By Jerome-Mario Utomi
ASIDE from being perceived as backward and degraded, occasioned by crude oil exploration, exploitation and production, the Niger Delta region means different things to different people. To some, it is a region where communal right to a clean environment and access to clean water supplies is being violated. By its admission, the oil industry has abandoned thousands of polluted sites in the region which need to be identified and studied in detail. Aquifers and other water supply sources which are being adversely affected by industrial or other activities need to be recovered, while communities are adequately compensated for their losses.
To others, it symbolises a location where government employs non-participatory approach to development, a broad-based consultative approach that strips the people of the Niger Delta of sense of ownership over their own issues, where government and other Nigerians failed to see the problem of the region as a national…
Source: Vanguard Newspaper
