to same.
"If not for the military junta of the former Head of State, Gen Yakubu Gowon which repealed these provisions (vide the Onshore/Offshore Revenue Decree of 1971), the littoral states of the Niger Delta, ought to have been deemed to be part of the continental shelf to calculate and pay 13% derivation.
"Which is why Ogundare JSC in the onshore/offshore case of AG Fed V AG Abia &ors (supra), at pages 654 – 655 paragraphs H-B declared to wit:
‘There is, however, no provision in Section 162 or anywhere else in the 1999 Constitution similar to sub-section (6) which made it possible for revenue derived from Continental Shelf contiguous to a Region to be payable to Region.
“The term resource control which is a beneficial fiscal arrangement, nevertheless scares a lot of people, especially some of our brethren from the North, and the likes of Hon Usman Baguje. And whereas, ironically, the North will ultimately become the greatest beneficiary of this great phenomenon.
"Even as of now, the gold in Zamfara State is ‘controlled’ as it were, by Zamfara state. So, why not allow us in the Niger Delta to also control our oil and gas resources?
“In 1995, the Constitutional Conference chaired by the legendary Justice Adolphus Karibi-Whyte conducted comprehensive research on the natural resources states of the federation, and it revealed clearly that each state of the Nigerian nation is blessed with one mineral resource or the other.
"This is superb news, as all states will harvest, develop, and sell their mineral resources freely under resource control.
"More importantly, resource control has international recognition and support, as proclaimed under the United Nations as a right of the people to exercise permanent sovereignty over their God-given resources in Article 1803. Article 1803 asserts thus: ‘The right of people and nations to permanent sovereignty over their natural resources must be exercised in the interest of their national development and the well-being of the people of the State concerned…..’
“It is on the above Act 1803, and resource control we still stand, and must continue to stand.
“The establishment of intervention agencies such as the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Presidential Amnesty Programme, (PAP), Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs (MNDA), and Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021 are all clear evidence that oil belongs to the people of the Niger Delta and not the North.
"The above intervention agencies and acts of parliament enacted by the federal government augment our postulation that oil belongs to the people of the Niger Delta, and not even to Nigeria or talk less of the North!
“Hence, the Federal Government is taking all steps to ensure the development of the Niger Delta region and her people, as long recommended by the Henry Willink Commission of 1957.
"It is indeed the guilty conscience of the Nigerian state which forcefully acquired our oil resources that is making same to give back to the exploited people of the Niger Delta and their region. Like the Islamic rabbi oppositely quipped, ‘Conscience is an open wound, only the truth can heal it.’
“Instructively, only the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth can indeed, heal the guilty conscience of Nigeria and her accomplices such as Hon Usman Bugaje, who continue to claim ownership of our oil wealth, while environmentally despoiling our people, and their habitation in their vainglorious quest to collect what belongs to another.
Chief Bola Ige, SAN, (The Cicero), of blessed memory publicly declared that the Nigerian state is stealing the oil of the people of the Niger Delta, and that, they would face the wrath of God.
In his words, ‘Nigerians are thieves, stealing the property of the Niger Delta. Nigerians have stolen the treasure of the Niger Delta People and if care is not taken, we will face the wrath of God, because it is a sin to continue to plunder the resources of the people.’
“It is, therefore, with the proclivity of an unrelenting aspiration, together with a combustive irrepressible spirit, that we shall continue to constitutionally and constructively, engage the Nigerian state and her comprador bourgeoisie like Hon Usman Bugaje, in our justified struggle to liberate the people of the Niger Delta from the criminal exploration of their God-given resources.
"In return, they pay us back by severely inflicting on our people a state of crested arrested development, and endemic pandemic poverty.” -According to a report by Rivers State Television.