The reactions of the ethnic communities which have morphed into violent militant groups and ganglands in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria to State and industry control of land and mineral resources require a very close study. A comparative analysis of the current situation in Nigeria with what is obtained in the early days of the European civilization when the challenges of governance and economic crimes were emerging from the womb of the industrial revolution is equally of importance. If sovereignty resides ultimately with the people and the State governs with the consent of the citizens and the ultimate responsibility of the State and business is the welfare of the citizens, a fundamental breach of the social contract leaves the people with the right not only to abolish the State but to sabotage business in social banditry. This paper tries to apply the general principles of the theories of social banditry and social contract to the phenomenon of oil theft and illegal refineries in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. It employs the comparative, historical and analytical methodology in presentation while relying on secondary materials and doctrinal research method. It argues that the crimes of oil theft and illegal refineries have arisen from the lack of the development of the Niger Delta by both the State and the multinational oil companies and that they are an expression of the rights to resource control by indigenous communities after 50 years of State and industry control of same have failed to yield development on the ticket of the United Nation’s Resolution 1803 of 1962 guaranteeing national sovereignty over natural resources. It finds that they fall within Hobsbawm’s social banditry thesis and that the basic conditions for the abolition of the State under the social contract thesis have been largely met by the economic and socio-legal contexts prevailing in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria.
The Niger Delta of Nigeria has since acquired the first position in the world for notorious oil theft. The complicities of the military and the multinational oil companies in the crime have equally been well articulated. This paper addresses the relationship that exist between the corridors of oil theft and the collateral damages attendant on the scourge of oil theft since same acquired an industrial and international status in the delta. It reviews the various ways the theft has manifested and employs the doctrinal research methodology. It critically examined the findings of the Chatham House and the Ribadu's Committee and keys more particularly into the prescriptions advanced by the Guardian to the effect that instead of 'blowing up things' through the military, the state ought to find ways of structuring illegal refineries in the creeks into efficient production units underlined by quality control.
No election in the history of Nigeria has thrown up so much negative publicity as the 2023 election that produced Tinubu as the 17th Nigerian President. That he would emerge as the President willy-nilly was presaged by his boastful campaign and the complicity of ex-President Buhari who was installed in 2015 (without a court challenge from ex-President Jonathan) because of the kingmaker role played by Tinubu who had seen the 2023 election as a pay-back deal. Buhari completely abided by the deal he had with Tinubu despite the drug, certificate, nationality scandals and unconstitutional issues surrounding his candidature and that of his running mate: Kashim Shettima. The groundswell objection by Christians to the mandate for being a Muslim-Muslim ticket and the unprecedented support the presumed winner of the election, Peter Obi, received from the youths did not upturn Tinubu’s triumphalism. In view of these deep strictures which the Tinubu presidency encountered, his inauguration was equally greeted with a floodgate of litigations and popular objections. His swearing in before the outcome of the judicial challenge that has been raised by Akitu Abubarkar and Peter Obi gave birth to this paper which is doctrinal in method. It seeks to interrogate the political and legal perspectives that have informed the polarizing views of those who support, and those who oppose the swearing in of the President-elect vis-à-vis judicial decisions and the constitutional provisions of the 1999 Constitution of the Federation and the Electoral Act, 2022. It finds that those who believe that the swearing in should be carried out pending the outcome of the Tribunal’s and the Supreme Court’s decisions are more in tune with the democratic ethos and conventions in the country. Even the major contender, Peter Obi, seems to be in tandem with the pro-inauguration group having benefited from or experienced the same circumstances previously as a two-time Governor of Anambra State. In the light of the serious scrimmages that the issue has engendered throughout the country, it is recommended that an urgent amendment be made to the 1999 Constitution of the Federation and the Electoral Act, 2022 to provide for an early scheduling of all elections such that all issues concerning their legal challenges are timely settled before a winner is sworn into office to avoid the perennial crisis that greets situations where a candidate assumes office only to be booted out by the judiciary.
The desire to have the Nigeria Bar Association, Kwale registered by the national body had been the consuming passion of the lawyers in Kwale in Delta State, Nigeria. They have tried in recent history to ensure that they are registered but to no avail due to the want of the number required by the national body as the bench mark and the volume of litigation and other legal activities in the Kwale space. But since the 2020s the number has reached close to hundred as against the bench mark of fifty yet the processes of getting it registered as the latest branch of the association has been proving to be a daunting task hence this study which employs the doctrinal method. It seeks to do a numeration of the lawyers in the Kwale legal space who are resident in the town and who are ready to own up as members of the Kwale Bar Forum ready to vouch that they are prepared to hold up the flag of the branch high enough to the acknowledgement and satisfaction of the national body that Kwale is qualified to have a ‘proud’ branch of the association. The study in the process of raising this principal issue of the call for registration of a branch in Kwale has attempted to survey and interrogate some of the forces that have retarded the recognition of Kwale as a branch and has advanced some of the key reasons why the branch should be created by the national body. Some historical incursions were made only for the purpose of highlighting the struggles of legal development in the space and to pay some level of tribute to those early lawyers who chartered the course of the association in Kwale.
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