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OWNERSHIP AND CONTROL OF NATURAL RESOURCES IN NIGERIA: RUMOR VS. REALITY

The paper examined and interrogated the concept of ownership and control as it affects crude oil and solid minerals right vis-à-vis its impact on the current intergovernmental relations between the federal government and the natural resources bearing states in Nigeria. The paper adopted doctrinal research method. The paper examined two extant legislations namely; the Petroleum Act and the Minerals and Mining Act and found that both Acts have extensive provisions that have adequately provided for and vest ownership and control over crude oil and solid mineral resources in the federal government of Nigeria. The work found that institutional agencies such as the Nigerian Security and Civil Defense Corps and other related bodies actually carry out enforcement of the provisions of the Act against crude oil theft and establishment of illegal refineries in the Niger Delta Region. However, the paper also found that the enforcement mechanism of the Minerals and Mining Act by its institutional framework is rather weak. The work, therefore, recommends, among other things, that the federal government of Nigeria should reduce dependent on crude oil exploration and its attendant proceeds to solid minerals exploration because the country does not only have abundant solid minerals, but it is also because solid minerals have a great and wider international patronage than crude oil.