The Niger Delta Agitation for Resource Control: Making Sense of Common Law Private Property Ownership Principles in the Management and Control of Oil Resources in Nigeria

Abstract

The agitation for resource control in Nigeria’s Niger Delta region has frequently snowballed into violence and militancy. Although the demand for resource control borders on the transfer of ownership and management and control of the processes of exploitation of crude oil found abundantly in the region, the exact parametres of the demand are not defined by the agitators. This paper examined the various variants of resource control demanded by the different groups of agitators in the Niger Delta. It particularly argued that the common law private property ownership principles of Cuius est solum, eius est usque ad coelum et ad inferos, and Quic quid plantatur solo, solo cedit be adopted to transfer ownership of natural resources, including crude oil to the indigenous inhabitants of the oil rich Niger Delta region in line with the principles of true federalism. The paper recommended the restructure of the Nigerian federal system to devolve more powers to the states and repeal of certain existing laws that inhibit the rights of the people to own land and natural resources beneath those lands, which belong to them, their ancestors and children yet unborn.