THE QUEST FOR RESOURCE CONTROL AND SECURITY THREAT IN NIGERIA: AN OPINION SURVEY FROM ETHIOPE WEST LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA IN DELTA STATE
ABSTRACT
The Niger Delta question represents one of the most intractable sources of political destabilization, constitutes a profound threat to national security, and economic development of the Nigerian state. Therefore, the study of the intricate dynamics among multinational oil corporations, the Nigerian state, and insurgent militias illuminates the root causes, society schisms and the political economy of resource induced conflict in Nigeria oil producing state. Economic exploitation of the region’s vast crude oil reserves by multinational corporations and government authorities is juxtaposed with the spectre of environmental devastation, excruciating poverty, and recurrent rule of impunity. National elite contestations concerning the legalities of resource control, internecine squabble over revenue allocation formulae and derivation principles have been compounded by incessant disruptions of crude oil pipelines, necessitating drastic reduction in the country’s petroleum output and revenues derived from the global economy. This study centre on insecurity and the politics of Resource Control in Delta State. A research work of this nature is inevitable viewing the strategic position Delta State occupies in the nation’s economy. Nigeria’s major source of revenue is oil mineral exploration. And oil exploration accounts for over 80% of the total nation’s wealth. It is very clear that oil mineral resources are explored or exploited in the minority Niger Delta Region. Consequently, the Nigeria’s economy rests largely on Delta State and the Niger Delta Region in general. Over the years, since oil exploration started in Delta State in the Niger Delta, there has been an extreme politics on the allocation of the financial and material resources gotten from the oil wealth. Inspite of the colossal barrels of crude oil exploited in the region, there have been successive manipulations of the oil derivation percentage which has been allowed to decline to the bottom, different government policies or laws governing the oil industry, the perceived marginalization, deprivation, underdevelopment of Delta state and the Niger Delta region informed the agitation for a fair share of the oil wealth by the Niger Delta people where Deltans are front liners, and as well as the agitation for resource control. Following the marginalization of the region over five decades of oil exploration in the region, these agitations transcend to the Niger Delta crisis that has today attracted both the attention of the Federal Government of Nigeria and the International Community. All these and many other factors amount to the oil politics in the Niger Delta The study therefore explicates the impacts of resource control and insecurity in Delta State in the Niger Delta.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the study    -
1.2 Statement of the Problem    -    -    -    
1.3 Objectives of the Study    -    -    
1.4 Research Question.    -    -    -
1.5 Hypothesis    -    -    -
1.6 Significance of study    -    -    
1.7 Scope of the Study    -    
1.8 Definition of Terms    -    -    -    
 CHAPTER     TWO:    LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL ANALYSIS
2.1      literature review    -    -    -    
2.1.1      The quest for resource control    -    
2.1.2    Insecurity in Niger Delta    -
2.1.3    Youth Restiveness    -    -    
2.1.4      Legitimacy of resource control    -    
2.1.5      Federalism and resource control in Nigeria    -    
2.1.6    The Historical Dynamics of the Niger Delta    -        
2.2     Theoretical Framework of Analysis    -
CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.1    Research Design    -    -    -    
3.2    Population of the Study    -    -    
3.3    Source of Data    -    -    -    
3.4    Sample Size    -    -    -    -    -
3.5    Sampling Techniques    -    
3.6      Method for Collecting Data    -    -
3.7    Techniques of Data Analysis    -
CHAPTER FOUR: DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS.
4.1    Organization of Data Frequency and Distribution
of Variables    -    -    -    
4.2    Frequency and Percentage Distribution of Dependent
Variables    -    -    
CHAPTER FIVE: SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS
5.1    Summary Findings    -    -
5.2Conclusion    -    -    -    -    
5.3    Policy Recommendations    -    -
BIBLIOGRAPHY    -    -    
APPENDIX1    -    -
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
The Niger Delta Region is one of the world’s largest wetlands and homelands of several ethnic minorities in Nigeria. It covers an area of 70,000 square km and consists of a number of distinct ecological zones, characteristics of the alluvial plain in tropical regions, coastal ridges, barriers, mangroves, fresh water, swamp forest and low land rain forest. (Niger Delta Environment survey, 1995). Delta state as one of the core Niger Delta States is the central focus of this study. In spite of the colossal barrels of crude oil and gas resources extracted from the region that sustains the nation’s economy, this region remains one of the least developed regions in Nigeria which delta State is inclusive. This also epitomizes one of the most pathetic paradoxes and contradictions of poverty in the midst of plenty despite all that is gotten from the region.
The story of Delta State and the entire Niger Delta region is the story of a severe scramble for the ownership and control of the oil and gas resources in the region. This is an issue of tripartite arrangement viz: the Nigerian state, oil industry and the oil producing States (Niger Delta), where the third party (oil producing region) has been completely excluded and deprived from the ownership and control of the oil mineral resources through different obnoxious government policies (state Legislations) on the oil industry that have negatively impacted on the development and stability of Delta state and the entire Niger Delta region.
The means through which national revenue is shared among the different region and states is irretrievably tied to the national question. Hench no broadly acceptable national revenue allocation system has been put in place since 1947 and which has not generated controversy. The crisis in the Niger Delta has been a serious concern to the Nigerian state over the years. This is partly because oil has become one of the most needed natural resource in the international energy sector coupled with the protracted contention over the ownership in the Niger Delta.
The conflicts over the ownership rights and possession of oil in the region, have resulted in the enactment of series of laws and policies. Rather than end, the conflicts,it has been intensified because the sole ownership of the resource has been vested on the state to the detriment of the people and communities in the Niger Delta region.
