Resource governance and the challenges of community development in the Nigerian bitumen belt

On March 17, 2003, Olusegun Obasanjo, then the Nigerian President performed a groundbreaking ceremony to signal the commercial mining of bitumen under a neoliberal resource governance framework. This ceremony marks an important threshold in the history of bitumen development in Nigeria. Ever since bitumen, also known as heavy oil or tarsand, was discovered in 1900 (GCU, 1980: 10), attempts towards developing it have been undermined by political and socioeconomic challenges that persist within the bitumen bearing region (henceforth, Bitumen Belt), and a problematic governance framework. However, the Nigerian federal government׳s decision to adopt a neoliberal mining strategy towards bitumen extraction opened a new frontier in the discourse on resource governance and the socio-economic development of resource endowed communities in Nigeria. This paper explores the connection between the bitumen governance regime and the community development challenges of the bitumen belt. In doing so, the paper explores the contradictions inherent in the use of a neoliberal mining framework for resource extraction in a rentier capitalist economy like Nigeria and its implications for community development. It argues that the underlying issues of concern to bitumen bearing communities must be captured in the resource governance framework in order to ensure its sustainability and acceptance.