The Niger Delta Restoration Compact
Six reforms that turn a century of extraction into a shared, auditable settlement — written to be signed by communities, government and operators alike.
The comparison between the Gulf basins and the Niger Delta ends in a practical place: the gap was produced by design choices, and design choices can be remade. This compact is the shortest list of changes that would move the Delta from a zone of extraction to a partner in production.
It is deliberately written as a compact rather than an ultimatum. Every clause has a named counterparty and a measurable test, and none of them require an operator to leave.
The six commitments
01
Communal title over oil-bearing land
Amend the Land Use Act 1978 and section 44(3) of the Constitution so that land over oil- and gas-bearing formations is held as registered communal title by the host community, with free, prior and informed consent required before any licence, allocation or acquisition.
Counterparty · National Assembly · State Houses of Assembly
02
Six per cent, on audited operating expenditure
Raise the PIA Host Communities Development Trust contribution from 3% to 6% and require settlors to publish asset-level operating expenditure, so trusts can verify the base their entitlement is calculated on.
Counterparty · NUPRC · NMDPRA · Settlors
03
Delete the collective-punishment clause
Repeal section 257(2) of the Petroleum Industry Act, which deducts the cost of repairing vandalised infrastructure from the host community's own trust allocation. Third-party criminality should not be charged to the community's development fund.
Counterparty · National Assembly
04
Escrowed remediation before any handover
Bond decommissioning and legacy pollution liability before an onshore licence transfers, so a divestment cannot extinguish the outgoing operator's cleanup obligation. Fund UNEP Ogoniland implementation on a published schedule and extend the template across Ijaw territory.
Counterparty · NUPRC · HYPREP · Divesting and incoming operators
05
Technical education inside the producing LGAs
Ring-fence a fixed share of trust and derivation funds for technical secondary schools, scholarships and an accredited polytechnic located in the producing communities themselves, with published enrolment and placement outcomes.
Counterparty · HCDT trustees · State governments · NCDMB
06
A Delta Restoration & Futures Fund
Legislate an automatic sweep of above-benchmark oil revenue into a professionally managed fund with community trustees and published quarterly accounts, mandated to build the region's post-oil economy rather than to fund recurrent spending.
Counterparty · Federal Ministry of Finance · NSIA · Producing states
How the compact is framed
Partnership, not expulsion
The compact assumes operators stay, invest and profit. It asks that the terms be legible, the liabilities be funded, and the community be a counterparty rather than a bystander.
Verifiable, not rhetorical
Every demand attaches to a named statute, regulator or fund. Each can be measured: a published OPEX figure, an escrow balance, an enrolment number, a fund statement.
Cheaper than the alternative
Surveillance contracts, deferred litigation, output shut-ins and reputational exposure already cost more than the reforms requested here. Consent is the lowest-cost form of pipeline protection.
Sign the compact
Add your name to the six commitments
Each signature is recorded against the compact and emailed to the Council secretariat, then compiled into the submission pack for the desk you select.
Add your name
Signatures are compiled by the Council secretariat and submitted to the National Assembly committees on Lands and Petroleum Resources, and to the desk you select.