Opinion
Facts, truths, politics of Ibaji Oil
By Abel Ada-Musa
The recognition of Kogi State as an oil producing state on a 50-50 basis with Anambra State is a watershed – a milestone, in the history of Nigeria. It makes Kogi State the first oil producing state in the Middle Belt and in the northern part of Nigeria. Personally, I still feel we have been deprived, because the bigger flow of the oil is in Kogi State.
On the other hand, we also need to thank God, because as a state we didn’t play the politics very well. Anambra was more involved than Kogi State. It invested in the struggle to get national attention on all fronts, but I didn’t see Kogi State seriously involved in the agitation, except during the administrations of Prince Abubakar Audu and Captain Idris Wada, respectively.
As we soldiered on in the struggle, Kogi’s voice was nearly drowned at the presidency and the National Assembly. Even the method which the National Boundary Commission (NBC) wanted to employ in delineating the boundary was not favourable to Kogi State, which led to a stalemate.
I use this opportunity to pay tribute to the heroes of Odeke oil struggle, which include the people of Odeke, who lost their lives and got injured while fighting for their land. Several lives were lost on the farms and fishing ponds in Odeke, Ibaji Local Government, where the oil deposit was discovered.
Before the politics of oil wells took the front burner, Odeke and Aguleri in Anambra were good neighbours, who had intermarried and attended social activities freely together on either side. One could hardly differentiate between them, because of the level they interacted socially. They shared markets, farmland and fish ponds.
Those that are claiming credit, celebrating and trumpeting the recognition of the state as oil producing state today did not play any recognizable role in the new limelight. For example, Governor Yahaya Bello as a sitting governor that received the cheery news, and presiding over the celebration, knew little about the journey that brought us to the present level.
However, kudos to critical stakeholders and several Ibaji Local Government chairmen, former governor, late Prince Abubakar Audu, former governor Idris Wada and Senator Isaac Alfa, who worked tirelessly to ensure that Anambra State did not take away what belongs to the state. Some of the key figures in Ibaji that played significant roles in the long-drawn battle were Hon Emmanuel Egwuaba, Engr Dan Omatola, Hon Dav Ogwu, Barr Reuben Egwuaba, Hon Damian Etiukwu, Hon. Abraham Uchola, Chief Abu Bendo, Barr Thomas Acholo, Hon Felix Amajeh, among others. The list is inexhaustible.
We have been made to understand that oil has ever been in Odeke and environs. We have been told that exploration of the oil actually started in 1952, in Ibaji villages like, Ihile, Odeke, Ikah, Ujeh, Echeno, Anocha/Uchuchu, Omabo and Iregwu. That time, oil wells were not yet an issue, because 13 percent derivation, which gives oil producing states financial edge, in monthly allocations had not taken effect.
I think the major problem started when the federal government started paying 13 percent derivation to oil producing states from the federation account. The oil producing states are like kings during the monthly sharing of national booty. Kogi will soon join the league of such states, when full exploration of Odeke Oil begins.
Let the truth be told; Anambra state was smarter than Kogi State. Kogi State displayed non-committal attitude for too long in the matter. By the time the state government started showing genuine interest; Anambra state had made practical commitments in the disputed area. At least, so it claimed. It claimed that it had spent about N4 billion in developing the area. How? This cannot be verified!
Odds were in fact against Kogi state from the beginning. Odeke was under Anambra basin. This gave them the wrong conception that the place belonged to Anambra state. All explorations in geological terms, in that area were done under the Anambra basin. So, it was easy for them to erroneously claim that the portion belonged to them.
It was said that between 1952 and 1986, three companies namely; Shell BP (now SPDC), Elf (now Total Fina Elf) and AGIP Energy drilled 25 exploration wells, 2 appraisal wells and 8-core drill wells in the entire Basin, out of which majority of the wells were in the present day Kogi State”.
“The NNPC/NPDC which carried out seismic activities in the Anambra Basin in which Ibaji Local Government Area of Kogi East was largely involved between 1976 and 1983, affirmed that “oil and gas was found to be in commercial quantity in Kogi State.”
Records have also shown that during the exploration activities, compensations were paid to the people of Odeke, Ikah, Anocha, Echeno, Ihile, Ujeh, Omabo and Iregwu all in Ibaji Local Government Area of Kogi State respectively, for damages caused on their farmlands, economic trees, fishing ponds and even shrines buttressing the claim of ownership of the land.
