By Ono Yima
The Ijaw National Congress (INC) has raised concerns over what it describes as systemic injustice in the application of Nigeria’s resource laws, citing glaring disparities between the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021 and the Nigerian Minerals and Mining Act 2007.
Addressing journalists in Abuja on Saturday, Prof. Benjamin Okaba, President of INC worldwide, said the inconsistencies portray Nigeria as operating a “two-tiered system of resource justice” that unfairly marginalises the Niger Delta.
According to him, while the Mining Act makes room for host community agreements, scholarships, jobs, and infrastructure development, the PIA offers oil-producing communities just three per cent of annual operational expenditure — a provision widely rejected in the Niger Delta as inadequate.
“The three per cent is not from profit but from operational costs, and is managed through a trust fund that sidelines state governments and traditional institutions,” Okaba said. “It is insulting, given the decades of monumental environmental devastation and socio-economic neglect.”
He also faulted what he described as discriminatory security policies, noting that while the federal government deploys military Joint Task Force (JTF) operations in the Niger Delta to guard oil assets, no such militarisation exists in solid mineral-rich states.
“Our people are turned into victims in their own land, subjected to human rights abuses, all to protect oil infrastructure. Yet in mining states, even with widespread illegal mining, the approach remains civil and permissive,” he said.
Okaba further highlighted environmental lapses in the PIA, saying the Act includes loopholes that allow gas flaring under ministerial discretion, unlike the Mining Act which places strict obligations on environmental remediation.
The INC called on the National Assembly to amend the PIA to bring its provisions in line with the Mining Act, especially in areas of community benefits, environmental protection, ownership principles, and revenue sharing.
“The Niger Delta is not a colony of Nigeria,” Okaba declared. “We can no longer accept laws that treat our people and our environment as sacrificial lambs for national unity.”
He also urged a return to true federalism, with regions controlling their resources as was the case in Nigeria’s First Republic.