According to Ibaba (2005), the state’s policies have stripped the people of their ownership rights of the oil and gas resources, thereby jeopardizing their destiny. The production of oil from the Niger Delta region accounts for over 80 percent of Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product and represents the mainstay of the Nigerian economy. Yet, the Delta region has remained one of the least developed regions of Nigeria. This is one of the paradoxes and contradictions of the state’s approach to resume governance.  
The corruption of the Nigerian political leadership and the connivance of the Nigerian state and the transnational corporations have left the oil producing communities of the Delta region poor and underdeveloped. The pitiable situation of the region has led to the agitations of the local communities for social, infrastructural and economic development as evident in an army of unemployed youths who are easily recruited into violence. With the nursing trend of agitations across the region, more heavily armed militant groups have emerged. In its usual response, the Nigerian state deployed its military might. Since the 1990’s, the confrontation between the security forces of the state and the indigenous freedom fighters has escalated into protracted bloody violence and various attempts to mitigate the crisis have not been effective. The study therefore examines the extent to which the transnational corporations and Nigerian state have, through their activities, contributed to the insecurity in the Niger Delta region. In particular, it examines the Nigerian state’s policies and politics towards the exploitation and production of oil and gas and how they have worsened the insecurity in the region. It looks into the roles of the state and the US-Nigeria Bi-national Commission to mitigate the insecurity in the region.However, for many years now the revenue allocation has been interlaced with volatile, which attracted the attention of people within and outside the country.
1.2 STATEMENT OF PROBLEM
 It is quite unfortunate that in spite of the economic importance of the state and the region (Niger Delta) in the nation’s economy, Delta State and the entire Niger Delta region have been neglected, underdeveloped and marginalized for over five decades by the past political leaders of the country. Despite the colossal barrels of crude oil and gas extracted per day from the region, it is still left to wallow in abject poverty and underdevelopment. This is mainly due to the excessive ethnic-driven politics of oil mineral resources in the Niger Delta Region as perpetrated by the ruling class of the majority tribes. This scenario engendered for the insecurity in the Niger Delta Region that has seriously attracted the attention of both the Federal Government in particular and the International Community at large.
The state’s policies and politics towards the oil and gas precipitate insecurity in the Niger Delta. This is because the nature of the insecurity in the Niger Delta region shows that it is state-created and sustained. This is evident in the kind of challenges of insecurity in the region such as the confrontations between thestates military and the various militant groups, the proliferation of weapons, criminal gangs and cultists. Therefore, this study is concerned with how the Nigerian state’s policies and politics have constrained the mitigation of the insecurity in the region.
1.3 OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
1.  To unearth the remote causes of dissatisfaction among deltans in the revenue allocation formulae.
2. To identify the reason why the allocation principle have defied every pacifying effort.
3. To find out how the violence agitation have affected delta state.
4. To also find out the possible impact of revenues distribution on the development of delta state
5. To examines the nature and dynamics of the insecurity in the Delta state.
6. And finally proffer possible solutions and recommendations that will alleviate the problems of the state so as to bring about peace and development in Delta State and the entire Niger Delta in particular and Nigeria in general.
1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
1. What are the remote causes of dissatisfaction in revenue allocation among deltans?
2.  Why has the allocation principle defied every pacifying effort?
3. How has violence agitation affected delta state?
4.  What are the possible impact of revenues distribution on the development of delta state?
5. What is the nature and dynamics of the insecurity in the Delta State?
6. What are the possible solutions that will alleviate the problems of the state so as to bring about peace and development in Delta State and the entire Niger Delta in particular and Nigeria in general?
1.5Hypothesis
H0: Resource control has no significant relationship with security threat in Nigeria.
H1: Resource control has significant relationship with security threat in Nigeria.
1.6SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
The conflict in the Niger Delta has been a problem that has disturbed the Nigerian state over the years. There have been various attempts to mitigate the insecurity in the region. However the conflict still persists therefore meaning that a solution to the conflict has not been found. This work therefore takes an approach in shedding more insight on the origins, nature and dynamics of the insecurity in the region and suggests recommendations to mitigate the conflict in the region. It will open new vista of knowledge on the subject, thus providing concerned stakeholders opportunity of understanding the causal factors of insecurity in the Niger Delta region.
1.7 SCOPE OF STUDY
This study will examine the various causes of the agitation of state control of resource and sequence of agitations from raisman commission of 1958 till date. Also the study examines the origins, nature and dynamics of insecurity in the Niger Delta in the period, 1999 till date, paying attention to the policies and politics of the Nigerian state and its collaboration with the transnational corporations in the exploitation and production of oil and gas. The study examines the period before 1999 in order to create a background context for the study and terminates in 2010. With the activities between the Nigerian state and the agitating groups. The limitation of the work resides in the recent nature of the Bi-national commission. The Bi-national Commission is relatively recent and on-going. The study is restricted to the progress of the Commission as at the time the research is carried out.
1.8 DEFINITION OF TERMS
Federalism: According to ojo, (2010), federalism is a system of government in which the indicators of social, political and economic development are pursued by a coordinated effort of both central and other incorporated unit of government.
Resource control: Henryik, (2009), defined Resource control can be broadly defined as the control and management of resources by state or local governments from whose jurisdiction the resources are extracted.
Revenue allocation: Revenue allocation is the distribution or division of total income, or revenue, in a business co-operation or government structure. (Akeem, 2011).