By Dele Sobowale

The oil is produced in the Niger Delta, yet, it is the people of the Northeast and the Northwest and a little of North-Central , almost nothing for the South-West and South-East, that own and control these oil blocks. Almost nothing for the South-South, Niger Delta oil producing areas”.

“We don’t give out blocks of marginal fields based on where you come from. It is purely on competitive process and the winner basically takes it”. Mr Osten Olorunsola Director Department of Petroleum Resources, THE NATION , March 19, 2013.

There is a small query for Mr Olorunsola about that statement, which was not categorical enough. But, depending on how long this article is, the query might come at the end. There are two most important issues here which call for more immediate and urgent attention.

One is political, and perhaps partly deliberately provocative and inciting people to civil unrest. But, that would be something for the security agencies to decide. The other is economic, political and social in nature. That is for me to explain as best as I can.

First, the current controversy about ownership and award of oil blocks was kicked off by Senator Ita Enang, of Akwa Ibom North Senatorial district. After announcing that the north owns 83% of oil blocks in Nigeria, went on to add the statement credited above to him.

It should be generally agreed that a Senator or member of the Federal House of Representatives, although elected from a Senatorial district, has on being sworn in become a Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Therefore, any statement he makes on the floor of parliament, on account of parliamentary immunity, must be true.

At least he owes Nigerians the onus of proof of the authenticity of that statement. For, that reason, it was expected that Senator Enang, as Chairman of a Senate Committee on petroleum, would have provided a list of all oil blocks awarded and who are the owners. Where a company owns the oil block, Enang should have been able to find out and tell us who are the owners and directors of the company.

Instead Enang, irresponsibly, left us with a deliberately provocative declaration, which we are now finding out might even be a lie.

At least that is what Mr Olorunsola and the responses to Enang’s pronouncements amount to. “At the point of applying for the blocks and marginal fields, we don’t ask whether you are a northerner or a southerner. So, we don’t have records of 83 per cent anywhere”.  That was the statement by Olorunsola. The obvious question is: from where did Enang get the figure he threw at us and in the process started a new cycle of animosities based on what apparently is a figure of his imagination?

That was not all, the DPR chief also informed us that, “173 blocks have been awarded out to people. Out of the 173 blocs awarded, 90 blocks are held by indigenous companies, while 83 are held by multinationals”. Clearly, even if all 90 blocks held by indigenous companies are held by northerners, it would still not amount to 83 per cent of all oil blocks. And, “the 83 blocks held by multinationals account for 94 per cent of Nigeria’s oil production”.

Olorunsola said a lot of other things which are important but which on account of space and time constraints will not delay us here. It is merely sufficient to close this section by pointing out how some of our leaders in the Executive and legislative branches of governments, at all levels, can be so frivolous about matters which could have great consequences for our nation. Senator Enang’s statement is one such example.

The only redeeming aspect of the controversy which Enang started lies in the aspect of how the award of oil blocks can create inequities in the system which can increasingly skew the distribution of income more in favour of the “haves” than the “have-nots”.  Olorunsola announced as if it were a trifle, that “production by indigenous firms is about 150,000 barrels per day”.

Perhaps, the DPR chief needs to be reminded that 150,000 barrels per day comes to 4.5 million barrels per month and if the net income per barrel is even as low as $4 per barrel, $18 million or N2.8 billion per month, N34.56 billion per annum, is going into those few pockets.

Given a nation in which 70% of the population live on less than $2, 0r N320 per day N9600 month,  N115,200 per annum. The less than 50 indigenous producers collectively take home at least the equivalent of what 310,000 of their Fellow Nigerians receive. To the best of my knowledge, neither the privileged few nor the over-burdened masses brought the oil with them at birth. The preferential allocation is the work of men not an act of God.

It would appear callous for any government, in a poor country, to have allowed this sort of reprehensible inequity, in the distribution of the nation’s wealth to have developed and to persist.