Frank Amugo

The study of History as a distinct discipline in Nigerian Schools has suffered some serious setback in the recent past with obvious consequences. Viewed from a broad perspective, History deals with the scientific inquiry into past human actions through the interpretation of evidence for the purpose of self-development. Against this backdrop, it has become crystal clear that no society can make meaningful cultural and socio-economic progress without a viable sense of history. Some critical factors are involved in the lull witnessed in the study of History at all levels of education in Nigeria and these range from bureaucratic bottlenecks to lack of interest among students in commitment to rigorous scholarship. A panacea for these teething problems with implications for cultural development will form the platform of this research paper.

Keywords: Historical Studies, Cultural Development, History in Schools, Education

In the past three or four decades, History and the Social Sciences have worked so closely together; especially with the rise of theoretical issues in history and the need for historical context in the Social Sciences. The Social Sciences which operate with theoretical generalizations inevitably require historical temporal dimension in its practice; while history needs the theories and generalizations (supplied by the Social Sciences) about the operations of society and process of change, which are the subject matter of history. This paper highlights the crucial nature of the relationship between History as a distinct discipline and the Social Sciences, especially in the areas of commonality of objectives and inter-dependence in sources and concepts required by both disciplines for effective practice. The need, therefore, is stressed for more intellectual harmony among historians and scholars in the Social Sciences as a result of the realities of interdependence (complementarity) and the inter-relatedness of History and Social Sciences' practice

Poverty has become an endemic phenomenon in Nigeria in spite of the abundant human and material resources the country is endowed with by nature. Various efforts at tackling poverty in Nigeria have been wishy-washy as a result of diverse faulty and dysfunctional Government policies and implementation programmes which have failed to address the problem of poverty. In the case of the Niger Delta region, diverse factors, both natural and man-made have been responsible for the poverty syndrome witnessed so far. This paper seeks to highlight these factors with historical insight and attempts to proffer possible panacea for tackling this seeming intractable menace.

Keywords: Poverty, Niger Delta, Government Policies, Sustainable Development

In this paper, we shall attempt to provide a concise history of the advent of the Oil industry in Nigeria in general and pay particular attention to the Oil producing area of Ogba/Egbema. Petroleum production and export is the mainstay of the Nigerian economy, providing almost 90% of Nigeria's export earnings (NNPC 1993:1). Exploration and production of crude oil for export has put Nigeria in the comity of oil-rich nations. The steady increase in revenue accruing from this finite source has however dwarfed earnings from other products to turn Nigeria into a mono-product economy state. This makes historical scholarship in this sector stimulating and pertinent.

Ogba/Egbema area is the location of the first and second highest Oil producing communities in Nigeria, Obagi of Ogba being the first and Mgbede/Ebocha of Egbema being the second. It is the presence of these two oil-bearing communities that place Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area in the position of highest Oil-producing local government area in Nigeria; a position that is unenviable in view of the resultant environmental degradation, poverty and all the effects of the air, water and land pollution.

Ogba/Egbema is located north of Ahoada West local government area of Rivers State. The area lies within the Delta formation, covering an area of 237.5sq km. This area is situated within the Oil mining leases (OMLS) 58, 60 and 61 with mixed vegetation of freshwater swamp and rain forest (NNPC 1997:35).

Administratively, the area was designated a district until 1978 when it was assigned a divisional status. the division was later fragmented into two units; Omoku Urban and Ogba/Egbema district in 1980 before it became a part of ONELGA created in 1992 We shall trace the history of crude oil development in this great oil-bearing area and its contribution to the economy of the nation especially up to the peak of oil boom; 1979.

Keywords: Oil Exploration, Exploitation, Ogba/Egbema LGA, Oil Industry, Pollution, Degradation, Niger Delta

The reduction of our modern world to a 'global village' occasioned by galvanized technological breakthrough poses new challenges for a cultural orientation that will create an enabling environment for sustainable development in underdeveloped polities like Nigeria. The concept of sustainable development proffers a new approach, which stipulates that meaningful social-economic development, should take cognisance of the holistic well being of the future generation.

Keywords: Globalization, Culture, Sustainable Development

Conflict in the Niger Delta area has assumed a geometrical proportion with the advent of oil exploitation in the region; arising from the perceived economic deprivations, neglect and outright marginalization of the people. This paper holds that Government legislations have provided the instruments for the sustenance of the status quo and ipso-facto, heightened conflict in the region. This paper highlights some of the dispossessional laws and concludes that peace in the region will only be possible through the review of the obnoxious legislation to enable the 'subject' people have considerable control of their resource for sustainable development and remediation of their degraded environment.