Throughout the fight for the ownership of the oil wells, Kogi State actually looked like an underdog. In 2001, the then governor of the state, Prince Abubakar Audu showed up on the scene. When the exploration that was going on was stopped, he wrote to the Group Managing Director of NNPC to remind him of the need to continue, stressing that there was oil in commercial quantity in Odeke, Echeno and Anocha. Shortly after his letter, exploration resumed, on 25th July 2001.
Serious commitment was also made by the administration of Captain Idris Wada, who hoped that the status of oil producing state could be achieved in his time, in office.
Sequel to Prince Audu’s letter, a team of geo-scientist/engineers was drafted to Ibaji to carry out a preliminary investigation on the claims of Kogi State Government. The investigation paid off as an indigenous Orient Petroleum Resources was granted an Oil Prospecting Licence (OPL) 915 and 916, in 2012. The percentages of crude oil in the OPL 915 among the three contesting states are as follows; Kogi State- 53%, Anambra- 23%, Enugu- 17% and Edo-3%.
The management team of the oil exploration company that was involved in the activity of exploration in the area is from Anambra state, and this has led to the erroneous belief that the oil belongs to Anambra State.
What added insult to injury was the declaration of Anambra state as oil producing area by President Goodluck Jonathan, in 2012, when the dispute was yet to be resolved. Jonathan had, on August 30 2012, while inaugurating Orient Petroleum’s Anambra River Production Facility in Aguleri, declared Anambra State the 10th oil bearing state in the country.
However, on 6 December 2012, President Goodluck Jonathan ordered the National Boundary Commission (NBC) to determine, within six months, who between Kogi and Anambra states should be considered an oil producing state. The NBC failed to do this. Unfortunately, NBC hardly resolves boundary crises. It compounds them.
Part of the crisis was the claim that Anambra State invested N4 billion into the exploration of Ibaji oil. But the true position is that the investment was by Orient Petroleum, a private company in Anambra State, not the state government.
A major drawback to the crisis was the involvement of National Boundary Commission (NBC), which could not determine the method for measuring the ownership of the land. Kogi State government totally faulted the yardstick the NBC was going to use in delimiting the land; which led to stalemate.
The decision to make it 50-50 for Kogi and Anambra is quite unfair, because 53 percent of the oil wells are on Kogi land. It is because of the inability of the NBC to resolve the dispute that the federal government in its wisdom had to share the oil ownership into two equal halfs.
The National Boundary Commission (NBC) had insisted that they would use the legal instrument of 1954 as the instrument by which they would delimit the boundary between Kogi and Anambra state. The 1954 legal framework as proposed by NBC did not favour Kogi State. Kogi state had argued for “ground-to-paper instrument” as the best approach, which embodied ethnographic survey. By this method you interview the indigenous people of the area, whereby they will be called upon to point out both the natural and physical features of the boundary lines between them.
Half bread, they say, is better than none. The percent given to Kogi State is unfair. The right thing to do was to give Kogi State 75 percent and Anambra state 25 percent. This is arguably a product of low level politics in the state. Our presence is minimal at the national level. We don’t have people that can speak for us. We can only fight one another at home.
Politics of deception, ethnic bigotry and pull-him-down syndrome has killed the state. Our National Assembly members are like mummies and zombies. Yesterday, I read that some of them from the state went to EFCC office to tell them that Governor Yahaya Bello was innocent of the allegation of diversion of money leveled against him.
What a shame!
Are they not aware that the case is already in Court? Don’t they know that it is beyond their limits? It’s sheer display of illiteracy, naivety, sycophancy, and foolishness for so called Honourable members of National Assembly to push a case that is not ordinarily on their table to legislate or adjudicate.
And that is why we are where we are!
Abel Ada-Musa, a Public Affairs analyst writes from Kogi State.
By Adamu Muhd Usman.
“If you can think of it, you can plan it; if you can plan it, you can dream it; if you can dream it, you can achieve it.”
—Unknown author
Farming and livestock are Jigawa’s main occupations. The Jigawa people and its government are always interested in farming. So talking about farming, farmers, commodities and livestock prices are interesting issues for Jigawa people.
The prices of cash crops, grains, etc., are recording a steady drop in Jigawa State occasioned by the yearning and interest of the people of the state and also some state government commitment for both farming of animals and farm produce.
A check and investigations by yours sincerely showed and proved that the prices of many things had dropped by 20-30 per cent in the last four weeks and thereabouts in Jigawa state.
