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From the slave trade era of the 15th century to the crude oil era of the 20th century, Nigeria's natural resource history has been fraught by a systemic cartel of merchants whose primary agenda was in the amount of natural resources they could garner from the country. In their exploitative ventures they raided whole communities, introduced internecine wars and conflicts, and ignited a raging fire of habitat degradation and fragmentation.

Historical records tell of the fact that the plundering of African natural resources fuelled the industrial revolution of Europe. Energy demands in the 20th century brought on the search for crude oil wells worldwide and Nigeria was not left out. From 1956, when the first oil well was successfully drilled in Nigeria, scrambling for Nigeria's resources by the Europeans took on a new dimension.

The oil boom era of the 1970s saw the downward plunge of the agricultural sector. There was a complete paradigm shift from the nation's then agrarian culture to an oil driven culture, moving ultimately from renewable natural resources to un-renewable resource trade. From the 70s through to the early 80s we witnessed a drastic drop in local food production. Importation rates of foods and finished products increased dramatically and our foreign debt escalated rapidly, bringing the economy to a crisis. During this period, from 1958 to 1983, we recorded $101 billion in estimated oil revenue earnings.

A plethora of environmental problems exist as a result of the oil trade. Communities where certain resources are harvested - in particular oil and gas - bear the impact of exploration and exploitation, while gains are shared to other areas that contribute next to nothing to national oil revenues.

In addition oil communities are impoverished and lack basic social infrastructures and amenities. One region in Nigeria which has borne the brunt of natural resource exploitation is the Niger Delta. This region played a key role in the country's economy in pre-colonial and colonial times and still maintains a primary position in present crude oil trade.

The Niger Delta: The Battlefield For Resource Control

The Niger Delta has featured in global discourse as a region plagued by non-violent demonstrations, violent protests and intra communal wars over resource control. The source and underlying causes of agitation in this region must be clearly understood by the global community in evolving effectual management strategies.

Agitations within this region take root from early colonial trade relations with the British incursion into the area. They made treaties with vulnerable communities, plundered resource capital and introduced a subservient cultural pattern. Communities only benefited by giving-up their farmlands in exchange for ridiculous gifts. In those days, resistance came through such visionary leaders like King Jaja of Opobo and Nana Olomu. These leaders, as recorded by Nigerian historians, led their people in the struggle to rescue their natural economy from the greedy control of the British who had devised a “divide and rule” machinery of control over the people.

Control over the natural resource capital of the Niger Delta people is mirrored presently by the operations of the oil multinational companies, who defraud whole communities of their livelihood sources, paying ridiculous monetary compensation in exchange for a devastated coastal ecosystem.

The oil companies make up the largest industry in the Niger Delta region. Despite this, unemployment levels are still high, especially in the rural areas where oil and gas reserves exist. In this region exist oil well reserves (17.9 billion barrels) and gas wells (3.4 trillion m3), contributing about 80% of federal government revenue.

Despite this vast coastal wealth, GNP per capita is below the national average of US$280. Pollution of coastal corridors and wetlands is a recurrent disaster. Gas flaring has become a notorious pollutant of the local communities of the Delta. Oil spills and gas flaring have destroyed whole fishing communities, reducing needed fishery resources, terrestrial vegetations and compromising the health of local people in and around oil installations.

Nigeria's resource base includes a vast network of rivers, floodplains and a rich rainforest network, with vast deposits of minerals. However about 95% of natural forest cover has been lost to deforestation, leaving 5% contained in the Southeast region. While dams upstream are a constant headache and threat to the rich coastal biodiversity, deforestation ravages the teeming rainforest ecosystem.

The Nigerian Government And The Challenge Of Sustainability

In a country where agriculture accounts for about 40% of GDP and oil production and exports (exporting over 2 million barrels/day) ranks 6th world wide, government's management structure and environmental action plan is essential to maintain balance and reduce abuse. The question here is what has been the role of the Nigerian government in the management of its natural resources?

