oldie:

Like you wrote, we should be pragmatic in our reasonings
We should also lay down the facts as they are
A barrel of oil wouldnt have been $40, 50/40/30 years ago!
So also we were not producing 2mb/day in 1958/1968/1978

This type of statistics does not help our arguments.

My question really, is: what have our leaders done with all the monies allocated to Niger Delta in all these years
We should start asking questions, instead of buck passing

30 years ago,oil was $48 pb in todays dollars.

http://www.inflationdata.com/inflation/Inflation_Rate/Historical_Oil_Prices_Table.asp

Also,I believe in the 70s,we were producing more oil per day than we are doing today.

ono:

I once said in one of my entries that when we're dealing with the delta issue, we should be pragmatic in our reasonings.

If we have been producing oil in the country fro the past 50 years at an average rate of 2 million barrels/day, that means we've produced some 2million*365*50 barrels of crude oil. And if the price of the barrel of crude is averaged at 40 dollars per barrel over this period, the Nigeria have realised:

2million*365*50*40 dollars in the past 50 years. That's some staggering: ~ 2 trillion dollars!

Now, how much of this can we say was ploughed back into the Niger Delta over the past 50 years?

And why won't I be passionate about these things? Who will be in my shoes and not be passionate about the issues affecting his place? I bet if you're in my shoes, you will be at the rooftop shouting away at the injustice meted to your people.

@ono,
point of correction:
2million*365*50*40 dollars = 1.46 trillion dollars and not 2 trillion dollars (no known numerical round-up technique approximates 1.46 to 2.00)

@debosky,
I've made the same points you're making and we're in agreement. The good people of the Niger Delta should address their problems through channels that are devoid of violence. You mentioned the leadership crisis in the ND region, the shameless corruption among their leaders (I have first hand experience with that), etc. Your point about constitutional changes regarding revenue allocation, legal challenges to implementation of the law, etc. are the way to go. Action is what is needed! But, the way I see it, removing the obstacles on the path of achieving the goal of equitable wealth distribution cannot and should not be left for only the people of the ND region. All sincere Nigerians have to be on board to assist in achieving this goal instead of making rather dismissive comments like "it's their problem", that some Nigerians outside the region are prone to. We all have to be part of the solution.

Bros Richy black,
All those ones na just trivial things. 1.46, 1.5, 2.0, 2.2 trillion green backs doesn't call for too much mathematical computation. My calc actually came up with 1.5, which is 1.46 round up to 1dp, which is 2.0 to 1 sf. secondary school people make una correct me if I'm wrong.

Anyway, the[b] koko[/b] of the matter is how much of this did our wise ruling brothers from the North, West and East have managed to[b] plough back into the Niger delta for it's development.[/b]


But you have made one impressive statement up there. And that should get debo thinking if he's in the ''thinking mode''. Thanks. I know we can do it in this country. It's just good that we put to good use our intelligence by harnessing what's in our respective areas to our full advantage without bitterness and rancour. Without jealousy and greed. This will ultimately engender solid healthy competition rather than the parasitic method that's presently the norm.

Dear All,
I HAVE A POEM I WANT TO SHARE WITH YOU PEOPLE, ON NIGER-DELTA WRITTEN BY ME

[/size]NIGER-DELTA
[size=8pt][font=Lucida Sans Unicode][font=Lucida Sans Unicode]Niger delta[/font][/font]
The land flowing with milk and honey
You are blessed with arable land and animals
The land blessed with natural resources
Your upland good for farming and lowland houses
the fishes and crabs
You are a land blessed with virtues and values

But your milk has been drained and your honey diluted
Your land dredged and your animals killed by oil spills
What suppose to be a thing of joy now turned to be pain
Your virtues and values now seen as a sacrilege

[font=Lucida Sans Unicode][font=Lucida Sans Unicode]Niger delta[/font][/font]
You are a land blessed with talents and hope
A blessed land with strong men and women
A land of beauty
The pacesetter
The big beating heart of the entity called Nigeria


But your talents has been sent to their early grave
And your hope dashed
Your men of great talents and stuffs who want to maintain and preserves
your values were killed
Your Daughters forced to be bread-winners
And your Sons forced to take up arms and ammunitions
Your beauty changed by gas flaring
You are made the second fiddle
And made a useless part of the body called Nigeria

[font=Lucida Sans Unicode][font=Lucida Sans Unicode]Niger delta[/font][/font]
Go out there to take your rightful place, because you are destined to be great.
Great Niger delta

Composed by: Aikhenomian Pete Omojaifoh . O.
a.k.a NIGER-DELTA

May, 2007

We are supposed to be ONE country with ONE shared vision. Yet we have a section of the country saying the resources found in that section should belong to them alone, the rest part can go starve.

is that logic?

