STRIKING A BALANCE BETWEEN HOST COMMUNITY CLAIMS AND NATIONAL INTEREST OVER OWNERSHIP RIGHTS OF OIL RESOURCES IN NIGERIAN DELTA REGION

Ownership of oil resources in most countries is conferred on the central or federal government, not allowing individuals, community or component states/units to lay claim to it. This has been beneficial for international business purposes and has ensured stable revenue particularly for the central/federal government. With increasing environmental damage associated with exploration and distribution from the international oil company operators, coupled with weak institutional arrangements and poorly conceived laws, communities, individuals and states have begun to agitate for control of their resources. Based on the above, the authors argued for cooperative ownership of oil resource under the current legal system in Nigeria. The paper thereafter considered the merits of the current system encouraging communal and state interest in oil resources. The authors then maintained the need for a new ‘cooperative approach’ to oil ownership in Nigeria involving the Federal Government, States and/or the oil-bearing communities by placing heavy reliance on combination of subsisting local and international frameworks, as a catalyst, intrinsically capable of portending equity and fairness as well as a threshold of balance between local claim and national interest.