https://www.naij.com/858067-money-used-explore-oil-come-senator-challenges-niger-delta.html
Senator Abdullahi Adamu's claim, in the link above, that money used to explore oil came from the North is blatant falsehood.
I have in the past read in the newspapers, a number of Northern politicians bandying about this outright falsehood in their typical Jihad of Deception order; and fear that unanswered, gullible Nigerians would one day accept this monumental lie as truth.
The history of oil exploration in Nigeria is summarized by SearchAll.com in following unambiguous language.
"Industry History: Oil was discovered in Nigeria in 1956 at Oloibiri in the Niger Delta after half a century of exploration. The discovery was made by Shell-BP, at the time the sole concessionaire. Nigeria joined the ranks of oil producers in 1958 when its first oil field came on stream producing 5,100 bpd."
Alhaji Abdullahi Adamu, two-time former Governor of Nassarawa State and Senator representing Nassarawa West, in the Nigeria's Senate, discharged but not acquitted of a 149-count EFCC charge of looting his State's treasury of N15billion with 18 others whilst he was governor, got it all wrong on the history of oil exploration in Nigeria when he claimed, and I quote:
". . . the history of the country as funds used for exploration of oil and gas
before 1958 were realised from agriculture and solid minerals found in the North."
1. Nigerian government did not invest a penny in oil exploration. Shell-BP was the sole concessionaire of oil exploration in Nigeria and took no financial contributions whatsoever from the governments of Nigeria. In the ordinary dictionary sense, the words "sole Concessionaire" means "sole holder of a concession or grant, especially for the use of land or commercial premises". Shell-BP made all the investments in its oil exploration activities in Nigeria.
2. Oil was discovered in Nigeria in 1956 at Oloibiri in the Niger Delta "after half a century of exploration." That means that the concession to Shell-BP was granted by the Colonial authorities of the Southern Protectorate of Nigeria, about 1906 - before the amalgamation. The Northern Protectorate would not have been involved in any form in granting the concession since the amalgamation of the Northern Protectorate with the South and colony of Lagos took place in 1914.
3. The main reason the North was amalgamated with the South by the British, was because the North
was too poor to sustain its government. Consequently the Colonial Administration had to borrow the
British taxpayers' money from the British treasury annually to sustain governance of the North.
4. Whereas the North was too poor to sustain governance, the South was rich enough to defray the cost of governance and in addition invest in development projects.
The poverty of the North in relation to the South was aptly captured in Colonial Report no. 878, Nigeria for 1914, presented to both Houses of Parliament by the Command of His Majesty King George V and it exposed how parasitic the North was intended to be on the South.
“It (the Northern Protectorate) depended at first on a substantial grant-in-aid from the Imperial Exchequer, averaging about £274,000 per annum, and though this was being rapidly replaced by the product of the direct tax, which yielded in 1913 the large sum of £546,000 – about half of which was paid into revenue, the remainder being assigned to the Native Administration – the essential needs of the country could not be met without a considerable additional revenue. . .
Southern Nigeria, on the other hand, presented a picture which was in almost, all points exact
converse of that of the North. Here the material prosperity had been extra-ordinary. The revenue had
almost doubled itself in a period of five years. The surplus balances exceeded a million and a half. . . And so while Northern Nigeria was devoting itself to building up a system of Native Administration, and laboriously raising revenue by direct taxation, Southern Nigeria had found itself engrossed in material development.”
The British Colonial Secretary, Lord Lewis Vernon Harcourt’s pre-amalgamation report on the proposal to the British government, openly affirmed the intendment of the amalgamation and the state of finances of the North and South, in his insulting designation of the South as a rich bride about to be given away in marriage, without her consent or consultation, in order to sustain a poor groom.
“We have released Northern Nigeria from the lending strings of the treasury. The promising and well conducted youth is now on allowance on his own and is about to affect an alliance with a southern lady of means. I have issued the special license and Sir Fredrick Lugard will perform the ceremony. . ."
5. The North which was found by the British to be unable to fund development projects, essentially because it was spending 50% of its revenue in funding feudalism, otherwise branded Native Authority. It could therefore not have funded oil exploration between 1906 when the concession was granted, and 1956 when oil was discovered in Oloibiri and 1958, when the first shipment of oil out of Nigeria, by the concessionnaire, took place.
6. The North accepted self-government only in 1959, as against 1957 by the South; and from 1914 to date, has maintained the ranking of the poorest region in Nigeria, largely due to the cost of maintaining feudalism; and a misconception that wealth is predestined, therefore man cannot fight and defeat poverty.
7. In issuing that false statement, Senator Adamu, like all Jihadists, had no other intention than to deceive the gullible.
The deception can be said to be intended to incite the North to fight to death (like in Dr. Saro Wiwa's case) for oil in the Niger-Delta over which they have a right on account of their spurious investment; and at the same time also provoke Niger-Deltans who are resisting North's monopolization of oil blocks and leaving them with the devastations of oil extraction in their territories.
8. Without conceding in any form whatsoever that the North funded oil exploration in the Niger Delta, it is worthwhile to note that even if it did, which it did not, Northerners have reaped enough bounty from their false assumption of investment in oil exploration and it is time to give the land owners the benefit of what is on their land.
To Senator Adamu and his likes and in the best interest of peace and progress in Nigeria, I offer James Madison's piece of advice.
"Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives."
(James Madison, Jr.,1751 – 1836, political theorist and American statesman, served as the fourth President of the United States (1809–17) and is hailed as the "Father of the U.S. Constitution" for his pivotal role in drafting and promoting the draft Constitution; and he also authored and sponsored the U.S. Bill of Rights).
Chukwuemeka I. Onyesoh
