The Legal Chasm between Resource Control and the Determination of the Seaward Boundaries of the Littoral States in Nigeria

Abstract

Amongst the resources, which abound in Nigeria, crude oil is strategic to Nigeria’s economy. The classification of crude oil into offshore and onshore evoked a lot of national concern, which resulted in the suit in the Supreme Court February 2001 between the Federal Government of Nigeria and the thirty-six states. The statement of problem is that the said suit was and has often been erroneously termed as resource control suit, whereas it was a suit based on the determination of the seaward boundary of a littoral State for the purpose of calculating revenue accruable to such state for offshore oil. The focus of this work, therefore, is to address that problem and to direct the thinking of the people along the proper line of nomenclature. In a true Federalism, the component states constitutionally control the resources, which are found within their geographical spread, and they pay a certain percentage of revenue derived from such resources to the Federal Government. Practically, therefore, resource control rests in the component states of the Federation. In Nigeria, the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 and various other enactments vest the control of mineral resources in the Federal Government of Nigeria. That is anti-federalism.