To attempt an answer, one can say that even though the legal framework and institutional structure for natural resource management is firmly established, it still lacks the strength and drive which natural resource management deserves.

Government response to environmental problems and the nagging problem of unsustainable resource exploitation has been rather slow. Compromises in deals with multinational companies have crippled the implementation of “goodwill” national policies and laws. The management structure at best is fragmentary, and there exists similar government agencies carrying out the same functions, often times leading to conflict between government agencies and stakeholders.

A satisfactory environmental condition would mean developmental projects and resource utilization meet with clearly stated developmental benchmarks, whose implementation is sustainable. For projects to be considered sustainable as contained in Agenda 21 of the Rio declaration three key aspects of development must be integrated into project planning and implementation: economic growth, social equity and ecological integrity.

Historical trends in the Delta have shown that industrial activities in the Delta have negated this all-embracing principle, in the scramble for resources. Indigenous people, their laws and customs have often been sidetracked. Sustainability must therefore be redefined in this region and companies' licenses to operate must be revoked when found guilty. The country does not lack policies and laws, but the gap is in its implementation and policing of resource utilization.

Resource depletion has far reaching multiplier effects and its importance is underscored by communal agitations and high national poverty statistics. It is instructive to evolve stringent measures to “checkmate” the eclipse of our collapsing life support systems. We can't afford to put new wine into old wine skin.

The issue of local content has to do with the active participation of the local indigenous people in decision-making processes. Local people are the best managers, they have over the years evolved methods and approaches in natural resource management that have preserved certain classes of biodiversity and we need to learn from them.

For sustainability, they must be integrated in all developmental issues, especially those that impact on their existence. In ensuring active participation of local stakeholders in project management and development, ideals of Community Based Resource Management (CBRM) can be adopted. A case is in promoting indigenous protected areas. In the Southeast region several lakes and forests exist, designated by local nomenclature as sacred areas. Indigenous laws and customs have protected biodiversity in these areas over the years and we can start by integrating and institutionalizing these areas into our system of protected parks or areas.

True federalism and sustainability can only be obtained by ensuring that the needs and aspirations of local communities are first considered before economic gains. Trade-offs are necessary to maintain equilibrium in developmental conceptualization, and in respect of sustainable development, social equity cannot be overruled, but rather sustained.

Africa and the Way Forward

The New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD) could through its review mechanism ensure that African countries comply strictly on the issue of indigenous active participation in decision processes. But the question we must ask is: how sincere are participating African countries on moving the ideology of NEPAD forward? Can NEPAD be a panacea to our dependency on western donors, who dictate the tune of our development? Or would we be strong enough as a people to wield the weapon of resource control and management by Africans to the hungry western world?

We must evolve strategic alliances with other African nations to find long lasting solutions for the management of Africa's vast bank of natural resources. The question of capacity building then arises. Capacity building in natural resource management would mean a network of indigenous people who are able to exchange needed information and technology without barriers. In addition would be the function of resource tracking: we must insist on predetermined certification of forest and coastal land goods and services, which could serve as a monitoring device for products obtained from these ecosystems.

My concluding thought on sustainable natural resource utilization and development in Nigeria and Africa as a whole, is in our corporate realization that for us as Africans, our greatest weaponry against the incursion of the developed economics is our bank of natural resource capital.

It's time we as a race refuse the lies of the western world and shun greed and mismanagement of both human and natural resources. We must encourage all Africans to imbibe the culture of proper management of our contested heritage. This must be clearly understood and articulated by the current crop of leaders as they promote the African Union through its NEPAD initiative.

* Eno Deborah Anwana’s major interest is the sustainable management of Africa's vast wealth of natural resources by Africans. Since 2002 Anwana has worked in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria on a MacArthur funded project focusing on the wise use of natural resources and sustainable development. Anwana is affiliated with Nigerian's foremost environmental NGO called The Nigerian Conservation Foundation, a membership based NGO.

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