SUMMARY
Resource control and the Niger Delta question came up in the inaugural speech of newly elected President Olusegun Obasanjo on the 29th of May, 1999, but shortly afterwards, receded to bureaucratic fogginess1. When he assumed office in May 1999, President Olusegun Obasanjo was quite cognizant of the festering crisis in the Niger Delta region. This is attested to in his speech when he promised to forward a bill within weeks of the inception of the administration to the national assembly, for a law providing for 13 per cent derivation to be paid to the oil producing states of the Niger Delta to be used for ecological rehabilitation, infrastructural and development of other sectors2. The adoption of democracy in 1999 had raised hopes for the effective resolution of the Niger Delta conundrum. Such hopes are not misplaced given the fact democracy is generally considered to be nationally imbued with conflict management devices such as freedom of expression by the people and political space for democratic dissensions, deliberations and consensus. Added to this was the fact that President Obasanjo, as part of his election campaigns, had promised to fully engage the Niger Delta problem when he visited the region in 1999. His victory in the wake of the darkest period of military rule in Nigeria’s post-independence history, held much promise. An international recognized statesman and diplomat imprisoned during the brutal reign of Sanni Abacha, he inherited the mantle of a massively corrupt state apparatus, an economy in shambles, and a federation crippled by longstanding ethnic enmity3. By the time Olusegun Obasanjo assumed office as the president of Nigeria, the Niger Delta was practically on the boil. The people were not happy. Values and infrastructures had deteriorated; the people had become restive and desired immediate intervention in their lives and the state of the region. The rate of poverty was scary. The people of the region had little or nothing to show for playing host to a multi-billion dollar industry. Worst still environmental remediation measures were limited and negligible. Farms, streams and the whole environment were constantly under the threat of pollution. All these led to the springing up of ethnic groups, formed largely by the Ijaw and Ogoni, championing confrontations with the Nigerian government and multinational oil companies. The youths of the Niger Delta decided to take their destiny in their own hands4. Thus, when the Olusegun Obasanjo administration was inaugurated, one of its major actions was to see how to alleviate the crisis in the oil- producing communities of the Niger Delta. In 2000, the President implemented the 13 percent derivation as enshrined in the 1999 Constitution. In what seemed to be a major frontal attack on the festering Niger Delta problem, the federal government under President Olusegun Obasanjo initiated a bill to the National Assembly on the development of the Niger Delta. The National Assembly in accordance with section 58 (a) and 5 of the 1999 Constitution subsequently passed the bill establishing the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), after the president refused to assent to the bill. As it were, there was disagreement between the Presidency and the National Assembly on the funding of the Commission. The National Assembly claimed to have acted in the national interest by overriding the president in passing the bill5.