When does this end? Not all communities in the ND have oil wells in them. ergo, soon the new division would be cash only coming to those communities that produce oil.
This then will default to cash being given in proportion of the wells in each community. . .and so on.


I re-iterate my earlier position. It's silly to ask what the north would have done if the oil was found in their territory; this never happened and we never will know for sure. All we know is that Nigeria is ONE country, and sale of crude provides the bulk of our income. The money is shared around all the 36 states,a nd a sizeable bonus (13%) is given to the areas where the oil is extracted from.

It is pure stupidity to say it's their business what they do with the money, when the crux of their complaints is they have no visible edifices to show for their oil producing status.

The ND should make concrete plans to break out of Nigeria to form their own country. But as long as they remain in the federal republic of Nigeria, they should realise that the oil belongs to Nigeria.

ono:

Bros Richy black,
All those ones na just trivial things. 1.46, 1.5, 2.0, 2.2 trillion green backs doesn't call for too much mathematical computation. My calc actually came up with 1.5, which is 1.46 round up to 1dp, which is 2.0 to 1 sf. secondary school people make una correct me if I'm wrong.

Anyway, the[b] koko[/b] of the matter is how much of this did our wise ruling brothers from the North, West and East have managed to[b] plough back into the Niger delta for it's development.[/b]


But you have made one impressive statement up there. And that should get debo thinking if he's in the ''thinking mode''. Thanks. I know we can do it in this country. It's just good that we put to good use our intelligence by harnessing what's in our respective areas to our full advantage without bitterness and rancour. Without jealousy and greed. This will ultimately engender solid healthy competition rather than the parasitic method that's presently the norm.

@ono,
you sure were doing what I used to call "sequential round-up". Anyway, I get the gist.

As regards the injustice in the ND region, it's almost like what Blacks in the US went through. If all the struggle had been left to Blacks alone to shoulder, racist laws would still have been in place in the US. The truth is that many Whites fought along side Blacks, and more importantly, the Black leaders accepted it, encouraged it, and actively sought it. Coming back to Nigeria, the ND leaders have to form a strong coalition of people from across all geopolitical zones and ethnic groups to address the problem. The discourse should be elevated beyond the present "we ND people must fight for justice, for our people" to "we Nigerians must fight against the injustice meted on our fellow Nigerians". The ND leaders should:
1. Be united
2. Be honest with the people
3. Recognize that it would be very difficult to "do it alone"
4. Welcome help from all parts of Nigeria and actively seek to recruit this "army of conscience", if you will

This goes to all other good people of the region. The unnecessary suspicion of all non-ND folks who come to help and are genuinely concerned is detrimental to achieving the goal of a fairer revenue allocation formula. In essence, the goal should be to create in Nigeria, a majority group to fight for a minority group.

Tex,
The Yorubas are already clamouring for a LNG plant in Ogun-Ondo border, and that's because Ondo state have very small hydrocarbon resources. I wonder what they'll demand if they have hydrocarbon resources as huge as that of the Delta. And you're here saying something else.

You're on your own Tex.

I can only hope that we have people like Richyblack all over the country. Your advise is well taken on board. It will be communicated to the highest level. We will do our best to tidy up our side of the present divide so that we can unite, integrate fully into the larger mother Nigeria.

Thanks and God bless you.

n_delta:

Dear All,
I HAVE A POEM I WANT TO SHARE WITH YOU PEOPLE, ON NIGER-DELTA WRITTEN BY ME

[/size]NIGER-DELTA
[size=8pt][font=Lucida Sans Unicode][font=Lucida Sans Unicode]Niger delta[/font][/font]
The land flowing with milk and honey
You are blessed with arable land and animals
The land blessed with natural resources
Your upland good for farming and lowland houses
the fishes and crabs
You are a land blessed with virtues and values

But your milk has been drained and your honey diluted
Your land dredged and your animals killed by oil spills
What suppose to be a thing of joy now turned to be pain
Your virtues and values now seen as a sacrilege

[font=Lucida Sans Unicode][font=Lucida Sans Unicode]Niger delta[/font][/font]
You are a land blessed with talents and hope
A blessed land with strong men and women
A land of beauty
The pacesetter
The big beating heart of the entity called Nigeria


But your talents has been sent to their early grave
And your hope dashed
Your men of great talents and stuffs who want to maintain and preserves
your values were killed
Your Daughters forced to be bread-winners
And your Sons forced to take up arms and ammunitions
Your beauty changed by gas flaring
You are made the second fiddle
And made a useless part of the body called Nigeria

[font=Lucida Sans Unicode][font=Lucida Sans Unicode]Niger delta[/font][/font]
Go out there to take your rightful place, because you are destined to be great.
Great Niger delta

Composed by: Aikhenomian Pete Omojaifoh . O.
a.k.a NIGER-DELTA

May, 2007

A SICK DEMENTED POEM!