A 10 kg local rice farm (produced) in Jigawa State was sold at ₦9,000 as against the previous price of almost ₦12,000. Millet, sorghum, beans, wheat, Benny seeds, etc., indicated a similar price decrease.
People are of the opinion that the situation of a high supply of the produce from farms in Jigawa State has committed itself to producing a large quantity of farm produce and livestock to meet the demand in the region or the country at large. Surely, the increase in the supply of the produce from the farms or farmers had forced prices down in the recent past.
Others still attributed this price drop to the fear of Allah instilled in the hearts of hoarders because the clerics kept preaching against hoarding, which is seriously frown upon by God Almighty.
While some political critics viewed it as the bad economic policies of the President Tinubu administration, in which Allah used it to bring relief to the common man.
Quite obviously, Jigawa is amongst the three states in the federation that produce and supply the nation and some neighbouring counties with grains, livestock, fish and frogs. Jigawa state is also first in Hibiscus, sesame, gum Arabic, datefarm and also Jigawa is not left behind in the farming of cotton and Siemens. —-Jigawa is blessed.
But at the overround investigations, findings and outcomes, it was largely concluded that all these results and achievements were attributed to the people’s interest and passion for farming, but it is mostly because of the government’s commitments to assist, promote and enhance agricultural production in the state to make it a priority in Jigawa as a means of livelihood, occupation and income for the Jigawa populace and to be a source of internally generated revenue (IGR) for the state and also make the state feed the nation formula. Thank God, the airport (cargo) built by the former governor, Dr Sule Lamido, will now be very functional and useful.
The big question now is, can the state government sustain its support for the agricultural sector and continue to pay more attention and also sustain the package and gesture?
We hope that farmers in the state will continue to enjoy maximum support in crop production, including the use of mechanised farming. This will encourage livestock farming, which will go a long way to reduce or stop farmers’/herders’ clashes.
Also, the issue of soil erosion should be given due attention, and more roads should be constructed across the state in order to facilitate bringing out farm produce from villages and rural areas to urban areas.
As the saying goes, Success is getting what you want, and happiness is wanting what you get.
Adamu writes from Kafin-Hausa, Jigawa State.
By Abiodun KOMOLAFE
The concepts of power, privilege and governance are complex and multifaceted. Power refers to the ability to influence others, while privilege denotes unearned advantages.
Governance encompasses institutions, structures and processes that regulate these dynamics. Together, these concepts raise fundamental questions about justice, equality and resource distribution.
It emphasizes the importance of considering marginalized groups’ experiences and perspectives. The main problem in Nigeria today is its political economy, which is rooted in rent-seeking and fosters a mindset that prioritizes patronage over production.
The country’s politics are characterized by a patron-client relationship, where everything revolves around government handouts rather than effective governance. This has led to a situation where “politics” in Nigeria is essentially a scramble for resources in a country with severely limited opportunities for self-improvement.
When French agronomist René Dumont wrote ‘False Starts in Africa’ in 1962, he inadvertently described Nigeria’s current state in 2025. Nigeria’s missteps have magnified themselves in the theatre of the absurd, such as the construction of a new vice presidential residence and Governor Chukwuemeka Soludo’s boasts about the lavish official residence for the governor of Anambra State, currently under construction.
It is to be noted in contradistinction that the newly sworn-in Prime Minister of Canada, Mark Carney, is looking for somewhere to live. The official residence of the prime minister, 24 Sussex Drive, the Canadian equivalent of 10 Downing Street, is in disrepair and uninhabitable. No Canadian government can dare ask the parliament to appropriate the $40m needed to refurbish the residence.
Canada’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) exceeds $2 trillion, while Nigeria’s GDP is less than $400 billion. Still, Nigeria claims to be a giant! With an electricity generation capacity of less than 6,000 megawatts, Nigeria’s proclamation seems absurd, especially when compared to cities like Johannesburg, Singapore, Hong Kong and Mumbai. Even Lagos State alone should be generating, transmitting and distributing at least 15,000 megawatts, which would be a basic expectation rather than an achievement.
Nigeria today needs a comprehensive overhaul of its governance crisis to build a new political economy and social services that are fit for purpose. Although the government is on the right path in some ways, a root-and-branch transformation is still necessary.
A notable breakthrough is the decision to recapitalize development finance institutions, such as the Bank of Industry and, crucially, the Bank of Agriculture. This move is significant in a rent-seeking state, as it addresses the need for long-term capital – a prerequisite for achieving meaningful progress.
