CAN THE BRAZILIAN MODEL BE USED TO DOUSE RESOURCE CONTROL AGITATION IN NIGERIA’S OIL PRODUCING STATES?
MADAKI O. AMEH Madaki.O.Ameh@shell.com ABSTRACT: Since commencement of oil and gas operations in Nigeria, the issue of ownership and control of the resource has been a sore point between the Federal Government of Nigeria, the oil producing States and the oil producing communities. Different approaches have been adopted over time to address the issue, but none appears to have succeeded in dousing the agitation for resource control, leading to sundry deadlocks in erstwhile attempts to address the problem, the most recent being the National Political Reforms Conference convened in Nigeria in 2005. Even though the law on government ownership of mineral resources is not unique to Nigeria, the application of this law in practice has been a source of controversy. This paper examines the origins and content of this controversy, and by drawing on the practice in Brazil, with similar laws on ownership of resources as Nigeria, it provides insights into how this issue has been dealt with, and whet