@bibiking1

Am not here to bring about discord neither fight amidst d member's forum, please try and read well and understand the fact of the matter, we are not enjoying the OIL, AND THE PAINS IS TOO MUCH, IF THE OIL IS NOT HERE IN THE DELTAS, it would have been better, cause if having resources and you are not gaining from it, better not to have it.

@all

Nigeria should be grateful and appreciate a fact that we are NIGER-DELTANS ARE ACCOMMODATIVE, We only fight the FG not our Yoruba, Igbo or Hausa brothers and sisters,

See what happen in Kenya,

Appreciate the fact that we still keep this Country going,

and note one thing am not from the creeks and my community is not producing oil but am from the state and feel concern

ono:

I can only hope that we have people like Richyblack all over the country. Your advise is well taken on board. It will be communicated to the highest level. We will do our best to tidy up our side of the present divide so that we can unite, integrate fully into the larger mother Nigeria.

Thanks and God bless you.

@ono,
You're welcome.

_{“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” - Martin Luther King Jr.}

it belongs to the nigerian government but dues should be paid to niger delta. the problem of niger delta is the governance of their state(delta,bayelsa,edo) and not the nigerian government. asking who owns the oil is stupid since oil producing territories overlap niger delta into yoruba and igbo states.

Enough of all these moronic noise making about Nigerian oil being owned by the Niger Delta. Imo and Abia produce substantial amounts of oil and Abia just recovered 52 oil wells previously ceded to Rivers. Moreover Shell recently discovered large cache of hydrocarbons in Abia. Large amounts of oil in Enugu and Anambra remains capped (reserved) by the FGN.

At any rate, Coal and oil palm from the East was also used to service Nigeria before oil was discovered.



Shell discovers large quantity of hydrocarbon in Abia
31 January, 2008 12:00:00 UDOKA AGWU
Font size:   
The managing director/vice president (production) of (SPDC), Mutiu Sumonu made this known in Umuahia when he paid a courtesy visit to the state Governor Theodore A. Orji.
Sumonu said the purpose of his visit was to introduce himself as the new managing director of Shell and to establish good working relationship with Abia State government.
He said if his organisation commenced the prospecting of the hydrocarbon in the state, it would go a long way to boasting the internally generated revenue of the state.
The Shell boss solicited for the support and co-operation of the Abia government in harnessing the hydrocarbon. Responding, Orji thanked Sumonu and his team for their decision to visit the state government, one of the major stakeholders.
The governor praised Shell for the role it had been playing in the areas of education, health and social infrastructures, among others in its host communities.
Orji noted that apart from the hydrocarbons, his state was blessed with so many minerals. He urged Shell to explore into other areas in the state because Abia was investor friendly.

http://www.businessdayonline.com/national/3237.html

I know we will get there!

Resource Control

Germannig:

Enough of all these moronic noise making about Nigerian oil being owned by the Niger Delta. Imo and Abia produce substantial amounts of oil and Abia just recovered 52 oil wells previously ceded to Rivers. Moreover Shell recently discovered large cache of hydrocarbons in Abia. Large amounts of oil in Enugu and Anambra remains capped (reserved) by the FGN.

At any rate, Coal and oil palm from the East was also used to service Nigeria before oil was discovered.



Shell discovers large quantity of hydrocarbon in Abia
31 January, 2008 12:00:00 UDOKA AGWU
Font size:
The managing director/vice president (production) of (SPDC), Mutiu Sumonu made this known in Umuahia when he paid a courtesy visit to the state Governor Theodore A. Orji.
Sumonu said the purpose of his visit was to introduce himself as the new managing director of Shell and to establish good working relationship with Abia State government.
He said if his organisation commenced the prospecting of the hydrocarbon in the state, it would go a long way to boasting the internally generated revenue of the state.
The Shell boss solicited for the support and co-operation of the Abia government in harnessing the hydrocarbon. Responding, Orji thanked Sumonu and his team for their decision to visit the state government, one of the major stakeholders.
The governor praised Shell for the role it had been playing in the areas of education, health and social infrastructures, among others in its host communities.
Orji noted that apart from the hydrocarbons, his state was blessed with so many minerals. He urged Shell to explore into other areas in the state because Abia was investor friendly.

http://www.businessdayonline.com/national/3237.html

Scratching the bottom of the Pot eh. . .