Keywords: Conflict, Laws, Oil Exploration, Marginalization, Legislations, Resource Control, Sustainable Development

The colonial and post-colonial economic development in the present day Egbema society represents experiences of most societies of the Niger Delta hinterland who witnessed and responded to the mutations occasioned by western imperialism. The Atlantic commerce distorted the economic processes of the people who were forced into the Atlantic trade and peasant production in line with the dictates of Atlantic commerce, including slave trade which completely disarticulated their economy. The post-colonial era that featured petroleum oil exploration and exploitation in Egbema, where oil was discovered in commercial quantity, dealt the final blow to Egbema economic coma. The oil exploitation of the present neo-colonial era has completely disorganized the economic mainstay through arable land reduction and pollution of the environment (Air, Water and Land), leading to discontent, protests and militancy. The paper therefore, traces the causes and course of Egbema's current economic woes through the developments during the colonial, post-colonial and neo-colonial petroleum oil dispensations and concludes that western imperialism, manifesting through the different epochs been responsible for Egbema's poor economic situation, leading to crises, and pervading youth sub-culture characteristic of other Niger Delta Communities.

Key Words: Colonial, Post-Colonial, Petroleum Oil and Crises.

Representative democracy emphasizes the instrumentality of election as a process of choosing political programs and leadership. This paper evaluates Nigeria's stage of political development by taking a studied look at the electoral process at the grassroots. Fundamentally empirical, the observation covers from party nominations, election campaigns, the distribution of election materials, the voting process, collation and announcement of results to the swearing-in ceremony at the local government headquarters. The paper subjects the findings to critical analysis within the theoretical framework of various concepts of political development.

Keywords: Governance, Election, Local Government

The history of fiscal formulas in Nigerian federalism has shown steady and systematic tilt towards the practice of Fiscal Centralism which is completely antithetical to the tenets of fiscal federalism that Nigeria claims to practice as a federation state. The strain of Nigerian federalism has largely fuelled the conduct of heated and unending debates over the unethical nature of Nigerian federalism. It has largely been observed that the fiscal formulas of the Nigerian state from 1966 when the late military head of state Major General Aguiyi Ironsi introduced a unitary fiscal system through the unification decree, Nigeria has maintained Fiscal Centralism inspite of General Gowon's later federal decrees 13. It is the interest of this paper to ex-ray the claim that the vacillation and conceptual policy aberration of the various Nigerian governments is a deliberate scheme employed by the central government to appropriate greater percentage of the country's wealth, while marginalizing the region where the nation's oil wealth is located. The work depended largely on secondary sources, especially publications and authorities on federalism, and fiscal policies, as well as, reports, and experiential inputs of the author. The papert establishes that indeed the Nigerian fiscal formulas deviated from fiscal federalism based on derivation, to the subsisting fiscal centralism which undermines the interest and development of the Niger Delta region, leading to the heightened clamour for resource control. It also stressed that evolution of fiscal centralism in the Nigerian federation has direct nexus with agitations and restiveness prevalent in the Niger Delta, and recommends a revert to fiscal federalism with suitable fiscal formulas that will bring about peace, stability and sustainable development in the Niger Delta and Nigeria at large. Keywords: Nigerian, delta, development, heightened, aberration

Within a period of thirty-six years after independence, Nigeria grew from a three-unit to a thirty-six unit federation with ever increasing demand for further decentralization. This paper argues that tile bloated structure of the Nigerian federalism is a product of fiscal centralism, which it degenerated into during the fourth phase (1959-1966) of its historical experience in developing a fiscal policy. From the fiscal U-turn stipulated in independence Constitution to five ad hoc efforts at adjusting the Nigerian fiscal policy, it is obvious that the leadership has shown a complete lack of will to confront the issue decisively and adopt fiscal federalism which is a fundamental tenet of federalism. This paper further argues that this is not unconnected with the fact that fiscal centralism is in consonance with the nature of the military rule, which Nigeria was subjected to for thirty years out of her forty-year experience as a sovereign nation.

Keywords: fiscal centralism, federalism, Nigeria

Subjectivity has been an all-important concept for academic research, as well as used as a tool for intervening in the social and political life of a people, since the 1960s and 1970s. The idea of subjectivity had a catalytic impact in changing the terms of the debate in History and Social Sciences, postcolonial theory, gender studies, cultural and media studies, social theory, and the other disciplines in the humanities. Subjectivity which relates to the quality of possessing perspectives and experiences, feelings, beliefs, desires, and power employed in the attempt at an explanation for what influences, and informs people's judgment about truth or reality. In this paper, we shall attempt to examine the role of leaders of the Nigerian state in tackling the challenges/problems faced by the various sections of the Nigerian polity. These problems include religious crisis, marginalization, resource equity, among others, and they constitute the National question. The paper concludes that the difficulty in answering the Nigerian question, to a large extent, result from the influence of subjectivity in viewing and tackling these problems by successive leaders emerging mainly from the majority tribes of the country.

Key Words: Subjectivity, Leadership, Nigerian Question, Ethnocentrism.

