Petro-Economy and Corruption in Nigeria: A Legal Examination

Abstract

Due to Nigeria government’s inability to properly account and convince its citizenry how its petrogas resources being explored in the Niger Delta region are managed or controlled, it has given rise to militancy, violence and corruption. The study traces these social maladies to both the governments and the multinational oil and gas companies’ neglect of the Niger Delta region. It analyses corruption from the legal perspective; the laws regulating the oil and gas sectors in Nigeria; the basis for the Niger Delta agitation and the Nigeria government’s blueprint for the Niger Delta region. Our findings are that the joint venture agreements between the government and the multinational companies, over-invoicing by the multinational companies, the laws regulating the oil and gas sectors and also the newly created Local Content Act (other known as the Nigeria’s Oil and Gas Industry Development Act, 2010), are the engines for corruption, and that except they are reviewed, corruption will persist in our petro-economy. The study concludes that except adequate machineries are put in place and the enforcement of laws to punish violators for the crimes of corruption in our petro-economy, the situation will degenerate and the Nigerian government will continue to lose huge sums of money.