DOES THE 'NORTH' REALLY CONTROL THE OIL BLOCKS?

"83% of oil blocks controlled by the North". The screaming Newspaper headline caught my attention in traffic. Virtually all the days papers carried the news as headlines on that day. This news came about following a debate on the floor of the senate about the Petroleum Industry bill the day before, where Senator Ita Enang took time to read out names of Northerners who have oil prospecting licences or oil blocks.

This revelation however is not new, as there has been an article by one Mr. Ross Alabo-George in the vanguard newspaper titled 'Derivation and Deprivation: why the north is poor', in which the writer mentioned all the Northerners that own oil blocks and how much they make from it.

I could understand the mischief of politicians in trying to drag us into another ethnic debate about who owns what or who benefits more from where, I can also understand the papers cashing in on it so as to sell more and make profit, but what made me smile in spite of all these is the naivety of a commentator who wondered why in spite of all these oil wells, poverty is still endemic in the North.

The fact that of the matter is that these so called oil wells were only given to a few connected  individuals who happen to come from the North, not to take care of anybody but themselves and their families. It was simply a personal thing where the Presidents or Heads of States gave out the Country's wealth to friends and relations that they wished. This is a sad reality of how the country has been run, and is still being run up till today. How many of these people own  industries where Northerners are employed? How many of them have built schools, roads or even sponsored children of the poor to school? What advantage has the North gained by having people with such oil blocks? What piqued me most about the headlines is the attempt to make it look as if the generality of Northerners or the North as a geographical region has benefitted from the ownership of any of these oil wells. The issue here is the same that applies to every sector of Nigerian economy today, be it banking, telecoms, army or even the civil service where nepotism and favoritism are being practiced freely.

Instead of stirring up another North versus South debate, I think what the house members ought to be doing at this point is to focus on the real issues, demand fairness and accountability in all sectors of the economy, not only the oil sector. Even if these oil licences are to be revoked and redistributed to the South South people as Senator Enang has suggested, the only losers will be the owners and their families and not the 'North' or 'Northerners'. In the same vein I also doubt that the ordinary man from the South will benefit anything from such redistribution.  

I therefore urge the people to read between the lines anytime politicians are talking so as not to be drawn into their politics of division, in matters that are purely based on self interest.