Centre attributes rising tension in Niger Delta to misappropriation of fund
MISAPPROPRIATION of funds has been identified as a major source of people's grievances against government and oil companies in the Niger Delta.
Professor Adele Jinadu, executive director of Centre for Advance Social Science (CASS), Port Harcourt, made the observation at the weekend in Kaduna.
He was speaking at a training workshop organised for civil society organisations on the Nigeria Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (NEITI) Act.
Jinadu said that the situation had resulted in vandalism of oil pipelines, illegal bunkering activities, hostage taking and communal conflicts.
``The resultant insecurity and conflict have adversely impacted on Nigeria's production capacity, with government acknowledging that it lost a quarter of revenues in 2006,'' he said.
He argued that the declining oil revenues could further undermine development efforts in the region, ``thus sustaining and aggravating the `resource curse' in its viciously seamless web of poverty,
resentment and violence''.
Jinadu commended the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) for organising the training which, he said, would raise popular awareness about NEITI and other topical economic
issues.
He, however, noted that state and local governments, which had a substantial portion of oil revenues, had shown little commitment to the NEITI process.
"It is at these sub-national tiers of government, which are also the closest to the people, that much requires to be done to complement and strengthen the initiative launched by the Federal Government,'' he said.
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