The development finance institutions require annual recapitalization of at least N500 billion, ideally N1 trillion. Achieving this necessitates a thorough cost evaluation of the government’s machinery, starting with the full implementation of the Oronsaye Committee’s recommendations.
The resulting cost savings can then be redirected to development finance institutions and essential social services like primary healthcare. Furthermore, the government should be bolder, if it can afford to be so, especially since there’s no discernible opposition on offer At the moment, the Nigerian political establishment across the board appears to be enamored by the position put forward by the leader of the Russian revolution, Vladimir Lenin, after the failed putsch. Lenin wrote the classic, ‘What is to be done?’
His observation is that revolutions do not take place at times of grinding poverty. They do so during periods of relatively rising prosperity. Significant sections of the Nigerian establishment believe that relatively rising prosperity could trigger off social discontent.
In their own interest, they had better be right. The caveat is that Lenin wrote ‘What’s to be Done’ in 1905. The world has moved on and changed since the conditions that led to the failure of the attempted takeover of government in Russia in 1905. Therefore, the Nigerian political establishment, for reasons of self-preservation, had better put on its thinking cap. Addressing power and privilege in governance requires collective action, institutional reforms and a commitment to promoting social justice. Nigeria currently lacks a leadership recruitment process, which can only be established if political parties are willing to develop a cadre. Unfortunately, the country is dealing with Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs) instead. It’s rare to find leadership in Nigeria operating political boot camps to recruit and groom youths for future leadership roles.
This might be why many young people have a misguided understanding of politics, viewing it as merely a means of sharing the nation’s commonwealth. Mhairi Black was elected to the British House of Commons at 20 years old.
However, the key point is that Black had started becoming involved in politics at a young age. By the time she was elected, she had already gained significant experience, effectively becoming a veteran in the field. In Nigeria, politics is often seen as one of the few avenues for self-fulfillment. However, the economy is stagnant, with few jobs created in the public sector and limited investment opportunities.
This is a far cry from the 1950s and 1960s, when political parties were more substantial. Today, it’s worth asking how many Nigerian political parties have functional Research Departments. Besides, what socialization into any philosophy or ideology do our politicians have? Similarly to former Governor Rotimi Amaechi, many of those who currently hold power are motivated to stay in politics due to concerns about economic stability.
Of course, that’s why the Lagos State House of Assembly has had to revert itself. It is the same challenge that has reduced the traditional institution to victims of Nigeria’s ever-changing political temperature. It is the reason an Ogbomoso indigene is not interested in what happened between Obafemi Awolowo and Ladoke Akintola.
It is also the reason an Ijebuman sees an Ogbomoso man as his enemy without bothering to dig up the bitter politics that ultimately succeeded in putting the two families on the path of permanent acrimony. Of course, that’s why we have crises all over the place! May the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world, grant us peace in Nigeria!
KOMOLAFE wrote from Ijebu-Jesa, Osun State, Nigeria (ijebujesa@yahoo.co.uk; 08033614419)
Byabiodun KOMOLAFE
Rivers State is now under emergency rule, and it’s likely to remain so for the next six months, unless a drastic change occurs.
If not managed carefully, this could mark the beginning of a prolonged crisis.
In situations like this, opinions tend to be divergent. For instance, some people hold the notion that the security situation and the need to protect the law and public order justified President Bola Tinubu’s proclamation of a state of emergency in, and the appointment of a sole administrator for Rivers State.
However, others view this act as ‘unconstitutional’, ‘reckless’, ‘an affront on democracy’, and ‘a political tool to intimidate the opposition’. When we criticize governments for unmet expectations, we often rely on our own perspectives and biases.
Our individual identities and prejudices shape our criticism. However, it’s essential to recognize that not all criticism is equal. Protesting within the law is fundamentally different from protests that descend into illegality. Once illegality creeps in, the legitimacy of the protest is lost.
As John Donne wrote in ‘Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions’, “Never send to know for whom the bell tolls.” A protest is legitimate when it aligns with societal norms, values and laws. But when protests are marred by violence or sabotage, they lose credibility. Without credibility, protests become ineffective.
Regarding the validity or otherwise of the emergency rule in Rivers State, it is imperative that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governors approach the Supreme Court immediately. They should seek a definitive clarification on whether the proclamation is ultra vires or constitutional.
For whatever it’s worth, they owe Nigerians that responsibility!May the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world, grant us peace in Nigeria!
Abiodun KOMOLAFE,ijebujesa@yahoo.co.uk; 08033614419 – SMS only.
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