THE POLITICS OF RESOURCE ALLOCATION AND ITS IMPACT ON DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA'S NIGER DELTA

Before the abolition of the principle of derivation in Nigeria, Nigerian’s economy was basically on Agriculture and the principle, made it unarguably, that the Northern part of the country, that had the higher resources, was paid hundred percent however, as the country’s economic mainstay moved from Agriculture to oil and gas resources, the constitution introduced the formular of revenue sharing which reserved bulk of the proceeds to the federal government given that Nigeria practices federalism, and the balance of the proceeds shared among the other states. Indeed, federalism birthed the constitutional power of federal ownership of natural resources whose effect is the devolving of political and economic power to the state and other components to the federal government. This Paper appraises the activities and effect of the Exploration and Exploitation of oil and gas resources on the Niger Delta Region