The thrust of this project is informed by the fact that most times, the statistical figures presented by Governments and its agencies do not tell the whole story of the state of poverty of citizens; this is more so in regard the sixteen countries that constitute West African. The paper is also premised on the argument that the level of poverty amongst the citizens of a country is a big threat to democracy hence, in most of the countries, what we see is what has been aptly dubbed "democracy without Elections." This is because the people who should be the defenders of democracy are too hungry and preoccupied with bread and butter issues. The issue of poverty is even worse in the resource-rich nations in West Africa such as Nigeria, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia etc. This is because most of the strategic mineral resources encourage secrecy, unaccountability and corruption in the exploration and exploitation process. Hence, in a "do or die" fashion, the political elites seek to control the levers of power with which they can be in a better position to steal the resources in collaboration with foreign multinational corporations. Since the resources disappear into individual pockets, hunger, poverty and squalor become the dividends of democracy for the citizens. It is concluded that future insecurity and instability will be prevented in the West African sub-region if we rein in the frontiers of poverty beginning with the guarantee of food security; and if the relevant policies are pursued from the exogenous perspective, the process will generate employment and enhance the GDP to the greater good of the society.

Nigerian brand of Federalism has been described as ‘Pseudo Federalism’ as a result of the fact that its structure and workings negate the principles and tenets of true federalism as practised by well established and successful democracies in other parts of the world, like United States of America, Australia, Canada, among others. In this effort, we shall examine the concept of federalism with particular reference to the instrument of fiscal federalism which is the bedrock of federal practice and principles. The study of Nigerian federalism has shown that the country since after the collapse of the first Republic has rather operated fiscal Centralism, which is the core tenet and bedrock of Unitary System of Government, making the Nigerian Federalism a ‘Pseudo Federalism’. It is alleged that fiscal centralism has been the instrument with which the Nigerian State, both military and civilian have used to appropriate resources of all the federating units especially the oil-bearing communities through various dispossessional laws. This situation has led to the enduing agitations and restiveness for restructuring and resource control. The paper shall be concluded with our well-conceived recommendations, for the socio-economic and political development of the fledgeling democracy in Nigeria.

Keywords: Pseudo-Federalism, Fiscal Federalism, Fiscal Centralism, True Federalism, Restructuring.

The subject of poverty is a global topical issue and has become rather disturbing in Nigeria, and Moreso as the country has recently been described as the "Headquarters of Poverty". Furthermore, it is rather paradoxical that in spite of the huge material and human resources in Nigeria the country is still wearing the toga of a very poor country in the comity of Nations. One of the major government efforts at addressing the issue of poverty and food shortages in Nigeria was President Olusegun Obasanjo's Poverty Alleviation Programme (PAP). The programme was launched in the year 2000 with a budget of N10 billion Naira. The thrust of this effort is to critique this programme with the aim of identifying the pitfalls that led to its failure, and as well proffer recommendations towards the formulation of better programmes that could get the nation up, above the poverty line and enable the nation to feed its population.

Keywords: poverty, food shortages, alleviation and critique

The problem of environmental degradation is global and topical as a result of the heightened industrial activities taking place in all countries of the world, occasioning the dangerous global warming and depletion of the ozone layer, threatening mankind. The Niger Delta region of Nigeria has been the hub of oil exploration and exploitation activities in Nigeria carried out by various multinational oil companies; and have equally been theatre of conflicts and crises, which has drawn the attention of the entire world. Violent conflicts and militant activities undertaken by the youths of the region have caused the deaths of oil workers of many nations and have continually affected global oil market prices. The paper reveals that environment pollution and degradation occasioned by the operational activities of the oil multinational underlie the conflict situation and crises in the Niger Delta region. This paper therefore examines and confirms the level, nature and impacts of environmental degradation of the region and concludes that effects of the operation of the oil companies on the environment are not only devastating but have triggered off the crises in the region. The study depended on reports and existing studies on the region, as well as, personal observations of the author who hails from one of the oil-producing communities of the Niger Delta. KEYWORDS: Environmental pollution, degradation, oil exploitation and conflicts.

Conflict in the world has come to be accepted as a part of human growth and development. The Niger Delta of Nigeria is not an exception. Conflict could be seen as a situation characterized by confrontation and hostilities to secure strategic objectives among people with incompatible interests. In Nigeria, the Niger Delta region
has found itself in the “web” of conflicts, spanning over about two and half decades, snowballing into sustained and pervading forms of youth sub-culture and restiveness. The subsisting conflict situation is alleged to stem from the clash of interest between Niger Delta people, oil multi-national companies, and the Nigerian State. The Government responses to crises have rather been punitive against the Niger Delta people. While the interventionist measures in the form of Development Agencies have not been successful, the Amnesty Programme, which seemed to have brought some uncanny peace to the region is tentative, as the root causes of the conflicts are still pending. It is against this backdrop that this paper explores the possible ways and means of resolving the conflict through the prism of history and offering holistic and workable suggestions.

In this book, the author attempts to answer an old question of whether, at the end of the twentieth century, it makes sense for man once again to speak of a coherent and directional history of mankind that will eventually lead the greater part of humanity to liberal democracy. Through an extraordinary display of wisdom and erudice rooted in deep knowledge of history, the author answers this old question in the affirmative with two reasons that hinge on economics and what he termed the "struggle for recognition".